Noodlers Rollerball cap

Noodler’s Nib Creaper Rollerball review

24 March 2014 By ian

Noodlers Rollerball end

Noodler’s Nib Creaper Rollerball is a piston filling rollerball. It holds a lot of ink – any ink you like, too.

Noodlers Rollerball

In terms of look and feel it is very Noodlerish. By which I mean rather retro, well-made, good value and basic but thoughtful. As far as I know it’s only available in this demonstrator version but that’s not such a bad thing (especially if you like demonstrators). The filling mechanism is lovely to look at and, of course, ink swirling around is always good.

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I’ve seen several reports of this pen skipping or stopping altogether. I have had a few times when it’s got stuck and has needed a good shake to get going again. I also had some issues with ink leaking out but apparently if you actually read the leaflet that comes with the pen, it tells you this can be avoided by expelling the air from the piston after filling.

Noodlers Rollerball tip

It’s easy to clean unless you are a complete numpty and fill it with some kind of waterproof or permanent black ink. As if anyone would every do anything so silly! But just suppose you did, here is a handy video from Brian Goulet telling you how to take it apart to give it a good deep clean. Now it’s as good as new. (This is always going to be something you should consider with archive quality inks, of course. Silly me.)

This pen isn’t quite as scratchy to write with as the J Herbin Rollerball but it’s still far from smooth. Now… I don’t have a problem, really I don’t, because I’m sure you would all agree that if you have two similar pens that have a similar problem, the only thing to do is to buy a third similar pen to see if this is an issue with that one too. This is what led me to finally buy a Retro 51 Tornado. This is what I do for you, dear readers, in the pursuit of knowledge. My conclusion: the Retro 51 is just as good as everyone says it is and it is possible for a rollerball to be super smooth after all.

Noodlers Rollerball cap

This leads me to an interesting conclusion. The Noodler’s Nib Creaper Rollerball costs about the same as the Retro 51 (in the UK at least). The Retro 51 is a much better pen in every respect but the Noodler’s is the one I could well end up using more, simply because I can use any ink I like in it.

Noodlers Rollerball handwritten review

This pen was provided to me free of charge from the wonderful Pure Pens. These views are entirely my own and were not influenced by their generosity in any way.