Does any one have a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle?

[BoBo Olson]

Does any one else have a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle?
A term invented by the English nib grinder, John Swoboda.

I made a post describing what and when with pictures....and there was no interest stated in FPN after 74 views, so I deleted.
I'll re-write here if there is interest. If not fine.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

I would be more interested if it was presented without the descriptions of flexibility. Show the pen, show what it can do, leave it at that.

[BoBo Olson]

The only thing that makes it different from other Safety pens and or Wet Noodles is the extreme flexibility of it's nib. Which I'm not going to show.

The pen is now in the mail for re-corking and a new snowflake. I'd not planned to show how wide it goes....could be it's an 8 or 9X....oddly the width of expansion was less important to me than the ease it did it with.
I do have 3 Wet Noodles, and 5-6 Easy Full flex pens. And a WKWT....makes a Wet Noodle look uncooked. .... Like middle of the range dip pens.
So no long story of why and how...or it's 'cost', or how it works.


Simplo nib of a pre'24 MB Safety pen.

Do have a long story to how I learned to work the gadget.

[FredRydr]

"Weak-kneed" - good point! Be careful!!

[Yazeh]

This pen is wet noodle, as far as I know.
Is it wet kneed, you be the judge:

[mizgeorge]

Does anyone care?

Not me. It's bad enough wading through all the yada yada bollox over there without having it repeated here.

[fountainpenkid]

Very cool MB safety! What's the inscription on the cap ("C.H ....")? I'm definitely missing some context, but I for one would love to see a writing sample!
I guess this phrase "weak kneed" is just a way of describing how little pressure the 'wet noodling' requires? But isn't wet noodling already describing that very thing? Is it thus redundant? This is why I do think nib response classification is super difficult to do effectively (i.e to convey something concrete about the way a nib writes through (ironically) the written word), so I sympathize with others here who are confused by your classification system. I do not sympathize with mizgeorge's rudeness.

[guyy]

As a vintage MB fan, i’m curious to see how the 24 looks when it’s all spiffed up. I’m also curious to see what it can do. A writing sample is good enough. To do the writing sample properly you’ll have to learn at least a little bit of Copperplate or something similar.

I’d urge you to do so anyway because it’s difficult if not impossible to appreciate flex nibs until one learns a hand where they can be used. The guide in Jane Sullivan’s Calligraphy is a good place to start

[BoBo Olson]

Yazeh, (Very Well done!!)
I'm sure yours is a wet noodle, in it don't seem as wet as my weak kneed wet noodle.
That seems to be the difference the ease of tine bend and spread is wetter, as well has half as much or even more than half less tine spread. My nib is a 7X tine spread nib also.
Here are a couple pictures of the ever so well repaired pen by Francis.

It is a #6 Simplo nib.

zzz A '52 rare 7X wet noodle on the left, the pre '24 MB weak kneed wet noodle on the right. It is wetter, with @ the same tine spread of 7X.

Eyedroppers do blob.....I don't know if that came from having too little ink in the pen or not. I seldom use my other Fendomatic '30's Safety pen, made in Milan. So lack experience with eyedroppers.

And I reached for one of my marble rolling blotters and that was not a good idea on a blob. Best is to just let it dry naturally.


Fend was a German company, I think from Pfortzeheim, the jewelry center of Germany. They had a factory in Milan. Many German companies had factories on other lands, no import duties.
Picture with permission of Penboard.de, they take a professional picture and I use a Brownie. My pen's chasing is slightly different. The overlay is 18 K rolled gold. The nib is first stage superflex; Easy Full Flex.
I do like the ornate top of the cap.

It too was repaired by Francis. Re-corked, but he had to build me a new spindle, in a previous owner tried repairing it with superglue and failed.

[Chrissy]

Does any one else have a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle?
A term invented by the English nib grinder, John Swoboda.

Should this be John Sorowka? Or is it someone else?

[Robalone]

IMG_5130.JPG. Cheers all.One of mine too.

[dneal]

BoBo, I’ve had a few very flexible pens, but didn’t understand what “wet noodle” - and the effortlessness that meant - until this Omas.

Honestly, I wish it was more stiff.

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[BoBo Olson]

Yes, the term was invented by John Sorowka**. The English nib grinder. Who at one time ground nibs for Conway Stewart, and might be on the new Othro or how that is spelled.
**Like tom Jefferson, I have many ways to spell things, but just don't have a file of names.

