Pilot Ink Bottles

[Lazarus Long]

My bottle of Diamine Sherwood Green is getting low, so it is hard to fill my pen. I bought an empty Pilot bottle with the plastic ink well, thinking it would be easier to fill.

 

So how do you get the ink into the ink well? With the cap on of course I've tried turning the bottle upside down, sideways, etc. I can't get the ink level high enough to be useful.

 

Is there some trick I'm missing, or does the Pilot bottle just not work very well?

 

[greensparcs]

can you just use an eyedropper and transfer it that way?

[OakIris]

I have only used the older Sheaffer ink bottles with the built in ink well; it works as it should though I imagine you would have difficulty using the well to fill an oversized fountain....just guessing, as I don't have an oversized pen....as the little ink well on the side is somewhat shallow I should think the Pilot ink bottles with the well should work the same, including the same "lack of room to fill" if you are filling a big pen with a really big nib. I shouldn't think there was any trick to using it.

 

Here is a great idea given to us by watch_art (Shawn Newton) for filling a pen when the ink level in the bottle is too low: Funnel Fill

 

 

Holly

[SallyLyn]

My only experience is also with the old Sheaffer bottles. I use kind of a backward tipping and rolling to the side then gently down to fill. The Sheaffer is shallow as the ink well was for the snorkels. They don't need much depth.

 

I'd recommend one of the sample vials like you get from Gouletpens.com There are also plastic or glass urine? test tube like bottles though most do not have flat bottoms and are quite deep.

 

Can also fill a syringe to refill a converter or empty cartridge or my favorite- get a Sheaffer Snorkel.

[Lazarus Long]

The pen I'm trying to fill is a Pelikan M215, so it doesn't have an oversize nib. It seems like no matter how I tilt or rotate the bottle, very little ink gets in the inkwell. I have thought about decanting ink to sample vials and filling from there, but I thought the inkwell was supposed to solve that issue.

 

I'll definitely hang onto my Waterman Florida Blue bottle when I run out, it seems to be one of the more practical bottle designs. I'm now kicking my self for throwing away my Waterman Green bottle.

[Chrissy]

My bottle of Diamine Sherwood Green is getting low, so it is hard to fill my pen. I bought an empty Pilot bottle with the plastic ink well, thinking it would be easier to fill. So how do you get the ink into the ink well? With the cap on of course I've tried turning the bottle upside down, sideways, etc. I can't get the ink level high enough to be useful. Is there some trick I'm missing, or does the Pilot bottle just not work very well?

Is the inkwell removable or is it fixed? I'm not sure I know how it works

[Gloucesterman]

It sounds like you just don't have enough ink to fill the "inkwell" to the required depth.

 

The Pelikan has and easily removed nib, so simply unscrew the nib and use an eyedropper to fill the pen, then screw the nib back into place and write-away.

[Chiyoko]

good resource, Holly

[Chiyoko]

Lazarus Long, I too would recommend using an eyedropper

Good luck!

Warm regards,

櫻子 櫻 (Sakurako ''Sakura'')

[Lazarus Long]

I'm not sure it is possible to get the plastic inkwell out, at least not without making a mess. I have a 2nd bottle, I suspect the real solution is to open up that one, and when the ink level gets low enough, marry the two into the 2nd bottle.

 

Taking the nib out and filling with an eyedropper is doable, but messy.

 

It is a little annoying that most ink bottles are designed such that you can't use the last 1/4.

[Lou Erickson]

My TWSBI inkwell had that problem, where you would turn the bottle over and it would only have half a well full. I discovered if you flipped it right side up more quickly it would help keep more ink in the well.