Tips for Buying Vintage Flex Fountain Pens on Ebay 

Nah, Amo-Iro

Thanks for watching. Solferino is THE best. Amazing flex ink.

That sure is a lot of practice right there.

That is awesome. Very happy to hear that. In terms of budget, quality flex; nothing is better than Marie Todd.

Flex-nib calligraphy is about 20% nib and 80% practice. It took me about 2 years of daily practice, starting with 2 Jinhao+G-nib frankenpens that sacrificed their lives, and some semi-flex vintage pens, before I was ready for a Waterman's 52 with 18k wet noodle nib. My calligraphy's getting impressive, but I still have a long way to go.

Chris, I was interested to hear your thoughts. The Conklin is indeed super wet; it's a lot of fun. The 54 was absolutely misrepresented in this video. The pen has zero flow issues when any ink without a suspended flake like the one seen is used. That being said I have not tried to seat the feed and nib yet and so there may be room for improvement. Thanks as always for watching and commenting.

I got an osmiroid set with 6 nibs one being a copperplate nib for 60 bucks on eBay not too long ago. Also some people sell vintage pens w flex nibs for way cheap on eBay or etsy. If u want a cheaper flex pen Noodlers makes flex pens as low as $20. They aren't vintage but they work very well! Happy Writing! ✍

saltemann Thank you! The hand is far more important than the pen...

There is no need for perfect handwriting if you like fountain pens

Agree

You don’t have to be great at something to enjoy doing it. That’s such a silly way of thinking.

@@lord_haven1114 Of course not. I just prefer seeing videos of people who actually master the craft. Unlike many youtubers out here.

+Ethan Yang I plan to do a handwriting video at some point. Not so much to teach how to write, but to explain the small things I have picked up. Learning to write is really just that. I have picked up small things that make my writing more beautiful. But most importantly, and I am sure you have heard this, but you need to practice. Practice for hundreds of hours. Write how you enjoy writing. If you noticed a certain letter you do not like in your alphabet, change it until you like it. At first lowercase r's were hardest for me; now lowercase r's are my favorite letter. Have fun with it and make your own style. Oh, and get your hands on some nice nibs! ;)

Lower case r's are my hardest. Still practicing; almost perfect.

Richard Sims Richard you can email me at aj.mangino20@gmail.com. Thanks for watching!

+Shahriar Farkhan Noodler's Apache Sunset, Pilot Iroshizuku Asa-Gao, J. Herbin Stormy Grey, Rohrer & Klingner Solferino, Waterman Harmonious Green. Thanks for watching :)

+AJ Mangino Sweet, thank you!!

+kaman kay Some of them are flex, some of them are not. It is hard to guess without seeing the listing myself! Use the rules and make your best guess. If you are unsure it is also a good idea to contact the buyer and ask them if the nib is flexible. Never be afraid to ask seller's questions. Do you have a link to the listing? Thanks for watching my channel.

Donald Wood Hey Donald, thanks for watching and happy holidays. I really don't have any recommendations I can make. I am completely self-taught and all I can say is that I watched writers I admired (mostly on RU-vid) and focused in on their strokes. Then put in thousands of hours. That's my recipe. Again, thanks for watching :)

Very will taught indeed. Looking forward to future material. Thank you.

I am a lefty also, and overwriting is generally a useless effort for flex. If you can convert your sidewriting to underwriting, you will have arrived. With a reasonable amount of effort I changed over, and now it feels like the natural way to write. Best of luck Elie Z.!

@@BIBLEBELIEVERSVIDEO thank you very much for your comment. Yes, I have been working on underwriting but as you say, it is not very easy to transition. I'll keep at it. Cheers.

BIBLE BELIEVERS VIDEO - MARK VARNEY Underwriting!

Good luck my friend!

Looks like Rhodia

Have you tried Tomoe River paper?

Thanks. The purple is Rohrer and Klingner Solferino and the green is Waterman Harmonious Green.

