Noodler's Ink Fountain Pen with Piston Fill & Ink Window - Fine Medium Nib - Black Body

I've only used disposable fountain pens up 'til buying the Noodler's Ink Fountain Pen, and there's a definite difference. I thought I'd used some decent disposable fountain pens in the past, but this is way better then I expected. Drawing and writing with this pen is like going from a Big Wheel to a Cadillac. It's that good.

I'm gonna have to get another one.

I bought (and have subsequently lost) one of these just to give it a try.

I am a fountain pen fanatic - don't know how many I have. I started using them when I was 8 years old, and have dozens today. I have cheapies (disposable pilots), low end (Lamy safari), and several mid range (Namiki vanishing point, Waterman, Pelikan, Lamy) even the occasional splurge (Omas limited edition, 18K).

I loved using the pen. I filled it with Noodler's Heart of Darkness ink, and from the beginning it flowed smoothly, wrote reliably and within two days became my go to pen. I write a lot - my only disappointment is that it doesn't hold more ink. I had to refill two times in three days.

I am waiting for these to come back in stock to get another one. It is a wonderful pen for beginners, and for you aficionado's who just want to enjoy a smooth write from an inexpensive pen.

My only wish is that it were a dropper filled pen and held lots more ink. Maybe Noodler's will make one of those soon?

Fountain pens are supposed to dry out when you leave them uncapped, it's the reason why caps were invented. The pen gets the job done but there is a certain... odor...

Fountain pens are supposed to dry out when you leave them uncapped, it's the reason why caps were invented. The pen gets the job done but there is a certain... odor...

I got this pen because I was looking for something a bit better than my disposable pilot but I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on a new fountain pen. When it arrived I was super excited. It looked great and all the pieces seemed to be in order (not something you can always expected when ordering online).

My first big problem I had with it was easy to overcome. It smells... bad... So I'd suggest letting it sit out of it's box a bit before ever giving it away as a gift. Maybe even a quick wipe down on the outside to help it along.

I then filled it with ink and started to write and it worked great! I set it down and went about my daily business just waiting for a moment to use it. However, when I got the chance, it barely worked. I had to run it across the paper quite a few times before it wrote and even when it did it wrote sporadically. So I thought it was the ink, after all mine was old and not in the greatest condition.

So I bought some new ink, Noodler's even, and filled up the pen. It wrote beautifully but I wasn't going to be fooled so I let it sit for a bit. I picked it up a bit later and tried to write. Same problem and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I tried different types of paper, different angles for the pen, I cleaned it properly, I even sat for 5 minutes writing hoping it was just new pen jitters. Nothing, still jumpy writing.

I'm giving it 2 stars (instead of 1) because it could be my fault it's not working, perhaps my old ink did something to a place I can't see. All the pieces work great except for the actual writing function which could have been damaged in transit (sometimes I swear my local postal man drop kicks my packages to the door). I just know that my $4 disposable went through hell and back and still wrote like a breeze, I was hoping my $14 could do the same.