Converter For Sheaffer School Pen?

[Jamesbeat]

What I'm saying is that this was the method shown in the instructions, ie it is the correct way to do it as intended by the manufacturer.

 

I can't find the specific instructions for the Vector, but here's a link to instructions a different pen:

 

http://vintagefountainpens.co.uk/published/publicdata/ECOMMERCE/attachments/SC/images/Parker/Parker%2045%20USA%20c1963.jpg

 

I'm sure later instructions actually told you to drop the cartridge into the barrel too.

 

This doesn't work with short international cartridges because they are too short, so the manufacturer instructed you to drop a spare cartridge upside down into the barrel to make up the length.

This also gave you a spare catridge stored in the pen, and prevented the cartridge from becoming dislodged if the pen was dropped.

 

I believe my friend's pen was a Waterman and he was using the international cartridges in the prescribed manner.

 

Perhaps this was only a feature on some of the slimmer pens (like most of the school pens).

It's even possible that pens that had barrels too wide to hold the cartridge in position correctly were deliberately made too long internally so that people wouldn't damage the pen if they attempted to do this.

 

 

I made a pen this week that takes international cartridges, and when I bored out the barrel, I made sure it was the right length for this feature to work properly.

 

I just assumed it was a standard feature that everybody knew about.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Jamesbeat

[bob_hayden]

Thanks for the link. I am wondering if that was a feature of the pens made in the USA that somehow got lost in the translation to India (Beta model).

 

I certainly knew about doubling up on short international cartridges but I think that only works in some pens. Some A&W pens from Germany came with a second dummy cartridge to be used that way. But other pens do not have room to do that. I could only find one Waterman to try and that second cartridge only goes about half as far down the barrel as it would need to go to make room for the other. I could not even engage the threads on the section with those on the body with two cartridges inside. The long cartridges that I think of as standard for Waterman seem to have about the same nipple as short international cartridges, but the body is a bit slimmer than the wide end of a short international. So those do slip inside this pen. I have used a single short international cartridge in this Waterman but some at FPN frown on that.

[Jamesbeat]

I live in the States now, but I grew up in England.

I have no idea if this was an American thing too, but most of my UK school friend's pens worked in this way.