Converting Century Ii Rollerball To Fountain (Cartridge)

[ScribblerUK]

Hi - a new member here with what might be a stupid question...

 

My wife bought me a lovely engraved Century II rollerball last year, but if possible I'd like to use it as a fountain (cartridge) pen

 

Do the nibs advertised on the Cross site (and other pen sites) include the shaft bit up to where you unscrew the pen - ie, could I buy a nib and use it with the main body of my pen?

 

Thanks in advance for any help

Edited January 24, 2011 by ScribblerUK

[Jerome Tarshis]

As it happens, I own a Classic Century Selectip pen, which is the model that takes a rollerball refill. But will also take a fat ball-point refill and several other possibilities, which is why it's called "Selectip." Let's call it a rollerball. It has a removable plastic insert that holds whichever refill the user selects. If one removes that insert, a fountain-pen nib unit will screw into the barrel. And, one may hope, and here I am addressing a UK resident, Robert is your mother's or father's brother. You've done the job. So it might seem.

 

Not quite so. The barrel has got a spring in it, which is meant to apply pressure to your, let us say, rollerball refill. Makes nice tight fit, helps you make marks on paper. Interferes, however, with using the barrel for a fountain pen, because there's not enough space to fit a converter plus the nib unit into the barrel. You did want to use the pen with ink, no?

 

Now you are at the crossroads. If you mean to use the pen with a literal cartridge only, there's no problem with my pen. (I haven't tried it with the Century II Selectip, not owning one.) You may put a cartridge into the nib unit and the total length won't be too great for you to screw the barrel back on. But if you mean to use a converter, the fix is to remove (by force) the spring inside the barrel.

 

This has been discussed on FPN. Some of us have used some sturdy hook-like tool to engage the metal of the spring and pull hard. At a Bay Area Posse Meeting it was suggested that if one inserted a long enough wood screw, its threads would engage the spring and then one could pull out the spring. The spring is actually attached to the barrel, so that some degree of force is required.

 

And presumably one doesn't go back to rollerball use at will. (Extreme DIY types may be able to re-attach the spring, but it isn't something I envision doing.)

 

As I do not own the Century II rollerball barrel, I haven't been able to ascertain whether cartridge-only use would be possible for you without removing the spring. I suspect yes, but can't say. Others ought to know, the Century II series having been out for years now.

Edited January 25, 2011 by Jerome Tarshis

[unclebrat]

Hi - a new member here with what might be a stupid question...

 

My wife bought me a lovely engraved Century II rollerball last year, but if possible I'd like to use it as a fountain (cartridge) pen

 

Do the nibs advertised on the Cross site (and other pen sites) include the shaft bit up to where you unscrew the pen - ie, could I buy a nib and use it with the main body of my pen?

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Unfortunately, you would also require the cap to fit the nib. The Century II fountain pen cap is significantly larger than the Selectip cap. This difference was not noticeable in the older Century models but the caps still weren't interchangeable.

[adamselene]

I think this works well with Townsends, though.,

[wttlford]

Hi - a new member here with what might be a stupid question...

 

My wife bought me a lovely engraved Century II rollerball last year, but if possible I'd like to use it as a fountain (cartridge) pen

 

Do the nibs advertised on the Cross site (and other pen sites) include the shaft bit up to where you unscrew the pen - ie, could I buy a nib and use it with the main body of my pen?

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Unfortunately, you would also require the cap to fit the nib. The Century II fountain pen cap is significantly larger than the Selectip cap. This difference was not noticeable in the older Century models but the caps still weren't interchangeable.

 

In my experience they usually are. If a Century II finish that I wanted was available in rollerball, but not a fountain pen, I was able to convert by replacing the Selectip with a nib and removing the spring from the barrel. No modification to the cap was ever required, but removing the spring makes this a one direction modification. I'm sure a new spring could be inserted, but I never had any interest in going from a nib to a Selectip.

 

If the spring is not removed, the pen can be used with a single cartridge. If a second cartridge is placed in the barrel it will get caught in the twists of the spring, ditto the end of the converter.

 

Rpf

[ScribblerUK]

Hi - a new member here with what might be a stupid question...

 

My wife bought me a lovely engraved Century II rollerball last year, but if possible I'd like to use it as a fountain (cartridge) pen

 

Do the nibs advertised on the Cross site (and other pen sites) include the shaft bit up to where you unscrew the pen - ie, could I buy a nib and use it with the main body of my pen?

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Unfortunately, you would also require the cap to fit the nib. The Century II fountain pen cap is significantly larger than the Selectip cap. This difference was not noticeable in the older Century models but the caps still weren't interchangeable.

 

In my experience they usually are. If a Century II finish that I wanted was available in rollerball, but not a fountain pen, I was able to convert by replacing the Selectip with a nib and removing the spring from the barrel. No modification to the cap was ever required, but removing the spring makes this a one direction modification. I'm sure a new spring could be inserted, but I never had any interest in going from a nib to a Selectip.

 

If the spring is not removed, the pen can be used with a single cartridge. If a second cartridge is placed in the barrel it will get caught in the twists of the spring, ditto the end of the converter.

 

Rpf

 

Hi folks - thanks again for taking the time to reply.

 

I also asked Cross's customer services people, and got this reply:

 

You are right, you can convert your rolling ball into a fountain pen by purchasing a nib such as the link you included in your email.

 

You will receive the whole front end that you screw into the barrel you have.

 

So, going with that and the majority view above I'll probably get the nib and give it a go.

 

Thanks again

Tom

[Pen Nut]

Just a quick enquiry. Are Cross fountain pen cartridges / convertors a 'standard' size or just dedicated Cross fitment?

[Jerome Tarshis]

A belated and perhaps by now unnecessary reply: Cross pens do not take cartridges or converters that fit other pens. Like several other manufacturers, they use a proprietary cartridge. And they manufacture two different converters, so that one Cross converter will not fit every Cross pen.

 

When they once again began doing fountain pens, in the 1980s, the green push-in converter fitted everything, but newer models take the orange screw-in converter. The only currently manufactured pen that takes the green push-in converter is the Townsend.

[Jimin]

On 2/2/2011 at 2:53 PM, ScribblerUK said:

 

Hi folks - thanks again for taking the time to reply.

 

I also asked Cross's customer services people, and got this reply:

 

 

You are right, you can convert your rolling ball into a fountain pen by purchasing a nib such as the link you included in your email.

 

 

 

You will receive the whole front end that you screw into the barrel you have.

 

So, going with that and the majority view above I'll probably get the nib and give it a go.

 

Thanks again

Tom

Hi mate, I am in the same situation as you. Could you link the nib that you got? Did everything worked fine? Any issues? 

 

[Doug C]

I have two pens I have converted with limited success. 

A Parker black and pearl duofold and a lamy persona.

In both cases I had to rig a different converter due to the barrels narrowing to hold the rb refill.  There was not enough room for the original converter.