You're welcome! This overfeed has lots of applications. I'm now looking to see if they can be made from a sturdier material, such as stainless steel.

@@mkompan I was wondering the same thing. In some US hardware stores you can buy shim stock, usually brass, but also in stainless sometimes. If really desperate for steel (?stainless?) stock, a feeler gauge set might work, too.

@@fr.marklichtenstein8892My only concern with stainless steel is being able to shape it. Perhaps brass might be easier to work with.

@@mkompan Ink pH varies widely, I've done some testing on that. pH is only one factor in ink degradation of pens and pen sacs, however. When it comes to metal parts pH could be a serious issue with both aluminum (basic is v. problematic) and brass. Brass is (usually) an alloy between copper and zinc. Zinc and Aluminum are both pretty reactive metals. Zinc is more affected by acids than aluminum. Stainless is not stainproof either, not like glass, but it has much higher corrosion resistance. For the cost of the aluminum (essentially free plus time) it may not be worth worrying about---replace it when you need to. On the other hand, if you can find thin stainless you ought to be able to work with it.

@@fr.marklichtenstein8892 Thank you for that info. Chemistry is not my strength, and I hadn't considered that aluminum is reactive to certain acids. I have noticed corrosion on my overfeeds (that looked like dried ink at first), It's not a big problem since they're easy to make, but I will look into stainless steel, if for no other reason than to make an update to this video.

That FA/Opus 88 switch sounds great. Sigh, if only Pilot sold their nibs separately.

@@mkompan yeah that’s the one thing I’m debating with myself since I paid so much for the pen and the ebonite feed I feel like I have to keep it together but other hand I really like the opus body

Thanks! I'm so glad you down this video useful.

Glad it worked for you!

I wish so too!

You are welcome!

Thank you, James. I was thinking of getting the Opus 88/FPR/FPnibs combo, so it's disappointing to hear that you're having problems with it. Have you tried heat setting the ebonite feed?

@@mkompan No, but I will, just after trying the overfeed. Should be an interesting evening this week.

Flushed the pen and heatset the feed. All is good. Very wet, not sure if I want it any wetter. 30 - 1" double to triple broad lines in 30 seconds. May try overfeed tomorrow. Pilot Take Sumi ink.

@@jamesmiddleton2856 that’s great to hear. I’ll be ordering an ebonite feed from FPnibs as soon as their store reopens in September.

Good to see another fellow opus modifer!I'm currently having an opus 88 koloro with a vintage waterman 52 heat set with fpnibs ebonite feed and it's currently keeping up well.

You’re welcome! The FPR/Jinhao set up is tricky, and you have to get the feed and nib alignment just right to get it to work. The overfeed helps a lot, however.

Good idea! The feeds on the triple tail are very generous with ink flow, I’ll have to try using with the FPR ultra flex. How does the gold version compare with the steel? I’ve been thinking about getting one, but have been hesitating because I haven’t seen any reviews of it.

You’re welcome!

Widening the ink channel is also a very good way to go, and something I do frequently. The good thing about the overfeed is that it doesn’t make the pen write wetter.

Your welcome! Goodness, you sound like maniac. :)

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

Are they worth making? I’ve never seen anyone using one.

That’s good advice, Sharon. I’m going to start experimenting with different materials when I get back. I suspect there are better ways to go than using aluminum, which is subject to corrosion

It is pretty cool. It's not often that you come upon such a simple fountain pen hack that actually works.

Thank you! If you haven’t bought an ebonite feed for your Pilot FA from the flexible nib factory, do so post haste.

@@mkompan It finally arrived. It works wonderfully and I haven't even heat set it. I don't have to prime it or stick on a piece of tape anymore. It just works!

@@kanck7909 congrats! With that feed there’s really no more reliable flex pen. No tinkering, no priming, no drying out, railroading, dripping, etc.

You’re welcome!

It’s semi permanent. I’ve found that the aluminum corrodes over time, depending on the PH of the ink. I would take the over feed out between uses, or just replace them once in a while.

@@mkompan I could see that, aluminum can cause problems in liquid cooling loops for computers if there are other metals in the loop through galvanic corrosion. Could potentially use a brass shim but that could also corrode depending on the grade. I was thinking of trying some thin plastic off a clamshell package.

