Poor Inkflow In Cartridge Converter Pens

[Sach]

I haven't bought or used a cartridge converter pen very much for about six years now. The last one that I used regularly was a Duofold Centennial. Even back then, I did note that on the rare occasion that I used a cartridge in place of the converter, the ink flow seemed smoother and generally produced a better writing experience. These days, I wouldn't consider buying a pen if it was offered only as a cartridge converter, and piston fillers obviously don't suffer this problem.

 

Any one else have any thing to say on this topic?

 

[Tresconik]

I've got plenty of C/C's. No flow problems at all.

[jar]

Cartridge/Converter is my filling system of choice.

[Sach]

I've got plenty of C/C's. No flow problems at all.

Side by side, i found there was a subtle, but noticeable difference

[Tresconik]

Side by side, i found there was a subtle, but noticeable difference

Isn't a piston filler an inbuilt converter?

 

Maybe with the eyedropper, the flow increases.

[Vendome]

C/C works fine for me.

[Wheatflower]

Any one else have any thing to say on this topic?

 

 

My Sailor 1911 is offended by the suggestion.

[Eclectica]

Hi Sach,

In my experience cartridge convertors are almost bulletproof if they are designed to operate with the specific fountain pen.

So, where I have had pens without a convertor and have bought international convertors, then very occasionally, there have been minor problems.

1) The orifice size does not fit into the feed and reasonable force can be seen to be 'bruising' the plastic.
- I have had this on more than one occasion and found that a very smooth awl can be used to gently open the size of the orifice slightly and it then pops onto the feed without further trouble.

- The converse problem, where the convertor does not fit snugly, is difficult/impossible to solve!

2) Ink starvation problem.
- I had had this on a cheap 'Indian smelling' pen from China ( !) where the end of the feed did not project far enough into the convertor to maintain contact and allow bubble through of the ink. Using a 'wetter' ink solved this nicely.

 

3) The actuator end of the convertor did not fit inside the barrel.

- In my case luckily this was with a demonstrator pen and I could see that the amount by which it needed to be reduced was really small - so I filled off the serrations on the actuator and it then fitted.

 

Hope this helps and all the best in your quests and conquests (of new pens of course )

 

Cheers,

E.

Edited September 1, 2013 by Eclectica

[ac12]

Sach, that is a false generalization.

 

It could be a feed/nib problem also, and nothing to do with the cartridge or converter.

I had this problem on 2 pens cartridge+converter pens.

#1 - A yard sale pen. The feed was blocked by old dry ink. Cleaned the feed and the pen became a WET writer.

#2 - The nib was restricting the flow of ink. Tweeked the nib and the pen became a WET writer.

 

Also the ink.

I have a pen that was scratchy and the ink was light. Switched from Cross ink to Waterman ink, and the pen wrote much better. While not WET, it is much wetter than it was. And this is a sac pen, so the ink flow problem is not restricted to C&C pens. This is a problem when using cartridge ink, you are stuck with the ink the manufacturer puts into the cartridge. With bottle ink and a converter, you can use whatever ink you want to, to match the ink characteristics to the pen. Some pens want a wet/runny ink, others want a more dry/less runny ink.

Edited September 1, 2013 by ac12