Vintage And The New To F.p

[penman88]

hello everyone! i am a guy from new york state. i recently joined your lovely forum because i purchased my first fountain pen 50 days ago(appx) a jin hao and quickly became obsessed! an ahab and F-C emotion quickly followed. so now i am turning to the vintage world, unfortunatly i do not have time to sift through the endless wealth of knowledge present here. I know i want a super flexy gold nib i keep reading about, but i dont know where to start! i have looked on ebay and well any of the nicer pens quickly go out of my price range, buying new is not an option and i dont know enough to buy vintage without getting beat on an old pen that does not work. i can spend around 100$ and want a friction fit nib. (i hate that they make nibs brand specific) can anyone help me out here?

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!!

[sombrueil]

There is a lot of information about flex nibs here, although it is a bit spread about. If you want the short short version:

 

A lot more people think they want flex than actually do. To take advantage of real flex, as opposed to a nib with some pleasing give and line variation, you must learn to write v e r y s l o w l y. And with a lot of control. Flex isn't useful for taking notes, grocery lists, or even long letters. It is just too slow. Great for signing your name, writing gift cards, and epigrams.

 

The best way to find out if you really want flex is to buy a set of dip pen nibs, a holder, and bottle of India Ink (which cannot be used in fountain pens, by the way). It's very inexpensive and you can have a lot of fun. If you find you have a knack, you can dive into the trackless wilderness of the Nib Chase, a hunt with a very elusive quarry. If I see you there, I'll wave!

[jar]

http://www.fototime.com/F122E70EE9BBA98/orig.gif

[mitto]

Greetings and welcome to FPN.

[OCArt]

Hello and welcome to this friendly corner of the universe from a fountain pen user in San Diego. There is such a wealth of information waiting for you to discover on this site. Sombrueil gave you very good advice. I can't write worth a _ _ _ _ with a flex nib but do enjoy a bit of softness and live variation in my 1950 Pelikans.

[ygv]

Welcome to FPN!

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[mallymal1]

There is a lot of information about flex nibs here, although it is a bit spread about. If you want the short short version:

 

A lot more people think they want flex than actually do. To take advantage of real flex, as opposed to a nib with some pleasing give and line variation, you must learn to write v e r y s l o w l y. And with a lot of control. Flex isn't useful for taking notes, grocery lists, or even long letters. It is just too slow. Great for signing your name, writing gift cards, and epigrams.

 

The best way to find out if you really want flex is to buy a set of dip pen nibs, a holder, and bottle of India Ink (which cannot be used in fountain pens, by the way). It's very inexpensive and you can have a lot of fun. If you find you have a knack, you can dive into the trackless wilderness of the Nib Chase, a hunt with a very elusive quarry. If I see you there, I'll wave!

 

 

Sound advice, here, penman88, and if you still want your super flexy gold nib...better start saving up.

 

There's so much more to the pen world, though. Take your time and enjoy it.

 

[penwash]

I help people who has similar question as yours. I setup my Instagram feed to showcase the variety of vintage pens that I found and restored, and because I love flex nibs, most of them has flexible nibs.

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[ThomasB]

Hello and welcome from Baton Rouge, Louisiana...Enjoy your time here

[penman88]

well i have been using my noodlers ahab for about 1 month and absolutely love it. i realize they may not be practical in most everyday situations. i do know a little about fountain pens. from filling my first pen up with india, to purchasing a F-C e-motion and ahab. i have learned alot from youtube videos by brian goulet and stephen brown. and again from making mistakes...i am looking at a pelican 140 that the seller claims is in perfect working order(claims is key word) from doing a little bit of research i found that nibs with a pelican logo are 50's and later and the 585 is gold parts per thousand. Is this what i am looking for (flex, line variation)? do they make nibs with higher gold content and is 80$ reasonable for this pen? thank you all for the warm welcome and positive feed back!

[OCArt]

I hope you just said india ink as a general term. India ink contains shellac and was made for dip pens, it is hell to clean out of a fountain pen if it dries in it.

[snipped] i do know a little about fountain pens. from filling my first pen up with india, [a bunch snipped}

[WLSpec]

Welcome to FPN!

[penman88]

no you heard me right OCArt i said india ink, which i purchased and put into my jin-hao x750...after an hour of being unable to get my new pen to write i went on utube and discovered its a big no-no...so i found a video to teach me to clean out the pen, Which i did successfully, my jin hao now writes beautifully, and most important i learned a valuable lesson about pens and my own ignorance. i had never intended to get into fountain pens the way i have. this obsession is literally a result of my india ink mishap! if i had just used fountain pen ink and the pen wrote that would have been that. but once i discovered all the fountain pen world had to offer, from biran goulet's and stephen browns videos, i was hooked! so a disaster turned into a triumph! yayyyyy haha which ultimatly led me to you wonderful people and the mysterious world of fountain pens!!!!!!

Edited February 16, 2019 by penman88

[Wahl]

[omarcenaro]

Welcome! You will find lots of great information here and many suggestions to expand your collection.

Cheers,

Ozzy