I like their Red Dragon a lot which is close to Ox Blood. The reds look good on the Rhodia ivory paper which is an off white cream/tan color. Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang is a black light reactive red. It will clog up feeds a bit too if it sits for a while like JH Hematite with the gold sheen. I like the shading with Noodler’s Apache Sunset in the Ahab’s! Yep, ink is a book in itself!
Whats the difference between flex nibs, normal, and italics?
Flex nibs will actually flex the tines open with pressure as you write giving you line variation. They’ll go from an extra-fine or fine to bold or double bold line typically. With some inks this gives you a really nice shading to the lines/letters.
Normal nibs are just x-fine, Fine, Medium, Bold, dbl-bold in sizes but don’t flex usually, although some softer nibs do flex a tiny bit and aren’t considered flex nibs. Check out the Goulet Pens nib comparisons tool and you’ll see the difference on the nibs you choose. http://www.gouletpens.com/nib-nook
Italic nibs are wide and have a slanted angle ground on the end of the nib. A stub nib is a wide nib without the slant. This lets you write thick or thin lines depending on how you’re holding the nib. These nibs also show off the shading in some inks.
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I really want to try the Qin Shi Huang, the YouTube video they put out on it really is interesting to watch. I have been meaning to try Rhodia paper, but I’ve been using craft store mixed media paper when I really want to care about feathering and shading more than just daily writing.
I love writing in Apache Sunset, that has to be one of the best shading inks out there, even if you don’t like yellowish ink. I’m also very fond of the shading I can pull out of the darker inks I own also, dark colors with shading is just awesome, and I can actually get some subtle shading out of Montblanc’s black ink since it’s not as heavy of a black as anti feather from Noodler’s, and that is one of my favorites for a more reserved kind of thing. You really need to try MB’s Leonardo if you haven’t, I did some flex writing today out of boredom, and the shading was actually pretty striking to look at
And you answered the nib question thoroughly, no use repeating 
I looked for the MB Leonardo and it’s all gone I guess! Other than a couple ebay way overpriced bottles. Some said it was very similar to Antietam from Noodler’s which I have and like at least. Saw the MB Einstein limited edition was still around and have just gotten into some grey’s so that might be fun to try since it’s supposed to have silver speckle and sheen similar to the Herbin’s new Stormy Grey with gold speckle and sheen like their Hematite Red. Never even thought I would want or like grey ink!
Abby, don’t know if your set on a Parker but this old school Conklin looked nice! Converter and nice box to boot.
The Conklin Pen Company revives its 1920’s classic model, the Duragraph. The Duragraph was originally released in 1923, and is a classic example of the streamlined flat-top design that was so popular during that era. The Duragraph is produced from a unique hand-made resin, and each pen features the famous Conklin logo engraved over a brushed metal crown on each cap. A silver-plated clip and cap trim band accent each pen.
The fountain pens feature a polished stainless steel nib in the 1.1 size, and a two-tone finish for the fine and medium nibs. The Duragraph fountain pens use a cartridge/converter filling system, and the international style converter is included. The pens are presented in a gorgeous satin-lined gift box.
All I remember is using a friend’s once. Don’t remember what it looked like.
Remembered using it to write in a few languages though. English, Spanish, Filipino, Korean.
gah! Your making it harder cause my dads birthday is February 14!
but anywyas… thanks for the suggestion im still looking at parker though cause that was the brand that was my dad’s first thing so i think giving him a little nostalgia can’t be that bad.
I love fountain pens, pens in general. My favorite that I own is a Waterman Charleston and a MontBlanc Boheme.
Hmmmmm, I’ll have to get a bottle of Antietam and let you know, but I didn’t know it was disappearing! I just bought my bottle locally for normal MB ink prices ($25) last week 
but that Einstein sounds awesome, I’m gonna have to grab a few bottles of it. Man I wish I bought my store’s other bottle of Leonardo now ;D at least it’s just a color, it’s not like it turned paper into lusty maidens (edited for the children after I reread the original wording)
No worries Abby! 
I’ll have to check locally for the Leonardo and see if I get lucky since it was a limited edition. But so was the Einstein and others which are still plentiful? But, like you said, there’s still plenty of colors! I like Antietam. A rusty’ish color with some shading although I haven’t really used it much so far.
