Am I The Only One That Dislikes Refilling?

[sirgilbert357]

Where's the fun in that?

 

Seriously though, the Level is a unique and very cool system, I found mine to be a great pen. Bottles cost like 10 dollats on ebay, and I've heard you can fill it with a blunt needled syringe.

 

 

Have you verified that syringe thing? I'm trying to visualize how that would work...

 

When I was strongly considering buying one, I was determined to find a way to hack the ink bottle and put the nozzle on another container that could easily be filled with ink. That way if the bottle eventually failed, you would just unscrew the nozzle assembly and put it on a new bottle and keep going...

[TennesseeTrash]

Refilling doesn't bother me, but I'm not refilling every day. Any pens I use for work are piston fillers or bulkfillers. I have a few cartridge converter pens I use, but I use them as additions instead of replacements.

[Honeybadgers]

If you have to refill that often, you probably need a finer nib or a pen with a bigger ink capacity. Eyedroppers hold a monstrous amount of ink. The new moonman C1 holds a freaking ton. Or go with the penbbs 355 bulkfiller clone. If you can use that in a day with a double broad, you need to write less.

 

A full ink sac should easily last a fine nib several days of heavy use, are you sure you're leaving the nib in the ink long enough, and maybe doing two lever pumps?

 

Alternatively, get a visconti or pineider travelling inkwell. It makes filling portably clean and painless.

 

Or a TWSBI VAC700R or VAC mini, and the VAC20 inkwell, or one of the TWSBI diamond inkwells with any of the other main models they carry.

 

Filling a pen has never bothered me. I don't love cleaning, but filling is actually something I enjoy. I like the feeling of running out of ink and needing more, it's a feeling of purpose, that the tool is being used to do its job.

Edited June 13, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[sandy101]

I hate refilling with cartridges - trying to coax the ink out of the plastic chamber and into the feed seems to involve sacrificing 6 Oxes to the god Inkenhorn!

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I neither like nor dislike refilling as such. Since I have a fairly large rotation of pens, having one go dry can seem like an opportunity to cycle in something else. But it doesn't mean that I have to stop writing for long, as I generally have at least two fountain pens with me, and can usually wait until I get home to refill.

 

At the moment I have only two pens inked, both with cartridges. In general, though, I prefer other filling systems, with built in piston fillers and my Parker Vacumatic being favorites. I do plan to use some of my favorite lever fillers again soon.

[sirgilbert357]

If you can use that in a day with a double broad, you need to write less.

 

*GASP* Heresy!!

[SoulSamurai]

 

 

Have you verified that syringe thing? I'm trying to visualize how that would work...

 

When I was strongly considering buying one, I was determined to find a way to hack the ink bottle and put the nozzle on another container that could easily be filled with ink. That way if the bottle eventually failed, you would just unscrew the nozzle assembly and put it on a new bottle and keep going...

I have not verified it, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. The way the pen refills is that, after you set the valve at the back to the correct position, you press the back of the pen into the lid of the bottle, and then (with the bottle above the pen) squeeze the soft plastic bottle to force the ink into the pen. All that is happening is that the small metal tube in the lid of the bottle is being pressed into a small hole in the back of the pen then ink is being forced in; using a syringe with a needle of the correct diameter should have exactly the same effect.

 

The bottle cap unscrews easily enough. I don't know how hard it would be to find a soft plastic bottle with the same diameter and threads on the mouth; if you could find one I see no reason why the cap from the old bottle wouldn't work. Alternately you might be able to attach a syringe needle to the cap of a soft plastic bottle ir something. Or you might be able to find something like this with an appropriately sized nozzle: https://www.midwestairbrush.com/jasqbowistti.html

[Honeybadgers]

 

*GASP* Heresy!!

 

 

everything in moderation

[Bibliophage]

 

 

everything in moderation

Except the Tao?

[Karmachanic]

How do you feel about refuelling your car?

[Freddy]

I enjoy refuellin' me cars and motorcysickles...Rituals..can be fun...

When I start me R69S....I push the key in atop the headlight...

turn petcock ...tickle the ticklers on the left and right Bing carburetors...

kick start....mount...push center stand up...put in first gear and roll...

Fred

[BaronWulfraed]

Alternatively, get a visconti or pineider travelling inkwell. It makes filling portably clean and painless.

 

The Visconti (and maybe the Pineider too) works best with pens that have a squared off section. Not so well with something having a smooth taper (Sheaffer inlaid or Triumph nibs) as shoving the pen in far enough to form a seal puts the feed (and fill channels) quite far into the ink pot.

[Rav_LandE]

Hello All,

 

Thanks for the many detailed responses. Lots of food for thought. Generally it seems that I'm in a minority here.

 

I've been using fountain pens from middle school but until about 5 years ago, I favoured very fine nibs. Pilot fines were about as wide as I would go.

 

Then as I got older and my eyes did I started to like a bolder line. Esterbrook was good here with the cheap nib, easy swap and move on.

 

I work in a field where all reports are electronic and so any handwritten notes are for me. As such my ink usage meant only refills on Mondays and Fridays. However, recently I've been asked to present some of the work that I've done and preparing the talks, slides and accompanying materials, I've found are easier to do one pen and paper and then move into eform. This is why my ink usage has shot up. Still thinking about it, it's probably only a thirty second job to fill the pen in the morning.

