How shall I fill my Kaweco Sport?

[dragondazd]

My first Kaweco pen, a Sport in Iridescent Pearl with a medium nib, arrives tomorrow. I bought a converter separately, and laughed when it arrived. It is hilariously small.

 

So now I am wondering what is the best way to fill this pen? It's supposed to be a little translucent so I am wary of eyedroppering it. What do y'all do? Converter? Refill cartridges?

 

Will eyedroppering ruin or enhance the look? I have a bottle of Nekoyanagi arriving with it. If it's like the other dual chromes I've played with, I expect the ink clinging to the pen wall will change color as it is used up.

[MsRedpen]

Keeping it simple with Sports here - cartridges only. Refilled too.

Pearl looks really nice, congratulations!

[dragondazd]

12 minutes ago, MsRedpen said:

Keeping it simple with Sports here - cartridges only. Refilled too.

Pearl looks really nice, congratulations!

Dumb question as I have never refilled a cartridge before--On average, how often can you refill a cartridge before it gets loose and leaky?

[MsRedpen]

From Int’l cartridges most durable were from Graf von Faber Castell, definitively more than 10 refills of a single cartridge.

Others I haven’t tried more than 5 times (still in the bag of empties). I tend to keep MB, GvFC and C d’A empty cartridges, they seem to be from more durable (rigid? non-recyclable?!?) plastic. Just my speculations...

 

Otherwise, Platinum cartridges seem best for refilling. Not a sign of wear after 20+ reuses, large capacity... but fit only Platinums (and Nakaya). off topic.

[Ron Z]

The Kaweco piston style converter holds as much ink as the short international cartridges - and you flush the pen every time you fill it.  The Kawecos are much better made than the Monteverde mini converters.  Now the squeeze fill converters?  No, not as good.

[chromantic]

While I agree that the squeeze converter isn't as effective at filling as the piston, you can syringe-fill it like a cartridge. It snaps on with a satisfying click and feels very secure once mounted;.

[txomsy]

A few things.

 

First, the converter may require some pressure to properly sit (some people complained of leaks, but when I had them I found the converter was not properly inserted).

 

Load in the converter should be au pair with a cartridge.

 

I have loaded some cartridges many dozens of times. Some have more than 20 years and still work. OTOH, a box of 5 cartridges costs almost nothing, so substituting them is not onerous. Just get yourself a reusable insulin syringe and load them.

 

You may be able to modify an international converter to fit inside the Sport. Depends a bit on the model (some have more space inside) and the converter (some are easier to modify). I did on a cheap Chinese converter (5 for 1$) and works fairly decently.

 

The sac converter is not that bad (not as good either, but...). Just remember that when filling sacs it seems to be better to repeat the filling process about three times to get it more loaded (I'm still trying to figure out why, but this old advice seems to work). OTOH, if you like to switch ink colors, then the lesser capacity becomes a bonus as it will allow you to switch more often

 

[dragondazd]

Thanks all for the advice. I started out with the piston converter which wasn't as small as I feared. I like the nib and might use it for ink testing.

 

 

As advised, it did take some force to seat.

 

Probably will not eyedropper this particular edition.

[txomsy]

Glad it all worked to your satisfaction. That is a really nice looking pen. I wish you many years of joy with it.

 

[InesF]

On 4/19/2022 at 9:10 AM, txomsy said:

Just remember that when filling sacs it seems to be better to repeat the filling process about three times to get it more loaded (I'm still trying to figure out why, but this old advice seems to work)

This also happens with converters or piston fillers as well, but only if the pen was either clean and dry or ran (almost) totally empty.

 

No big science here, only a "observe and think about" comment: with the first sucking, ink floods the empty overload slits of the feed while the air volume is sucked into the converter/cylinder/sack. When squeezing out, the feeds slits remain filled with ink, now the surplus air is pushed out - you see bubbles in the ink bottle. With the next suck, (almost) no more air is sucked in and you receive a full fill (and a fully flooded feed).

As nothing is that perfect, you get residual air out with the second or third push/pull.

 

To release the ink from the feeds overflow slits, you press out the usual 2-3 drops of ink in nib down position, turn the pen around and suck the same volume back in, in nib up position.

Alternatively, you suck the visual part of the feeds overflow slits dry with a paper towel or similar, wasting these 2-3 drops of ink with each fill.

 

Voila!

[txomsy]

I must confess I hadn't thought of the feed slits. Thank you so very much. Now I see.