Franklin Covey/cross Freemont

[taeka]

I am just getting into fountain pens, and have a few (still not sure how that happened...I was going to buy one and try it out. Now I have three, and two more in the mail...) very inexpensive modern pens that I'm still learning to use. I picked up a $20 Franklin Covey/Cross Freemont pen at an art store this weekend, but I'm struggling with finding information about a converter that may work in this. The Cross converters (green and orange) do not fit at all.

 

Does anybody have any idea what sort of converter this pen might take, or where I could look to find this information? All of my searches are pointing me toward Cross converters, but I have tried both and they are definitely not workable. There are no threads inside this pen to hold the orange ones, and the opening is much too large for the green.

 

(Please forgive my photography - my cell phone is the only camera I have right now. And my dogs are still attempting to take over the world one hair at a time.)

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8505154568_3e7dd552ff.jpg

 

Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

 

Edited to add: On a tangent, how does one determine if a pen can be an eyedropper? If this pen can't take any converter, I would love to find another way to use bottled inks with it, but I'm not sure what qualities a pen needs to have for an eyedropper conversion.

Edited February 24, 2013 by taeka

[Uncle Red]

Does the pen take standard International cartridges or Cross cartridges? Take a picture if you're not sure.

[taeka]

Does the pen take standard International cartridges or Cross cartridges? Take a picture if you're not sure.

 

According to the retailers that sell it, it does not take Cross cartridges, but it will take Schneider, Pelikan, PR, and Rosetta (I haven't tested this and have never used any of those to be able to compare). I did put the cart in just so I could play with it for now, so here's the pen with it installed:

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8504556219_71577bc13c.jpg

 

It's sitting on 5mm Rhodia for scale.

[FPStudent]

I saw this pen in my local office store once, but I didn't have the funds to purchase it. I'm ~65% that it takes international cartridges and so it should take an international converter. Don't trust my word alone, please, but I would bet on it being an international.

 

As long as there is no metal inside the barrel or on the threads either inside the barrel or on the section, you should be able to turn it into an eyedropper. The golden rule is exposed metal = not safe for eyedropper. As long as it's all plastic in the barrel and on the threads, you should be okay.

[Uncle Red]

OK, those are international cartridges so it will take international converters. If the standard length converters won't fit you may need one of the mini converters.

[taeka]

Thank you both. The inside of the...blind cap, I think it's called? The end of the barrel, anyway, is metal, so it sounds like eyedropper is out for this one. I'll have to go back to the store that had it and see if they have the international converters. They had quite a bit, but nobody on staff who knew anything about FPs or what stock they actually carried. Should be a fun rummage through their boxes.

[ThatLeoneGuy]

I have this pen too. I use Waterman international cartridges in it and so far...no problems. I would love to find a converter for this pen. The nib is so smooth and writes extremely. If you find a converter i would live to know. I will lookas well.

[Mike_Dowling]

DId this pen actually work for you? The only way I can get the ink to flow is if I hold the nib upside down, it's scratchy and just awful to write with. Maybe I just got a dud.

[ThatLeoneGuy]

I am a lefty so I probably hold it differently. No scratchiness at all...but maybe its the Waterman mini cartridges....ink flows nice...a little wet, in fact. Just would love a converter for it though.

[iDaveM]

The converter for Nemosine fountain pens work. It's just a standard international converter I believe.

[mhguda]

You can try the standard international converters. They are sold by Amazon dot com, and by XFountainpens. I have bought 3-packs from both. The barrel of your pen seems long enough to take the standard size. Otherwise try a Waterman converter, although I believe it is about the same length...

Good luck!

[atla]

Did you ever figure out if an international converter works in this pen? I recently purchased the same pen and would love to use bottled ink with it?

[Russ]

Wow. A Cross pen that doesn't use proprietary carts. Now if they would just expand that to other models.

[atla]

I can officially confirm that the Standard International Cartridge Converter works in a FC Freemont. Mine is currently inked up with Diamine Asa Blue.

[ThatLeoneGuy]

I attended the New England Pen Show a couple of weeks ago. And yes, standard international converters work on the Freemont. Success...no leakage at all.

[NitroBobby]

Happy to hear this pen worked out for you. Mine was scratchy and not exactly pleasant to use until I took some sanding paper to it. A good candidate for those experiments I guess.

 

As was already mentionned, long international cartridges and standard converters do fit this pen without any issues.

[trevblum650]

This is my daily use pen, I have it fitted with a standard international converter and Parker Quink Black. However my nib is of TERRIBLE quality- just scratchy and awful. aside from a good cleaning I don't know how to improve the nib......any ideas?

[Anirban4u]

@trevblum650, go to Richard binders site and take a look. He gives excellent tips for basic nib cleaning/tuning.

Also, this question pops up pretty regularly, so a fpn search will do u good. Check "5 bad things that can happen to nib" it's a sticky somewhere.

 

 

For starters, you can do these :

 

 

1. Draw figures of 8 on a 12000 grit sandpaper or greyed part of a nail buff or brown paper used to carry things. 10 8s, a dip in water (remove microscopic metal debris), few jerks to get rid of the water or paper towel, dip in ink & test the smoothness, repeat if needed.

 

2. A jewellers loupe or good magnifying glass to make sure the tip is fine, if 1 fails.

 

Seriously though, I managed to make right of a horrible imperial 440.

All you need is common sense & elbow grease.

 

For pens that need more investment, Better to send it to a nibwizard

Edited October 9, 2014 by Anirban4u