Merlins Tower

Fountain Pen - Care and Feeding - Part 1 - How to fill a fountain pen

Posted on June 25th, 2006 by Merlin.
Categories: Art, GTD, Gadgets, Journaling, Tutorial.

Today, I was doing some research on the web to help me anticipate the care and feeding some some new fountain pens I just ordered. Well not me personally but I placed an order for a few pens and new inks for my brother. It will be his first time using a fountain pen and in anticipation and to get him to read my blog {Wink, Wink} I wanted to jot down a few notes about how to best take care of the pens he ordered. Todays article is how to fill them. The pens he ordered are from HisNibs.com - One of my favorite pen sites. {Great Service - Great Pens and all around nice guy}

My brother asked me to order him the Hero ‘329′ in burgandy color as shown here.

He also purchased some Private Reserve Ink - Sonic Blue - I personally have not used this ink - But from what I have read on the Fountain Pen Forums this is a nice ink. He also had me order a Hero ‘367′ Series Blue Pen.

These are two entirely different pens - Both beautiful looking. The major differences are that that Hero ‘329′ is an aerometric style or pump fill. To fill one of these pens you MUST has bottled ink to fill them they will not take any of the prefilled ink cartridges.

Here is an excerpt from RickConner.net’s Site about filling pens:

The Aerometric filler (a Parker term which has since become somewhat generic) is actually a variation on the old-style sleeve filler that was used early in the century. It usually consists of a rubber or rubber-like sac (some are transparent plastic) inside a metal sheath; there’s an opening in the sheath through which you can see a pressure bar. To fill the pen, simply dip the point all the way into the ink bottle, mash the pressure bar, let go and allow the sac to expand and draw in ink. If the pen is new or nearly empty, you might repeat this maneuver a couple of times to make sure you get as much ink as you can.

Now to fill the other pen - You have to either only use ink cartridge or purchase a converter to fill it up. This pen comes with one ink cartridge. To use a standard cartridge it is quite easy to fill. Again Directions taken from RickConner.net Site:

Make sure you have a cartridge that will work in your pen. You’re usually safe buying the cartridges made by the same company that made the pen, but many pens (generally European) use a standard design making these cartridges more or less interchangeable.

Unscrew the barrel from the pen; pull out the old cartridge (might want to do this with the pen pointing up so you won’t drip any of the remaining ink from the cartridge). Put the new cartridge in its place and push; usually, you have to break a membrane or dislodge a small bead in order to start the ink flow (you should be able to feel a nice “thunk” when you’ve accomplished this). Reassemble the pen and you’re back on the trail. If the pen was dead empty or dried out, it will take a bit of scribbling before the proper ink flow starts up. If the new cartridge is a different color, it may take some time for the new color to appear (the pen must use all the ink stashed away in the feed before taking on new ink from the cartridge). You really shouldn’t have to pinch or squeeze the cartridge to get the flow started.

If you use cartridge pens, you should consider switching to a bottle fill converter; not only is this more economical (not to mention more environmentally sound), but you’re flushing out the feed every time you fill, so it will stay cleaner and will be less likely to clog).

I recommend purchasing a converter for this type of pen for the reasons mentioned above. First I like using a better grade of ink and having the ability to flush the pen out with water to keep them clean that really is one of the best reasons. And this allows you to change the colors when you want. But if you don’t want to purchase a converter and want to clean your pen - check out my next article in the next few days about cleaning a fountain pen.

After purchasing a new pen I have read that it is a good idea to just sit and write and write with it on a sheet of paper what ever you want to “Break” in the pen. This will help the nib get a nice smooth flow going and help give the nib a nice smooth writing experience.

Tags: analog, Fountain, Pen, fountain pen, Gadget, Gadgets, GTD, Ink, Office Supply Porn, paper

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