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This is probably a very naive question, but I have gotten hold of a TWSBI eco which is the very first piston filler I try (and by the way, great nib for the price), so please bear with me. When I fill it, the piston sucks ink from the bottle but it also sucks air, i.e., like half of the barrel gets filled with ink and the other half is empty (or in other words, the ink level goes up slower than the piston, for every 2 mm that the piston goes up, I get 1 mm of ink). Its this just a physical limitation with piston fillers and "just the way it is", or am I doing something wrong and the barrel should fill fully?

My coral orange Carene recently bought on you-know-where writes really nicely - once I can persuade it to take some ink on board. I'm immersing the nib fully and as far as I can tell the converter is a good fit - any other ideas please?

I'm looking to buy a bunch of empty 50ml(ish) ink bottles(or inkwells, but they get expensive) that have a system like the Levenger ones, in which you turn the bottle upside down and it fills a little inner cup (top well?) into which you can then dip the nib for a nice smooth fill -- thus also preventing having to tip the bottle, reach into the nether regions, etc., when the ink gets below a certain level (and there's usually a LOT of ink left at that level.) Can't find 'em anywhere except at an OUTRAGEOUS cost (such as the TWSBI bottles Goulet sells for $25 a pop.) There are individual used bottles like the Sheaffer ones which show up on ebay, but come one, this shouldn't have to be a lifelong project. (And I know about the R&K inserts, but they only fit their bottles.) Surely SOMEbody makes new, non-propriety ones at a decent price, they don't have to be desktop showpieces, just plain glass bottles. I'd be good for at least 30 of them myself, and would gladly start a Massdrop, which would likely inspire a manufacturer's cooperation. Any information would be gratefully appreciated. I also need a decent 100ml bottle, because I've two 50ml bottles of Waterman on the way which I'll be mixing into Blinder Blurple, so any ideas for that would also be, etc. It doesn't have to have the insert. Thanks!

...can anyone tell me what precautions (if any) I should take before filling an old Sheaffer which hasn't been used in probably decades? My research seems to indicate it's an Imperial VI (grey barrel, steel & gold cap, gold inlaid nib), and the rubber bulb seems nice and soft. Is there anything else I need to look out for? Thanks!

Hi guys, My Parker 51 Special just arrived, and it's already my favorite pen. What a fantastic writer. I filled it with ink and it filled well enough, but there was still a fairly large chunk of air in the filler. Is there a certain 'trick' to getting as much ink as possible in these aerometric fillers? Thanks!

I love this pen - but am not convinced that I am filling it properly - it runs out of ink very quickly can someone please assist by providing some clear and simple instructions as to how to fill i have the standard edition of this pen certainly a beauty to look at and hold thanks

My Pilot Metropolitan came with a cartridge, now clean, dry and empty – except for one thing: a tiny black plastic something inside it. Perhaps it was a sealer, but I didn't really notice when I first used it. Can I just pry this out with a toothpick, or is it a necessary part of the cartridge that got dislodged. Is my cartridge now useless? Picture attached. Not great quality but gives idea. Thanks for help. This site is invaluable.

How much ink your Jinhao x750 holds? Mine is not holding too much and i can see teh inks does not "fill the tank". Could it be that the converter is not tightly sealed? Or is the level OK? For a big pen, it holds too little.

After using a couple of inexpensive Sheaffer and Waterman fountain pens for a long time, I had a milestone at work and decided to treat myself to a proper pen. After some deliberation today I ended up with a Visconti Homo Sapiens. I'm a sucker for unusual materials, and the "lava rock" just felt nice. Now...I can't fill the darn thing. I've watched a video on YouTube, read the review here, and tried to emulate the process. I unscrew the end, but I cannot get the plunger to pull out. I'm hesitant to apply too much force because I'm sure it isn't necessary. What am I doing wrong???

Still have the original box.