Are You A Cartridge or Converter Type?

[wspohn]

I am a bottle guy - I just like the wider range of colours available and I like changing colours more often than I could if I had to use up a full cartridge first.

 

Besides, cartridges aren't forever, they do lose liquid over time. I have some nice new unpunctured cartridges that are completely or partially empty!

 

But I was talking to a guy yesterday that wanted to get a FP because he has always enjoyed them (but isn't a pen nut like those present here) and his one criterion for a new pen was that it must take cartridges as he just didn't like the potential mess and certain fuss of filling the old fashioned way(s).

 

I'd expect most people here to be hands on fillers, but let's see.

[kissing]

I love converters and pistons. Will ALWAYS bottle fill wherever possible. Even with pens where I have to use a cartridge, I still fill the cartridges with a syringe

 

I dislike cartridges. It costs too much, and throwing away all that plastic after just one use seems to be a big waste. Not good for the planet

 

Furthermore, if you only use cartridges, you are limited in the inks you can use. Also, it kinda destroys one of the major advantages of using a fountain pen over ball pens and rollerballs - that you can keep refilling the pen as long as you have a bottle.

 

my 2 cents

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I always use bottled ink and rarely if ever refill cartridges. I hardly ever get ink on my fingers when filling my pen. Practice makes perfect (Or maybe my fingers are not made to get inky?). In my experience, self-filling pens are rather clean and easier to maintain, start, and write with.

 

If there isn't a converter available, why not design and fabricate one? Well, rather large production runs for a certain type of converter... But yes, it will make people happy. (Hopefully) Even if it has to be a pressbar converter for a certain type of pen, people should be happy to have a fitting converter.

 

Oh, now don't take this too heavily or seriously--half of it can be said to be a joke of one flavour or another.

 

Dillon

[RyanL27]

I use neither. It's funny; I've never consciously had anything against c/c-filling pens, but as I look over my collection, I've got pistons, vacumatics, aerometrics, button fillers, eyedroppers, and touchdowns. Not a single cartridge/converter in the mix - at least not in my user pens (I probably have a Safari around here somewhere, but who knows). I suppose I may indeed have something against c/c pens, but I certainly don't openly discriminate.

[antigone]

I use converters most of the time (bottles are so lovely), but I also keep on buying cartridges. There are colors I like but don't need an entire bottle of (e.g. red ink - I love Herbin's Rouge Opera but use it seldom - too uncomfortable to read) or colors I want to test before buying a bottle (like Lamy BB, so glad I didn't buy a whole bottle!). And then there are fountain pens that can't take cartridges.

 

I prefer bottles and cartridges. I wish they'd sell ink in smaller amounts for testing and traveling.

[peter_UK]

I much prefer refilling a cartridge over converter or piston - why?

- still can use any ink

- easy to check how much ink is left

- cleaner to fill using a syringe

- no problems with low levels in ink bottles

- pen unused for a while (evaporation) then replace loss with water

- not always certain what ink in pen so no contamination danger

 

My 'two-penny worth'

 

Peter

[ht1]

I started out using cartridges, and progressed to filling the cartridges from bottles. I have converters for most of my pens, but I still prefer to refill the cartridges. I've been doing this almost 40 years, and old habits are just hard to break. Especially if you like the habit. I put the cartridge in a shot glass to refill it, and I pick the cartridge up with paper towel. I rarely get ink on my hands.

[Patrick Hand]

I'm cheap.... that's one of the things that I liked about fountain pens (admitidly... I never thought about using a syringe to re-fill cartradges...)

 

But I can get a lot more ink in a bottle for the price.....

 

 

 

 

Sometimes getting Inky fingers is just a part of the process........

[johnr55]

I've basically used bottles since I was a child. As an adult in medical work it's always been easy to get straight needles and syringes. Even in cartridge pens I will fill the cartridge from the bottle. I agree with the prior poster, it seems unduly wasteful to throw all that plastic away, and I can go through cartridges like mad. Having said that, if I travel with Sheaffer I keep a couple of black Skrip cartridges in my briefcase.

[Moose]

I almost exclusively use bottled ink, but I had to mark that I use both because every once in a while, I will pop a cartridge into my Pilot Knight. I still prefer to use bottled ink since I use all Noodler's, but every once in a while, I am forced to use a cartridge (like when my Knight runs out at school because I was stupid and hadn't filled it for two weeks... ).

[Blade Runner]

It's a lot more discrete swapping out a cart than refilling from a bottle in a meeting or

classroom.

[Dillo]

It's a lot more discrete swapping out a cart than refilling from a bottle in a meeting or

classroom.

Hi,

 

For this reason, I try to know my pens and I know their ink usage, so I bring as many pens as neccessary, and if one runs out, then I use another. I normally take around 1-2 ML of ink at least (In the pen). In extreme cases, the Level system is a good one.

