How Many 'spare' Converters Of What Type Do You Keep?

[A Smug Dill]

I need to stop topping up my orders with converters to make the 'free shipping' threshold for delivery in/to Australia. Sometimes I did it even if I have to pay for shipping (typically from Japan), since the converters weigh next to nothing, and buying from Japan could mean I save up to nominally a 100% markup compared to buying locally. Maybe I need to get out more, but I haven't come across any pen shop in Australia that claims to have a close or special relationship with Platinum, Pilot or Sailor in Japan to offer me the level of access, assurance or service in general that online ordering won't.

 

Anyway, I now have:

• 12 new/'spare' Pilot CON-40 converters
• 2 new/'spare' Pilot CON-70 converters
• 16 new/'spare' Platinum converters, mostly the standard one with 'gold' trim but also a few with chrome trim, and another 3 on the way
• 13 new/'spare' Sailor converters (for 1911/Pro Gear/etc. and not the Chalana) in various colours, and 7 more on the way
• not as many spare Lamy converters, but I have a few

not including the converters I have used but since cleaned.

 

I also have a bunch of desk pens in the three brands, as well as a bunch of Platinum Preppy, Pilot Penmanship and Sailor HiAce Neo pens without converters inserted or assigned right now. Generally I try to keep to about 4 or 5 more converters in each brand than I have pens that use them.

 

Oh, and because I discovered that I could still get new Pilot CON-50 converters (which I happen to like in my Pilot Vanishing Point pens) by getting old stock of Pilot Prera pens, I just picked three of them up as well. That's not counting the eight or so Pilot press-plate converters that came with Pilot MR and 78G pens, which work fine except in Pilot VP pens.

[Karmachanic]

CON_20s are also still available.

 

For myself one spare of each is sufficient. Besides Pilot 20/40/70, I have Schmidt and Beaufort. But then I have only seven pens, three of which use converters.

[A Smug Dill]

CON_20s are also still available.

From where, at a reasonable price? I'd appreciate the information. The prices on eBay for the CON-20 are a joke.

[Karmachanic]

From where, at a reasonable price? I'd appreciate the information. The prices on eBay for the CON-20 are a joke.

 

Aliexpress. Don't remember the price, but much less than eB.

Edited November 17, 2018 by Karmachanic

[ethernautrix]

I have several Sheaffer converters.... I must have owned more Sheaffers than I remember.

[mitto]

I may have around 200 spare Parker and Sheaffer squeeze converters.

[ENewton]

Someone gave me a spare standard international converter several years ago, but the only converters for which I deliberately acquire spares are Platinums, because they tend to fail after a few months of intermittent use. In over twenty years of fountain-pen use, I have never had any other brand of converter fail, even during the time when I had only one pen and kept refilling it again and again.

[mitto]

Someone gave me a spare standard international converter several years ago, but the only converters for which I deliberately acquire spares are Platinums, because they tend to fail after a few months of intermittent use. In over twenty years of fountain-pen use, I have never had any other brand of converter fail, even during the time when I had only one pen and kept refilling it again and again.

I have stopped using Platinum converters in my Platinum pens. I, instead, custom make squeeze converters for my Platinum pens. Here is one.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/324909-platinum-cool-it-was-the-ink-after-all/?do=findComment&comment=3878413

[JakobS]

Zero. Only have a handful of converter pens, none have failed so far in anywhere from 4 to 11 years of use. I mostly use vintage sac pens, and have a mixed size set of sacs for those pens if they need them, which usually is only if I buy them unrestored...

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I'm not going to count right now. But I got a number of extra Pilot CON-20s when I first heard that they were to be discontinued. An Amazon dealer at the time sold a five or six pack for quite a reasonable price. No need to buy more now. And I have a number of the semi CON 20s (flushing converter) that came with my Pilot FP 78Gs, the same kind, I think, that comes with a Metro. They don't take up much space, and there is no need to throw them away.

 

I have some CON-40s, which are not so much spares as a mistake I won't repeat. But again, no need to throw them away.

