I bought the Noodlers Konrad Demonstrator around 7 years ago from Goulet Pens. When I bought my original Konrad the acrylic ones were not available, and Noodlers was only being sold in America. The original demonstrator had / has? a super weird smell, it decolored to a brownish tint fairly quickly.
Noodlers Kondrad Coral Seal Box
So when the acrylic version showed up as “In Stock” at Write Gear I didn’t even think twice. I already knew I loved the way the Konrad handled, and even if the acrylic one still smelt funny – at least it would keep its beautiful colour. Below is a size comparison to the Lamy Safari and TWSBI ECO.
Noodlers has always maintained that they are an anti-waste company and the packaging reflects that. Its a plain white cardboard box with a black print – that’s it. The colour I purchased is coral sea and it is a beautiful mix of reds and blues with a pearly sheen. The ink window in the Konrad is very useful as this pen can eat up ink fairly quickly if it’s constantly being flexed.
Noodlers Konrad Coral Sea Box – All Angles
A caveat for anyone who doesn’t know much about Noodlers, this is a tinkers pen. It may work straight out of the box – it may not. In all cases, it it recommended to thoroughly clean the pen before inking to degrease it from any machining oils. In some cases it requires the feed to be heat set against the nib – I did this with my first Konrad to get the perfect flow. From the top: The Ahab, The Acrylic Konrad, The Original Konrad, The Nib Creaper.
The Goulet Pen Company has a very informative set of videos on finetuning this pen (Just scroll to the video section): https://www.gouletpens.com/products/noodlers-konrad-acrylic-flex-fountain-pen-coral-sea?variant=11884728418347
I am completely obsessed with the pattern I received, I think I just sat and stared at the pen for 10 minutes straight. I honestly think I got the prettiest pattern of this pen I have ever seen. Its stunning, it has the perfect mix of red, blue and pearl is absolutely mesmerizing, there are even some translucent sections which give even more depth to the pen. The acrylic feels very high-end and has the same feel as my Edison pen. (This one being a much better deal)
This pen gave me issues though, please keep in mind I am not new to Noodler’s pens – So I understand that you need to tinker with each pen to get it to write, or for the ink to flow better. But this pen actually made me contact the store because I was positive my nib was faulty from the factory. The tines where so far apart, that the nib point no longer touched each other at the tip. I could fit a piece of Rhodia through the tines no problem. I did have to tinker a bit with all my other Noodler’s pens and heat set the feed to get the perfect flow – but it was minor tweaks and none of them had such a large gap.
Yes, I well aware that according to the Noodler’s website I just described a perfectly adjusted nib. https://noodlersink.com/about-us/adjusting-nibs/
But the large spacing on this nib constantly caused a disruption in the capillary action, the ink would flow, but not to the tip no matter how deep or high I put the feed.. Granted, I could have still tried heat setting the nib, and this may have very well fixed the issue, but if that didn’t work – I wouldn’t feel right about sending it back.
Another thing I really struggled with was getting the plunger to move for the fist time and disassembling the filling mechanism – it was screwed in super tight. I honestly thought that if I twisted it any further it would break the mechanism, or even the acrylic itself – lucky this was not the case.
Konrad Disassembled
Being able to unscrew everything was very important to me because I love shimmer inks, and this is one of the best pens to clean out. You can literally just pull the feed and nib out, remove the filling mechanism and flush through the whole barrel with running water. I find this to be the second best feature after the flex nib – it makes life so much easier, especially when using inks that would normally require more extensive cleaning.
I’ve been very lucky with my Noodlers pens until now, but the above is something that you will see if you read multiple reviews of these pens. As long as you trust your retailer, and know they have good service, I would still recommend these pens 100%. Even if you do get one that needs to be exchanged, this pen is defiantly worth the effort.
In my case not only did Write Gear immediately promise to exchange the pen and arrange a collection, – they went the extra mile, and per my request allowed me to only exchange the nib and feed – because I loved the pattern of the original pen I received so much. I’m very grateful for this because I feel like I got the prettiest pen on the whole internets. Two days later, my nib arrived and my pen wrote and flexed flawlessly. (Again, not sponsored in any way shape or form. I honestly feel that they go above and beyond to make customers happy. I just happen to love the company and appreciate their contribution to the Fountain Pen Community in South Africa.)
The replacement nib worked perfectly with no heat setting required on my part. Below you can see how this pen compares in size and line variation to my Falcon and my other Noodler pens. The Konrad provides a much more comfortable and balanced feel compared to the Falcon and Nib Creaper which helps with the flex. This is not a 100% fair comparison because the Falcon is marketed as a “Soft” nib.
I partial to the Konrad because the Ahab is too bulky for me, and I fine the downward narrowing slope of the grip uncomfortable for my style of writing. I believe that the nips are identical, but the Ahab has a definite guiding notch for the nib, can take more ink and can be converted to an eyedropper. My Ahab nib is a bit scratchy, but since I almost never use the pen I haven’t bothered to sand it smooth.
Between the Demonstrator and Acrylic version I did notice some minor differences. The first being that there seams to be tiny notch in the acrylics grip section, but not enough to be a definite guide – so perhaps a not machined smoothly? The second is that there is no possible way for me to push the nib and feed down as deep as my original, the inside section is narrower. Lastly, it seems that they have added a metal support to the piston twist mechanism and the length between the two pens is different. Please keep in mind that my Konrad is one of the early releases, and this may no longer be the case.
NB: The below writing sample is done with the replacement nib Write Gear sent me.
Is this pen worth it? Defiantly, it’s one of my favorite pens – and If I had to pick one pen for the rest of my life from my collection it would be this one. The versatility and practicality bundled into this pen is extremely well thought out. From the ink window, line variation and the ability to easily assemble/disassemble the pen makes it an excellent all rounder.
As always, this pen can be found here: https://writegear.co.za/product/noodlers-konrad-flex-fountain-pen-acrylic-coral-sea/
M.
This post is not sponsored and all opinions are my own.
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