All three parts are made independently but still line up perfectly once assembled which is not the easiest thing to do. There are a few tricks with synchronizing to ensure threads start in the exact same spot for each part. That flat spot adds a significant degree of complexity with machining, but was done very well.

@@Doodlebud yea! I was wondering about that. There must be a code in the canned cycle that indicates thread start angle or something, because the traditionally, the roll stop flats would be a secondary operation. Very trick, very precise, me likes!

Yeah, the part is now essentially indexed. Was almost wondering if you'd cut the flat before the thread as the threads need to be referenced from the flat. There's some tricks to use from making watch parts that require this type of operation

I’m not a machinist so when we developed this design, I must admit I didn’t fully appreciate the machining complexity. But I worked with a couple of amazing machinists, and yes, as doodlebud surmised, we borrowed some of the indexing techniques that were developed for watch making. At the moment we’re still seeing some variation across batches so you can’t just swap components across batches, but we’re working on a solve by timing everything to a ‘master’ set of components going forward.

Always happy to give my take on a pen.

Is that the same nib FPR uses on theirs?

@@phillipfranco55 yes - and Kanwrite also makes ebonite feeds.

@@phillipfranco55 Looks like it.

@@phillipfranco55 fpr is simply rebranded Indian pens!

It's very unique & made very well. Really enjoying it

He has more pens in the cue coming up so keep an eye out. Follow him on instagram and he's pretty active on there

Most of my vids have an engineering tilt to them. Its in my BLOOD! 😅

@@Doodlebud I'm an engineer's daughter and graduated with a science degree. This video detail (especially the tin!) really appealed to me! Thanks!

Yes, lefties lives matter, too.

He's working hard so there will be more available once he gets another batch machined

I was wondering about the step down as well, but at least for me, no issue at all

Pen pretty happy with it

I've just seen a blue/brass one, very good looking.

Ohhhh don't you worry.... That vid is coming 😉

The feed is wonderful as well too…

The balance is great and that feed works wonderfully

The bulk of the weight is in the grip section - intentionally - we found this give the pen a very nice balanced feel as the centre of mass sits very near dead center of the uncapped pen. We initially tried a much lighter all aluminium prototype, but that felt a little too back weighted. Of course, this is very much a personal preference thing, your mileage may vary! Some folks have asked for an all brass version which seems crazy heavy to me (86 gms, 56 gms uncapped!) but there’s fans of that kind of thing out there. We’re working on versions of this design in different materials for potential release early next year.

Was postponing seeing this in full until today because by just browsing through, it looked very interesting. And I promised myself no more pens until the end of the year. It really really is very nice and very tempting. Cool design and the flex nib seems very good indeed. Not an engineer, but I appreciate all the details, from the dimensions on the box to the flat side to prevent rolling. I find it very unlikely that I won’t purchase one for the new year. All I can probably do is hold out until the end of this year 🙂

Also forgot to commend you Doodlebud on an excellent review and for improving your penmanship so much. I wish I could do the same. Still waiting for my Osprey - customs here not very nice to me holding on to the package for over a month now. Hopefully I’ll find the time to introduce myself to the magical world of flex even it is with my Pilot Falcon. Any tips very welcome. It does seem that this pen would be easier to use for a flex novice like me. The more I watch, the harder I find it to resist it 😇

Would be good to see some more innovation come out around feeds & ink delivery. Very ambitious that he did a pen & a new feed

He's got more coming soon to restock so keep an eye out 👍

A larger ink capacity would be handy for longer flex writing sessions

So true. We supply the pen with Schmidt’s K5 converter, but if anyone knows of a larger international standard converter that’s good quality please let me know; I’d be up for switching out of it fits.

The cap is shorter than the barrel so can tell which end is which

Thanks; appreciate the feedback about the step down, appreciate it’s not for everyone. We are working on additional pen designs that will have a flush barrel and grip section. These for early 2022.

@@thegoodblue5640 1. Sounds great. 2. When I draw, I like to move my grip way up onto the barrel sometimes, so a flush barrel-to-section is perfect. 3. Even better if the threads are not in between, but rather at the nib end of the section. But I know this arrangement is not all that popular or practical.

@@ichirofakename another stupid pen with a big step in the place you put your fingers. Oh, but it is cool when you don't use it 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️! This is just one of the lot of reasons that make me appreciate vintage fountain pens more and more every day.

@@OzneOllen Seems blindingly obvious to me that ALL pens should be flush between section and barrel, with no threads in the vicinity. How many are? 2%?