I have a system of flex rates of needing half as much pressure as the rate above.........works for me.

First off one has to have a nice springy regular flex nib.....were made in America also....50's with some Sheaffer and sub brand Crest pens. Some Esterbrook nibs and some/many Wearever (then the biggest fountain pen manufacture in the world) , and the '82-97 era of Pelikan and '70-late '90's for sure MBs. Sometimes I put my Woolf into that flex rate, other times not quite.
Then one has to have a semi-flex nib....easier found in '50-70 German pens.

X means width of tine spread vs a light down stroke.

Nail 1X no tine spread nor bend. Semi-nail when well mashed 2 X tines spread an a slight bit of tine bend....well mashed.

There have been cases of folks coming in from nails that thought a regular flex nib was semi-flex in the tines both spread and bent. It has to do with ease of tine spread.

Regular flex, semi-flex and maxi-semi-flex are in a safe 3 X tine spread set. One can risk springing the nib by forcing it to go wider.
Regular flex = 3 X tine spread when well mashed. To much force to write with when the nib is maxed.

Semi-flex needs half the pressure to reach 3 X, and if one is as heavy handed as I was when I ran into my Pelikan 140 OB, can be written maxed. Took me 6 weeks to not always write maxed, took six weeks longer to get down to often only 1 X tine spread. Is robust enough to survive the Ham Fisted.

Maxi-semi-flex needs 1/2 the pressure needed to max a semi-flex to 3 X, or 1/4th the pressure needed to max a regular flex to 3 X. I would hesitate to put such a nib into the hand of the Ham Fisted, though I did use one when I was half Ham Fisted.

Then comes Superflex, which is both easier to spread the tines and wider than the regular-semi&maxi subset. There are superflex nibs that only go 4 X, most seem to go 5-6 X....outside of pre-sprung for your convenience YouTube or Olympic Splits sale examples of 7X tine spread. 7 X tine spread nibs are rare.

Maracio(sp) is a man who deals with superflex nibs and he disagrees with my splits of superflex into three ranges. If you have enough superflex pens, borders can blur. But to those new to superflex I at least give a guide line.
So someone won't be disappointed their suspected Wet Noodle is only Easy Full Flex.

Easy Full Flex spreads to it's max with 1/2 the pressure needed to max a maxi-semi-flex, or 1/8th the pressure needed to max a regular flex.
Wet Noodle half of that pressure or 1/16th the pressure needed to max a regular flex. Beginning flexi dip pen nibs are much more flexible.

Weak Kneed Wet Noodle........I'm not sure 1/32nd or 1/64th the pressure to mash a regular flex to 3 X. I waffle. I've only run into two, both on MB Safety Pens.
Mine is in the middle of flexi dip pen range. More like a Hunt 44, not a super flexi Hunt 99-100-101.

Again one needs the nibs to have a comparison. Ill see if I can find where I mentioned what other dip pen nibs were close and add them. There were 4-5 including middle range Soennecken and Brause nibs.


DNeil, I have lucked into a number of superflex pens. 5-6 first stage, Easy Full Flex, including a Ahab/Pilot Mod, Ahab. I have three Wet Noodles, two are on Waterman 52's, and the other and best of the three is a Soennecken on a no name pen.

Having those wet noodles meant to me, I didn't have to stress myself when using Easy Full Flex rate. Wet Noodles kept nagging me to learn calligraphy.
Now that I have this Weak Kneed Wet Noodle....those Wet Noodles can't nag me any more.
That old MB Simplo #6 nib has taken over that work.
I still just scribble with them all. I have both a 52 and my Safety pen out...originally to compare, but why....why not scribble with flexi nibs.

13 years ago, when I came back to fountain pens after a life time in the ball point desert.
Flexi covered everything but nails in many cases.
Semi-flex was mythical almost..........superflex was seldom used if at all. Flexi covered just about everything.
Folks talked cross another...

Then there is other thoughts in definitions. One very respected poster thought Wet Noodle meant sprung & mushy...........which it didn't to me. To me it was 5-6X or even 7X tine spread with ease and it wasn't sprung or semi-sprung, so had normal to fast snapback.

Now a mushy wet noodle term can be developed by someone else.

[Robalone]

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