Conklin Sleeve-Filler: Is That An Ink Window?

[markofp]

Friends:

 

I have a Conklin All American Sleeve Filler that I enjoy very much, one of my best writers, but I am confused about something: is the clear section on the barrel meant to be an ink window, or is it just a design feature? I fill the pen to what seems to be capacity but this never fills (there are few water drops in it right now from a recent flushing as you can see). It looks cool at any rate, but if anybody had a definitive answer on whether or not this should fill with ink I would be much obliged.

[overwriter]

Hmmm...no answer after 4 days usually means that nobody knows. I have been looking at the sleeve filler though. Have you thought of doing a review on it?

[overwriter]

Just checked on YouTube. The clear section is not supposed to fill with ink. So, just a design feature.

 

I would still like to see someone do a review.

[markofp]

Thanks for the info! I didn't think it did, but I wanted to be sure.

 

I would not be very good doing a full review, but I can offer this: I bought the pen shown above in fine point with an extra medium nib on the side. The fine nib is problematic, it skips quite a bit, especially on the up-stroke, and is too dry for my taste. I will probably send it to a nib tuner at some point.

 

The pen with the medium nib, on the other hand, is now one of my favorites and is close to an every-day carry. The overall size and weight of the pen is near perfect for me and I love the way it looks as well, it's an attractive pen and the duo-tone nib design, with the logo in gold, is interesting and unusual. The medium nib writes smoothly on all paper I have on hand. I might wish for it to be just a tiny bit wetter though.

 

Filling the pen was a bit of a pain at first, after 3 or 4 squeeze-release motions, the clear section shown above would start to flood with ink, which prompted my question. The problem is that the clear part is not airtight and ink would drip out of it making quite a mess. The pen didn't seem to hold much ink either. But I finally got smart: I put a light coat of clear silicon on the threads of the nib section and screwed it back in. That cleaned up all the fill problems pronto, and the clear section no longer floods. I would also mention that the nib section has a small rubber o-ring that rides on it, and it can be easy to lose if it comes off.

 

This particular model, the Heritage sleeve-filler, is discontinued. Bob Speer still sells them on eBay (speerbob) and they have shown up on Massdrop as well. I recommend it with the medium nib.

[overwriter]

Thank you for that. I just might take the leap.