The Noodler's Ahab
Initial Thoughts -Then pen came in a nice little cardboard box with some papers on instructions of filling the pen, and picture of Captain Ahab. All of which was really cool. The pen did suffer from the dreaded "Noodler's pen smell." It went away quickly and wasn't that bad. The packing was cool, but left something wanting in terms of protection/longevity of it. Overall I was excited initially
Score: 9/10
Weight & Dimensions - This is no small pen. It comes in at just under 140 mm, and weighs about 18 grams. Due to the resin in the pen it is light, but the length is great. It post super shallow, and when posted the pen is seemingly unusable. I don't ever post my pens though, sop this is not major selling point. The large size, and low weight make for a very pleasant writing experience
Score:10/10
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| Here is how the Ahab sticks up to other pens. From left to right the pens are: Pilot Metropolitan, TWSBI 580, Noodler's Ahab, Jinhao x-750, and the Kaweco Sport Classi |
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| Here they are posted |
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| Unposted |
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| And just the nibs |
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| As you can see, the pen gets quite long when posted |
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| But when unposted it provides for a very stable writing experience |
Filling System - This pen implements a plunger system converter. It works just fine, but can get stuck. So it can take quite some force to get the thing to function if you let it sit for a while (I tried to grease the piston to fix this, but I got no success). The system is fully "dissabemable"and it holds a ton of ink. The pen is also capable of being converted to eyedropper if you're into that, but to me that is simply too much ink here. The filling system isn't flawless, but it works well.
Score: 8/10
Writing Experience - This is the selling point of this pen, it has flex! A lot of people have complained about the railroading issues in the pen, and the overall writing issues it can have. I have not had a single issue. Of course when the ink gets too low, or I push the nib too hard it can railroad, but it seems every time it does railroad I am too blame. The feed automatically picks back up if it stutters, and just works as it should. The pen also functions as a great daily writer, because it takes some effort to flex. So essentially you have a normal wet-fine nib, until you put some pressure down and then you get the special writing. Reverse writing is also possible. One thing I found that I hadn't seen in other reviews is that the nib has "fude" like qualities. So essentially the nib is bent, so at high angles it writes thinner than low angles. I have no idea if this was on purpose or not, but I like the feature.
Score: 10/10
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| Here you can see the "fude" aspects of the nib |
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| The top line is normal writing, second is fast writing, and the last is flex |
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| You can see here the line variation I got just by changing hand angle |
Cost & Value - This pen only cost 20$ dollars. I know some of them have a few issues, but I feel like it is worth 20$ risk because my certainly is worth every penny. I love this pen, and it is the best value pen I know of.
Score: 10/10
Overall - This pen is now a part of my EDC because of its high ink capacity, fine (and thick) line, good looks, and just being a fun writer. I am glad I got one, and I would suggest it to anyone. They make them in lots of pretty colors too!
Overall Score: 9.4/10
