Noodlers Boston Safety Pen

[Honeybadgers]

I'm thinking of using this pen more for writing than its intended purpose of drawing. Do you have to wipe down the nib & threads every time you open and extend it? Does all the wet ink inhibit clean and typical writing use?

 

 

no need to wipe down anything.

 

The wet ink actually KEEPS it clean. nothing can dry onto anything since it's all wet all the time.

 

I really wouldn't use it for everyday writing. It's not meant for that, and the process of uncapping and extending it is kinda tedious if you just need to sign a receipt.

 

It's a great nib for writing and drawing, but not for simple quick note taking

[SlowRain]

What a coincidence! Guess what just arrived yesterday.

 

My initial impression is that it's a lot thinner and smaller than what it looks like online. Those reviewers on YouTube have smallish hands. But the feel and operation of the pen is nice.

 

I'm not enjoying the nib so far. Too scratchy. I think I'll change it out in a couple of weeks. But I have to settle on what kind of nib I want first.

[Honeybadgers]

be patient and hunt down a waterman #2 ideal flexible nib. You won't regret it.

[WarrenB]

Hi Warren B - I don't know what your needs are but I should get a Triple Tail in the mail some time next week. I'll try to review it once I've had time to play with it and keep in mind you want to use it for drawing. (Now I'm really hoping it will work fine...!!)

 

Timo

 

Thanks Timo. I already got an x750 and modded it in the meantime, but I'm still interested to hear how the Triple Tail goes.

 

 

Did you lubricate every moving and sliding surface with silicone grease?

 

All of a sudden, the inclination to revisit it just plummeted even further...

 

Thanks for letting me know, anyway.

[Honeybadgers]

 

Thanks Timo. I already got an x750 and modded it in the meantime, but I'm still interested to hear how the Triple Tail goes.

 

 

All of a sudden, the inclination to revisit it just plummeted even further...

 

Thanks for letting me know, anyway.

 

 

You bought a safety pen, and the idea of basic maintenance is a turnoff?

 

You have nobody to blame here but yourself.

 

Don't bother with a triple tail or any other noodlers product. If unscrewing two knobs and dabbing a little silicone grease is too much for you, you'll hate every other pen in the lineup

Edited January 18, 2020 by Honeybadgers

[chalkdust]

This thread inspired me to fetch my black Boston Safety out of my "little box" and ink it up with Whaleman's Sepia. It will be fun to use it again. Thanks for the reminder.

[inkstainedruth]

Ooh, let us know how that combo works. I love the color of Whaleman's Sepia but the ink itself just would NOT flow. I imagined it having thousands of tiny fingers clinging to the sides of the ink chamber with its thousands of little fingernails....

Or maybe thousands of suckers on its multitude of arms....

Right now I've got to take my Boston Safety apart for a thorough clean. It did okay with Noodler's Luck of the Draw, the LE ink from the Baltimore-Washington Pen Show a couple of years ago, but I really am not all that enamored of the color. I had high hopes for Noodler's Kung Te Cheng, but it didn't behave in that pen any better than my Konrads, and I only even had marginal success in a Noodler's Charlie....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Honeybadgers]

I find my bottle of sepia to feather very badly... Was kinda disappointed. The color is amazing.

[SlowRain]

I just did the New York Times crossword on the airplane with my Boston Safety Pen at 10,668m a few hours ago. Does that count as the Fountain Pen Mile-High Club?

 

[inkstainedruth]

Hey I'm just impressed that you did the NYTimes crossword at ALL. They have the Sunday one in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and I don't have the time or energy to dig out various reference books to try and get the clues....

I liked the ones from the Sunday Boston Globe from when we lived up there; I could get most of it (and at times all of it) from the clues or from context, even when I didn't know the "theme/quote". I think the ones that used to be in the Sunday Post-Gazette were the same ones; but the person who did them either retired or died, so now the P-G JUST has the NY Times ones, and we only buy the Sunday paper because I don't have time to read them through the week (and I'm a couple of weeks behind even on the Sunday edition...).

