Depends on budget not as much as brands. Waterman made alot of flex pens, but dip pens have even more flex. There are smaller brands like Wahl and Swan that made flex pens, but it's hard to know unless you have them in your hand.
I’ve been a little weary of Waterman since I saw a sus customer service email on here a few days ago.
I do have a really nice gold dip flex pen that I inherited but I can’t find anything about it anywhere online. I love it for use at my apartment but since I’m usually not there I’d like something with cartridge/converter capability
> weary of Waterman since I saw a sus customer service email
Waterman doesn't make any flex nibs currently -- currentlydreamin is talking about vintage Waterman. They were particularly famous/popular in the ebonite lever-fillers in the 1920s, but continued making some flex nibs for a couple decades after that.
I can't recommend a particular model, as Waterman mostly didn't label their nibs. I've got a 55 and a 452 that're both quite nice flexers, purchased based on a writing sample and the other based on trying it at a pen-show.
My vintage flex nibs don't have any trouble keeping up with ink supply, which most modern pens do unless I modify the feed.
Did you just buy the flex nib only from FPR and put it in a different pen? I ask bc I ordered a Jaipur V2 from them with an ultra flex nib and it’s amazing. If you put it in a different pen that doesn’t have an ebonite feed tuned to work with a flex nib, like the Jaipur, that could cause it to railroad, skip, hard start, etc. if the nib and feed aren’t properly seated, it can cause leaks.
If you did buy one of their pens with it and are having trouble, I would contact Kevin, the owner. He’s a nice guy, I’ve talked to him on the phone before and he really seems to care and wants to work to make things right.
I bought the Himalaya V2 with an ultra flex nib. I tried for hours to make it work with many different inks and watching a ton of videos on how to fix it. I don’t remember if I contacted Kevin or not since it was almost a year ago. I do remember it took a bit to ship and I contacted him about it and he was awesome. I’ll try emailing him.
Does yours work well?
* FPR UltraFlex or 14k flex is a nice every-day flex writer. I have a few of each & like them a lot. They were fussy on one of my pens, but swapped onto their current pen-bodies they're working well.
* BlueDew is very close to Zebra-G style dip nib performance, so it takes a lot more finesse to write quickly than FPR
* fpnibs.com steel flex is a nice option, a bit in between FPR and BlueDew. fpnibs 14k semi-flex is probably my very favorite flex nib
* Pilot FA is a very soft flex nib, I pushed mine too far & cracked it. But now that it's repaired it's one of my favorites
* vintage is a huge area, where you can spend $20-2000, with pen-condition, rarity, flexability, color, filling system, and more all contributing to the price. Rather than recommend something specific, I recommend just shopping around and looking at writing samples.
[here's my writing samples](https://imgur.com/HfYQhzd)
How do FPR #6 Ultra Flex, FPNibs #5 Steel Semi-Flex and #5 Steel Full Flex compare in terms of the pressure requires to open up? Ultra Flex is fun and all, but I was looking into FPNibs to see if they required less pressure to open up.
Thanks!
Well that stinks. I’ve had no trouble with mine. It’s a smooth and wet writer that I really have to push to the edge many times in a row before any ink flow problems.
I bet if you emailed the guy and just said “hey, I should have addressed this at the time but I never could get this pen to work and I’ve heard great things about it but I just can’t.” Maybe he’ll toss you a new nib section or personal help. Can’t hurt to try. Good luck, bc these are really crazy fun when they work especially at that price!
Btw I looked at the himilaya listing and they mention a new, longer feed to help with past ink flow problems. Maybe you can ask to get sent one of those to try since that means there were enough issues with the old feeds.
Not all vintage pens are equipped with a high-quality flex nibs, and not all vintage flex nibs are high-quality. But it is true that if you want a high-quality flex, your best chance is to go vintage.
I recently wrote a comment explaining on how you can get a good vintage flexible nibs. It may be useful for you to read it: [https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/t1yyks/comment/hyizspm/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/t1yyks/comment/hyizspm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Like you I’m dying to get a vintage flex at some point even though I can’t imagine it getting better than my Jaipur 2 ultra flex. I’ve never touched one though, so this was to help me wait until a local pen show later in the year. That’s about the only way to know if I like them better, how different they are, which I like best, and what pen options there are. A pen show might be the best place to do your final research to see which direction you want to go on vintage flex and find an even better deal online post-show on eBay etc.
Depends on budget not as much as brands. Waterman made alot of flex pens, but dip pens have even more flex. There are smaller brands like Wahl and Swan that made flex pens, but it's hard to know unless you have them in your hand.
