What a great selection of flex pen options! As an avid user of flex pens, I would offer this recommendation. If you are serious about flex and really enjoy writing with them, save your money and purchase a vintage pen. There are many options still out there from $75 and up. Yes, the cheaper ones may have some cosmetic damage or need to be re-sacked, or be an "off brand", but there is nothing on the market today that can compare with a vintage "wet-noodle." The vintage pens will flex with almost no pressure and bounce back quickly. The feeds keep up and refuse to rail-road. Once you've written with a Waterman 52 or Mabie Todd Swan, or Wahl-Eversharp, you won't want anything else. My current inked flex pen is a Waterman 512 1/2 which goes from an extra-fine to a BBB.

It was a very nice comparison. I am glad you brought up the PILOT No. 10 FA nib for comparison. Using this fountain pen as a benchmark, I can imagine the performance of other fountain pens. The PELICAN 140 is what I want too.

DB is flexing today 💪 Thanks again for your wonderful videos. I love that Pilot FA!

I ordered 3 FPR and there goes $250 for sticks that drip paint blobs but don’t write

Dude!!!! Tell me how I literally was researching this last night!

Great review for having the flexing samples!

Thank you, sir, for showing us your “puppies”. ❤ I have the Pilot but I’m too terrified to change the feed on it. Too expensive to have to pay to ruin my pen. Maybe next time I’m in Canada …

Thanks a lot. Not surprisingly, Pelikan 140 is picked!

Thanks for the video, I love vintage Pelikans but have stopped going for flex with them though. I just enjoy the soft/bouncy and controlled writing instead. :)

Great variety!

My favorite flex pen? My Noodler's Ahab with a Fountain Pen Revolution flex nib. It works excellently. The prices are so reasonable, it was a great experiment and it works!

I bought my first Flex about when you did this video, totally coincidentally. I got a Noodler's Ahab Demonstrator. It's loaded with their Baystate Blue ink, which I totally love, even if it does smell funny.

Flex off!! While I don’t have the Pelikan, I like that it’s small but with a mighty flex! My personal faves out of your bunch are the Omas vintage and the Osprey with the Zebra nib. Fun vid!

Awesome video. Great choices. I hope your weekend is a great one!

With the zebra g jinhao, you are supposed to flatten out the zebra g before you insert it in the pen. The curve is more acute than a standard FP nib. Even when you get it working, the feed has a hard time keeping up. Worth a try tinkering with it though.

Truly sorry it didn’t work out with the Jinhao. Not only really sorry but not a little embarrassed too. Great video as ever. The Osprey looks interesting. I’m a fan of the FPR but it needs the right ink mine works well with Washable Blue Quink. Mind you I like pretty much all of the pens featured. I think I need to get my 912FA tuned with an ebonite feed. The Omas is great but I reckon you won’t get to love it as you haven’t so far. Regardless I think that the choice of ink used is vital varying from pen to pen. Pure Pens, PR and KWZ are among my favourite inks. Great video catch ya next time. D

I also have a vintage Pelikan 140 and it's my favourite for flex

Kon-Peki is fine, a good benchmark blue that I find plays nice with pretty much anything you throw at it. Even works fine in those Hilroy scribblers and as a fellow Canadian I think you know exactly which ones I’m talking about. I think its general agreeableness while still looking fine probably has something to do with the hype behind it much like many entry into a hobby hype trains you see in any hobby. I’m not a big fan of blues though, much prefer purples, greens and browns. My only black is Carbon Black for writing stuff expected to have a bit more resistance and permeance. As for the flexes I’m a fan of soft vs a full fat flex but my writing is small so I wouldn’t get much mileage out of a proper flex. My niece wants a flex for drawing so I have a few ideas for back to school time and this video is very helpful narrowing it down.

the pelikan vintage is my fav too, not the smoothest or the softest but it just really really nice to write with perfect amount of flex and controlability and its super wet too XD

Thanks for a fantastic video. I'm mostly a vintage fountain pen collector. I really like your Omas flex pen. Maybe you wish to part with it. It would be perfect for cursive Cyrillic. (I am a Russian Orthodox priest.) Love all of your videos. Great sense of humor.

Thanks for this! I'm with you on Kon-Peki. It's alright, but I have plenty of inks I like more.

Very enjoyable and thorough review. RS Canada

Thank you for sharing. A question, what nib do you have on your Pelikan 140?

My Pelikan 380 ever breaks at the threads. The pen is nice but quite back heavy. Sometimes even good brands fail.

