Review: Noodler's Flexible Nib Piston-Fill Fountain Pen

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at geminica.com.

Noodler's Flexible Nib Piston-Fill Fountain Pen is an exciting product unique to its price range.  It costs approximately $14 plus shipping from online retailers - if you can find it in stock.  Both Goulet Pens and I Sell Pens are out of stock at the time of writing but will put you on an email re-stock notification list.  

Besides the clear demonstrator model shown, it also comes in various colors.

In short, this pen is a little bit wonderful and a little bit a pain in the neck.

The body is simple and sturdy, certainly aimed more towards functionality than beauty.  The piston-fill mechanism is easy to use and loads up a fair amount of ink.  The nib leaks a little bit while not in use (note the splatter visible in the photo of the capped pen), but the cap seals well so there have been no accidents.  The tip can draw a very fine line all the way up to a super bold line, and man is it fun to use for making fancy letters.

The drawback of this pen is that there can be flow issues. Even after washing the entire pen out multiple times with soap and warm water, it was a struggle getting it to write consistently. This sample was made with J. Herbin's Poussiere de Lune, and I got similar results using Noodler's Antietam.  Note that some of the letters just... peter out.

This may partially be a matter of getting accustomed to using a flex pen, which requires some care to be taken with angle and speed.  After pages and pages of tests, I did manage to do the animal sketches below using Noodler's Antietam without quite so much trouble as is evidenced by the above writing sample.

 

After a lot of efforts to make this pen behave with the J. Herbin and Noodler's inks, I obtained Waterman's South Seas Blue ink, which is recommended as one of the most free flowing inks around. It did seem to help and enabled some casual sketching on the bus at something close to my regular speed.  Note that because this pen can lay down a broad line, it's especially susceptible to smearing.

After the above sketches I switched back to Antietam to confirm that what I consider a "regular" flowing ink has problems in this pen, and it was absolutely true - the sketch on the right was laborious to make.  I switched back to South Seas Blue to produce the small drawing below, and perhaps you'll see from the sketchiness of that drawing that I was moving much more quickly and it basically worked, though even then the pen ran dry a couple of times.  If your hand moves more slowly than mine as you sketch or write, you'll probably have an easier time of it, but it's still going to be a good idea to use an ink that is reputed to be fast flowing.

One other thing about this pen - it smells terrible, straight out of the box.  Before you use it, take it apart (remove the nib and the plastic feed behind the nib, and unscrew the body parts) and give all the pieces a good, thorough wash with warm water and soap.

The bright side of the Noodler's Flex is that the variable width of the line gives a very distinctive look to any drawing made with it, and that's a lot of fun.  With an ink that shades, the results are reminiscent of bamboo pen drawings but with a more precise minimum width.  This is a perfect pen for showing off a beautiful ink.

When you want a smooth, reliable line you can just go to town with, this pen isn't the one to grab - but if you want an intriguing style that will give your sketches or writing a different look than you've been able to generate before and you don't mind working slowly, the Noodler's flex will provide new and unique opportunities.

Note: If you own a Noodler's flex pen and don't have the flow problems I've talked about, please post a comment and let us know!  Maybe I got a bad nib; maybe there are a lot of other inks that will work well; I'd love to hear more happy stories about this pen especially regarding using it for drawing.

Kaweco Sport Al Fountain Pen Review

It takes a lot for me to get excited about a fountain pen, but the Kaweco Sport Al has gotten me all riled up. I had read off and on about this fountain pen for a while now - even in the New York Times - but it took a lot of looking at all the models available at JetPens before I was convinced enough to bring one home. If you couldn't tell by now, I'm pretty picky about my pens, and fountain pens aren't normally at the top of my list.

I am also a very visual person when it comes to my pens, and one of the things I do not care for are gold accents. Its just not my thing. So in the Kaweco line, that eliminated the Kaweco Sport Chess and the Kaweco Sport Classic and their gold nibs. I was pretty convinced the Kaweco Sport Ice was going to be the winner with its silver nib and cool translucent barrel (not to mention the lowest price point), but I wanted the Aubergine Purple ink cartridges, and I was worried about how it looked in the orange or blue barrels that I preferred.

That left the Kaweco Sport AC Carbon and the Kaweco Sport Al. The carbon model is over $100 , and I didn't want to go that high (even though with JetPens as an advertiser on The Pen Addict I do get some pricing benefits), so the Sport Al won out almost by default. And I couldn't be happier.

(Sidebar: What I covered above in three paragraphs literally took me several hours over several days to sort out. I must have changed my mind and my shopping cart a dozen times. Yes, I have issues.)

