on saleNoodler's Nib Creaper Flex Fountain Pen - Hudson Bay Fathom's Blue

The Creaper's flexible nib is definitely fun-- and, for the price, there's not much like it (besides Noodler's other flex-nib pens). However, the pen has so many *annoying* aspects that, for the most part I'd simply rather use an italic-nib pen or dip pen!
My main gripes are pressure and build-design. To get thick lines, the Creaper takes a lot more pressure than is necessarily comfortable-- and barely puts down ink (if any) at its lowest pressure. This might not be as much of an issue with an extremely wet inks, but has been an annoyance for most of the inks I've tried. This is the first fountain pen I've used that gives me MORE hand-cramps than my old go-to uniball gel pens.
The pen design also has a few annoying aspects. While the built-in piston-fill is nice for ink capacity, if you post your cap and aren't extra mindful, you're liable to end up with hands covered in ink from accidentally twisting the piston... The cap itself is also a bit of a nuisance; its metal-clip is held on by a small plastic twist on the tip-- which is very very easy to accidentally unscrew while you're trying to uncap your pen. This fortunately doesn't impact the function at all-- but I find it extremely irritating.

In spite of the annoyances, I do still occasionally use the pen. It can be fun for line-art and doesn't require constant re-dipping, and is far more transportable than a dip pen. There just aren't very many fountain pens with THIS much flex-- and certainly not at this price point. With that said, an italic / stub-nib can also give you plenty of line variance, WITHOUT the hand strain-- and a dip nib can give you WAY more flex, ALSO without the hand strain....

Love these pens!! I have two of them; one filled with Noodler's Red and the other with deluted Bay State Blue ink. Fits perfectly in my shirt pockets and is very comfortable to use. I highly recommend these pens!

Looking for a variable line pen, I tried the Creaper. Actually put it in the trash. The converter fill was difficult to turn, plastic sticking at every turn. After following the recommendation of flushing and then heat setting it still produced a cloggy flow. Even putting it down for a couple hours resulted in the ink flow being clogged, requiring work to open the nib. For me, it's not even worth it's inexpensive price.

These are lovely little flex pens, I own two and might get more. People complain about the vegital cellulose pens smells, but every noodlers pen I've gotten have had a nice sweet smell, sort of like store bought white cake. Also, if you want to convert these pens to a non-flex the nib and feed from a Noodler's Charlie pen (previously also called an eyedropper creeper) fits perfectly, but remember to heat set the ebonite! Personally I heat set my nibs atleast 3 times whenever I disassemble them for cleaning. The charlie pen comes free with the 4.5 Oz bottlers of Noodler's inks. I won't say the owner of Noodler's or Goulet recommend this, however, they are your pens, use at your own discretion! The pens are a bit on the thin side for my hands but I still love them. Only swapped the nibs a couple of times for the non-flex mod.

So far so good, but I would probably prefer a wider nib to get more flex. The screw piston was a bit loose and spilled some ink on my hand when I put the cap on it. Otherwise, it is a good pen. I missed getting my lollipop and sticker in the delivery!