I really enjoy this one

The brushed is sold out, and we’re almost out of the bright as well. We’re doing an anodised version in British Racing Green (launching on 10th Dec). And we will be restocking popular finishes in January. Sorry, don’t mean to sound like an advert, but we’re also doing a 14k flex nib and a titanium flex (both coming 10th December)

@@thegoodblue5640 awesome! I'm broke right now, so being sold out is a good thing. Will there be an option to purchase with both a fine flex and a calligraphy nib?

@@slo_carry yup. I need to set that up on the site to offer multiple nibs. Will do that over the (hopefully) quieter Christmas downtime.

@@thegoodblue5640 thank you! Very cool to know you are active on social and respond to potential customers. I really hope I can get saved up for one even more now. Hopefully I can get one ordered in the next month or two. 😁

I didn't know Chrisrap had one. Interesting as how the parts are made, they are essentially "timed" or "synchronized" so parts line up. I know this is done for the alignment of the flat spots, not sure about the threading of the nib unit.

@@Doodlebud He's a fan of yours! He mentions you in the video saying the pen is right up your alley.

Too funny... He's right though, I dig this pen 👍

The threads for the nib unit housing are not timed to the housings (yet). Bit harder to control given we source the plastic housings and don’t manufacture them ourselves. They’re standard Jowo m7.5 threads and there a lot of threading so you there’s a bit of ‘room’ on the nib orientation while still having a secure fit.

@@Doodlebud Chrisrap modified the lockup of the pen body with an o-ring. I believe he said something about channeling you, because the pen body was not seating square anymore and it would sometimes unthread when trying to uncap the pen.

Hi Gabe. The feed material is a polymer (fancy way of saying essentially a plastic). The surface layer is laser sintered to create the hydrophilic properties. It does not need heat setting as it was designed and matched to the radius of our nibs (which are standard #6). We wanted something user friendly, consistent and reliable, so there’s no special steps required on the part of the user: dip, fill, and away you go. Definitely not a candidate for heat setting - it will deform as temperatures cross 70°C, and then melt after 😂

@@thegoodblue5640 didn’t expect such quick answers, thank you! That is a wise decision, I find that most hobbyists are not forgiving when it comes to flex pens that need tinkering. Glad to see your pen getting positive feedback from the community.

I just did a sneak peak video of his new ones with Titanium flex nib. Give it a look. I'll be doing a giveaway for one of them soon

He mentioned he has more designs coming, & one without the step down

Untipped are always scratchy, that's why we have tipping. Zebra G is in thr extreme end as it's a needle point. This untipped is much smoother, but still needs practice using. The regular flex is much smoother. Not butter smooth, but much less feedback, but if course not as much flex & line variation

I didn't do anything special. I filled the pen, wiped it off, and then started writing. Having a wet ink helps for sure

*Green not forest lol

The one I use I got off amazon. Look up Fuzion Digital Pocket Scale. Pretty good for the price point. Glad the ink mix is working well for you, I like it as well 👍

First win was their regular fine flex, second one is their untipped calligraphy

The feed does stain. Depending on what ink you use, most of the colour washes out if you flush it with water. If that kind of thing bothers you, definitely stay away from heavily saturated inks and formulations like bay state blue 😂 We will be doing a more ‘standard’ black version of the feeds soon too.

I think I have a Noodlers untipped nib on order to try out.

I was interested right away in the feed. There have been no real new developments about the materials & design used in feeds for decades despite a massive change in material development/engineering/science. Different materials have very different properties and characteristics when it comes to promoting ink flow. Also, changes to the design of the overall feed (channels & fins) can make a massive difference in ink flow. There are many properties when it comes to fluid dynamics that one can take advantage of to get the desired outcome. I was blown away that not only did Sunil make a new pen and incorporate some VERY ambitious design/machining methods, but also developed an entirely new feed made in a completely different way. This is something it seems nobody else has taken on. Ebonite is the "gold standard" in the pen world for feeds, and it does a good job. But the material isn't widely used in many other areas. Developments in material and manufacturing processes have opened up an entirely different way to approach things and he decided to give it a try which I really commend him on. He didn't just take an off-the-shelf nib/feed unit and put it in a pen with a pretty material. It's not perfect by any means, but over time I'm excited to see how he refines and improves the finished product.

@@Doodlebud It certainly does seem to be a largely unexplored area, which I only realized after watching this feed in action. Hey, why aren't more people doing this kind of thing? I ask myself, and I suspect the answer is something like, not enough volume/money in it, so it takes someone who does it for the love of doing it. Hoping for a good solid outcome here, which also might encourage further experimentation elsewhere.

