Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Filling Capacity

[Pen_Noob]

Hi,

 

I recently bought a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze, which is always oversize if I am correct, with a F nib.

 

After writing one fill of ink with it I thought the amount of pages written was quite small, so I inked it again, and started to test it. It wrote exactly 5 A4 pages.

 

Just to make a comparison David vs. Goliath I inked a Kawecosport vintage piston filler with a OM nib, which writes similarly wet, but with a slightly thicker line, and wrote the same text again. To my suprise, I wrote also 5 pages with this small pen.

 

So the ink capacity of the Visconti appears laughable.

 

How I ink it - I pull out plunger, then submerge ink in nib, push plunger, wait 15 secs, rotate knob back in, and that's it. I tried even with pulling out plunger, pushing it back in, wait 15 secs, then do the whole thing again, same results.

 

Am I doing something wrong or is the ink capacity so puny?

Edited April 1, 2016 by Pen_Noob

[pomperopero]

The Homo Sapiens Bronze is a pen with relatively low ink capacity. It takes less than 1.3 ml.

Edited April 1, 2016 by pomperopero

[sailorboy]

I had better results with the travelling ink well than conventional filling.

[zchen]

Use the two stroke method. As demonstrated by Brian Goulet here.

Same method demonstrated by SBRE Brown

Edited April 2, 2016 by zchen

[Pen_Noob]

Thks for posts.

 

What is very strange is that I had a Visconti Voyager LE, which had a similar mechanism but a huge ink capacity.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Pen_Noob

[akustyk]

Thks for posts.

 

What is very strange is that I had a Visconti Voyager LE, which had a similar mechanism but a huge ink capacity.

 

Visconti makes two kinds of a "power filler," the dual reservoir and the "conventional." The Voyager is a dual reservoir, which has a greater ink capacity. My Homo Sapiens holds about 1.3 ml, if filled with the two-stroke method mentioned above. It's pretty good, comparable to many piston fillers currently available.

[Soer]

I don't want to bash Visconti HS, but i am very disappointed in my HS, what a pity.

In ink capacity and craftsmanship.

Edited April 2, 2016 by Soer

[Erik Dalton]

Recently I had the privilege of working on a Visconte Homo Sapiens Bronze with a medium dreamtouch nib. The pen came to me with nib issues as well as an ink starvation after about a page and half of writing.

I was able to solve all the issues and in the process, did extensive testing on the pen and found that around 5 pages with a medium nib is average for the 1.3 - 1.5 ml ink capacity. I don't think you're doing anything wrong filling the pen.

I will say that when operating properly, this is a fantastic pen to write with. The pen is well balanced and the dreamtouch nib is incredable to write with. The bronze furniture is maintenance free and I don't think it's even possible to scratch the lava resin. If you get a good one, this is a really special pen.

[dyoneda1]

Those disappointed with their Visconti Homo Sapiens Fountain Pen, check out my correspondence with Michael Masuyama about common complaints regarding this pen:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/321833-most-intelligent-answer-to-the-criticisms-of-the-visconti-line-of-homo-sapiens-fountain-pens/?p=3833463

[Jezza]

You pretty much have to either use a travelling ink pot, or use some variation of the two-pump fill. I currently have two Visconti Homo Sapiens with the "power filler." One of them is bronze and the other is stainless steel. Both also have extra fine nibs. The bronze wrote immediately out of the box--a smooth, wet extra fine line. The stainless steel version was a mess. It was like a fire hose, and there was a noticeable gap between the tines that made it impossible to get a extra-fine, fine or even a medium line. Daniel Smith was able to reduce the flow, and make the Homo Sapiens almost worth the cost. However, both of these pens are pretty wet writers, and the feeds tend to "flood" with ink. So, even with a 1.3 to 1.5mm capacity, it's not going to take long before they run dry. Is that a bad thing? I suppose it's up to the individual. It is not exactly uncommon. My Montblanc Heritage cost me more, and has an even smaller captive ink converter inside. The Aurora Optima and 88 have very small reservoirs, as does the Sailor Realo.

