... international carts?

It's called Reacktor and I picked it up a couple of years ago. In looks, it's very much like those old Skrip school pens, with a translucent barrel (mine's orange), a silverish cap, and medium point.

Except that it takes international carts! And it came with a bunch of them, in green, brown, red, purple, all sorts of hues. I'm sure I paid less than $10 for it.

Anyone else have one?

Hi,

Yep, got a couple. This is (so far!) the only Sheaffer that uses international cartridges - I believe it was made in Europe, but I can't get to the pens at the moment to confirm.

In addition to that distinction, it's also one of the very few non-Italic Sheaffers with no tipping at the nib. (There were untipped WASP Addipoint nibs, and there's some disagreement over whether NoNonsense and Cartridge ("School") Pen nibs were tipped.)

If your Reacktor behaves like the others out there, you may find that it's prone to drying out, even when capped. The cap is anything but airtight; I gather the design was intended to comply with anti-choking regulations. I think I'm safe in saying that the Reacktor is not generally regarded as a stellar performer; but at the price you paid, you may find it a fun knockaround pen.

Cheers,

Jon

PS I do have a Reacktor pen with a Pelikano nib: a hybrid (Shelikan? Pelifer?) specially created by Dillo, and purchased right here in the Marketpalce. It still dries out quickly, but it's a much more satisfying writer.

Yes! It does dry out!

I was writing some story notes with it last week, and I thought, "Has my ink supply been used up?" But the translucent barrel quickly revealed that I still had ink. I dipped the nib in water a couple of times to re-start it, but I can see how that would become REALLY annoying.

I view it as a curiosity in my collection. These days, I like fatter pens that give me something to grip.

Ugh, drying nibs. I say they need to bring back threaded caps on cheap pens. Did you ever see a NoNonsense nib - let alone a Triumph Snorkel nib - dry out even after weeks capped? I thought not!

Well, now days Sheaffer is only a name in the pantheon of Bic'ness...... I am still waiting for the arrival of the "premium" white dot Sheaffer stick pens............

Not to totally threadjack my own post but has anyone ever tried making an eyedropper pen out of the Sheaffer Skrip school pens?

Couldn't agree more. That consideration is what prompted the "so far" in my own post (with respect to the Reacktor's uniqueness as a "universal" cartridge pen). One wonders whether Bic will see value, going forward, in maintaining a proprietary Sheaffer cartridge/converter format.

I tend to think of the Reacktor and the Intrigue as two roughly contemporary, rather un-Sheaffer-like, Bic-inspired pens - inhabiting two very different niches in the product line, of course. (I happen to like the Intrigue, by the way.) I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that the Reacktor was a design that Bic was readying for the market at the time of the Sheaffer acquisition, and that the decision to rebrand it as a Sheaffer came late in the development cycle. Maybe Bic saw the Reacktor, with its brushed metallic cap and frosted translucent barrel, as a sort of Pelikano fighter.

It's sadly ironic that the brand responsible for so many brilliant $5 pens found itself attached to such a compromised entry-level design.

Cheers,

Jon

So the Intrigue is no longer being made? I took a quick look at an online dealer and that seemed to be the case. The ad copy also made it sound like a bladder filler of sorts. Is it?

Great, now I want it....

Hi there,

Yes, the Intrigue is out of production. NOS examples can still be found, although prices seem to be on the rise (typical life cycle, I suppose, of a discontinued model). Some of the finishes are really interesting, and I've found the pen to be an excellent writer - although I think the Inlaid Nib on the Legacy is a touch better.

The Intrigue isn't a bladder filler; it features a rather innovative (and maybe slightly overengineered) system that allows it to work as either a cartridge pen or a captive-converter pen. For an explanation of the design, you might want to check out this profile.

Cheers,

Jon

PS If you decide to buy an Intrigue, I enthusiastically endorse the suggestion, made at the end of the linked profile, of buying a spare converter. The design is proprietary to the Intrigue, and I expect that the converters will become scarce in time to come.

Ahh reaktor, the unworthy successor to the NoNonsense...

Hi,

Sorry, meant to respond earlier.

Not to be pedantic: if by "school pen" you mean the old-style plastic barrel/chrome cap pen - the model Sheaffer termed the "Cartridge Pen" - then yes, these work beautifully as eyedroppers (with the usual caveats about silicone grease on the threads).

On the other hand, if you mean the actual pen Sheaffer marketed as the "School Pen" in the 1990s - plastic, primary colors - I'm not sure that one is a good candidate. The clear barrel window strikes me as problematic.

Cheers,

Jon

No, I meant the older, reliable, familiar Sheaffers that I suppose the Reacktor was 'replacing.' I still have a couple of the Ancient Ones. If I get another one I may try the conversion thingie. If I knew what the 'usual caveats' were.

Found this about the Intrigue. Wow, did they ever overheat their prose for the ad copy.

Pen ruminations and review-age

Hi,

I think you'll have good success converting one of those good old Sheaffers; I've done it with excellent results, and there are folks around here - of course, I can't call their names to mind at the moment - who have the converted pens regularly in their rotation.

The "usual caveats" (my usual caveats, anyway) amount to this: when you first fill the barrel, you might want to set it, capped, nib down in a glass overnight - to make sure there's no leakage at the barrel/section joint. In addition, you may want to apply a bit of silicone grease - the pure stuff - to the threads, for an extra secure seal. (Some eyedropper fans use the grease all the time; others skip it, with no bad consequences.) Bear in mind, too, that when the pen is mostly empty, it's possible that heat from your hand may expand the air in the barrel, driving a blob of ink out through the nib. Manufacturers like Waterman used to earn against that sort of thing in their early eyedropper instruction sheets, recommending a prompt refill as a cure. (There's some controversy about the actual physics involved, but whatever the cause, eyedroppers are more likely to emit ink blobs when they're mostly empty.)

If all that makes an eyedropper-converted Cartridge Pen seem high-maintenance, that's not at all the case. They're perfectly easy to live with. (Oh, and No Nonsense pens make dandy eyedroppers, too.)

Cheers,

Jon

I only own one real eyedropper, a big red Recife. That seals with an o-ring. Would an o-ring work here or would it make the pen more likely to leak?

Hi,

Some folks seem to have had good success adding an o-ring as part of their eyedropper conversions, and some "official" conversions, like the Kaweco Sport, use them. Personally, I've never gone that route, preferring to use the silicone. I don't suppose there's any reason not to try the o-ring, but I strongly suspect you'd be just fine without it.

How do you like your Recife? I've got two myself - one an eyedropper, one a cartridge model. I found them to be very dry writers - a visit to a nibmeister put 'em right.

Cheers,

Jon

I haven't used my Recife for a while---it's red, and I'm not in a red-ink mood. From what I remember, I liked its size and weight, and it wrote just fine. *just checked---yup, a teeny black o-ring. I would probably try that before silicone*