Noodler's Ink Ahab Flex Fountain Pen with Twist-Fill Piston, Stainless Steel Fine Nib, Arizona (15025)

Received the pen 4 days earlier than scheduled through Exborders.Very good packing and in good condition. Filled pen with Waterman intense black ink through in-built suction filler with ease. Smooth and good ink flow and flex nib functions as expected. Very satisfied and intend to do a lot of letter writing and drawing with this pen

I have horrible handwriting and mainly use my fountain pens when writing out scripture so it is easier for me to read later. For flex nibs I have the Noodlers creaper, an Osprey, a goulet fit into jinhao, and the ahab. Waiting on fpr in mail. Currently the ahab is my favorite for ease of use combined with shading/line variations. I am in no wise good at using flex pens, only wish to make it legible for me with some enjoyment of color and line variation. Need to mention the duplicate of this ahab i had to send back as the plunger was beyond typical difficulty of movement(thank you amazon returns). This one needed no work outside of cleaning the pen when it first arrived. Very happy with it:))

The main attraction of this pen for me is that it is one of the few pens in this price segment with a nib which is supposed to be flexible. The nib does flex a bit but the line variation is minimal and the amount of pressure necessary to flex the nib is, in my opinion, too high to be usable for any kind of calligraphy or for any use besides that of a usual nib. Also, when flexed the feeder does not supply enough ink and the pen railroads quite easily. The only good thing about the nib is that as a usual writer it is actually smooth and nice to write with. Besides the nib the pen is quite nice but not great. The body seems to be made of some kind of plastic but has a look similar to that of an Ebonite pen. Some reviews talk of a smell, but it is almost not existent and definitively much lower than the smell a real Ebonite pen has when new. The clip is quite bad and does not secure well the pen and my pen bleeds ink quite easily so I would not carry it in the pocket of a nice shirt or suit. Overall I think that if you like the look and do not mind the little imperfection it is ok but if you need a generic fountain pen you can find several pens which are better made at this price point. If you are looking to have a flexible nib, then you should probably go to the few Japanese offering or go all the way to a real flex nib from the past in the form of a vintage pen. I would gave three and half stars, three being sort of a "pass mark" and half to acknowledge the fact that they try to cover the little niche of flexible nibs, I rounded it up to four.

I got the Ahab Arizona colored flex pen today. I love the look of the pen. I think it writes well but I bought it to draw.It draws flex lines when bearing down on the nib just a bit, which means the line gets a little broader. It draws thinner lines when drawing horizontally (I believe).The one thing I noticed about this pen that is different from my Noodler's Safety Pen and Noodler's Charlie Pen is that you need to apply pressure to draw. Maybe it is just because it is new and will later draw when I just touch it to the paper. I don't know, because I just got it. That's cool with me though. Why else would I buy another pen, if they all work exactly the same? Pen likes to make lines. It doesn't like to color in blocks of color. But I did mix my own dyes for this since I don't have the Noodler's Apache Sunset ink, which would look great in this pen. I hope to get more Noodler's inks. I am totally enamored with Noodler's and haven't had any bad experiences with the pens or inks.

This is a nice pen. The Arizona colors are very pretty. It's a great writer too - quite wet and the flex nib is an added plus.As others have said, the smell of the pen, upon opening the package, is very overpowering...it's hard to describe. I'd hate to work in the factory or warehouse! I took the pen apart and soaked it in a strong solution of dish soap for an hour or so which negated the odor a good bit.After letting everything dry out I inked it with Diamine Sunset which seems like a pretty good combination. I'm sure the unusual smell will diminish more after use.I haven't tried it as an eyedropper yet but I plan to. I noticed that the necessary area was silicone greased from the factory so I think it will work well.All in all this pen is a great buy and I'm happy to add it to my collection!