Bottom Of The Bottle Filling Techniques?

[Papamud]

How do y'all do it? I'm currently covered in ink from trying and (mostly) failing to fill my twsbi eco, and any of my student's pens, once the bottle gets too low to fully submerge the nib. I tried using a smaller container, but eventually it gets too narrow to fit the nib... Strategies, please?

[CAG_1787]

Syringes are the most guaranteed solution.

[Mercian]

Rohrer & Klingner make a plastic insert that fits in to the top of their ink bottles, and also those of some other brands including e.g. Noodler's.

Info:

https://www.thewritingdesk.co.uk/showproduct.php?brand=Rohrer+and+Klingner&range=Erka-Rapid&cat=accessories

 

Once the insert is in place, one inverts the bottle while it is capped, and then turns it back to the normal way up.

Enough ink to cover the nib is caught within the plastic doohickey, so filling one's pen is easy

The doohickey is sold under the name 'erka-rapid'. In the U.K. these things are sold in packs of three.

 

N.B. if, like me, you use iron-gall inks, this may not be such a useful thing. Iron-gall inks can precipitate iron salts out to the bottom of the bottle. One does not want the sludge inside one's pen, in case it clogs the feed/collector!

 

If an erka-rapid will not fit your ink bottle, or your nib can not be submerged within it, or you really are 'running on empty', you could try sucking the ink up with a syringe, and then putting it in to your pen's cartridge/converter/piston from the syringe.

 

I believe that Goulet Pens sell syringe-fill kits (they come with a blunt needle).

If not, other members may know a US source, or they are available from U.K. online retailer 'The Writing Desk'.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Mercian

[CAG_1787]

There's also a product called an "Ink Miser": https://www.gouletpens.com/ink-miser-ink-shot-inkwell-black/p/IM-11001

[ac12]

My method is to

- First transfer about 5ml of ink from the bottle into an ink vial with a pipette or ink syringe. This lets me get almost all the ink out of the bottle.

- Then I load the pen from the ink vial.

 

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have a something to stabilize the ink vial, so that it won't fall over and spill the ink.

 

There will still be an amount of ink at the bottom of the vial, about 2ml, that won't be sucked into the pen. But if you refill the ink vial from the bottle, you will not be in a situation where you won't be able to suck ink into the pen.

[pajaro]

This is one of the uses I have for a Sheaffer Snorkel. The syringe works too, unless all your pens are sac pens.

[Sasha Royale]

My bottle ink is not expensive. I do have syringes, however, I have a simpler approach. By the the time I have used half the bottle, I know whether or not I like the ink. If I do not like the ink, the final 7 ml are of little value. If I like the ink, I will be buying another bottle. I just pour the two bottles together.

 

Here is a fun idea ! DUMP the remains into the same bottle. The color mixture is always changing. It's interesting. Goulet Pens sells "blunted" syringes.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Sasha Royale

[sirgilbert357]

Syringes are the most guaranteed solution.

 

 

+1

[sirgilbert357]

This is one of the uses I have for a Sheaffer Snorkel. The syringe works too, unless all your pens are sac pens.

 

Then you can use the syringe to transfer the ink from the ink bottle into an ink sample vial...

[Arkanabar]

The penultimate filling method is to load the ink into a sample vial, and fill from that.

The ultimate method is to use a medical syringe, particularly for international c/c pens. Platinum cartridges are sufficiently wide-mouthed to fill with typical 3ml disposable polypropylene bulb pipettes. Pilot cartridges are so wide-mouthed you can fill them with essentially any eyedropper, once you remove the sealing disk that using the cartridge tilts.

[pajaro]

The penultimate filling method is to load the ink into a sample vial, and fill from that.

 

The ultimate method is to use a medical syringe, particularly for international c/c pens. Platinum cartridges are sufficiently wide-mouthed to fill with typical 3ml disposable polypropylene bulb pipettes. Pilot cartridges are so wide-mouthed you can fill them with essentially any eyedropper, once you remove the sealing disk that using the cartridge tilts.

Snorkel is more direct. And a better pen.

[Papamud]

Syringes are the most guaranteed solution.

How do I refill a converter using a syringe? Does the converter come apart?

[Papamud]

Gotcha. Thanks, folks! Great suggestions, all.

[ac12]

 

 

How do I refill a converter using a syringe? Does the converter come apart?

 

Why would you use a syringe with a converter? Just suck the ink through the nib/feed with the converter.

 

If you really want to fill the converter with a syringe, pull the converter out of the pen, screw the piston back, stick the needle of the syringe into the front of the converter then fill the converter.

[praxim]

If you have taken the converter out of the pen, it serves pretty well to suck up the last of the ink by itself.

[Chrissy]

I couldn't help but notice that you mentioned a TWSBI pen. You can buy special TWSBI bottles for filling these pens. This is the one on the TWSBI site, but Goulet's have another version here

 

They also fill other converter pens.

[sirgilbert357]

I couldn't help but notice that you mentioned a TWSBI pen. You can buy special TWSBI bottles for filling these pens. This is the one on the TWSBI site, but Goulet's have another version here

 

They also fill other converter pens.

 

 

*Facepalm* Good catch, Chrissy...lol. Here we are glossing over one of the more obvious solutions...

Edited March 31, 2017 by sirgilbert357

[eharriett]

Pretty much what everyone else said. If it goes into a C/C pen, I use a syringe and am done with it. If it is a vintage (except Esterbrook, which I remove the nib and can also fill with a syringe if I need/want the capacity), I'll put in an empty ink sample vial with a syringe (that darn syringe again. In other words, get one).

 

Those vials are also good if you are pre-mixing ink colors or adding some lube to the ink. Although if it is going in a pen that can't be filled directly from a syringe, you wind up dumping the excess.

[Chrissy]

 

 

*Facepalm* Good catch, Chrissy...lol. Here we are glossing over one of the more obvious solutions...

 

Actually, I just checked and the TWSBI Eco is a piston filler, so I don't know if the TWSBI bottles are suitable for it.

[ReadyFireAim]

DUMP the remains into the same bottle. The color mixture is always changing. It's interesting.

This is my solution.

I use an old ink bottle that I labeled dump bucket.

 

I mostly get brown or dark green but occasionally there is something more interesting.

If it looks terrible, I add some black & use it in a cheap work pen..