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Can The Sailor 1911 Be Converted Into An Eye Dropper?


Bluey

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Yes that's right. Sorry am I missing something here or does Sailor use some sort of ultra rare metal that's not found anywhere else?

 

No, it's just an axiom that metal touching ink will be a disaster, I haven't found it to be that way.

 

A Sailor is a kinda expensive pen, i'll assume for many of us on here, for which you'd have to take the plunge. Figuring it out with cheaper pens would be a good first step on ED conversion.

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Maybe it depends on the type of ink.

 

The Sailor that I bought cost around £80 so it's more or less in the upper end of my pens, BUT seeing as I'm intending to replace the black cigar(honestly, I have about 4 black with gold trim pens and I really need for them to have some individuality) with a cheaper Sailor of a different colour and shape, so even if the barrel ends up getting destroyed it's no great loss.

 

The reason why I bought the pen in the first place was solely to get the nib and I couldn't find a zoom nib in anything other than a black cigar shaped pen.

 

So yeah, I'll probably get some cheap metal pens for a few £ and then if all goes well I'll go ahead with the Sailor.

 

Thanks for the tip!

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Ink flow suspicious? Not sure what you mean. I was using the supplied cartridge and the ink flow was as you describe. Then I changed the ink to Diamine Terracotta and it became much drier, but it's also drier in my Pilot Capless too. So much so that it skips occasionally.

 

I'm hoping there is another cheaper Sailor around that I can convert into an eyedropper and then place the zoom nib in that.

 

I meant for the excessive ink flow you mentioned. Surely Sailor inks have generous flow property.

 

I had some thoughts about gluing together two or partially two cartridges. I don't know how about the 1911L but in a 1911S there isn't much space. Maybe you can extend the cartridge about 12mm, after that the inside width of the body started decreasing and the width will be barely bigger than the end of the converter. At least that's the case with my 1911 Junior transparent...

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I meant for the excessive ink flow you mentioned. Surely Sailor inks have generous flow property.

 

I had some thoughts about gluing together two or partially two cartridges. I don't know how about the 1911L but in a 1911S there isn't much space. Maybe you can extend the cartridge about 12mm, after that the inside width of the body started decreasing and the width will be barely bigger than the end of the converter. At least that's the case with my 1911 Junior transparent...

Ok then, maybe I didn't express my thoughts well. A zoom nib is likely to slurp ink even if it's a dry writer, but I don't think I mentioned that it's excessive for what's expected of it though. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

 

You mention about the 1911S and 1911L - can you suggest a way to know which one I have?

It was sold as Sailor Profit Standard 21 (ie 21k), and that's all I know. There are some leaflets that came with it but everything is in Japanese with no translation.

Thanks.

 

If anyone can read Japanese there's a card supplied which looks like it contains a specification of some kind. Does it give any details about what the pen is?

post-124227-0-73606300-1463180581_thumb.jpg

post-124227-0-94128300-1463180591_thumb.jpg

Edited by Bluey
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Quite likely. I don't understand why companies make them with such tiny ink capacity. Grrr.

From the literature I've read, cartridges and converters have ink capacities proportional to the amount of ink a feed can hold in its collector(fin-like portion of the feed). In general, feeds can hold around 0.2-0.3 ml of ink. The reasoning behind this is to mitigate ink leakage during flying or during periods or significant temperature changes.

 

Less ink=Less air=Lower chance of air expansion and leakage.

 

Another reason is the bottom-line. Cartridge/converter pens are cheaper to manufacture. Cartridge sales generate good income for ink manufactures and this is especially the case when you can only use cartridges from one company.

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From the literature I've read, cartridges and converters have ink capacities proportional to the amount of ink a feed can hold in its collector(fin-like portion of the feed). In general, feeds can hold around 0.2-0.3 ml of ink. The reasoning behind this is to mitigate ink leakage during flying or during periods or significant temperature changes.

 

Less ink=Less air=Lower chance of air expansion and leakage.

 

Another reason is the bottom-line. Cartridge/converter pens are cheaper to manufacture. Cartridge sales generate good income for ink manufactures and this is especially the case when you can only use cartridges from one company.

That makes a lot of sense actually but what about for piston fillers and eye droppers? Perhaps it's more financial than anything else.

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Well eyedroppers are cheapest to manufacture. A good example of this is the fountain pen industry in India where a majority of fountain pens are eyedroppers. While they may be economical, they are the most privy to leakage issues.

 

Pen companies cannot sell cartridges for piston fillers. So in that respect, cartridge/converter pens are more profitable.

 

Even so, the ink capacity in piston-fillers is also designed to minimize the possibility of leakage. The best example for this is the current Sailor realo range of pens, These pens are piston fillers and hold a maximum of 1.1 ml of ink. For the given feed, Sailor's engineers must of determined that 1.1 ml was the best compromise between sufficient ink capacity and leakage prevention.

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Ok sure. I suppose cartridge & converters could be a reaction from fountain pen companies during the days when fountain pens got a bad press(inky fingers and clothes etc) during their transition years when people started to switch from fountain pen to ballpoints, to bring people back to using fountain pens again. Perhaps

Edited by Bluey
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The mechanism behind the fountain pen has an inherent flaw. It exchanges a non-expandable fluid(ink) for an expandable fluid(air).

An orthodox solution is the cartridge/converter system where the amount of ink is reduced until air expansion is no longer a problem. Unfortunately, you can't write much with 0,5-0.7 ml of ink, especially if you're using broad nibs.

 

Another solution is to increase the feed's collector capacity. An example is the pilot varsity feed, which can hold around 0.5-0,6 ml of ink. Though such a pen can only be used as an eyedropper or with cartridges.

