What Converter For This Recife Pen?

[MCN]

After a couple of years of my FP interest, my wife is starting to get interested as well. The other day she brought out two pens from years ago and asked if they could be cleaned up and used. This post is about one of them. I had never heard of Recife before but a little searching online shows they are still in business and are a French company. It appears that their current pens use standard international cartridges and presumably converters. A photo of the pen is below. I have no idea how old it is but it must be at least 25 years old. It's actually quite nice.

 

When my wife handed me the pen, it had a very old Montblanc cartridge installed. So I figured I'd have no problem using a spare Schmidt converter with the pen. After I got it all cleaned up and reassembled however, I actually ruined the Schmidt standard converter by trying to install it in the pen. The tube in the pen is just too big for the converter. Looking back at the old cartridge I could see that it was somewhat distorted too and had probably been forced onto the pen. Then, more cautiously, I tried a Parker converter but in that case the converter opening was much too big for the pen; it just falls right off. So, does anyone have any idea what converter this might use? Something with an opening somewhere between standard international and Parker?

 

 

[Paul80]

Hi

 

How about a Lamy? I think they are somewhere between SI & Parker although close enough to Parker for their Cartridges to be used but not their converter.

 

Paul

[MCN]

Hi Paul. thanks for the suggestion. I just tried a Lamy Z26 but it didn't work. The body is too wide to fit unfortunately. It was hard to tell for sure but it appears that the converter opening was too large as well.

[johnsi02]

I wandered around the cartridge compatibility threads a little this morning, and came up blank. You've tried the likely options already. Of the proprietary designs you haven't tried, Pilot and Platinum both have huge openings, and their feeds wouldn't likely show up in a French pen. Sheaffer and Cross are both American brands, again unlikely for their feed to show up in that pen. Plus, Sheaffer uses a large outside diameter on theirs, so if the Lamy was too wide, the Sheaffer wouldn't fit either. Cross's OD is much narrower, but unlikely the ID would match. You could try if you have one of the cartridges handy.

Otherwise, maybe you could get a few cheap international converters off ebay, and use them exclusively with this pen. I say cheap in hopes that if the plastic is softer it will distort more easily to the larger nipple on this pen. Alternatively, you could heat the converter in hot water first to soften the plastic. Again, cheap is good, because you don't want one with a metal collar.

So I don't have a really good solution for you. But to be honest, I mostly wanted to post to ask a (somewhat) related question. Does anyone know of a current production pen, or somewhat common vintage pen, with a similar spiral design on the body? Because that's a really nice looking pen.

JS

[MCN]

I managed to come up with a solution! I first decided to see if I could force the Schmidt converter to work. I got it onto the feed tube with some effort and without breaking anything. But then the barrel wouldn't screw on completely. Rats! But then I thought to try a Monteverde mini converter that I had. Right away it went on the feed much more easily than the Schmidt. I guess standard international isn't so standard. And being so much smaller, there was no problem with it fitting in the barrel. The only down side is the small capacity but better that than nothing.

 

I also replaced the nib with a new one from Goulet because the old ink had removed much of the gold plating from the old nib and it looked pretty bad. It was just one of those generic "Iridium Point" nibs so no big loss. There was a bit of work to that replacement as well. The Goulet nib was just the tiniest bit longer than the original so when screwing the cap back on, the tip of the nib was hitting something in the cap. So I ground off a mm or so from the bottom of the nib so it would sit a little deeper in the feed.

 

It all worked! This is the closest to anything resembling pen repair I have done and it was pretty fun! I inked the pen with Diamine Chopin since my wife asked for something blue-black. I presented it to her and she seems pretty happy. Who knows, maybe we'll have two FP fans in the family.

[Keyless Works]

I have a similar Recife in but in a burgundy color I can try a waterman converter in it tomorrow.

[pageb4stage]

I was given a Modele recife depose fountain pen. After some struggle, the basic waterman convertor seems to fit perfectly. I put Bay State Blue in there, so I'll know how well it fits very soon now. Hope this helps.

[MCN]

Thanks page. I failed to update the status of this so now seems like a good time. I emailed Recife and their customer service was excellent. They mailed me two converters (from France to the US) at no charge. You would have a hard time distinguishing them from a standard international converter but they fit.

[pageb4stage]

MCN, do you have an address for Recife? I'd like to do the same.

Have you tried Bay State Blue from Noodlers? Amazing blue. Can't mix w/other inks,
Stains Lamy Safari plastic, etc. Used carefully, however, it's an astonishingly
Vibrant blue.

 

Thanks

[MCN]

This is the email address I was using to communicate with them:

 

info@recife.fr

 

Interestingly, when I went to check their web site just now, it appears that they have distribution in the US now. I don't remember that from when I originally found the site.

 

I've got a BSB sample but I've never used it other than to test out with a glass dip pen. I'm not much of a Noodler's fan really.

[Joane]

Happened to be researchng Récife on an unrelated matter and came across this old thread. It was very nice of Récife to send convertors. I have that exact pen. Great styling--to me it looks and feels like a licorice stick! For dating, it was purchased in a local pen store and given to me as a gift in 2003. It has a Waterman convertor in it, which fits perfectly. We don't hear too much about Récife but it's a very sturdy pen and a very reliable and smooth writer. MCN, I hope you and your wife are still enjoying the pen.