Noodler´s Ahab - Ease My Flex Mod

[Pterodactylus]

Hi Al,

 

you are right, the nib material is quite thick, and it is overall a quite hard semi-flex (harder than the unmodified Ahab).

I also started to modify my FPR flex nib yesterday.

As it is that thick, I modified it more than the Ahab, I took material away on the whole length (until it goes to the section).

Means starting from the tipping an elegant arc to the wing, reduced the angel wing quite a lot and then further a quite deep falcon arc.

The result is quite good, I would say almost an easy full flex nib.

 

I received the nib on a Serwex MB, but the feed could not keep up.

(The cap of the pen is a faulty design which easily can destroy the nib.... should not be sold this way)

Tinkered arround a lot with the feed, but unfortuntately got a little bit impatient , means I destroyed the feed, took to much material away so that the nib/feed did not mount securely in the section anymore, finally I broke the nibble off.

 

....hmmmmm (bleep) happens, but it was clearly my fault, sometimes it´s better to stop and continue the next day......

 

Lets see if I can get a replacement feed from FPR.

Otherwise I will mount it at an Airmail 67T which I got with the same order.

The Airmail has an ebonite feed, which I prefer over the plastic feed of the Serwex MB.

 

Here are some pictures of my modified nib.

It is not completely finished, I still have to make the edges free of burrs, polish it and it still has the markings for the grind on it.

But I think finally this will get a nice flex nib.

 

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_32 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

 

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_33 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_34 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

Edited November 21, 2015 by Pterodactylus

[Pterodactylus]

Forgot to mention, that my nib was unbelievable scratchy, I consider such a nib as almost unusable.

I had to align the tines, and had to smooth out more than one "tooth" actually it was almost a regrind.

Was/is your nib also very scratchy?

 

Maybe a single bad nib, but a user which cannot/want to tinker arround with the nib would have a serious problem, or must have a very high tolerance level regarding scratchyness.

 

In general I think that the building quality is worse than the Noodler's nibs.

Also,the tine cut is very broad (used not a very fine tool, so the gap between the tines is quite broad), to close the gap they bended one tine tipping towards the other.

It works but it's not very elegant.

Edited November 18, 2013 by Pterodactylus

[Sinistral1]

Ptero:

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your writing samples with the FPR nib mod!

 

I have finished my Ahab mod and smoothed the tip. I have a couple of Ahabs, and I will also post a side by side comparison of the un-modified nib and the modified nib. It's been fun doing this project.

[grainweevil]

Oh, yes, you've taken off way more than I did, Ptero. I'm almost certainly way too cautious; I shall have another go at it and bolster my courage with the comforting thought that at least with FPR you can readily purchase a replacement if it all goes hideously wrong.

 

I actually rather liked the feel of the FPR nib, just not for flexing. Not sure I'd even call it semi-flex, but more "soft" - at least if I don't want to get painful hand cramps. I did grind it a little finer and as a result smoothed it off a little, but as far as I recall it was actually pretty smooth in its original state. You might have been unlucky. Similarly I've had no trouble with the feed keeping up, but then I don't aspire to the degree of line variation that you do, so that's no great surprise. I agree, there are a number of disappointing drawbacks to the Serwex (the cap problem I find less annoying than the threads on the section stripping), and as a flex pen the Noodler's is probably a better starting point of the two, but I can't help liking the thing anyway.

 

Looking forward to seeing writing samples from you and Sinistral.

 

Cheers, Al

[Drone]

Today I performed the "Pterodactylian Ease My Flex Mod" to a Noodler's Konrad Ebonite Sahara Olive/Black Ripple...

I used a Dremel-like tool with a fairly fine grit solid cone-shaped grinding stone turning at about 1/3 speed (unknown RPM). I marked the areas to be ground away with a blue permanent ink fine felt-tipped pen. The cuts went smoothly and only took about ten minutes total. when the cuts were done I deburred then smoothed them over with some fine grit sand paper. The cuts came out nice and symmetric.

Next came an attempt at writing...

I am using Noodler's Apache Sunset ink. I had already hacked the Konrad's feed for generous flow to keep up with flex writing before the ease my flex modification. With the feed in its normal position, the new modified nib would starve the feed in just a few lines. Wow - the flex is dramatically eased!

