Do All The Sheaffer Fountain Pens Refill The Same Way?

[daigo]

My friend recently showed me his Sheaffer and how to refill it; basically he stuck the nib into the ink and at the end of the pen he turned something and then turned it back and that was it. Is this how all of the Sheaffer pens are refilled? I'm looking to make a purchase but I'd like to know if the cheaper ones refill the same way as the expensive ones because I'm looking at some of the cheaper pens (like $10 ones) and it appears that they use some sort of ink cartridges?

[sexauerw]

No, Sheaffer used quite a number of different filling systems. In my collection of Sheaffers I have the following:

• A lever filler, which has a lever on the side that you pull out and then release in order to fill the pen.
• Two vacuum-fillers, which have a knob on the end that you unscrew, pull out, then you submerge the nib and push the knob back in. Screw the knob down, wipe the nib and you're done. There is no rubber sac in the pen, the ink fills the whole barrel. By the way, the proper name for the knob is a blind cap.
• Several Touchdowns, which operate much like the vacuum fillers, but you have to leave the nib submerged for 10 seconds after pushing the blind cap back in. Also, you do not want the nib submerged when initially pulling the blind cap out. You can easily tell the difference between a Vacuum filler and a Touchdown by unscrewing the blind cap and pulling it out just a liitle bit. If it is attached to a thin rod (more like a wire), it is a Vacuum filler. If if is a thick tube that barely fits into the barrel, it is a Touchdown.
• Then I have several Snorkels, which are a modification of the Touchdown system. These have a little tube under the nib, called a Snorkel, that extends out as the blind cap is unscrewed. You only have to submerge the tip of this tube, not the whole nib, to fill the pen; otherwise you operate it just like a Touchdown. When you close the blind cap, the Snorkel retracts and you don't even have anything to wipe off, you're ready to write.
• There is another modification of the Touchdown, called the Tip-Dip Touchdown. This one only requires submersion of the tip of the nib and feed, not the whole thing. Otherwise it's a standard Touchdown. But you have a lot less to wipe off and the pen will fill from a bottle that is a lot closer to empty than will a standard Touchdown. Of course, a Snorkel will suck almost all of the ink out of a nearly empty bottle, no other pen will beat it in this regard.
• There are lots of cartridge/converter pens.
• The Legacy and Legacy-II use a special converter and have a Touchdown mechanism such that they can operate as a Touchdown or be used with cartridges.
• The Intrigue has a special converter with teeth on the knob that engage with a blind cap on the barrel such that the pen can operate as a piston filler and be filled without opening the barrel. Or it can use standard Sheaffer cartridges.

[Skyppere]

and it sounds like your particular pen is one fitted with a cartridge converter piston type. there are some that you squeeze to suck up the ink. the piston you turn anti-clockwise to have the piston descend and then clockwise to have it draw the ink back up. You can also use sheaffer cartridges with that pen. Have fun!

skyppere

[raging.dragon]

My friend recently showed me his Sheaffer and how to refill it; basically he stuck the nib into the ink and at the end of the pen he turned something and then turned it back and that was it. Is this how all of the Sheaffer pens are refilled? I'm looking to make a purchase but I'd like to know if the cheaper ones refill the same way as the expensive ones because I'm looking at some of the cheaper pens (like $10 ones) and it appears that they use some sort of ink cartridges?

 

From this, my best guess is that your friend's pen is an Intrigue (see sexauerw's description above). Your description almost sounds like a twist filler but I don't think Sheaffer ever made one of those.

[gmberg]

Just to add a little "twist" to Bill's excellent summary of Sheaffer fillers, if you count Sheaffer's sub-brand, WASP, they also made twist fillers!

 

There is an ink sac within. "The sac is secured at both ends; turning a knob at the end of the barrel “wrings the sac out” by twisting it at that end."(Binder).