You’re welcome! I haven’t experimented with this lately, but leaving the coating might be a good option.

Thanks Michael! I’ll look into it (and perhaps make an update to this video). Incidentally have you seen the flex mods made by Flexpiriments? He just sent me one of his nibs. It’s pretty rough, but works super well.

No, I haven't seen those Flexpiriment mods, unless he's the guy on flexy fountain pens who makes those hugely flexible arrow-cuts in the nibs. I'll do some searches. :). @@mkompan

@@mikestevens6800 yes, same guy!

Thanks! There are lots of tutorials out there on heat setting. Here's a good one from Fountain Pen Revolution: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/q52oephmmJvIZmw.html

@@mkompan thank you!

Thank you! It’s not my idea however, just something I picked up and developed from someone in Facebook group (and gave him credit). I watch Nathan’s channel and have seen the tape trick. It’s definitely faster and probably puts les stress on the pen, but I find that it doesn’t work quite as well.

Thank you for that last comment, adding to my need for information.

The Noodler's experience can frustrating, but don't bother with the FPR feeds, because the Ahab feed actually works better.

@@mkompan even the Flex feed? It looks like a canal! (part of my dealings with the Ahab was scraping some material out of the ink channel)

@@christopherridge3900 the canal on the Ahab feed is already deeper than the FPR feed.

Thank you Guillame!

​@@mkompan Your nice channel inspired me to order a bunch of Jinhao and several nibs, I'm going to have some fun in the next weeks modding them in flexy franken pen :)

@@Kliffot Glad to inspire you, Guillame! Let me know how it goes.

@@mkompan Just finished a Jinhao 159 with a Noodler flex nib. Tried it first in a pen holder, wow stiff nib indeed. Thought it would be easier to mod on the Jinhao. I adapted the curve with pliyer, the tail was then too wide, so I "shaved" the side with a dremel. Still not good, it still gets stuck, the steel is just too thick. So again dremel, shaved half the lengh of the nib to make it thinner. I also grinded the shoulder like the FPR ultraflex and deepened the two main channel of the feed. Okay now it fits perfectly... and hurra it works great !! Didn't have to heat set or add an overfeed, the flow is perfect with my tweaked Epson pigmented ink. The flex is much better but still on the firm side, I could grind more to get more flex but I think it's okay as it is, that pen is mainly for drawing. Some firmness gives more feedback and precision on the lines variation I think, and i'm happy of the control I have on the very fine lines. Lots of work but i'm glad it's a sucess :)

@@Kliffot Nice Guillaume! Noodlers nibs are fun to play with. I've added additional flex by narrowing the shoulders, and making the cut-outs larger, and it works quite well. BTW, those FPR ultraflex nibs are made by company in India called Kanwrite. I don't know if it's true elsewhere, but in the US you can buy them on a number of sites for considerably less than the FPR price. Nibs that already have flex are easier to add additional flex to than nibs that have no flex at all. I would love to learn how to flex mod steel Jowo nibs. Perhaps that will be my next project.

Thank you Doug. I haven’t tried with the Triple Tail, because I haven’t had issues with the feed. The nib is in a housing unit which will make inserting the overfeed more difficult. It should work in theory however. Love your channel (especially your folding pen Ahab video). Just subscribed.

Thank you! To my mind the best pen for the FPR Ultraflex is the Noodler’s Ahab.

You’re welcome. The overfeed doesn’t really address burping or dripping. Those issues can sometimes be resolved by heat setting, which helps the alignment between the feed and nib. Look for videos on how to do this (there’s one made by Kevin of FPR).

I sanded the overfeed for aesthetics, and to help it fit into tight housings. The guy I learned this from didn't sand his, not should you if it's working for you. Aluminum corrodes over time (depending on the Ph level of the ink), and perhaps leaving the plastic coating will help the overfeed last longer.