I hacked the feed a bit more to increase the flow a bit and hiked the feed almost all the way up toward the tip of the nib. Hiking the feed up was most effective, but with a lot of flex the end of the feed can hit the paper. I'm going to hack the feed a bit more and maybe grind down the protruding "chin" on the feed to give me more clearance while still keeping the end of the nib fed with ink.

Conclusion...

 

Not only is the flex eased to a great extent, the amount of flex seems to have increased. To say you need more flow to keep up with the ease my flex modification is an understatement - in my case at least. With this much flex and this much flow, expect long dry times and a lot of ink usage when flexing.

 

A Parting Word...

 

Keep in-mind, if you screw up your modification or can't make the pen work afterward its a one-way-trip baby! You need to buy a new pen. Nathan refuses to sell spare nibs and feeds for hacking or servicing the pen. What a shame. Thankfully, my mod seems to have come out OK - so far.

 

Thanks Pterodactylus!

David in Jakarta

 

Edited November 21, 2013 by Drone

[andymcc]

Pterodactylus: If you have any Kaweco Sports lying around the FPR Flex nib fits them if you trim a little off the back of the nib.

I also got the FPR flex nib on the Serwex MB and really hated the pen, it was poorly made and started to fall apart within days but the small flex nib has potential. I posted about the mod a while ago

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/250429-kaweco-ice-sport-with-modified-flex-nib/

 

 

I've been wondering if this mod could be done to Kaweco Sport nibs as my EF sport nib has a little spring to it, if I can find a cheap sport nib I might give it a try

Edited November 21, 2013 by andymcc

[Squeteague]

Squeteague, those are most impressive results. I, too, wondered about doing similar, but worried about the long-term integrity of the nib, so I value your bravery as guinea-pig! Keep us posted.

 

http://i.imgur.com/7UoLcTq.jpg?1

Truth be told, 2 weeks is a short amount of time, but since it doesn't show any signs of deterioration, I have my hopes.

 

On another note, I've been tinkering with my Konrad again. I personally think it looks better this way. Can anyone guess what I've done? (Hint: It's not the nib)

http://i.imgur.com/O9oUZSj.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fuLjs8a.jpg?1http://i.imgur.com/hy9eReb.jpg?1

[I like mango cheesecake]

yeah, you added a double ring section next to the blind cap.

 

I have a FPR Serwex flex nib pen and I'm going to try this mod too. I've been busy doing other mods, so this one is definitely a project. Will also update once done.

[mhphoto]

 

http://i.imgur.com/7UoLcTq.jpg?1

Truth be told, 2 weeks is a short amount of time, but since it doesn't show any signs of deterioration, I have my hopes.

 

On another note, I've been tinkering with my Konrad again. I personally think it looks better this way. Can anyone guess what I've done? (Hint: It's not the nib)

http://i.imgur.com/O9oUZSj.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/fuLjs8a.jpg?1http://i.imgur.com/hy9eReb.jpg?1

 

Looks great! I've always loved that color, and the rings make it even better.

[grainweevil]

Looks good - both the Konrad and flexing!

 

I've had another go at the FPR nib and am getting better results. That is to say it's flexing more readily - but as a result I've had some railroading issues. D'oh! You win some... I should organise myself and get some pics up really.

 

Cheers, Al

 

Edited to add:

 

Here we go; the smaller amount of variation in normal writing is really more my interest than huge line variation while going slowly. This seems to have been enough to just tip the flexibility over enough into giving me that without undue quantities of pressure. Just need to nail the right ink to suit it now, and happy days.

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/2nthg88.jpg

 

http://i44.tinypic.com/2s78i7r.jpg

 

Edited November 28, 2013 by grainweevil

[Sinistral1]

I have so many questions! First, how does a wizard box? Second, do they jump or just do a little hop? Third, oh, wait, wait just a doggone minute here. There are no boxing wizards, jumping or otherwise, are there? That's just a sentence you made up to highlight the flexing ability of the nib you're using, right? Cool!

 

I should have know about the boxing, jumping wizard thing because if Tolkien didn't mention it, it couldn't possibly be true. Besides, everybody knows there were only four wizards to start with...

