Are Waterman and Parker piston converters now identical?

[PaulT00]

Apologies if this is old news, I may have missed the memo...

 

I have a Phileas, which came with a Waterman converter. I have a Parker 25, which I've fitted with a Parker converter purchased this week from The Writing Desk. Now I'm talking about the twist piston converters, not the (rubbish!) Parker slide converter.

 

Visually, the two converters appear almost completely identical apart from one having 'Waterman' stamped into the metal on the end and the other, 'Parker', and in operation I can tell no difference.

 

Does anyone know if recent Waterman pens have a different c/c fitting internally (the Phileas is less than a year old, the Parker is at least 20 years young), or have the two always been interchangeable? To me it looks like the latter is the case and Sanford have taken the opportunity to rationalise production.

Edited October 30, 2009 by PaulT00

[Xing]

Have you actually tried fitting the Waterman converter into the Parker or vice versa?

 

They certainly have not been always interchangeable. Waterman pens takes international sized cartridges and converters, and Parker uses proprietary Parker cartridges and converters. They might look the same, but the difference is in the size of the opening in the converters (and the corresponding size of the "nipple" of the pen's feed/section). I have both a parker 25 and a recent production Parker Esprit, and both takes Parker carts and converters but not international converters. So unless Sanford decided to make Waterman pens that takes Parker sized converters, those two converters will not actually be interchangeable. While I do not know whether Sanford have made any such decision, or own any recent production Waterman pens to confirm speculations either way, it appears to me to make little business sense to abandon the more widely used international sized cartridges and converters.

[sexauerw]

As far as I know, Waterman and Parker converters and cartridges are NOT compatible with each other. The opening of the Parker is larger than on the Waterman.

 

Waterman is compatible with "international" cartridges which means that many brands of cartridges and converters will fit Waterman pens and vice versa. However, Parker interchanges only with Aurora.

[PaulT00]

OOPS! You're both quite right. I took the converters back out of the pens concerned and emptied a bit of ink out of them to make it easier to see what's what. They're identical EXCEPT for the internal diameter of the nipple fitting at the business end, the Waterman one actually looks like the Parker version with a restrictor recessed into its business end. I haven't tried plugging one into the other (not sure Noodlers El Lawrence would mix well with Diamine Midnight). Looks like the Parker convertor would physically plug into a Waterman section but would probably leak if one tried it. The Waterman definitely wouldn't fit a Parker.

 

Sorry for any confusion!

[Cheapogit]

I know that I'm commenting quite late, but I just got two of these and thought exactly the same thing, until I examined them... I'll tell you what though, it's taking the mick a bit. There's only a miniscule difference between the two.

 

Well... you live and learn...