Mykdonna

Myk Daigle sold me my favourite pen: a Waterman's 52 Red Ripple with 18k wet noodle nib.

Yeah he's hot. They should make an ink the color of his eyes.

Hey man, glad you enjoyed the video. For many of the "fountain pen guys", who started the fountain pen groups on Facebook and run the forums, fountain pens are a collectors hobby. There is great respect for those amongst them with knowledge of all the intricacies of the varieties of vintage pens, a lot of times focusing within one certain brand. There has been/is huge new wave (since fountain pen groups starting showing up on Facebook mostly) of fountain pen interest made up of the younger generation. These people get interested in fountain pens for whatever reason and soon learn of the capabilities of the flex nib via RU-vid. The are amazing and impressive to newcomers and so they develop strong interest in flex nibs and want to develop their hand-writing so they can write in beautiful Spencerian type scripts, draw, etc. I think you will find that many of the veteran collectors have brutal hand-writing even though they have had fountains pens as a hobby for 30 years. The old hobbyists focus is on collecting, not writing; so you understand why you were not enlightened with flexible nibs right away. Vintage pens are really the only ones worth while for this kind of writing. Dip nibs are a cheap alternative, not quite as cool if you're into the mechanics of the pen and restoration and whatnot. Most modern "flexible" nib pens are $300+ and you will not be able to do writing like this with them. You want to educate yourself on Vintage pens (the reason I made this video) and start buying them. After 2 or 3 you should have at least 1 or 2 amazing pens. Thanks again for watching. This winter I plan on putting out a lot more fountain pen content. P.S. A tip for all newcomers; don't throw the term "wet noodle" around everywhere. That really garners hatred of the older generation. And respect them for what they do and have done, even though they don't respect you :)

Ahh Charles I misunderstood a bit. It is odd that they don't make the nibs more interchangeable. I think it takes hand work beyond what a machine can do to make super super fine and other slightly more specialized nibs like italics and what not. This makes manufacturing cost a lot more. I know TWSBI spent extra time just getting there EF ECOs to write consistently without drying out. It's hard to make crazy fine nibs and italics that aren't super scratchy and write well without a bit of nibmeister handwork. So probably a quality control thing for the cheaper companies. That's what I can think of.

I feel the same way... I'm not interested in collecting the actual pens, I want a bunch of weird nibs to switch out in between them!

Tomoe River

Waterman made the best gold flexible nibs, in aggregate

Hi Thanks. What model, what year? I hope it's 100% ebonite and is chased (not a fan of resin/plastic/celluloid- maybe celluloid is tolerable since it's just semi plastic).

@@SevenDeMagnus They're all different within each model number and year of production. Hence this video...

I would check out stores.ebay.com/simplyabrusticrelics they have some pretty great fountain pens

+Baroqueartisan I do my work and really always have, so I can't say I have looked into where to have pens restored too much. I do know of Ron Zorn at Main Street Pens. I would look into him. Unfortunately I do not have experience with using permanent inks in these pens. I will say I rarely use Noodler's inks in my bladder pens and especially do not mix noodler's inks in bladder pens because I have ran into issues there. Hope all goes well and apologize for the delay. I thought I had answered this.

I appreciate the info! Best Regards.

Dalton Sego Noodler's definitely can damage latex bladdered pens. I think in most cases it happens when they are mixed with other residual amounts of ink not cleaned out 100%. I just have no problem replacing the bladders on my pens so I don't mind using Noodler's. They will not cause damage to any other part of the pen.

Are bladders especially difficult to come across, or are they expensive?

They're easy to find and inexpensive. Thanks for watching.

Thank you Alexis. I believe that ink is Iroshizuku Asa-Gao

+AJ Mangino It is a beautiful shade. what do you normally search on ebay when looking for pens?

I normally search "Waterman" "mabie todd Swan" and "Conklin"

What is the difference? ?

