After reading a bit here, I filled an empty ink cartridge using a hypodermic needle (for filling inkjet tanks). Works great! Less mess and more ink than a converter can hold.

So I'm wondering how many times you can do this before the cartridges wear and start leaking, or whatever, since they're really only designed to be used once.

Wad.

Lots and lots of times. I have Sheaffer cartridges here that I retrieved from dried up old school pens that have been in a drawer for 30 years that are back in service in my pens.

A while back I bought a sack of 50 brand new cartridges and have yet to pop one of them. I've only had one so far get kind of weak and not grip the nipple well enough to suit me and that was because it was in a particular pen that puts excessive pressure on the cartridge.

Because of the design (larger diameter nipple), I would expect international style cartridges to last even longer but that's just a guess.

I put a bottle and a half of quink through my first parker (a cheap $8 jotter no less) using the same cartridge if that gives one an idea.

And when I retired the cartridge it was because I broke the pen (falling nib down on the floor will do that) not due to failure.

This was many years ago in undergrad when quink still was sold at staples....

I have to wonder myself, especially after my experience with two (refilled) Pelikano Jrs. leaking different colors on me the same day.

I've only recently started doing this, but I have to add that it has to be the easiest way to refill a cartridge. I have converters now that I think I might put up on the Marketplace. I simply do not use them now.

P.S. I bought a bottle of Quink from Staples the other day. Probably the same bottle that's been there the last 12 times I was in there. There was also one in a newer looking box. Too bad they can only get black.

Yup, same here. The converter in my Waterman is on its last load of ink right now.

Still is. That's where i got my bottle of quink

i refill my cartidges too, but i wanna keep my converters cause' i think they work better when trying to flush the pens.

Hmm, I use the syringe for that too or I pull the rubber bulb off of my eyedropper and it's perfect for flushing Sheaffer school pen sections/feeds.

hmmmmmm, i'll give that a try... i just thought, because you can draw water in and out might work better with the converter... but......... how do you use the syringe????

Yeah, I learned the eyedropper bulb trick here on FPN. Which one to use depends on the pen design. My Phileas has a protective plastic cylinder that the cartridge has to go into about 1/4 inch before it encounters the nipple so the syringe works well there. I just fill the syringe with a load of clean water, hold it against the cylinder and then pump the water through the feed using the syringe. The Sheaffer pens have an exposed cartridge nipple so I clean those using the rubber bulb from my eyedropper. Some people use one of those infant aspirator bulbs and I expect it works well but I don't have one.

EDIT: I should mention, in case it's not obvious, that in the above usage I remove the needle from the syringe. I only use the needle when filling or flushing cartridges.

thanx... and thanx for the PS, removing the needle wasn't obvious to me... duh

Yeah, well I posted it and then got up to get a drink of water but I was still thinking and I thought, gee it's odd that it wouldn't be obvious what to do with the syringe. And then it dawned on me that maybe you were envisioning the syringe with the needle so I rushed back and added the PS right away. Haha. I was right. Cool.

i didn't even know what to envision... maybe thru the breathing hole, i thought!

Yikes! Yeah, no, just use a typical Luer lock syringe and needle so the needle can be put on and taken off easily. (You'll be switching it constantly) To flush, just shove the plain syringe against where the cartridge goes and push water through the feed. I do the whole process under constantly running water. A good seal of the syringe against the feed is not necessary. Leakage is fine because the syringe develops plenty of pressure. With practice it only takes a few seconds to flush a pen and cartridge and change colors.

Refilling goes very quickly. I rarely flush pens unless I'm changing colors.

i got it! i change colors every time so this helps.

You can fill converters with the syringe, too. I just filled my Sailor student pen that way.

New to FPN, and certainly to filling using old cartridges. Don't know why I never thought of it.

I think that I'm going to use this method for the Noodler's Bay State Blue that's coming my way. Here's my question: Noodler's has a caution against mixing Bay State Blue with other inks. Should I flush the old cartridge out before filling it? Or is any old ink in there in such minuscule amount that it wouldn't matter?

Thanks,
Stephenie

All this seems a little inconvenient. Buy a piston filler pen, a Pelikan or Omas or MB. A lot simpler. Just open the bottle, twist the piston nob counterclockwise then clockwise and finito. 9 seconds later you have enough ink in the pen to last you more than a week of modertate to heavy writting.

I used to have catridge pens but stopped when i realized how much more convenient and yes, less messy, piston fillers are.

Flush it! I don't know how Bay State Blue reacts with other inks, but don't even take a chance that mixing even small amounts might create a sludge that could plug up your pen. Clearing a blocked ink feed is no fun at all!

Paddler

Actually though I own a few piston filler pens I find that the quickest and cleanest fill is to pop a cartridge off, fill with the syringe and be done with it.

I have a few glass syringes that are easy to wash and last forever if you don't drop them.

Piston fills are great for me at home, but since I am always at work or school, cartridges are essential for the pen that travels with me.

Packing an ink bottle in my backpack with my laptop--gah, that's asking for problems!