You should add Tom’s Studio Spark pen to your next video, after watching Gemma on that amazing Calligraphy lesson on your channel I looked on their site and their flex pens look really practical and thoughtfully designed. Being from the UK, this was a great discovery. I also fancy a Pilot Falcon. Thanks for another great video :j

hii i have a question, i got the ahabs, overall i dislike the flow, even more considering i draw on a tilted surface... will the ink flow on any of the FPRs be better than the ahab? enough for it to write with a decent flex on a tilted surface? thanks!

I love the Pelican 140 as well. Mine also has a cap thread issue in that it’s very difficult to get the cap tightened just right. It easily skips the threads if too tight but the cap will come loose if not tight enough or if you nudge it to one side. I was hoping you could give me some ideas since you are the thread expert!

Alright... Late to this party... BUT I HAVE TO SAY THIS... Reader(s)... TAKE NOTES... Doodlebud is THE real deal. I took his (okay... somewhat dubious) advice... EVEN against my usual instinct on the market "You get what you pay for"... BUT Doodlebud said it in another vid'... "Give the Jinhao's credit. If you're just looking for a fountain pen to work out of the box and not break the bank... there does NOT need to be a BIG FAT budget for it." While I can't say something like I'm somehow magically in love with them... Jinhaos just work. I think this video's a clear example of "Don't fix it if it ain't broke!" {Especially on a budget}... BUT just a workaday pen for EDC and a touch of class... no need to break the bank or tinker yourself to death... AND Doodlebud, thanks... I'll keep polishing pennies and skulking around the vid's and all a while... BUT for the basic needs, you had it pretty well right. Loving the ink advice too... (just in case you ever see this)... haha ;o)

Been waiting for this one!! Out of all of these the Pelikan 140 and the Pilot Custom 912 are on my radar. Any tips for buying a vintage Pelikan 140? Where to go perhaps what to look out for or look for? I see on ebay there are a lot of them from Serbia?

I love noodlers ink, and I wanna love their pens, but I just can't. They never feed without fiddling.

I've found the vintage caps can get like your Pelikan one. Seems it's all about how much it was originally used. Threads got worn. (I have a bunch of vintage pens, from different brands, and it just seems like a thing after a while.) I've heard of people touching up the threads, but not a clue how.

What ink did he used with the Visconti? Nice color

The cap coming of is an issue that even modern Pelikan seem to struggle with. Just a few weeks ago there was a post on a German fountain pen forum (funnily enough the one sponsored by Pelikan) of someone's M1000 cap coming of and the pen leaking everywhere. And in the comments were many more who experienced something similar or at least the cap not staying tightened and loosening. Interesting to see that it might be a longstanding issue.

I'm a big fan of Kon-Peki, but would love to hear which blues you prefer. And is there something besides the colour of KP that you find meh?

Great video. What is the green ink? I like it a lot.

So I LOVE Osprey as a brand. Their customer service is second to none in my experience. Unfortunately I know they have great customers service because I have four of their wonderful pens, but something has gone wrong with all at some point. Some observations: 1) All my issues have been with leaky converters. Three of the four (an acrylic Milano, ebonite Milano, and a Scholar) have had leaky converters. Osprey made it right and sent replacements quickly. I do still have issues with two of them leaking inside their barrels over time (it’s a slow seep, not a catastrophic flood). I’ve used Teflon tape to seal the ones that still leak, and haven’t had anymore issues. I do hope they fix their pens’ tolerance issues, because… 2)Their pens are super attractive and-aside from the converters-incredibly well made for the price. They’re also versatile, being able to fit many different nibs and having ebonite feeds. There are only three real models, but the Milano and the Scholar have a ton of different looks that they come in. My ebonite Milano is one of their special Nikko hard rubber models, and it is NICE. It is such a beautiful pen that I never EDC it. It’s a desk queen. 3)Their Zebra G nib units aren’t as good as Desiderata’s. They’re certainly better than some janky Jonhao, but my Desiderata (I forget the model, but it’s made of eucalyptus burl) had MUCH better flow. After years comparing the Ospreys and Desiderata, I believe this advantage comes down to two differences in their designs: a) the two brands both have ebonite feeds, but they are different in their designs (with the Desiderata being just better designed); and they use different filler designs. The Ospreys use a screw-in converter, but the Desiderata uses a superior silicone squeeze sac complete with a small breather tube that runs to the end of the sac. I think the combination of the sac being more pliable and the breather tube allowing easier air-ink exchange allows the Desiderata to have a much freer ink flow. Overall though, I adore my Ospreys. I hope the company keeps evolving their feed and filler designs. I don’t think a regular old converter will ever offer the ink flow that serious flexible nibs require.