 

Dillon

Edited October 21, 2006 by Dillo

[marklavar]

I am a bottle guy - I just like the wider range of colours available and I like changing colours more often than I could if I had to use up a full cartridge first.

 

Besides, cartridges aren't forever, they do lose liquid over time. I have some nice new unpunctured cartridges that are completely or partially empty!

 

But I was talking to a guy yesterday that wanted to get a FP because he has always enjoyed them (but isn't a pen nut like those present here) and his one criterion for a new pen was that it must take cartridges as he just didn't like the potential mess and certain fuss of filling the old fashioned way(s).

 

I'd expect most people here to be hands on fillers, but let's see.

I respect anybody's opinion on this. I mostly prefer to fill from a bottle using either an inbuilt piston or a converter. I rarely use cartridges, but there are a lot of situations in which these are useful - not just for keeping the fingers clean. If I used FPs a lot at work, which I don't, I would bring cc pens and cartridges, but my FPs are for home use only. I use rollers at work, or even ballpoints.

Edited October 21, 2006 by marklavar

[marklavar]

I love converters and pistons. Will ALWAYS bottle fill wherever possible. Even with pens where I have to use a cartridge, I still fill the cartridges with a syringe

 

I dislike cartridges. It costs too much, and throwing away all that plastic after just one use seems to be a big waste. Not good for the planet

 

Furthermore, if you only use cartridges, you are limited in the inks you can use. Also, it kinda destroys one of the major advantages of using a fountain pen over ball pens and rollerballs - that you can keep refilling the pen as long as you have a bottle.

 

my 2 cents

I don't believe cartridges are particularly expensive. They come in useful if you are travelling a lot with your pens and it's not practical to carry an ink bottle with you all the time.

 

If you only write at home, then bottled ink makes sense, but if you use a FP frequently at college or in the office, then cartridges make a lot of sense.

[marklavar]

I use neither. It's funny; I've never consciously had anything against c/c-filling pens, but as I look over my collection, I've got pistons, vacumatics, aerometrics, button fillers, eyedroppers, and touchdowns. Not a single cartridge/converter in the mix - at least not in my user pens (I probably have a Safari around here somewhere, but who knows). I suppose I may indeed have something against c/c pens, but I certainly don't openly discriminate.

This tells me you don't own many modern pens.

[Mary P]

The majority of my pens are either lever or piston fillers.

 

I don't have that many modern pens. I keep Sheaffer cartridges around and use them now and then. I have a Lady Skripsert that I use by refilling cartridges. It will just barely accept a squeeze type converter. When I was sold in the late 1950s it came with one of those button fill Sheaffer converters. Those converters are rare as hen's teeth today.

 

have one small Filcao that is a cartridge filler only. I've been using Pelilan turquoise cartridges in it. Those cartridges were a gift from Will Thorpe. Why he gave me a gift on his retirement I don't know but I was happy to receive it. :bunny1: :bunny1:

[KCat]

I use neither.  It's funny; I've never consciously had anything against c/c-filling pens, but as I look over my collection, I've got pistons, vacumatics, aerometrics, button fillers, eyedroppers, and touchdowns.  Not a single cartridge/converter in the mix - at least not in my user pens (I probably have a Safari around here somewhere, but who knows).  I suppose I may indeed have something against c/c pens, but I certainly don't openly discriminate.

This tells me you don't own many modern pens.

maybe - though there are plenty of modern piston-fillers, EDs, button-fillers, aero-fillers (Hero-sort) that one could use and never touch a cartridge or converter.

 

I voted "always fill from a bottle" but that doesn't mean I don't use cartridges or converters. I do prefer an integrated piston filler.

[PaulK]

I own a nice collection of ink (bottles) but I travel quite a bit. As a result, much easier for me to use cartridges. However, at home, I use my bottle-drinkers primarily.

 

For anyone out there that has or had "access"....please, how can I get my hands on a syringe?

 

My best,

 

Paul

[RyanL27]

This tells me you don't own many modern pens.

Actually, I own a nice mix. For modern, I've got 2 Pelikan m800s, an m215, an older m400, and Danitrio Mikado, a Filcao Columbia, and an Aurora Optima. The rest are vintage. I would actually like to pick up a nice c/c pen–just for the convenience–but there aren't a lot out there that I really like (I'm a Pel fan). Maybe the new Bexley Simplicity would be a good start...

[wdyasq]

I own a nice collection of ink (bottles) but I travel quite a bit.  As a result, much easier for me to use cartridges.  However, at home, I use my bottle-drinkers primarily.

 

For anyone out there that has or had "access"....please, how can I get my hands on a syringe?

 

My best,

 

Paul

The vet suppliers. I notice your location is a corn state so I'd guess you have local 'Co-ops' that sell the ranchers and farmers syringes and needles. You only need a 3CC or so syringe for cartridge filling. IIRC, a 'short international' holds .7cc of ink.

 

Ron