Calligraphy Pens That Accept International Cartridges?

[Mercian]

Hi all,

I have a load of 'International' cartridges that I bought with a cheap pen. That pen starves its feed (which is inaccessible, so cannot be adjusted) and has been relegated to a drawer, and I now have only one pen that still works that will accept the cartridges.

I only bought that pen to be a test-bed for inks, and have others that I prefer for everyday writing, so the cartridges are currently unused, and going to waste.

 

I hate to waste anything, so thought that I would make positive use of my stash of cartridges by buying myself a cheap (broad-edged) calligraphy set and learning a relaxing new skill.

I bought myself a 'Manuscript' (broad-edged) calligraphy set because the cartridges included with it looked like they were Internationals.

 

I was annoyed to find out that my Manuscript pen does NOT accept International cartridges - they are too wide for it. Manuscript's proprietary cartridges will fit in it, and so will Waterman proprietary cartridges, but standard International cartridges will not :-(

 

So, can any of you let me know of an inexpensive pen with a broad-edged calligraphy nib that will accept Standard International cartridges?

 

My thanks in advance,

M.

[Papermint]

As far as I know, Pelikan Script does.

[LizB]

Rotring Artpens do.

 

I'm surprised they don't work in the Manuscript or Waterman. I thought they were both standard international.

Edited March 13, 2017 by LizB

[grainweevil]

Herlitz and Online also come to mind. Pretty sure they use so-called international standard carts.

[Mercian]

Thank you all for your help :-)

I have today ordered a rotring Art Pen with a 1.5mm nib.

(I could not find any online vendors selling the Pelikan Script. Have Pelikan stopped making the pen?)

 

Hilariously, today I also managed to break the grip section of the 1.5mm nib that came in my Manuscript set. It's almost as though it somehow knew that I'd ordered the rotring :-D

That said, it does seem that I may be able to swap the 1.5mm nib & its feed in to one of the two sections that came with mono-line 'M' nibs in my set, so I will not (I hope) have lost the ability to use the crisp 1.5mm nib.

 

I ought also to add here that my Manuscript was a very cheap set from a few years ago, so I can not say whether the 2017 offerings from Manuscript can use International cartridges, or whether they - like mine - are restricted to cartridges made by Manuscript or Waterman.

 

Cheers,

M.

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Please look into adjusting the pen you relegated to the drawer. I'd be willing to best it can be fixed, by you.

[pauld]

Kaweco sport calligraphy sets take small international cartridges.

[Mercian]

CAVEAT LECTOR: This post has turned out to be FAR longer than I thought it would. Mea culpa :-(

 

Please look into adjusting the pen you relegated to the drawer. I'd be willing to best it can be fixed, by you.

The pen with the damaged nib and the pen with the damaged feed are both second-tier vintage pens, and both have defeated a specialist repairer :-(

That said, if I could find a replacement nib for the first one I do think that I could probably switch it with the damaged nib myself :-)

 

Wrt the pen with the feed that starves its nib, I have owned two of these pens. Both of mine starved their feeds. If I left the pen nib-down overnight it would write with a nice line (after a hard start). But very soon the flow to the nib would become insufficient again. And the hard-starting was always present. Even after repeated flushing through with water & dish detergent, ammonia solution, and vinegar solution [at different times ;-) ].

 

In my efforts to find a way to remove the nib/feed from the section of the pen in which the nib-starving problem was worse, I tried unscrewing the feed, pulling the feed, pushing the feed, and then tried all those techniques again but while gripping the nib/feed with pliers wrapped in rubber - all to no avail :-(

I ended up using a hammer to smash the grip section of one in order to investigate its construction. Doing that did not enable me to see any way to disassemble its sibling :-(

 

Although the pen is only a British 'High Street' retailer's cheap own-brand modern pen with a no-name 'Iridium Point Germany' nib, my being unable to use it does irk me, because it is a very comfortable size in my hand, and its low price & metal body means that I would happily take it anywhere with me - IF I could only get it to work!

 

At least one other FPN member here in the U.K. has the same pen and has said that his pen has no flow problems. No-one else here has reported having a problem with one (actually, no-one else has even mentioned them on here as far as I know).

Given the absence of reports of problems from other FPN members, and that its compatibility with International cartridges, low price, and High Street source ought to mean that it is a commonly-owned pen, I suppose that my two pens were just 'lemons' that were missed by the manufacturer's QC process.

Does my remaining pen write? Just about, but its constant hard-starts and nib-starving mean that it is NOT pleasurable to use. And, as this particular model of pen is 'batting 0 for 2' in my ownership, I am not willing to risk any more money on buying any more examples of it.

 

I may summon up the courage to try to disassemble my sole remaining grip section again, this time with the additional application of heat & alcohol in case it has been glued with shellac.

The low purchase price means that I strongly doubt that the manufacturer has paid an employee to do that, but I do not know where the pen was manufactured, and in some countries employees' wages are very, very low, so I cannot rule the presence of shellac out.

 

Should I attempt to futz with the pen again, I shall let everyone know how my efforts pan-out :-)

[grainweevil]

Kaweco sport calligraphy sets take small international cartridges.

 

Ooo, good point. And welcome to the forum.