Hey Rod, the main driver for the polymer feeds was that ebonite feeds we were sourcing were not consistent. Inconsistent material properties and as a result tolerance variations. Some units performed amazingly. And some didn’t perform well at all. And it was impossible to tell until the feed was tested when not saturated with ink. So I found myself setting up and inking a pen, then doing flex swirls until the feed wasn’t saturated anymore before I could tell if it was good or a dud. Fine if you’re doing a couple, not not fun if you need to rest a few hundred. The material just doesn’t scale at commercially sensible price points. And don’t even get me started on heat setting and cleaning machining oils out of narrow ink channels! Our main criteria for material choice was performance. Looking for a polymer and surface finish that was hydrophilic- most common injection moulded plastics are not. Also, the ability to manufacture to tight tolerance at the small scales we operate at (think 100s rather than tens of thousands) was critical. This is by no means perfect, there’s a lot more that can be done - like doodlebud says - with the geometry, for instance. But, I’m happy to stand by the bold claim that these perform as well as ebonite for the purpose of keeping the ink flowing to our nibs.

@@thegoodblue5640 Thanks for the insights and benefit of your experience.

@@thegoodblue5640 Seriously impressive performance. I'm interested in flexy drawing pens, and that often involves one of the taboo FP topics - carbon inks. I'm curious about how the polymer feed reacts to nanopigment inks (Platinum Carbon, Rohrer & Klingner Sketchink, etc.) in comparison to the other types of feed in the FP market?

They'll probably have more show up at some point

Ruben, if you’re interested in the polymer feed, send me an email and we can sort you out, no problem.

I haven't had the pleasure of trying the 149 calligraphy yet but would love to one day

@@Doodlebud if you ever come to Germany I can lend you one

It's a deal!

@@Doodlebud You have my contact, I am the guy who sent you the email about the syringe pen :D

Buy which video?

You need to have a standardized test method. Probably some type of jig where you have different weights that applied down pressure onto the nib. Then from that you would measure how far the tines spread and that way you could measure how much more easily flexed one nib is versus another.

@@Doodlebud mm not exactly a simple solution to apply... moreover, reading an article by Richard Binder, it seems that each nib has its own " green working zone" which could be more or less "far" from the maximum possible opening of the nib.... well I guess I just have to improve my penmanship and enjoy your entertaining and instructive videos! keep going and thank you!

@@FountainPensWriting Each nib probably will have its own individual characteristics which deviate slightly from one another, especially on a soft nib. But wouldn't need to max flex to do the "softness" check. You could check all nibs with the same sized mass & measure the tine spread (ie deflection). The large the deflection = softer. Probably would be a safer method to check vs max flexing a nib. Actually would be very easy to make a jig with a 3d printer

@@Doodlebud a good idea for your next video!! i look forward to it! from a less scientific and more "artistic" point of view, with a bit of practice and the right technique you can understand the subtle difference between the various nibs and their flexibility, managing to use them always in their optimal "green working zone". but i find your idea very interesting!

Absolutely, the measurement method I suggested would be use to have a repeatable method to perform measurements between nibs. Interesting data points, but of no value when it comes to the application. You can have the "best" nib from a analytical frame of reference, but the biggest factor is the skill of the end user. Much like a skilled F1 driver behind the wheel of a Toyota Camry would slaughter the average Joe driving a Porsche 911 head to head on a technical road course. The best gear in the hands of an unskilled user, doesn't improve their lack of skill

If you go to the good blue website it tells you all about nib compatibility: thegoodblue.co.uk/products/nib-units

Need to have the precense of an electrolyte to happen. In this application/environment I don't think it would be an issue. In a marine application, absolutely needs to be taken into consideration with Al & Brass. Great question!

@@Doodlebud thanks for reply. I was concerned by adding hand perspiration and your electric personality!

Lol, I try not to use my pens while on the treadmill 😉

I was thinking a bit more about your comment about corrosion. I didn't think about if you get ink in between the parts, say in between the treads for example. If left long enough, with the right (or wrong I guess) type of ink with the correct pH and chemistry there definitely is the potential for that issue to creep up. Also, depending upon your climate! I don't have to worry about that up here in Canada, but if you were in tropical climate close to the ocean, the issue could come up over time. You were correct to bring that up, I just didn't think enough into it!

Thank you for the further thought. I'm a salty gal.

Well those are controlled by the government so you'll have to ask them how not to pay their taxes..... Let me know what they say 🤣

@@Doodlebud Haha actually I don't mind about paying taxes but in some counties there are also extra post fees. So it's outrageous expensive for us to buy something outside EU. I wasn't thinking of a retailer in EU or a local hub to avoid such extra post fees with prepaid taxes. 😀 Also pen are listed with taxes included so it means we pay twice the taxes, big scam by gov !

