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Makeshift Pen Bladders.


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Hey guys i searched for this, but was not able to turn anything up and i thought it sounded rather interesting. A person was talking to me about using the balloons like you use to make balloon animals as replacement sacs, because they can easily be cut, are thicker than regular balloons, and with fit over the nipple of most pens. I personally haven't tried this though am hoping to be able to soon, and i was wondering if others have found pen items that could be used for pen bladders without having to order them online.

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Just a guess, but the reason you didn't find much about the topic is that it is simply not a good idea.

 

While you can use a balloon as an ink sac, the results will not be long lasting nor enjoyable. At best you will have a pen that might hold ink for a short time. More likely you will have a pen that won't fill properly if at all due to the balloon being too thin walled. At worst you will have one heck of a mess on your hands and a ruined (insert whatever item of clothing or case used to convey the pen).

 

Really, the sacs are not that difficult to come by and are inexpensive relative to a new shirt; unless of course you live in an out of the way place? In which case you might want to stick with non-sac filling systems.

May we live, not by our fears but by our hopes; not by our words but by our deeds; not by our disappointments but by our dreams.

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Guest Subvet642

Just a guess, but the reason you didn't find much about the topic is that it is simply not a good idea.

 

While you can use a balloon as an ink sac, the results will not be long lasting nor enjoyable. At best you will have a pen that might hold ink for a short time. More likely you will have a pen that won't fill properly if at all due to the balloon being too thin walled. At worst you will have one heck of a mess on your hands and a ruined (insert whatever item of clothing or case used to convey the pen).

 

Really, the sacs are not that difficult to come by and are inexpensive relative to a new shirt; unless of course you live in an out of the way place? In which case you might want to stick with non-sac filling systems.

 

+1 :headsmack:

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If you really wanted to you could make your own, liquid latex is really cheap.

politician and idiot are synonymous terms - Mark Twain

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To add on to this i don't think i made myself clear. These balloons (I have held the ones that the man claims to use) are much thicker than regular balloons and judging by how they feel it wouldn't surprise me if they weren't even the same kind of material.

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Forgive me, but I really don't comprehend why spending at most $1.50 for a latex sac that's made with the right formulation of rubber, and is sized correctly is a problem. This is a short cut that can damage a pen when the substitute fails. Not only because you are likely to end up with ink somewhere and on something where you don't want it, but also a rusted J bar, pressure bar or some other internal part. If it breaks down before it leaks, you could end up with goo all over the inside. Believe me when I say that having to remove melted latex from a pen is a frustrating, time consuming process.

 

Not all latex rubber is made with the same formulation. What might look OK, and like it will work, may in fact not be good at all. Pen sacs however are made to the right dimensions, and the rubber formulated to withstand exposure to the chemicals found in ink. I have found that the latex sacs from the Pen Sac Co. are the most reliable, and least likely to melt down and fail. The most that you'll pay for one is $1.50.

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I wouldn't think of "rolling my own" where a commercial source was available for sacs, Ron Z is right on.

 

However not all vintage sacs have been reproduced. I recently read, for example, that there were sac sizes as large as 28 back in the day; I don't recall coming across anything currently listed larger than 23 or 24. There are likely some strange configurations out there as well.

 

I'd be interested if anyone can shed some light on making custom sacs for special projects, just in case...

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I would like to chime in, as I remember when I was a kid, i would try to save waterballoons. Even when underfilled, the latex balloons would degrade in less than a week and pop on their own. I think that is the same result if you were to use the balloons for balloon animals, and you'd end up with a ruptured sac in less than a week.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.

Blaise Pascal

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Tell me about any of your new pens and help with fountain pen quality control research!

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I certainly do not know the material used for the sac found in my 1930s Aikin Lambert. It wasn't brittle and/or petrified as I have found in other pen restoration projects, but gummy and quite unusual. The pressure bar was rusted and broken, too. I only use "official" sacs.

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This seems to me a case of "penny wise, pound foolish". That said, if you have a junker pen, you could try the balloon idea as an experiment. The thing is that sacs are generally going to be a better rubber than your run of the mill sculpting balloons.

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  • 5 years later...

Give the guy a break. The Pen Sac company is certainly a reputable concern, but if you are restoring a lot of pens, the price DOES add up. In China and India they pay PENNIES for these bladders, and you can bet that in the glory days of fountain pens in the US and Europe, pen bladders were a lot cheaper (allowing for inflation) than they are now, when it is a highly unusual item in the marketplace at least in the West. Why not experiment? There might be a very cheap ersatz pen bladder out there; in fact, there almost certainly is, if you could find it. Granted, you DO need exactly the right size in order to make the pen hold the most ink.

 

As far as the Pen Sac company making the ideal pen bladders, they don't. In my experience they are ok, but do get get gummy in hot weather, and sometimes just collapse. They seem to be too thin to me to really hold up as they ought to. Even $1.50 mounts up if you have to keep replacing the dang thing.

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Give the guy a break. The Pen Sac company is certainly a reputable concern, but if you are restoring a lot of pens, the price DOES add up.

 

If you are restoring a lot of pens, then it completely makes sense, functionally as well as economically, to use the product that was intended for that purpose.

"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

~ Benjamin Franklin

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Still a fascinatin' read........Op hasn't been here since July 30 2013 22:34.

 

Reductio ad absurdum

 

Your friend and still his..

 

nihil sequitur geminis ex particularibus..

 

Fred

listening to I Saw Stars..Freddy Cole

next cut..Have You Ever Seen The Rain..Gabrielle Stravelli

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How many sacs do people order at a time?

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

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How many sacs do people order at a time?

 

That's kinda personal, don't you think? I may have to report this.

 

(Usually: more than I need.)

"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

~ Benjamin Franklin

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I love it when someone jumps in with a "give the guy a break" comment on a thread that has been dead for 5 1/2 years. Nothing like a timely reply.

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The best bladder I have ever seen on a pen had very thick sides, at least 1/16", and it still had lots more spring to it than your typical rubber bladder. It is still going strong after many years use.

 

I am aware that there are excellent threads on silicone bladders here . I wish tho someone would make a MUCH better old-fashioned rubber bladder. Someone probably already has in China someplace.

 

Often I have learnt a lot more from some much later post than from the initial conversation. I still think the initial poster was not treated with the proper respect. You can never be too careful about being polite to strangers.

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That's kinda personal, don't you think? I may have to report this.

 

(Usually: more than I need.)

It is only personal if I ask which size you take.

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

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It is only personal if I ask which size you take.

 

And in the end

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make.

"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

~ Benjamin Franklin

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There is an alternative! My grandmother, who grew old during the great depression, used old inner tubes from 1931 Fords to replace anything made of rubber and a good many things that weren't. My father used a bit of rubber inner tube to supply the power to his sling shot with which he broke the glass out of one of Grandma's windows while shooting at a rabbit (likely story). I'm certain they must have used some inner tube to replace the sac of the fountain pen . . . No, on second thought, during a time when they had to make things work, I don't think they used inner tube for fountain pens bladders. And even if rubber inner tube would make a good fountain pen sac, I think it might cost a bit more than a regular pen sac since it has been quite a while since my tubeless tires had any rubber inner tubes for me to steal.

 

-David (Estie).

Edited by estie1948

No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery. -Anon.

A backward poet writes inverse. -Anon.

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