@@drennyvision6141 a lake or two

if your interested in Parker, stores.ebay.com/simplyabrusticrelics is the place to go. Seller is based right out of the home of Parker Pen.

I am sorry Ethan but without a definition of "the best" I cannot answer your question. I think my answer will be that it is personal preference and mostly comes down to which size fits you the best.

+AJ Mangino you are right, sorry havent really touched a vintage wet noodle yet. not sure how to make a purchase- prices to start, on ebay prices vary a alot, etc. most of what you show here look pretty good and you did say in one review that 12 was 'unbeliveable'.

+Ethan Yang Yes that 12 was unbelievable. I'd buy a 52, they're s gtr at size. Use the information in this video to try to determine nib flexibikity. A super flex 52 will typically set you back $200-400.

Hey Lex. Fountain pens that go from XXXF-BBB with ease like a nib dip are difficult to find and expensive ($500+ typically). If you are prepared to spend that much then just do some digging on Ebay and find a pen with a writing sample that demonstrates how flexible it is. If you're on a budget a Desiderata Daedalus may be a good option (fountain pen with a dip nib in it). Good luck :)

AJ Mangino I find this very helpful. Thanks.

The chap who services my Montblanc and who restores vintage pens suggests that older pens are best used with water based inks such as Diamine, Pelikan Edelstein, J Herbin and Pilot Iroshizuku to name but a few. Many older pens have ebonite feeds that work well with "traditional" inks. He suggests that "shimmering" inks will clog feeds and may damage sacs in time. I would not use the likes of Noodler's Baystate Blue in any of my high end pens. I keep and old low end Cross just for that purpose.

Yes some of the inks definitely do cause damage. I personally am comfortable replacing sacs in my pens and so I use any inks I desire. In general you should stay away from Noodler's inks, Private Reserve, and other really saturated inks. Clean the pens regularly. Worst case scenario, learn to replace the sac.

Lol. Yes I agree. Thanks for watching.

AJ Mangino it's cringe

Peter J Puleo I probably have 1000 hours in. Thank you but they're are people much better.

An admirable commitment to your art.

Hey, I listed all of the inks used in the video in a comment below. Check it out! Thanks for watching.

+Richard Noa That is the highly regarded and universally loved Iroshizuku Asa-Gao If I am not mistaken.

really nice deep blue, thank you. your videos are great too what is your eBay account if i may ask?

+Richard Noa Sorry I did not see this comment. www.ebay.com/usr/ajmanthmang

It's "pointed pen" calligraphy, but in his own personal style. Copperplate and Spencerian are the most traditional pointed pen calligraphy styles, but there's also Engrosser's Script and many other styles.

@@OofusTwillip three years after I’m saying thanks 😅. Thank you!

Mykdonna

I do not feel the same way. It is rather deeply pigmented and viscous, I feel.

I should mention that the only Montblanc ink I have direct experience with is Irish Green. It and Apache Sunset are actually strikingly similar in behavior, ironically. Again, only my experience.

hmm i ll call them tomorrow it is railroading a lot with my noodlers creepler. that happened when there was some water in my pen + montblanc ink

Typically it is not a very good flex ink for me. Lots of railroading unless in a very good flowing pen.

hmm some mentioned that its proly bc it was just washed out with soap and water and i have to refill it. that made sense

www.ebay.com/str/madmercantile

+Ashley Evans www.ebay.com/usr/ajmanthmang Pens going up for sale tonight Mar. 14th

Thanks! ^-^

It is amazing how they each do that me. So much character in each.

That is a bad tip, Jan.

Total bullshit Jan. Sorry.

what about if you are in a location with no such option? Although it is great to deal with humans, I dont agree with your comment...

Mark EM1 month ago "Total bullshit Jan. Sorry." You're right. Your comment is bullshit.

AJ Mangino1 month ago "That is a bad tip, Jan." My advice was excellent and I stand by it. If you can't buy something from a human, face to face, don't do it.