Get yourself a custom ebonite feed from Flexible Nib Factory for that pen and it will be awesome 🤌🏼

There's always some shinny & new coming out

We originally prototyped the feeds in white to visually test the surface layer and see how the ink flowed. As we were posting about this on Reddit and Insta lots of users fed back that it’d be cool to have a white feed that takes on the ink colour quite vividly. Hence the colour that was a testing decision became part of the production run. We will be doing ‘standard’ black feeds in January. Most (but not all) inks wash off when flushed with water. But the feed will never be squeaky clean white after first inking. The surface layer adsorbs the ink, and it stains the material, so as long as you flush it between inks it should not randomly release old ink into the mix. (Sorry, it’s hard to say all these things definitively because of the vast number of ink formulations out there). It’s happy with shimmers and pigmented inks in the same way as standard feeds - this will reduce the inkflow. And I’d recommend not leaving the pen inked with these for long periods. You can take a look at our IG feed for some examples of different inks and also how the feeds look after they’ve had many different inks through them. (They do become a bit ‘muddy’ - particularly noticeable when you then use light coloured inks)

@@thegoodblue5640 Thank you so much for taking the time and replying to my comment. I was curious and interested in that feed since I read your reddit post - glad to see a more detail explanation on how it will fair with different inks. In my case, I usually use the fountain pens for drawings mostly so color consistency throughout the entire drawing is important, that's why I was a little worried about the feed. I know there were some similar feeds made by different companies where they were treating the feeds chemically and has like very small holes (not really visible by naked eye) to help with getting more ink into the feed and to the nib - they had the same effect, taking the color of the ink. And those I remember they had some issues with cleaning and ink cleanliness. Like I said, I will probably give it a go when you have a new design. That step down will be a problem for me... is a nice pen, don't get me wrong though, I like looking at it :). Again, definitely cool stuff, looking forward to see how things are going to progress :) - I wish you nothing but good luck! :)

@@thegoodblue5640 hello there. I am very interested in purchasing your pen. Unfortunately I went to the link here in the description and it is saying everything is out of order. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, or if your company really is completely sold out? If so when should one expect them to be back in stock next? I did leave my email. If I did it right I may get a heads up. Lol. But in general when can we expect to have stock back for the Raw series or even the burnished or brushed versions? Thank you in advance and I look forward to writing with your pen. I am hoping to purchase one for my sister and one for myself. Cheers

He is sold out but will have more up soon I think. Follow his Instagram, hes active on there & does regular updates

Just put £100 to USD into Google and the answer will be revealed 😉

More coming soon 😉

I think he's planning to have some come out in an acrylic or resin at some point. The balance makes it quite comfortable to use.

LOL I get similar comments daily. I always take it as a compliment

They sell out quick. Keep an eye out on his IG for updates as well.

I thought it would be too be very comfortable at least for me. Apparently he'll have more designs come out without the step down.

Diamine Sargasso Sea. Its on the bottle

@@Doodlebud I was putting this comment as a note to myself in case I came by this video again to try and find the ink you use. I might get one of these as i haven’t seen any flex pen perform this well and thought maybe your ink has something to do with it given I saw another review with the same pen configuration but mediocre results.

They aren't available on Amazon. You csn buy from his website and also endless pens I think carries them

He's been selling out pretty quick when he gets stock. Keep an eye out for his next batches

Oh damn, thats not cool at all!

@@Doodlebud yeah, not at all. They did message me back too.... To tell me to wait until Monday. Not a happy camper.

We initially prototyped the feeds white so we could see the inkflow - helped with testing the geometry. We had a lot of excited user feedback about the feed taking on the colour of the ink so decided to retain the white. Most inks will wash out if you flush the feed with water a couple of times. We also will be doing a black version in January. Where ebonite doesn’t do a great job is in material consistency. This leads to tolerance issues and other machining challenges. Which, in turn, lead to quality issues. Not a problem if you’re dealing with 2-3 nib units, but fairly frustrating when doing QA on 100s. Another challenge is that most users don’t feel comfortable swapping nibs and having to deal with heat setting etc. Oh, and by the way, our pens are machined in the UK from raw materials sourced in France. They come with a ‘no obligation to buy if you don’t like the price’ offer 🤓

@@thegoodblue5640 Both bright and polite. I'm impressed.

Actually, it can also be that if you buy something a little bit more expensive, then you're trying to justify the purchase for yourself by ignoring the small issues

Now, let's be nice to each other, children!