The thing I like about Noodler’s is the option of getting bulletproof colors that won’t wash off if they get wet or fade in UV etc. over long periods of time. Of course Noodler’s talks of them for anti-forgery against bleach, acetone, and the check/document thieves tricks. El Lawrence was an interesting bulletproof color many have said looks like used motor oil. I got some Rachmaninoff for my wife and it is one of the brightest and richest pink inks I’ve seen. It’s bulletproof too although a bit thick and dries up in the feed quickly along with getting thicker in the pen over time. Luckily it rinses out easily and doesn’t stain up your pen or converters.
Yeah, Noodler’s inks are fun, the bulletproof options are awesome, and the sheer selection of colors is amazing as well, I don’t think there is another company that puts out so many quality colors… Well, Diamine has a lot, but not Noodler’s level.
El Lawrence sounds cool, but my girlfriend actually loves pink inks, I got her the Atlantic Salmon the other week and she will not stop using it. I may have to look into getting her some Rachmaninoff at some point, but she is actually trying to find her perfect purple right now, so the search will go on. I want to find her a bottle of Conway Stewart Edgcumbe, but Anderson Pens is out of stock and probably not getting more, so that’s gonna be a hunt. She wants to try the Pilot Iroshizuku inks, but they are so expensive that she always shies away, and I can’t say I blame her at $30 a bottle.
I’m thinking a light dilution with water on the Rachmaninoff might help? It’s a heck of a pink for sure. She might like PR DC Super Violet? The Iroshizuku inks are nice and the bottle’s are great too. Their properties are top notch too imho but color selection isn’t the largest as you know.
Also might like Rohrer & Klingner Solferino. Love that color. If you use it heavily is has a bright green sheen/sparkle in it like the JR 1670’s do gold!
I will definitely look into buying those! Especially the R&K, that sounds really cool!
Saw Noodler’s is selling nibs alone now like you mentioned! They used to not sell any replacement parts, you just had to buy a new pen. Great for tinkering!
Here’s a killer review of all the R&K inks on FPN!
Getting a bottle of the Alt-Goldgrun to try after reading it.
For other darker green’s I’ve enjoyed Zhivago although it’s pretty much black with just a tint of green for writing, I like doing a wash with a damp paintbrush over lines on drawings which makes a nice green shade. Private Reserve Avocado is a nice one for writing imho and has some shading too.
A quick sketch and drawing using all Zhivago and wet paint brush. The zombie is Zhivago but also has Noodler’s black and Diamine Red Dragon for blood with a wet paint brush wash too.
Also a link to an old thread I posted about writing on water with fountain pens I saw on YouTube. If you like colors and flex you’ll have fun with this one! A nice coated watercolor paper works best.
All of that is awesome! I’m currently writing in Montblanc’s black right now, and loving how it’s more grey than black, it really makes the writing stand out more than just pure black lines, like I get with Noodler’s Anti-Feather, which is great ink, just solid pure black
yay! today I’m going to a local pen shop near my house to buy a fountain pen for my dad! looks like they carry noodlers Ahab flex nibs pens. so i think i will go for that cause the parker one look like they might break the walllet! and also whats great as well is they have a nice selection of inks as well (so a piston converter and a bottle of ink as well is going to be fun to pick out!)
Awesome, the Ahab is one of my favorite pens, it’s great for almost anything. It’s not the best flex pen by far, but it is the best flex pen for the price, I mean, you get a solid resin pen with a screw on cap, friction fit nib and hand cut ebonite feed for $25. That’s one of the reasons I support Noodler’s so much, besides the fact that the ink is usually great
yeah. So happy I found the local pen store. They had a $9000 pen in there! And last year the store sold a $20000 pen! O.O kinda shocked by who would buy it.
Man, people pay crazy money for pens, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable paying over $200 because there are pens that write so well for under that. I mean, it won’t be solid gold extracted from a melted down nobel prize, but as long as it writes well, I’m good
I love fountain pens. Unfortunately about the only writing I do these days is filling out forms in triplicate, so I’ve reverted to a ball point.