That's the Black Noodle fountain pen that I bought from my friend Drewscape a few months ago.
Drewscape is a guy who likes to tinker with his drawing tools to try new stuff. Recently he made a batch of five fountain pens called the Black Noodle to sell. The inspiration was to create a fountain pen that's able to take the Zebra G-nib so that you can draw with thin and thick lines. The pen must be easy to clean too.
So I bought one at SGD $200 to try. The pen was promptly sold out afterwards so this is a pen that you can't buy even with money now.
The body is made of Delrin, according to Wikipedia "an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction, and excellent dimensional stability". It was finished with a matte black surface. Feels really nice to hold.
The finishing isn't perfect and you can definitely see traces of machine buffering and cutting. It's a handmade pen so I'm not really surprised at this.
It takes a lot of effort to make something for yourself but a fountain pen? It surely is not easy. When I posted a detailed review for the pen on my Youtube channel, there were many comments citing the poor workmanship, sub-par finishing. Yes, this pen definitely is not as polished as the ones from the usual fountain pen companies, but I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit of making something from nothing, and that's why I like this pen.
This pen can be dismantled completely.
The ink convertor does look rather crude. It's like a clear thin rubber tube.
The feed is made of ebonite modeled after vintage flex pen feeds. There are two channels for feeding the ink. When you're flexing the nib, you will want the ink to be able to catch up and it works nicely, even though the feed may not look as nice.
This pen is designed to take the ubiquitous Zebra G nib commonly used to draw manga.
This nice can draw the thinnest of lines and with pressure allows you to produce thick lines. Another good thing about this nib is when it wears out, you can just replace it easily and it's very affordable.
Here's a sketch that I drew on location with the Black Noodle. You can find the high resolution scan at https://photos.app.goo.gl/72Yr9cB9re7C5ZDf8
To use a Zebra G nib for drawing, most would use a pen holder and a bottle of ink. With a fountain pen like this, it's portable and allows you to bring it everywhere. The downside is the pen has to be held upright at all times just in case the ink flows too easily into the cap.
Below are some close ups on my sketch. The gray and blacks were painted with the Pentel Colour Brush Pens.
My overall drawing experience is a positive one although there are definitely some quirks.
The ink flow is good but when drawing fast you have to slow down for the ink to catch up, which is not surprising or unexpected. It feels no different from drawing with a Zebra G nib mounted on a wooden nib holder, expect here you don't have to reload it constantly as there's a large capacity ink converter included.
Sometimes when the ink stops flowing, especially when you're using it the first time after uncapping it, the pen needs to be tap to get the ink flowing, and sometimes a gush of ink would come rushing out. That's also why this pen has to be carried in an upright position at all times just to prevent that.
I enjoyed using this pen for drawing thin lines. I used to use the Carbon Desk Pen for drawing thin lines but the Zebra G nib obviously has the advantage of having flex and can draw thicker lines.
I was glad I bought this pen. It may not look polished or professional but that doesn't matter to me. I like that it was made by someone who likes to experiment and who has decided to just make a pen just because he can.
So how does this compare to a Desiderata fountain pen that can also take Zebra G nibs? Well, I don't know because I've not use Desiderata before. Maybe I got to get one to compare.
