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Noodler's Konrad Flex Review

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:w00t:
 
Indeed, your writing is far and away better than mine. Thanks for the review. I won't have my Nussbaum-sourced Konrad until Wednesday and will likely be getting the green ink. It sounds like your Konrad is as good as the one I bought from FPH in ebonite. I'll see on Monday whether my Goulet-sourced Konrad is as good as yours (yes, I ended up buying two thanks to Nathan Tardif getting Rome is Burning ink finished and bottled so quickly).
 
Thanks for the review. I put in an order for one brown and one blue Saturday. Looking forward to giving it a go.
 
I have some Ampad Gold Fibre but it feathered more for some reason. I tried the ol' spiral bound on a fluke and it worked better!
 
I'm realizing that the behavior of the Konrad is heavily dependent on the ink you use. I filled it up with BBB this morning and it is like a belligerent teenager. I would have hated it if I had started with this ink.

Edit: After a little adjusting (duh..) it works like a champ again. I guess different inks can have very, very different properties. I still like my Konrad. :)
 
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I filled my $20 Konrad in Roaring 20s with the new Noodler's Rome is Burning ink today when I got my package from the Goulets. I love both the pen and the ink. I dare say it is actually working better than its $40 Ebonite Konrad sibling.
 
Thus far I really enjoy it. Todd at Isellpens was giving away a $17 bottle of ink with the purchase of a $20 pen. Normally I'd be reluctant for the fact my Noodler flex pen is a little finicky but it's superb. I think I've been venturing into finer lines although all I have a medium pens so it writes a little thick, great pen though.
 
I think it was just for preorders. I sort of remember reading something like that. It was right on the top of the page for Noodler's pens. if it isn't there now, surely its over with.
 
My new red Konrad just arrived in today's mail from Goulets. Flushed it and loaded it with Diamine Denim. It hit the paper writing beautifully and this lefty is quite impressed. Definitely will be in my pocket tomorrow. Size and feel seem just right. For $20 I think it's a good deal.
 
My Konrad is a mess! :mad3:

After flushing the nib and filling with ink it scratches the paper with no ink flow and them dumps a huge amount of ink in a big blob then it's back to scratching the paper with no ink again.

There seems to be a lot of posts referencing videos on how to adjust the feed and nib but I couldn't find an actual link to those videos.

Any help would be appreciated.

It's a great looking pen and I look forward to making it work.
 
If it's blobby, try pushing in the nib and the feed in a bit. About a fin's depth. You'll also want to push in the nib a hair more than the feed. That worked to fix the one blobby Konrad I have (the other worked fine out of the box)
 
I find the Noodlers flex pens to be very finicky when it comes to ink - I have had better results with my Private Reserve inks than my Noodlers Inks.
 
I just got two Konrads form Goulet's. One worked like a charm with just a rinse before filling (used Levenger Cobalt Blue ink). Second one was a bit "dry" (using Noodler's Brown ink), but after a few tweaks to the feed and pushing the nib in a bit further it also worked fine.
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
I finally got my Konrad after USPS absolutely "lost" the package for almost one week. I simply had to get one, being a collector of German piston-fillers for so long this pen's style was just calling to me. The tortoise was a little disappointing, but overall the pen seems to be everything I had expected, this both bad and good. One thing I wasn't expecting was the odor!

First of all I noticed (after rinsing and filling) was that the nib and feed were extremely loose in the section. When flexing the nib (a nib I wouldn't really admit to being "flexible") I noticed the nib would squirm around and change its relationship with the feed so much so that I could see the feed creeping out from one side of the nib. I moved it back and it would quickly return to another incorrect spot. Possibly caused by my writing style, which is actually pretty light, it became increasingly annoying, especially when a huge blob of ink dripped onto my desk. Fingers were pretty ink stained by now! So I did what I usually do if I have a loose fit but I had to do it twice since this thing was really loose. If you watch Brian Goulet's video and see him pulling the nib out and putting it back without force you will get the idea, it really shouldn't be that easy. It's called "friction fit" but it was missing on this pen so I added some more friction ... and another nib as well -- one of the German Knox 35mm mediums. I also found the hole in the section wasn't quite round as well but that just goes into the "nice design, rough execution" department.

After everything was tight and secure I heat-set the feed twice and it works pretty well now. It did dry up a couple of times and I had to flood the feed after an overnight rest (lying on its side). I've filled it with several inks and all worked well, currently has Manhattan blue in it. The Konrad fills very well and is easily serviced as advertised. Now hopefully the stink will subside.

I would recommend it for someone with semi-advanced pen knowledge and a willingness to tinker and get ink on their fingers.

Here's a pic alongside a drop-dead gorgeous NOS Pelikan M250 for size comparison. Close to the same size ... $20 vs $125!

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With its new Knox nib it writes quite well. Not that it didn't with the Noodler's nib but I like breather holes!

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Very nice! Were you able to come up with anything to solve the problem of smell? I've got mine working fine, but it still smells like Papillon smuggled it into the country. My daughter picked it up to give it a try and literally recoiled in horror.
 
My Konrads don't smell, but if it's like the smell of my black Ahab (the only one so far that has had a pungent smell out of the ones I have bought), a good week sitting out on a shelf should considerably help with the smell.
 
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