A few things to try before making an over feed: adjust the nib and feed so that the feed is as close to the tip of the nib without getting in the way. Then heat set the feed using hot water. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do that on KZfaq, including one by the owner of FPR. Also, try a few different inks, since performance will vary greatly. The pen should work very well without the use of the over-feed, which should only be used if you’re one of flex-fanatics that want to really push the nib. As for how the overfeed works, I think it does two things: it keeps a droplet of ink on top of nib, providing extra flow. It also keeps slight pressure on tip, preventing it from lifting off the feed too much, breaking the flow of ink.

With all Noodler’s pens It’s a question of adjusting, but it does sound like the nib is too deep. Heat setting is necessary for the pen to work well. The Ahab is a better fit for the FPR nib, but the Konrad should work fine.

It is a tight fit. I would avoid glue. You can use a little strip of clear tape, which has a similar effect.

I can’t sorry. I have so many of them lying around from various projects that I don’t know where they came from.

My Triple Tail works just fine, so no I haven't.

This idea came from Michael Stevens, who posted some photos of his makeshift feeds on a Facebook group called Flexy Fountain Pens. I don't know where he got his inspiration, but this isn't exactly rocket science, and I'm sure many people have come up with similar designs

The Ahab works a touch better.

I wouldn’t try this on an expensive pen. The best way to improve flow on the 912FA is to order an ebonite replacement feed from the Flexible Nib Factory.

@@mkompan thanks - my hesitation as well but was curious none the less. Thank you!

The Noodlers feeds have deeper channels, which provide better flow, but FPR has supposedly made improvements to their feeds, so I’m not sure this still the case.

@@mkompan Interesting. Got my Himalaya V2 a couple of years ago.

Yes, and very well.

Amazing. So good to know. Which other pens does it work well on? I saw that it works on the jinhao pens...which I don't love. Any others that I'm missing? Awesome video btw.

@@zollyclaman thanks! This seems to work with pens with friction fit nibs (as opposed to with housing units). I’ve had success with all of the TWSBI pens.

I’m sure there’s a better, more technical explanation, but the over feed makes contact with the tip of the nib, allowing ink to pool there. This provides a little extra ink when you’re flexing the nib.

You're absolutely right about the corrosion, which is why I remove the over feed after use and clean them. And you can make a bunch of these in a few minutes. I haven't been able to recreate the shape with plastic. Perhaps one can find a thin sheet of steel that might work (though it will also be harder to work with).

@@mkompan Of course, I should have mentioned that with proper maintenance the aluminum feed would last much longer. I've tried making it work with a piece of steel before, but the steel (at least the one I ground up) made it difficult to flex. When I refer to plastic, I really mean something like a thick piece of tape. It has to be thick enough to spring back to the nib's shape, but thin enough to fit above the nib. They are really easy to make as all you need to do is just cut them out with scissors. There is a KZfaq channel called Flexperiments from whom I've copied the technique to make extremely flexible steel nibs, and all he does is stick a piece of duct tape on the overside of the nib, and it works extremely well, but the downside is that it is not aesthetically pleasing.

@@VSSFantastic and how do you attach them to the nib? The one advantage of aluminum is that it’s super thin and you can sharpen the edge so that it can slip into the grip section. Funny you should mention Flexperiments because the guy just sent me one of his nibs to try. It works surprisingly well, though the amount of ink it puts down is ridiculous. I’ll be doing a review of it soon.

@@mkompan I just wedge them under the grip section just like I would with the aluminum one. The plastic I am using is maybe just a bit thinner than what you would use in a lamination machine. It does depend on the pen, though. Regarding Flexperiments, I have to say that I am disappointed that I have spent a few good years collecting vintage flexible fountain pens, only now to discover that his kind of modification beats even a Pink #7 Waterman nib. Not only is the line variation and softness out of this world, but I have tuned my nib so that it writes smooth, too, which is something you just DO NOT get with modern attempts at having flex pens (Zebra G hacks, BlueDew flex pens, Osprey, $175 Regalia nibs?!, etc...) The thing does not run out of ink, either. Unlike Flexperiments, I used a laser cutter to get a much more precise cut, both for the nib and the plastic overfeed cutout. You're right, it drops an obscene amount of ink, but the funny thing is, unlike all the other flex pens I've had, it NEVER overflows and starts burping. It's almost like magic.