Hello all. After not having used a fountain pen since elementary school, I became interested again about a year and a half ago. After using a handful of inexpensive pens I decided to start stepping up in quality a bit - but not too much at one time!

Anyway, I purchased a Waterman Charleston, Ivory w/ Gold Trim at Goldspot.com and received it a little less than two weeks ago. I love this pen - it's so much lighter than I expected, and particularly lighter than the ones I was previously using. However I changed the cartridge this morning and noticed that the empty cartridge I was replacing was covered with ink on the outside of the cartridge. I cleaned up the barrel as well as I could and inserted a new cartridge into the pen. The first cartridge was a Waterman Black one that came with the pen. The cartridge I replaced it with this morning is a Waterman Blue-Black from a freshly purchased box of cartridges.

After writing with the pen with its new cartridge I decided to unscrew the barrel to take a look - I was hoping that the first cartridge had been old or somehow defective. However the new cartridge had ink on the outside also when I looked. I took another look a few minutes ago - roughly four or five hours after installing it - and it had even more ink on the outside of the cartridge than it did when I first looked. So I would tend to think that the pen has a problem - possibly where the nib penetrates the cartridge, as I can't think of any other way for ink to get on the outside of the cartridge. I doubt that I just happened to get two bad cartridges in a row.

Is it possible that this is a common characteristic of Waterman fountain pens? Or is this a defect? If it is common, do I then need to clean out the barrel upon changing the cartridge - each time? (If so, then maybe I really don't want this pen).

Also, before I decide to give the converter a try to see if that leaks also, is the converter less likely to leak than a cartridge?

Thanks for any advice.

Jim

Hi,

Sorry, too lazy to do it myself, but there is at least one recent post about this, I seem to recall that part of the problem is that the cartridge wasn't properly seated or there were two different types of cartridge one not such a tight fit so more likely to leak.

Andy

Go ahead and try the convertor, making sure it's well seated. If that leaks too, then you know it's a pen problem. If it doesn't, then you know it's a cartridge problem.

I realized that I hadn't yet posted back with any info. The converter is working just fine. No leaks at all. So it might just be the cartridges. But I am still concerned that it might be the pen after all.

Oddly enough, the cartridges do not appear to have any ink stains on the outside up around where they connect to the bottom end of the nib. All leakage appears to be at the bottom end of the cartridges themselves. None were leaky prior to inserting them into the pen, but all have leaked after being in there a day or so. I think that something down in the barrel is contacting the cartridges with enough friction to cause the leaks. I poked around in there but can't feel anything in particular. Also, using a magnifier with a light doesn't give me a good enough view all the way down inside the barrel to see what, if anything, is coming into contact with the bottom or back end of the cartridge. I worried a bit that I was somehow really nuts and that they were inserted backwards! But that is not the case. The top end has the obvious connector cup on it; it's that fatter end that is leaking in the three cartridges I have used thus far.

While I like using the converter, it is not convenient in the least. I am using this pen as my daily, main writing tool and so I usually go through a couple cartridges every two to three days. The converter, on the other hand, is much thinner than the cartridges and I find I must fill it twice daily. I used to carry a small container with a few cartridges in it with me at all times so I could very quickly change out an empty cartridge for a full one when needed. With the converter though, I cannot carry the ink bottle with me, so when it runs dry I am out of commission until I am at home and can refill the converter. That stinks! If this was just a "signature only" pen, this would be fine. But it is not working for me as a daily use pen.

Has anyone here seen this happen to cartridges with a Waterman? Or any pen for that matter?

Thanks!

Jim