Alternative Ink Cartridge To Pilot Parallel Pen?

[Courfid]

Hello!

 

I recently bought a Pilot Parallel pen 3,8mm for sketching purposes. However, the Pilot ink that it was bundled with bleeds a lot. Are there any other ink cartridges that are compatible wit this pen? I tend to avoid converters as I always tend to make a mess when it's time to refill...

[mAnuscript69]

Pilot cartridges are proprietary. Aside from the mix-free cartridges supplied with the pen you can use standard Pilot/Namiki cartridges.

 

If you don't want to use converters but still want the option of using bottled ink, you can either refill cartridges or convert your pen into an eyedropper with some silicone grease on the threads. The threads are pretty long, an o-ring is not necessary; the o-ring tends to grab on to the cap as well, leading to the barrel unscrewing with the cap - not a pretty sight.

[Courfid]

Thank you very much for your informative answer. Surely, if all Pilot brand cartridges work, I should be able to find something that suits my needs. The eyedropper tip is much appreciated as well! I love diy solutions

[Pterodactylus]

Thank you very much for your informative answer. Surely, if all Pilot brand cartridges work, I should be able to find something that suits my needs. The eyedropper tip is much appreciated as well! I love diy solutions

 

Btw.

The Pilot Converter-50 fits into the Parallel Pen,

The converters delivered with the pens are not intended to use with ink, just for cleaning purposes.

They might not fit securely.

[Courfid]

Btw.

The Pilot Converter-50 fits into the Parallel Pen,

The converters delivered with the pens are not intended to use with ink, just for cleaning purposes.

They might not fit securely.

 

Yes, the Pilot CON-50 is the one I had read about earlier. I'll keep that in mind, should I go for one in the end!

[mAnuscript69]

Btw.

The Pilot Converter-50 fits into the Parallel Pen,

The converters delivered with the pens are not intended to use with ink, just for cleaning purposes.

They might not fit securely.

Although Pilot advises against the use of these converters for filling, it is perfectly usable. It's the same squeeze converter supplied with the 78G and Metropolitan. I use these converters in all my Parallels and they work just fine.

[Courfid]

Alright, I think I'll just need to try and find a store near my area and see if they got anything compatible. Thanks for the help everyone

[nickryan]

What kind of bottled ink should i use for pilot parallel pen ? Thanks alot

[Pterodactylus]

You can use any FP ink you like.

[NedC]

It is the nature of the Parallel pen that it bleeds a lot. It will very likely bleed whichever ink you try unless you opt for a heavyweight reasonably well sized paper, through a thinner but very heavily sized paper or synthetic paper like Yupo might work it will generally mean an extended drying time. The pens nib an feed are designed to deliver an extremely generous flow of ink and on the larger nibs a very deliberate steady contact with the paper is needed to assure regularly formed characters which means that a lot of ink gets on the page.

 

I'd suggest refilling the cartridges because those nibs go through ink fast and the capacity of the CON20 and CON50 convertors is somewhat limited.

[lawrenceg]

I think you will find that the choice of ink is not what causes bleeding.

 

Paper is made up of fibres which get chopped up more and more if the paper has been recycled/ is of a cheaper type. Hence the smaller the fibres the more likely bleeding will occur.

 

Try the pen with different types of paper, you will find the better papers do not bleed.

[Monica B]

Hi,

I already have a 3.8 and I ordered a 2.4. I use for drawing and to learn some calligraphic hands. I think I have seen a cartridge being sold on the John Neil bookseller site look for this item "FP124. Pilot Converter' on their site.

 

I fill the barrel with my own ink, a messy solution. I do this with the 3.8 and will be testing with the 2.4, and I already tried non-waterproof Eternal Ink, it runs too fast through the plates dumping more ink than I would have liked but it worked. I purchased FW inks and I will be trying with that, except that the FW black is waterproof India ink and everyone says it shouldn't be used in a pen.

I also got Moonpalace sumi ink thinking it was waterproof, at least the small bottle I got doesn't seem to be. Haven't tried using this yet.

 

I must confess I tried the FW india ink which is thick aware that it could clog the pen, so it stained the barrel and it seems to grab to the parts making a little harder to clean and doesn't flow too well between the parallel plates but Is great with the brush . But I kept for 3 days inside the barrel and then cleaned. The pen survived the abuse with a few stains. But I don't recommend that you do that.

[ESLrSean]

I just bought two parallel pens. Pilot got smart and stopped shipping with a converter for cleaning. Now they ship with a large plastic tube with a sealed end for cleaning. It is too big to fill with ink, so only one purpose is possible. I bought the pen and ordered the CON-40 converter which fits, but I haven't tried it out yet.

 

I was wondering if adding a little gum arabic to the ink would make it more suitable for the parallel pen?

[Arkanabar]

One of the counterintuitive bits of wisdom I've gained is that if an ink is too wet, i.e. its flow is too fast and generous, one way to remedy this is by adding distilled water. As for my 3.8mm Parallel, I have refilled its cartridge with a plain ol' eyedropper and a 3ml disposable bulb pipette more times than I can say. I did have to take the little sealing disk out first. Others have used a bent wire, but I had a pair of jeweler's needle nosed pliers I could grab it with.

[galem]

I have taken a number of calligraphy classes using the parallel pen, and every teacher said NOT to use waterproof or acrylic ink because it has shellac or acrylic and will mess up your pen. An easy solution is to use any other ink (but no sumi ink either) and fill the entire handle. You can also mix watercolor or gouache with water to make your own "ink". Screw the top on firmly and you are good to go. When it is empty again, be sure to unscrew under running water and rinse everything off. You can fill the

cartridges with a hypodermic syringe.

[Sasha Royale]

"Bleeding" is a function of ink and paper. The cartridge is mere a container/reservoir for the ink supply. Using a converter will allow choice of bottle ink. The cartridge can be filled with bottle ink of choice, using a syringe. Search for different papers. Since bleeding is the too-rapid absorption of ink into the inner fibers of paper, less bleeding will have the wet ink remaining on the paper surface longer, partly drying above the inner layers. (Example: Water color paint bleeds more than oil paint.)

 

Which paper are you using ?

[galem]

I have found that the Pilot Parallel cartridge ink bleeds (especially the black) on most good quality papers, so I refill my own cartridges with inks that I like. I use gouache a lot too.

[saurav-sinha]

I have been using the Parallel Pen with regular FP ink by refilling the cartridge using a syringe.

There is some bleed through on most papers, but with decent quality paper like Clairefontaine, thats the only issue.

Is there any downside to continue using the supplied cartridge and refilling it. I don't run out of it quickly, so frequency is not a topic of concern

[BaronWulfraed]

There is nothing special about the cartridge -- only the "mixable" ink that Pilot markets for the Parallel.

 

Any Pilot cartridge should be compatible, and even the smaller converters (CON-20/-40/-50) should fit (Just tested -- CON-70 will not fit, but a CON-40 [i think that was the one, 40 or 50 -- did not try a squeeze bulb -20] will work.

[Arkanabar]

I have been using the Parallel Pen with regular FP ink by refilling the cartridge using a syringe.

There is some bleed through on most papers, but with decent quality paper like Clairefontaine, thats the only issue.

Is there any downside to continue using the supplied cartridge and refilling it. I don't run out of it quickly, so frequency is not a topic of concern

None at all. I've refilled the cartridge in my 3.8mm Parallel more times than I can count.