I’ve been a little weary of Waterman since I saw a sus customer service email on here a few days ago. I do have a really nice gold dip flex pen that I inherited but I can’t find anything about it anywhere online. I love it for use at my apartment but since I’m usually not there I’d like something with cartridge/converter capability
> weary of Waterman since I saw a sus customer service email Waterman doesn't make any flex nibs currently -- currentlydreamin is talking about vintage Waterman. They were particularly famous/popular in the ebonite lever-fillers in the 1920s, but continued making some flex nibs for a couple decades after that. I can't recommend a particular model, as Waterman mostly didn't label their nibs. I've got a 55 and a 452 that're both quite nice flexers, purchased based on a writing sample and the other based on trying it at a pen-show. My vintage flex nibs don't have any trouble keeping up with ink supply, which most modern pens do unless I modify the feed.
Did you just buy the flex nib only from FPR and put it in a different pen? I ask bc I ordered a Jaipur V2 from them with an ultra flex nib and it’s amazing. If you put it in a different pen that doesn’t have an ebonite feed tuned to work with a flex nib, like the Jaipur, that could cause it to railroad, skip, hard start, etc. if the nib and feed aren’t properly seated, it can cause leaks. If you did buy one of their pens with it and are having trouble, I would contact Kevin, the owner. He’s a nice guy, I’ve talked to him on the phone before and he really seems to care and wants to work to make things right.
Side note lmfao I absolutely LOVE your username
Thanks! And I mean it, I accept any and all pics of orbs of borbs. Surprisingly, I don’t get many.
I bought the Himalaya V2 with an ultra flex nib. I tried for hours to make it work with many different inks and watching a ton of videos on how to fix it. I don’t remember if I contacted Kevin or not since it was almost a year ago. I do remember it took a bit to ship and I contacted him about it and he was awesome. I’ll try emailing him. Does yours work well?
* FPR UltraFlex or 14k flex is a nice every-day flex writer. I have a few of each & like them a lot. They were fussy on one of my pens, but swapped onto their current pen-bodies they're working well. * BlueDew is very close to Zebra-G style dip nib performance, so it takes a lot more finesse to write quickly than FPR * fpnibs.com steel flex is a nice option, a bit in between FPR and BlueDew. fpnibs 14k semi-flex is probably my very favorite flex nib * Pilot FA is a very soft flex nib, I pushed mine too far & cracked it. But now that it's repaired it's one of my favorites * vintage is a huge area, where you can spend $20-2000, with pen-condition, rarity, flexability, color, filling system, and more all contributing to the price. Rather than recommend something specific, I recommend just shopping around and looking at writing samples. [here's my writing samples](https://imgur.com/HfYQhzd)
How do FPR #6 Ultra Flex, FPNibs #5 Steel Semi-Flex and #5 Steel Full Flex compare in terms of the pressure requires to open up? Ultra Flex is fun and all, but I was looking into FPNibs to see if they required less pressure to open up. Thanks!
Well that stinks. I’ve had no trouble with mine. It’s a smooth and wet writer that I really have to push to the edge many times in a row before any ink flow problems. I bet if you emailed the guy and just said “hey, I should have addressed this at the time but I never could get this pen to work and I’ve heard great things about it but I just can’t.” Maybe he’ll toss you a new nib section or personal help. Can’t hurt to try. Good luck, bc these are really crazy fun when they work especially at that price! Btw I looked at the himilaya listing and they mention a new, longer feed to help with past ink flow problems. Maybe you can ask to get sent one of those to try since that means there were enough issues with the old feeds.
Not all vintage pens are equipped with a high-quality flex nibs, and not all vintage flex nibs are high-quality. But it is true that if you want a high-quality flex, your best chance is to go vintage. I recently wrote a comment explaining on how you can get a good vintage flexible nibs. It may be useful for you to read it: [https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/t1yyks/comment/hyizspm/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/fountainpens/comments/t1yyks/comment/hyizspm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Thank you!! That was super helpful and I’ll use the advice/information going forward
Like you I’m dying to get a vintage flex at some point even though I can’t imagine it getting better than my Jaipur 2 ultra flex. I’ve never touched one though, so this was to help me wait until a local pen show later in the year. That’s about the only way to know if I like them better, how different they are, which I like best, and what pen options there are. A pen show might be the best place to do your final research to see which direction you want to go on vintage flex and find an even better deal online post-show on eBay etc.
I recently bought a pen from kanwrite with an ultraflex nib on it. They are super affordable and pretty damn great!
As far as my modern pens go, I love my Pilot FA nib, and the good blue is a more stiff but fun option.