 

imo, the best solution is the double reservoir system, seen in Conid and Visconti pens.

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Or inky documents.

 

Eyedropper pens work alright when they're full and won;t leak unless there is enough air and a significant pressure change.

 

I converted a sailor pro gear into an eyedropper a while ago despite the warning of metal parts corroding. Unfortunately my experiment ceased when ink leaked from the rear of the pen. The tail end of the pen is a separate piece.

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Or inky documents.

 

Eyedropper pens work alright when they're full and won;t leak unless there is enough air and a significant pressure change.

 

I converted a sailor pro gear into an eyedropper a while ago despite the warning of metal parts corroding. Unfortunately my experiment ceased when ink leaked from the rear of the pen. The tail end of the pen is a separate piece.

I suppose the warnings from companies about the metal and then ink are just there to cover themselves.

 

It will be my first eye dropper.

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I suppose the warnings from companies about the metal and then ink are just there to cover themselves.

 

It will be my first eye dropper.

It was some time ago but I measured an ink capacity around 2ml or more when I converted my Sailor pro gear into an eyedropper.

A ph neutral ink should work fine as long as there is no leak from the tail end of the pen.

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Ok then, maybe I didn't express my thoughts well. A zoom nib is likely to slurp ink even if it's a dry writer, but I don't think I mentioned that it's excessive for what's expected of it though. It's just the nature of the beast.

 

 

You mention about the 1911S and 1911L - can you suggest a way to know which one I have?

It was sold as Sailor Profit Standard 21 (ie 21k), and that's all I know. There are some leaflets that came with it but everything is in Japanese with no translation.

Thanks.

 

If anyone can read Japanese there's a card supplied which looks like it contains a specification of some kind. Does it give any details about what the pen is?

 

If it was sold a Sailor Profit Standard 21 than its a 1911s with a 21k nib. Its a bit smaller than the 1911L both in width and height. So, based on that, I wouldn't extend the cartridge. Surely I would get around 0.15 - 0.22 ml ink capacity, but the risk of a stacked cartridge is higher. Rather I would do what I do: filling the cartridge with syringe.

 

Okay, we can agreed about music nib ink thirst. I was kind of calculated that Sailors as Japanese pen have bit smaller nib, and the size of the cartridge... based on my brush pen's ink consumptions. Which cartridge is exactly the same size as the regular Sailor cartridge, the only difference is the hiragana and katakana text on the cartridge says brush pen. ふでペン.

 

The image you show is the general Sailor warranty sheet (I think), its the same in all of my Sailor pen. I can't translate all of it, just parts of it. My Japanese is still on beginner level.

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It was some time ago but I measured an ink capacity around 2ml or more when I converted my Sailor pro gear into an eyedropper.

A ph neutral ink should work fine as long as there is no leak from the tail end of the pen.

Sounds good to me. I dare say that's what I'll end up doing.

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If it was sold a Sailor Profit Standard 21 than its a 1911s with a 21k nib. Its a bit smaller than the 1911L both in width and height. So, based on that, I wouldn't extend the cartridge. Surely I would get around 0.15 - 0.22 ml ink capacity, but the risk of a stacked cartridge is higher. Rather I would do what I do: filling the cartridge with syringe.

 

Okay, we can agreed about music nib ink thirst. I was kind of calculated that Sailors as Japanese pen have bit smaller nib, and the size of the cartridge... based on my brush pen's ink consumptions. Which cartridge is exactly the same size as the regular Sailor cartridge, the only difference is the hiragana and katakana text on the cartridge says brush pen. ふでペン.

 

The image you show is the general Sailor warranty sheet (I think), its the same in all of my Sailor pen. I can't translate all of it, just parts of it. My Japanese is still on beginner level.

Thanks Vivien, so it's a 1911S.

 

The only other leaflets supplied were the instruction manual and another that looks like something about using sustainable materials.

Edited by Bluey
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Thanks Vivien, so it's a 1911S.

 

The only other leaflets supplied were the instruction manual and another that looks like something about using sustainable materials.

if your bought straight from Japan Sailor has a project called forestationary which is basically for every pen sold 1 tree gets planeted (some exceptions are however in the rule but the general rule applies that pens costing in 10K yen and up will fall under the forestationary project)

the one you posted is indeed your standard warranty card but it isnt filled out typically the seller fills this out with the date of purchase and where it was bought, the name of the seller and then "remarks" maybe if you got the pen engraved then it will be added

and then 1 year warrant is listed

if you want here's what the to be filled out card states

date of purchase and 1 year warranty

name? of buyer?, Color and then point

Product code

Shop's name or seller

Edited by Algester
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if your bought straight from Japan Sailor has a project called forestationary which is basically for every pen sold 1 tree gets planeted

the one you posted is indeed your standard warranty card but it isnt filled out typically the seller fills this out with the date of purchase and where it was bought, the name of the seller and then "remarks" maybe if you got the pen engraved then it will be added

and then 1 year warrant is listed

if you want here's what the to be filled out card states

date of purchase and 1 year warranty

name? of buyer?, Color and then point

Product code

Shop's name or seller

Thats the one! Forestationary. Thank you Algester.

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Let me know it goes Bluey, I have tried roughly 8 pens for conversion, a few were a bad idea, 4 were *meh* and two shone brightly.

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Let me know it goes Bluey, I have tried roughly 8 pens for conversion, a few were a bad idea, 4 were *meh* and two shone brightly.

Will do.

It's currently out of rotation at the moment but I may just go straight for the Sailor eyedropper conversion rather than test first on some cheap pens.

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