So, what ink did you use? Because I'm not seeing a lot of feathering or spread on the newsprint....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[SlowRain]

Noodler's Heart of Darkness.

 

This one was easy (and I did make one mistake). Perhaps they're trying to expand their reach.

Edited January 21, 2020 by SlowRain

[wallylynn]

If I remember correctly, Monday crossword is the easiest and gets harder through the week. I don't remember if Sunday was hardest, or middle but larger. I'm impressed that your safety pen gave such a fine line.

 

Today, I cleaned out my safety. It was last inked about a year ago. I think heatsetting borked the section a teeny tiny bit. Alas, a teeny tiny bit of expansion was enough to exit tolerance and made extension/retraction tight again. Had to break out the sandpaper to slim it down again. I also noticed that the o-ring closer to the nib was deformed, squashed flatter and wider, seemed to be fracturing/breaking down. Might have to replace it next year.

[SlowRain]

Good, because I'll be flying back on a Monday, too. I wasn't kidding when I said it was easy.

 

I was writing upside down for most of the puzzle. You can see a couple of thicker letters where I wrote right-side up. The drawback was that a couple of times I had newspaper fibers get stuck in the nib.

[timotheap]

I just did the New York Times crossword on the airplane with my Boston Safety Pen at 10,668m a few hours ago. Does that count as the Fountain Pen Mile-High Club?

 

IMAG1665-min.jpg

Hi SlowRain, a bit late to the party but in case you haven't written about it yet, what is your experience with your Safety ?

How do you like it? Why did you buy it? Do you intend on using special inks (i.e. non-fountain pen) with it?

 

Timo

[SlowRain]

I'm relatively new to fountain pens, and I've only used the pen a couple of times over the last few weeks, so take this with a grain of salt.

 

I bought it mainly because I like Noodler's business ethics, and because I like overkill. I intend to use it for writing and doodling and, as such, only using fountain-pen inks. I find the nib to be a bit scratchy, but not unbearable. It railroads a bit, but you can overcome that once you know how it works.

 

I like the pen because it serves its purpose and it mostly meets my expectations. But I did a lot of research before buying it, so I was aware of its quirks. The only thing I would change would be a smoother nib, but it's not a deal breaker for me. This is also my first flex nib, but I'm not entirely sold on the concept. It may not suit my needs, but I have no other frame of reference, so I won't comment on that until I have some experience with a few more.

[timotheap]

I like the pen because it serves its purpose and it mostly meets my expectations. But I did a lot of research before buying it, so I was aware of its quirks. The only thing I would change would be a smoother nib, but it's not a deal breaker for me. This is also my first flex nib, but I'm not entirely sold on the concept. It may not suit my needs, but I have no other frame of reference, so I won't comment on that until I have some experience with a few more.

Thanks for your feedback - sounds very similar to my attitude. The only thing that makes me still hesitate (besides the price, given how much I've "treated" myself lately), might be that the nib is quite small.

[SlowRain]

I may try to change out the nib at some point in the future, but I'm in no rush because it's usable.

[wallylynn]

Before you change the nib out, double check that the tines are aligned properly. Just a little bit off can be scratchy. My tines were also canted (I couldn't remember the word long ago) where they were tilted, not parallel, /\ vs || which resulted in hard starts. The nib isn't flexible to be honest, just soft.

[SlowRain]

Thanks. I'll have to look into that.

[SlowRain]

Bear with me here because I'm not super familiar with nib sizing. I seem to prefer hard, smooth nibs. I believe people refer to them as nails. I like the nibs in my Faber-Castell Essentio ("F") and my Gazing Far tm2 (Schmidt FH241 "F"). I recently purchased the Muji pen, which has a Schmidt ("F") nib, but it has a bit of line variation to it that I would rather not have.

 

What kind of hard-as-a-nail-and-yet-still-smooth nib could I get that would fit my Boston Safety Pen? I've heard people say a #5 or a #2 vintage, but I have no clue how to gauge the size of nibs. Is a Schmidt FH241 a #5? Can someone explain it to me a bit?

 

Thanks.