Taylor Swift Tortured Poets Department Fountain Pen

[donnweinberg]

Does anyone know what type of ink cartridge corresponds to a description of “2.6mm inner diameter” ink cartridge?  On eBay, as a gift to my daughter-in-law, I purchased a new Taylor Swift Tortured Poets Department (TPD) fountain pen.  It came with a single cartridge and no documentation of the type of cartridge to be used.  I asked my eBay seller, who asked TPD customer service, which provided the “2.6mm inner diameter” information.  Frustrating.

 

Just to experiment, I used my own Diamine short cartridge, which is an International Standard type cartridge.  It fits, but the portion that goes into the barrel, although it fits into the section, fits snugly, and I’m concerned that in warm conditions it might detach when unscrewing the barrel from the section.  It took a good amount of time for the pen to write.  

 

The cartridge that came with the pen has an overall slimmer and longer profile, although not as long as, say a Levenger long cartridge that has two different puncture ends.

 

I am unable to fit an International Standard converter into the pen.  In any case, it appears that any standard size converter is too long for the pen.  Help!

[Penguincollector]

  2.6 mm is the newer Chinese standard cartridge. You should be able to find some on Amazon or Aliexpress. Jinhao is the most recognizable brand of those. There are measurements given in the description and pictures, so if you measure the included cartridge you can see if they match.  I do think the pen is a rebranded Jinhao, I can’t recall which model, but it looks familiar. 

 

Jinhao cartridges on Amazon

[donnweinberg]

Thank you, so much.

[Penguincollector]

  Oh any time! I hope she likes it, and this sparks a new common interest between the two of you. 

[donnweinberg]

Yes, it does.  At her suggestion, I started listening to Taylor Swift’s music and liked most of it.  She really liked that I liked it.  She was very excited to get the pen.  Now, I have to make sure she can continue to refill it.  I just ordered a bunch of the Jinhao cartridges in different colors from Amazon.  Thanks again.

[inkstainedruth]

I'll admit that the concept of a "Taylor Swift" FP is making me just sort of blink (I'm not that fond of her music but I saw her in some TV cop show a few years ago and thought she was a pretty good actress).  But if that gets the next generation interested in fountains?  Cool beans!

Of course I started listening to the radio in the mid-1960s, so basically grew up on the "British Invasion" and the "Summer of Love" -- then, by the early 1970s found an FM station in NYC that played what would nowadays be called (depressingly) "Classic Rock" or "Album Oriented Rock" (back then, I just thought of it as "FM radio" -- as opposed to "AM radio" which was mostly either "Top 40" or schmaltzy stuff or sports/talk radio).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penguincollector]

  That’s excellent! So glad to be of assistance. It’s nice to have things in common with family.

[donnweinberg]

5 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I'll admit that the concept of a "Taylor Swift" FP is making me just sort of blink (I'm not that fond of her music but I saw her in some TV cop show a few years ago and thought she was a pretty good actress).  But if that gets the next generation interested in fountains?  Cool beans!

Of course I started listening to the radio in the mid-1960s, so basically grew up on the "British Invasion" and the "Summer of Love" -- then, by the early 1970s found an FM station in NYC that played what would nowadays be called (depressingly) "Classic Rock" or "Album Oriented Rock" (back then, I just thought of it as "FM radio" -- as opposed to "AM radio" which was mostly either "Top 40" or schmaltzy stuff or sports/talk radio).

 

Hi, Ruth.  I am hoping that this pen does just that.  Back in college (1971-75), I was a DJ on the college radio station and played rock music that one would expect to hear on FM stations.  One could play songs that lasted over 10 minutes, along with songs of more typical length.  My favorites were The Doors, Traffic, The Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.  It seemed that by 1974, the free-form FM style was giving way back to the pre-programmed Top-40 style.  For example, I played The Doors’ Light My Fire long version (6:50), but the Top-40 change would mean that one could only play the AM version (less than 3 minutes).  Noticing that, I decided not to pursue a career in broadcasting.

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, the station I used to listen to in NYC played all of those, and stuff like The Who and more acid-rock stuff like Black Sabbath, plus more folk-based stuff like Fairport Convention and sometimes REALLY obscure stuff like Sweet Thursday.  And the guy who did the 7-10 PM shift also worked on the AM station as well (which was more schmaltzy stuff) and HE would throw Sinatra records on every now & then -- just because he could get away with it).

A few years ago we were driving back from Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law's in Massachusetts, down to my sister-in-law's in Manhattan, and my husband was like "Hey we should be listening to "Alice's Restaurant" and it had been so long since I lived in the greater NYC area that I couldn't remember their # on the dial.  So looked it up on my phone and just wanted to CRY -- apparently, a few years before, they had switched formats (!) and were now "Adult Contemporary".  Now I'm not sure just what that means -- but betting that they don't play "Alice's Restaurant" on Thanksgiving, or "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" on Columbus Day... or ANYTHING by The Doors (and I've been a fan of The Doors since "Light My Fire" was one of the few songs I remember hearing on AM radio in 1967, during "The Summer of Love".

Once, when I was in college, I got into an argument with the DJ at a club the next town over from my parents' house, over whether the (old) WNEW-FM had a playlist.  I said they didn't.  He said, "Of course they do -- EVERY station has a playlist!  It just might be that their playlist is BIGGER than a lot of stations might have...."  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

Don't get me started on the decline of radio.  Things changed drastically when the FCC changed ownership rules and Clear Channel (now I Heart Radio) started buying up stations all over the country.  Automation took over as system costs fell, and the personalities died.   The Youngstown, Ohio market has something like 7 owned by them.   I was in them a number of years ago....   Only one of them is manned at all.  You find sales people and engineers, (maybe) but few talent.  Everything is voice tracked well in advance, and even the commercials are recorded somewhere else in the country and sent by FTP to whatever computer has the  automation for the station.  I am surprised that it's lived this long.

 

For a long time you had to have an engineer watching the transmitter systems.  Then the FCC rules for unattended operation came out,  and even that went by the wayside with computers watching the transmitter and calling the engineer if it went out of specified parameters.  The only concern is that the computer be watching, and that you have "absolute control," i.e. can turn the station off within a very short period of time if told to by the FCC.

[Beechwood]

This is a new idea to me, I am aware of Taylor Swift but I wouldn't be able to name a song of hers and the idea that she has a fountain pen is surprising

 

https://storeuk.taylorswift.com/products/the-tortured-poets-department-fountain-pen

 

I hope that Keith Richard does something similar, perhaps out of bog oak.

[inkstainedruth]

Huh.  That's actually a fairly attractive looking pen -- very classy looking.  Not at all what I would have expected.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[donnweinberg]

The Taylor Swift TPD fountain pen is clip-less.  I wonder how many unsuspecting purchasers will experience the pen rolling off a table onto a hard floor.  Fortunately, the pen is all-metal.