I don't have a lot of fountain pen experience - the Lamy Safari line is about as deep as I have been, but not only is this the best fountain pen that I have used, it is one of the nicest pens I have used period. The way this pen is designed and performs is top notch all the way. The full aluminum body is just 4.1 inches capped, but extends to 5.3 inches with the cap posted. The way the cap screws on makes this pen highly portable and easy to carry in a pocket or a purse and take up very little space. I have carried around in my front jeans pocket for several days at work.

From a writing perspective, the nib transfers the ink to the page very smoothly. I had zero issues at all popping the Aubergine Purple cartridge right in and writing away. No scribble prep at all. The fine nib seems pretty true from my limited experience with fountain pens, and gives an overall excellent writing experience.

The highest compliment I can pay this pen is that it reminds me of the Zebra Sharbo X, which is one of my favorite all-time pens. Obviously they are two completely different types of pen, but the overall design, feel, build quality, utility, and general coolness makes the comparison apt. Put it this way - I have never taken a fountain pen to work before I had the Kaweco Sport Al.

Click here for the XL review.

Review: Hero M86 Chinese Calligraphy Pen

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at geminica.com.

Once again, my review is inspired by an Urban Sketcher.  This time, it's the wonderful Tia Boon Sim of Singapore and her use of the Hero M86 Chinese calligraphy pen.  The pen has a beautiful and solid (albeit heavy) black and silver body.  

See that bulbous cap?  It's too heavy for the pen, and doesn't post well.  Hmm.  At least it's stylish.

The only source I know of for these pens is ISellPens.com.  Scroll down towards the bottom of the linked page to find it. Right now it's selling for $12.88 plus shipping.  

This pen has a bent nib which is sometimes referred to as a "ski jump" nib.  Due to the bend the line is generally quite broad; however, when you tip your hand forward (bringing the pen into a more vertical position, up to a right angle from the page), you get a fine line.  Additionally, as also works with other fountain pens, inverting the pen results in an even finer line.

 
The first two writing samples are on Aquabee Super Deluxe paper which is fairly toothy, and shows the lines available by changing the vertical angle of the pen.   (Sorry for the blur.) The third sample is on smooth "Pen Sketcher's" paper.  Also see Tia's video demonstrating her use of the pen; it's subtle, but you can see that she changes the pen's angle to the paper quite a bit and also uses it in the inverted position for awhile.

      

I believe it's because of the strange way you need to hold this pen to achieve line variation that it has such particularly idiosyncratic results.  Tia achieves gorgeous fluidity in her sketches using this tool (this is one of my favorites of hers - so beautiful!).  That's Tia, though.  In my hand the pen produces a very different style.

The Hero M86 is so unlike other pens that it takes special attention and practice.  Luckily it's a lot of fun, as well!

As for ink, I took no chances and filled up with Noodler's Bulletproof .  Use an economical ink in any case because you can blast through it fast with this pen. 

The pen comes with a pump filler ink reservoir. This brings us to the pen's one major flaw that I've found, besides the minor annoyance of not being able to post the cap:  ink flow has been inconsistent.

Often I need to open up the pen and manually push the slider to force ink towards the nib, being careful not to push too far, which would flood ink onto my hands and paper. I haven't heard of others encountering this problem with the Hero, so it may depend on how you hold the pen or it could be a manufacturing issue.  Tia recommends moving the ink pump very quickly in order to reduce air bubbles.  Following that advice reduced but did not eliminate my ink flow problems.  See her discussion here; note that my ink reservoir is the one she states is newer, printed with "Hero" rather than "Made in England".

Like most other fountain pens and brush pens, this pen doesn't do well in a Moleskine sketchbook or, indeed, on any paper that has a non-absorbent coating.  The copious ink just pools up.  Toothy watercolor or mixed media paper has a strong effect on the line, but it takes the ink well.  In general, an artist may need to be a little more selective about paper when using this pen than they would when using a standard fountain pen like a Lamy Safari.  My accounting ledger paper resisted the ink a little bit which resulted in some smudging and a greyer tone, but other than that the effects were nice.

This is an exciting pen for artists.  I highly recommend the Hero M86 for anyone who desires great variety of line and loves to discover new possibilities in their tools... as long as they are willing to spend some time getting to know the pen and don't mind working around the unpostable cap and potentially unreliable ink flow.

Thanks to Tia for showing her gorgeous sketches made with this pen at last year's Urban Sketchers Symposium... and to my partner Mike for putting the Hero M86 under our Christmas tree!