Advice for Filling Onoto Plungers?

[svejk]

Any more experienced users have any tips on inking Onoto plunger fillers? It is a bit hard to hold things steady as the plunger gets to the bottom and I rather dislike having Nathan's predeliction for pigment density demonstrated on my desktop. Is it considered acceptable to rest the nib on the bottom of the filling area when using something like a recycled Mont Blanc ink bottle?

[Maja]

Hi svejk,

Sorry I can't help you out, but I know from my pen mentor that they are quite a difficult repair....if you ever need to fix one!

 

Are they filled in a similar manner to the Sheaffer Vac-fill pens? Those are filled on the downstroke and thus may be easier to fill than pens who fill on the upstroke....

[Michael Wright]

Maja

 

Yes, they are filled on the downstroke -- it's the same mechanism as the Sheaffer Vac-fil, but IIRC it was first used by De La Rue for the ONOTO pens; IIRC again, they licenced the system from the inventor, a transvestite roller-skater.

 

svejk

 

I find it impossible to avoid resting the nib on the bottom of the bottle, and I assume you're better off first carefully placing the nib on the bottom, and then squeezing down, rather than trying to hold it off and have it bump down.

 

The ONOTO version of the plunger-filler seems to be quite robust.

 

Best

 

Michael

[Maja]

IIRC again, they licenced the system from the inventor, a transvestite roller-skater.

Is this for real, Michael?

 

Oh, thanks for the answer, btw!

[Michael Wright]

IIRC again, they licenced the system from the inventor, a transvestite roller-skater.

Is this for real, Michael?

 

Oh, thanks for the answer, btw!

George Sweetser. He was, at least, a roller-skater:

 

http://www.onoto.com/british.asp

 

http://www.penmuseum.co.uk/master%2011.htm

 

As for the transvestite, that was perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it does seem that some of his roller-skating was done in drag:

 

http://www.vintagepen.com/art5.htm

 

The place where I probably first heard of Mr Sweetser was in Andreas Lambrou's _Fountain Pens: Vintage and Modern_ (London: Sotheby's, 1989) where he is described as "a roller-skating, female impersonator and inventor" (p. 99).

 

I'm sure you're not suggesting that I would make up something like that.

 

Best

 

Michael

[Maja]

I'm sure you're not suggesting that I would make up something like that.

 

Best

 

Michael

Oh no, never! I don't think anyone could make up something like that.

It's just that the fountain pen world is rather staid, wouldn't you say?

[Michael Wright]

It's just that the fountain pen world is rather staid, wouldn't you say?

Perhaps we need to invent an alternative history of the fountain pen, either Monty Python or post-modern.

 

Michael

 

who wonders if Mr Sweetser wore stays, and if he could be said to be staid if so

[Maja]

Michael

 

who wonders if Mr Sweetser wore stays, and if he could be said to be staid if so

Touché!