 

Still, once tamed, the nibs are lovely. And, the material feels great in the hand. I suppose it's all subjective.

[DonLeone]

My HS had to be sent back thrice (or was it twice? Can't remember, took like half a year) because it would skip.

 

Now it works fine and the last send-back the nib was screwed in loose enough for me to be able to easily take it out without a special tool so cleaning is easy now.

 

Filling capacity from a bottle seems low for the size of the pen. With the traveling inkpot it's fine and I can keep writing for much longer.

 

The inkpot is great though and it fits most of my pens. It's worth the 50ish bucks because it cuts down on the amount of times I need to pump or twist or whatever to get a full fill.

[KingRoach]

Sorry if this is an old topic but my HS Bronze Age takes roughly 0.6ml with one stroke, and just about 1ml with two strokes. Doesn't sound right based on your reports, but based on this link https://www.nibs.com/pens/visconti/visconti-homo-sapiens-bronze-age-oversize it says ink capaity is 0.7ml.

Edited August 26, 2019 by KingRoach

[Skv]

I Just filled mine with a Pineider travel inkwell and according to the scales on the inkwell it takes 1.3 to 1.5 cc when completely filled. That's the decrease in ink level after pumping 4 or 5 times.

[bits8964]

Before using the Visconti travel inkwell I was very disappointed trying to fill my HS. But after using it to facilitate filling, I find the HS to hold very usable capacity of ink compared to other vacuum/piston fillers. Just a shame to have to go to that expense. But the pen is a great writer, and IMHO beautiful.

[dematante]

I call my my HS The Diva. I think I know most of the HS tricks. Getting her, uh, it, to full ink capacity courtesy of Mr. Goulet and others. I've just been using The Diva to write in my journal this February morning, with no problem. A beautiful imprint courtesy of Mr. Mottishaw. And this might have been covered somewhere up-thread, but the blind cap needs to be unscrewed, oh, 1/8, 1/16th of an inch (apologies, no metrics) to increase ink flow. Seems an odd necessity on such an expensive pen. But The Diva has her (its) own eccentricities, and, to me, she (it) is worth it.

[maclink]

I always thought that my homosapiens was broken since I seemed to get so little ink into it considering that it's a vac-filler. I'd fill it and am able to write only a few pages. Mine has a fabulous palladium nib... fine point. It's a juicy writer that I initially didn't like but since moving from F/EF nibs to mainly mediums, the palladium F is dynamite.

 

I thought vac-filler systems took a lot of ink. The annoying thing is that I can't see what's happening when I fill it and since then, I've not bought another piston or vac filler without an ink window. Anyway, I came across this thread and see that my experience isn't at all unusual.

[maclink]

Use the two stroke method. As demonstrated by Brian Goulet here.

Same method demonstrated by SBRE Brown

 

I tried the method illustrated nicely by SBRE Brown. It was quite interesting in that with the my HS, I did an initial fill then turned the pen nib upwards as I operated the plunger. I gave up on looking for ink flooding the feed when I thought the plunger was depressed enough to reach the expanded part of the ink chamber leading to an accident. It does hold very little ink.

[TheDutchGuy]

...the blind cap needs to be unscrewed, oh, 1/8, 1/16th of an inch (apologies, no metrics) to increase ink flow...

I wasn’t aware that the plunger also acts as a shut-off valve with this pen. I cannot see any evidence of this on my HS; even with the blind cap fully screwed in, there’s visible ink between the fins of the feed. The new 18k nib on my pen is tuned so well, thankfully, that the pen isn’t overly wet.

[Major_Tom]

Hey, I use the technique that is described here: 

 and clearly I manage to get almost 100% of the tank full. A visual representation is at the picture 
 

 

[Major_Tom]

I just filled my Pen Venture Homo Sapiens with fresh noir abyssal of Jacques Herbin and took the weights: 

before it was 24,5 grams 

after i found 28 grams 

 

3,5 grams of ink for a full fill using 4 times the method described above I consider this to be a generous amount of ink