19:40 The Good Blue R615 Silver series 2022. I have the Anodized version. It still doesn’t line up right out if the package. Its better than what I see in your video. But brand new out of the box I feel it will worsen over time as well. I chose the flex with polymer feed tipped. The nib ripped right into the paper. It was terrible. Long story short, he sent me out a new one, I paid for the shipping, that one just as bad, I bought a third one because before I could return the second one for an exchange it flung out of the container it was in when I opened it to take photos of it for him and I have still not found it. Its in another dimension or something. I gave up on the nibs. I put in the FPR ultra flex nib and that is a wet nib. It doesn’t flex easily though. You can’t really get a great natural flex from it but it has no flow issues due to the nib and the great feed from The Good Blue. I love the pen and very disappointed with their nibs. I wound up trying to smooth the first nib and with only a few figure eights and infinity symbols the very sparse tipping was gone. I now can write better with that one but with a light tough. I should send it in to a nib meister and see if they can do anything with that one. Idk if they do add tipping thing?Idk if its worth it either. The nib is so very thin that you look at it the wrong way and the tines flip. That, I think, is the issue with the nibs. You want a thinner metal so it can flex easily and give you super thin to thick lines when it flexes. Idk. Maybe in time they will hit the sweet spot with their nibs at The Good Blue. They are so close in my book. I really don’t want to give up on them. But idk if I’m ready to buy a fourth nib honestly. Does anyone know of a nib meister that does or adds tipping and all the rest in north eastern states?Well in Michigan anyway. I guess they might consider that Midwest. Cheers

I think with the Jinhao/Zebra frankenpen you have to heat-set the feed to get it writing consistently

Too bad that we cannot go back in time and get the exact metal compositions used to create vintage flex nibs. Take care and thank you for your video presentation.

12:00 Where do you get the pilot Ebinite feed?

Have you ever used a Jowo flex nib? That is currently my favorite flex nib but the only other flex I have is the noodler's Ahab and the triple tail.

Your the best!

I have a Himalaya V2 and with a slightly modified feed and eye dropping it, the flow just never runs out and I can flex it like a paintbrush. And the pen itself is great. I agree with your kon-peki opinion, too. It’s just meh. There’s nothing special about it, very overrated

I'm just too curious so sorry in advance but I must ask. Is face reveal a possibility in the foreseeable future😆🤭

Hello. I have three of these pens. 2 from FPR and the Good Blue. Good nibs on the FPR. The one I bought, for my sisters is the most beautiful, soft, flexing writer that I’ve ever written with, and mine is like a nail that I can’t even flex. Again, they are both the same gold nib. I don’t understand it. And the one with the good blue I had nothing but problems with the nibs. The one that came with it was so sharp it kept ripping any paper I wrote with so he sent me another one I started writing with it and it immediately bent, and it was ruined. So I went ahead and bought a third one which within the first couple hours of getting in the mail I lost when I opened the little capsule. It went flinging through the air in my living room. I have yet to find it. In fact, two days ago, I start tearing apart my couch again trying to find it. I think it fell into a black hole somewhere in my living room. Sad. All the way around sad. But yeah, about the two gold nibs. That really bugs me. That one could be so beautiful a writer and mine like a nail. Even the thickness of the materials look different. The one I bought for my sister looks thinner 14 K nib, and mine looks thicker. They’re both the same nib, so this is a mystery to me.

I'd be very happy with an FPR Ultra Flex if what they label as extra fine was truly an extra fine. If you can't get a hairline, what's the point?

Bam ! Mr Doodlebug, your audio levels are very hot.

Should you ever wish to part with your Omas 556 F, I call dibs! 😍I'm not holding my breath for your Pelikan 140 😉

This guy has something against zebra G mods - the Jinhao mod is easy to do and it works.

The 'gapped Jinhao' you failed 1st off: looked seriously in need of a heat-setting .... tried?

Nice nice very nice

❤❤❤❤

What is posting a pen?

Not surprisingly it is the pelikan 140!!!❤️

You remind me to Lamley

I own a Pilot Falcon. What a disappointment. It's irredeemably flawed. It simply does not work. It hard starts. It railroads. I also own the Pelican 140. Mine is apparently from 1953--according to the large, reputable German eBay seller (missing-pen?) I bought it from. It's an Oblique Fine. And it's so divine. It's so fine, there's no telling where the money went. Simply irresistible! Smooth, wet but controlled (unlike, say, a Lamy 2000 BB fire hose). Soft and smooth with just a touch of crispness as you roll the pen. I don't have another nib remotely like it. They don't make em like they used to.

What did you expect from a Chinese pen? 😂

There are all awesome pens. But I still feel like spending and owning all these different pens is just such an unnecessary luxury.