Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens
I like bottles: wide color choice and less guilt about cartridges. Though I have been known to refill cartridges...
Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens
Chemyst (August 8th, 2020)
Dan Kalish
Fountain Pens: Pelikan Souveran M805, Pelikan Petrol-Marbled M205, Santini Libra Cumberland Gold ebonite, Waterman Expert II, Waterman Phileas, Waterman Kultur, Stipula Splash, Sheaffer Sagaris, Sheaffer Prelude, Osmiroid 65
I like bottles which are my preferred method of recharging my favorite pens to match my favorite colours.
The Pilot Falcon in particular the resin, has one of the smallest converters and I just get 2 to 2.5 pages of an A5 notebook before drying out. If I use the cartridge then I get 4 to 4.5 pages because of the higher volume that the cartridge carries. I use a syringe to recharge my favorite blue/black because my pen is very thirsty with a small gas tank.
The Pilot Falcon Metal has a larger Converter. On the flip side the resin allows you to change out colour inks much more rapidly.
YMMV
VT
Ink Bottles, it's simply economical and I know the pros of cartridge but it's just isn't versatile with ink choices and types and it's a hassle with the hard starts when one cartridge is over.
Bottles, because they are part of the genuine vintage fountain pen experience. Or is that too sentimental to justify the occasional mess?
Ole Juul (July 18th, 2020)
Bottles are so much more convenient.
In most cases ... usually bottles.......................
Nothin' silly goin' on.....Specificityre Very, Very { Arte Johnson moment} USER UNFRIENDLY....Such as?
Fred
How many angels can stand on the point of a pen?
Last edited by Freddie; July 19th, 2020 at 04:24 PM.
Bottles... Though, recently I've been emptying undesirable ink cartridges and filling them with the ink of my choice. .... Kaweco, because I didn't bother with a convertor and the rest, I believe are mostly because of evaporation. I'm testing to see if I can stall evaporation
It's difficult to stall evaporation because it depends on the ink and the pen. I believe ink evaporates in most pens whether it's in a converter or a cartridge. Nothing is sealed tightly enough to prevent it. However, you can always add a bit of water back in to replace what was lost.
Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens
Thanks Chrissy. Your insights are much appreciated.
I have noticed that my Kanwrite convertor and almost all Chinese convertors are not airtight, meaning that when I clean them, I have often ink behind the piston.
On the other hand an old Pilot variety my wife had for god how how long, wrote for a long time (around 5 to 8 years).
I don't want to keep my pens inked that long but I'm a bit of an ink nerd, meaning that for certain things, I need certain inks and nibs...
Chrissy (August 10th, 2020)
I think if they were completely air tight, the ink could never get out. Air has to get in somehow.
Chrissy (August 10th, 2020)
either
I use whichever is needed for the situation such as others have said about travel. I do like saving the empty bottles for other uses.
Sandy
We don't know what we don't know
Hi Gnat9, et al,
For me, I prefer bottles. I enjoy their broad color range and their economy... you can get around 80 refills out of a standard bottle. 👍
( I know you can refill carts from a bottle, but that's just more work).
- Sean
Of course bottles
(because a good FP has a proper filling system different than a disdainful cartridge)
(Luckily even a handicapped cartridge pen can be enhanced with a converter)
Last edited by Pterodactylus; July 31st, 2020 at 03:45 AM.
Regarding eyedroppers, my grail pen is actually an eyedropper: Namiki Emperor Vermillion (f). Granted, it's not like the eyedroppers of old. It has a writing reservoir and a reserve, and you must open the valve to let the ink flow. But that means you can take it on a plane. You can use it without worrying that it will drool all over the page... etc.
I've also, believe it or not, had a great experience with the Charlie Pen that came with my bottle of Manjiro Nakahama Whaleman's Sepia. Even though the instructions tell you to refill at ~ 1/3 full, I wrote it dry. It didn't burp or drool once.
I use a blunt-tipped syringe to refill cartridges with bottled ink, because it's impossible to get cartridges filled with the inks I like. I prefer piston-fillers, though. Granted, I've not used a vac-filler yet... When I finally get an 823, that may change. For the piston-fillers, I have a small ink-well that works nicely.
Bottles, but mainly because whichever is chosen they must be shipped from overseas. Bottles are a more cost effective with regard to shipping. And also, not all my pens take cartridges!
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