 

And I must have a number of extra international converters. I bought a five pack of Pelikan ones after I discovered that moving them between pens didn't always work. Some brands seemed to stretch them out a little so that they became loose fits on other pens. But I have only one pen in regular use that takes these.

[pajaro]

Montblanc push-in clear tube converters: 12 for my old pens that won't take the current screw-in converter. Otherwise I would have to buy new sections. Pens are sentimental and I want to keep them as original as possible, with all the same parts they were given to me with.

 

Some Parker, Sheaffer and Waterman.

[A Smug Dill]

... the only converters for which I deliberately acquire spares are Platinums, because they tend to fail after a few months of intermittent use.

Interesting. I've never had one fail on me yet, although one of the reasons why I bought so many spares is that I have a habit of completely disassembling the converter for a thorough cleaning if I can, and I'm afraid I might damage it or compromise its airtightness through repeated disassembly. I have one for each Preppy or desk pen, even though sometimes they are just nib donors or ink review test equipment, so that there is no real need for install converters in them.

[NinthSphere]

Really only a single Sailor converter, because I bought one in advance of my Sapporo that was listed as not including it. Being a Nagasawa pen, it was already installed, although you wouldn't know it without opening everything up or reading previous Nagasawa purchase reviews, so I ended up not needing one.

 

Technically a bunch of standard ints, although not loose. On the occasion one of them fails, I just pull from one of my other pens in storage.

[sidthecat]

I have a couple of Sailor converters and a Waterman, which I bought to see if it would fit in a Lady Elsa.

It doesn’t. Pity.

[Honeybadgers]

I've got like a hundred. Mostly standard international but I have a variety of sizes, including mini converters and such for pocket pens.

 

I really like the schmidt K1 for cost and performance in SI pens.

 

I have a bunch of platinum ones but I also have a BUNCH of platinum pens. I also have had no problem with proper platinum brand converters. I do, however, routinely service them since they can be serviced. Grease that piston, people!

Edited November 17, 2018 by Honeybadgers

[Inksomnia]

None, I don't even have converters to all my c/c pens. I have three Pilots, only one converter. (I tend to fill cartridges for them) and four Lamys and I have two converters for those. I always forgot order converter with pen and then I forget to order them with next pen purchase. But none of my converters has failed in use, so probably not keeping spares. Unless some major company is going under and they use propraiatery converters and I have their pens.

[thx1138]

Probably 50-60 parker converters, mostly the older style squeeze converters with maybe a dozen of the modern deluxe piston converters. Most came with pens.

Khan is definitely the winner for parker converters, I can't imagine how many pens he has. I have (possibly) too many at around a thousand or so pens.

I also have a dozen or so of the old style waterman converters with the metal band which all came from a lucky ebay buy.

[inkstainedruth]

I don't really stock up on spare converters. I may have a couple of extra Parker twist converters, but that makes up for the fact that I keep buying Vectors. Nearly all my other c/c pens only have the converter they came with, or which I bought for them (or, in one or two cases) replacement converters. For instance, at the Ohio Pen Show this year, I ended up buying an old Parker 45 (which still had a dead cartridge in it), and ordered a squeeze converter for it from off eBay. I also bought a Cross Solo, and it had a converter already installed, so I didn't need to get one.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ENewton]

I have a bunch of platinum ones but I also have a BUNCH of platinum pens. I also have had no problem with proper platinum brand converters. I do, however, routinely service them since they can be serviced. Grease that piston, people!

 

It is certainly possible that my Platinum converters would last longer if I routinely serviced them, but given that other converters have lasted me decades without servicing, I suppose I am spoiled. Why should one brand of converter require servicing, while others just keep working, fill after fill, year after year, and even decade after decade?

[Karmachanic]

 

It is certainly possible that my Platinum converters would last longer if I routinely serviced them, but given that other converters have lasted me decades without servicing, I suppose I am spoiled. Why should one brand of converter require servicing, while others just keep working, fill after fill, year after year, and even decade after decade?

 

Then don't and buy new ones