 

 

How do you feel about refuelling your car?

 

Frankly I hate filling the car. However, it's a necessary evil but with the vehicle I have and the driving I do I only need to fill once every two weeks. If I had to fill every three days I'd be looking for a more fuel efficient vehicle.

[sirgilbert357]

 

The Visconti (and maybe the Pineider too) works best with pens that have a squared off section. Not so well with something having a smooth taper (Sheaffer inlaid or Triumph nibs) as shoving the pen in far enough to form a seal puts the feed (and fill channels) quite far into the ink pot.

The diameter of the grip section matters more than the shape of the taper, at least for the Pineider (that's the one I have)...

[samasry]

Sailor converter do not last few pages, I wish a 3rd party makes bigger converter that fits Sailor Pens.

So what I do not like it the mileage I get from each refill, if I get more of each fill, I would not mind the filling too much

[A Smug Dill]

Sailor converter do not last few pages,

What sized pages do you have in mind?

 

I see variants of that particular gripe often, but that has not been my experience with my two-dozen Sailor converter-fill pens, irrespective of whether they have Fine (or even Extra Fine) nibs with which I write small and thus cover a lot of surface area on the page with densely packed pen strokes, or something like a Naginata Concord nib or Zoom nib to insert some bold titles/headlines.

 

I wish a 3rd party makes bigger converter that fits Sailor Pens.

Nobody is preventing you from being that third party producer, if you personally think it's worthwhile and/or think there is sufficient demand for it from the Sailor fountain pen user base out there. You could even make a nice profit and carve out a niche for yourself, just like Flexible Nib Factory has invested in producing special ebonite replacement nibs for Pilot #15 sized nibs, and you don't even have to worry about prospective customers being deterred by the thought that the installation and use of your product requires an action that voids manufacturer's warranty of their pens.

 

So what I do not like it the mileage I get from each refill, if I get more of each fill, I would not mind the filling too much

Sailor makes piston-fill pens (designated Realo), in both the cigar-shaped Profit and the flat-ended Professional Gear product lines, that have higher ink capacity and will give you more mileage per fill, if that's a primary concern but you still want to avail yourself of the quality and/or characteristics of Sailor nibs.

[Honeybadgers]

 

The Visconti (and maybe the Pineider too) works best with pens that have a squared off section. Not so well with something having a smooth taper (Sheaffer inlaid or Triumph nibs) as shoving the pen in far enough to form a seal puts the feed (and fill channels) quite far into the ink pot.

 

The pineider uses a collar that kinda expands around the feed, which works better for thinner sections.

 

The visconti is just made from nicer materials and is narrow enough to fit in a pen case.

 

I personally have them both and see them as kinda different tools. The visconti is for filling a specific pen you know will work with it when you're traveling. The pineider is more a "portable inkwell"

[samasry]

What sized pages do you have in mind?

 

I see variants of that particular gripe often, but that has not been my experience with my two-dozen Sailor converter-fill pens, irrespective of whether they have Fine (or even Extra Fine) nibs with which I write small and thus cover a lot of surface area on the page with densely packed pen strokes, or something like a Naginata Concord nib or Zoom nib to insert some bold titles/headlines.

 

 

This couple of page is not a literal thing, it was a figure of speech. I do not conduct scientific experiments to measure nib size vs pages written

Mainly the converter is small, and I can not even get it completely full, when I refill. Could be just me being incompetent converter filler

 

I have tried filing the Sailor cartridge and it lasts significantly longer ( do not take it literally )

The mL capacity of both are well known, but when u consider the wasted volume in the converter + the fact that you can refill the cartridge to 100% then u might in some cases get 2x the ink in the cartridge compared to the converter ( not necessarily 2x exactly , nor literally )

 

 

 

 

Nobody is preventing you from being that third party producer, if you personally think it's worthwhile and/or think there is sufficient demand for it from the Sailor fountain pen user base out there. You could even make a nice profit and carve out a niche for yourself, just like Flexible Nib Factory has invested in producing special ebonite replacement nibs for Pilot #15 sized nibs, and you don't even have to worry about prospective customers being deterred by the thought that the installation and use of your product requires an action that voids manufacturer's warranty of their pens.

 

 

I am not into fountain pens to the extent that I would like to do this, nor do I have the time to do it, even if I wanted to do it.

 

 

 

Sailor makes piston-fill pens (designated Realo), in both the cigar-shaped Profit and the flat-ended Professional Gear product lines, that have higher ink capacity and will give you more mileage per fill, if that's a primary concern but you still want to avail yourself of the quality and/or characteristics of Sailor nibs.

 

I have the Pro gear Sigma realo II and it is a heavenly pen, I just love it. I have invested earlier in several 1911L that are my day to day working Pens, and hence the converter/cartridge usage.

[samasry]

[deleted content as it was duplicate post]

Thanks

Edited June 15, 2019 by salmasry

[samasry]

[deleted content as it was duplicate post]

Thanks

Edited June 15, 2019 by salmasry