Edited November 28, 2013 by Sinistral1

[grainweevil]

Heh. Actually I swiped the pugilistic sorcerers, and other panagrams, from a thread here about the phrases people use to test pens - that old fox gets rather samey after a while. I tend to lean more towards them being Discworld wizards; it's no great leap to imagine the faculty at Unseen University resorting to fisticuffs. For true flexing exhibitionism I think we might need a phrase involving the flexibility of egyptologists...

 

In other news, it looks like the copious flowing properties of Cult Pens/Diamine Deep Dark Brown may have solved my railroading problems. Yay! Note to self: Need more blotting paper.

 

Cheers, Al

[Sinistral1]

Al:

 

I myself have only made fleeting visits to Discworld - I'm just too besotted (since I was about 11) by Middle Earth to ever think about wandering beyond it's boundaries. I've only watched the two movies, the one with the postoffice guy and the other with David Jansen (from Inspector Frost) and Sean Austin (the tourist), so I can understand the boxing wizards reference in that context does make sense.

 

For what it's worth, I've done the EMF mod to one of my Ahabs and it would probably be great if not for the fact that while I was happily dremmeling my nib it got away from me and hit the tip and made it scratchy. I've got another nib and feed and am going to give it another go.

 

Nyleen

[Gerold]

Hi,

 

First I'd like to thank Ptero for his nice idea about adding flex to an Ahab. Thank you Ptero!

The Ahab is a fun pen to experiment with and after some tweaking I'm finally quite happy with it.

Here are my results:

 

 

[Pterodactylus]

Ahab_Ease_My_Flex_Mod_response_35 by Ptero Pterodactylus, auf Flickr

 

(Noodler´s Ahab EMF ..... Rohrer & Klingner Salix)

[conib]

I tend to lean more towards them being Discworld wizards; it's no great leap to imagine the faculty at Unseen University resorting to fisticuffs.

 

Except Rincewind of course, because of his unique special talent.

 

 

I myself have only made fleeting visits to Discworld

 

It's only 2 weeks until Hogswatch ... almost time read and/or watch "Hogfather"...

 

("Hogfather" was my gateway drug to the Discworld. So I'm very pleased to take this opportunity to enable others.)

;-)

 

 

Okay, then, I've digressed enough! Back to the topic:

 

First, many thanks to Pterodactylus for posting the details of this mod.

 

I'm thinking I'd like to try this on a Plumix nib; it would be nice if that nib flexed a bit (like the Mitchell round hand nibs do). Does anyone have any thoughts about doing this mod on a stub nib?

 

-- Constance

[grainweevil]

 

It's only 2 weeks until Hogswatch ... almost time read and/or watch "Hogfather"...

 

Which reminds me; time for my annual attempt to wrestle my DVD back from my nephew. Happy Hogswatch! HO HO HO.

 

As a stab at being on topic, an update: I've gone through several refills of DD Brown in the Serwex and the nib is performing well.

 

Cheers, Al

 

http://i43.tinypic.com/142rbrd.jpg

[Gerold]

Hi Ptero,

 

Danke für die nette Begrüssung!

Here's what you asked for:

[Inkydinkydog]

First of all, thank you for all of this information and illustration. Since I have 3 Ahab flex pens--two of them fitted with Goulet nibs (a 1.1mm and a 1.5mm) I have two extra flex nibs sitting unused, so I decided to try this modification. Rather than wait a few hours for my husband to find the time, I decided to modify it myself; after all, if I ruined the first nib, I could let him modify the second one.

 

Well, surprise, surprise! This was easier than I would have guessed, even though I've never used a dremel before and am not particularly dexterous. The only difficulty was getting my fingers close enough to get a good grip on the nib without being dangerously close to the dremel tip. I took my time, testing it twice before deciding it was finished. I was surprised at how long it took to wear down that steel nib, pausing as I did to insure that the nib didn't over heat. My husband watched nervously, as he feared I was going to hit my fingers with the drill, given that I'm not that steady. But the point of all this to let anyone who is hesitant to know that you should give it whirl. If I can do it, so can you.

 

I'm getting really good flex now with minimum pressure. My only problems are (1) it puts down so much ink that I can't use the flexing on on some of my notebooks, although the better paper handles it well, and (2) my handwriting looks nowhere near as lovely as some of the illustrations in this thread, so I'm going to need lots of practice. <VBG>

[MannyBA]

I need to get my hands on a Dremel tool and try this mod................................