Partial fill of ink chamber in converter

[Spideysgirl]

When I fill a pen I can't get the chamber of the converter to fill all the way no matter what I do. I am working with samples at the moment since I am a newbie and trying different inks to find one's I like.

[Jerome Tarshis]

That is a normal experience. Imagine that you have X-ray vision, and you can see through the materials of your pen. The converter is empty. It is attached to the place where it fits your pen. Between the opening of the converter and the surface of the ink in the bottle, what do you see? That's right, you see a little column of air.

When you begin sucking up what's below the mouth of the converter, the first thing you suck up is that column of air. Only then do you begin sucking up ink.

There are various ways to try to get around this. Others will recommend them. My advice is to get used to that bit of air. When you run out of ink, fill the converter again. This is not a calamity. It is only an everyday exasperation, to the extent that you choose to be exasperated. Sometimes my irascibility helps take my mind off other problems. Sometimes not.

[Jon Szanto]

Two ways to go:


Just get used to a little air and not worry about it. If you are doing ink sampling, it isn't like you have to write pages and pages and demand a 100% full converter.
Use a blunt needle syringe. To completely fill a (cleaned and flushed) pen, draw a couple ml of ink into the syringe. With the converter off the pen, insert needle and fill *almost* full (leaving a bit of room so when you insert cnv onto pen it doesn't squish out). Attach cnv and then, using the syringe place a couple of drops of ink slowly on the underneath side of the tip of the nib. The ink will be drawn up into the feed by capillary action and you will have gotten ink into the feed and collector so the pen starts writing immediately (this is called "priming the feed"). This will give you a maximum fill of the pen.


The other nice aspect of the syringe is that if you are using sample vials, you can get all the ink out of the vial, which you'd never be able to do sticking the nib in there and trying to fill the pen.

[Lady Onogaro]

Just a note: Goulet and several other retailers sell blunt syringes.

[jar]

When I fill a pen I can't get the chamber of the converter to fill all the way no matter what I do. I am working with samples at the moment since I am a newbie and trying different inks to find one's I like.

You are working with samples. You can't get the nib and section deep enough to fill the converter.

Samples are simply meant to allow you to write a few lines to see if you like an ink.

[Scooby921]

When I fill a pen I can't get the chamber of the converter to fill all the way no matter what I do. I am working with samples at the moment since I am a newbie and trying different inks to find one's I like.

You are working with samples. You can't get the nib and section deep enough to fill the converter.

Samples are simply meant to allow you to write a few lines to see if you like an ink.
For the most part this is true. I have had luck with some smaller nib'd pens being fully submerged (nib and feed) in the sample vial for a first fill. I've also found most sample vials are enough to fill a pen twice. The second fill, or anything with a longer, larger nib does usually require removing the converter and filling it via syringe. Easy to do, and it tends to be cleaner than submerging the nib and feed in the bottle or vial. The only pens I don't fill with a syringe are those without converters.

[RocketRyan]

I am a fan of syringe filling empty large cartridges. I find they often last longer than converters.

[SIR]

Part fill the convertor, say a quarter or a third, then up end the convertor and continue to draw the plunger back a liitle further and then gently tap the convertor so the ink falls into the upended convertor leaving the airspace at the open end on top. Now push the ink back out until it is at the mouth of the open end and now fill almost fully (only almost because when you insert into pen some space is required for the connection with the feed on the pen) as normal as the air space should be expelled.