I have a HUGE collection of pens, and there are several pens that I really like and want to do a review of in the future. However, as I've just recently started work, I haven't had as much free time to get around to writing reviews.
However, I'm expecting a custom made urushi Newton pen a month later, and I'll definitely be writing a review on it. In the meantime, I'll try to start a review on the Pilot 78g Broad nib, which is not only my cheapest stub pen, but my favorite stub pen too.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Thoughts On The Different Filling Mechanisms
Fountain pens now come in many different filling mechanisms and it can be abit overwhelming for a newcomer to sort out what may be suitable for him. I'm no expert on fountain pens but over the years, I've come to touch and play with most of the more popular filling mechanisms. This post is not to enlighten you on how the various filling mechanisms work, but rather my thoughts on them, for example, the various pros and cons, what to look out for when considering a certain filling mechanism, and how easily is it to maintain/clean it.
Eyedropper
I'll start off with the simplest design, the eyedropper. Currently on the market, there aren't alot of pens specifically designed to be an eyedropper, but there are alot of pens that can be converted to be eyedroppers with a few modifications (adding a o-slip ring and silicon gel). Some designs, like the Danitrio Mikado has a built in valve to prevent ink leakage.
Pros: The entire pen body is the ink container, hence the biggest advantage is MASSIVE ink capacity, a desirable trait if you're a heavy writer. Furthermore, if your pen is a demonstrator, you can easily keep track on the level of ink left. Another pro is that with the simple design, there are little to no parts that can break or malfunction, so it should be more durable than another pen with a different filler mechanism made from the same materials.
The filling process is also extremely clean since the ink is dripped directly into the pen body. The nib does not have to be dipped into the ink in order to fill up the pen.
Cons: From my experiences, eyedroppers "burp" when the level of ink drops to ~30% or less. "Burping" is when a large drop of ink just spew out from the nib for no reason. Usually, you'll notice that the nib will be wetter than usual before burping occurs so most of the time, you can stop writing before a huge drop of ink splashes all over your paper. There are a couple of explanations as to why this happens and the current theory that I subscribe to is that when the ink level drops low, the air in the remaining empty volume expands rapidly due to the heat radiating from your palm, pushing ink out the nib, hence the "burping". I think the valve built into the Mikado is meant to prevent this but I cannot confirm the effectiveness of this design. Another less important con is that with the huge ink capacity, it takes forever for you to use up all the ink and switch over to a new one.
Another potential con is when using a modified eyedropper. If not done properly, ink leak is highly possible through the part where your pen body screws into your pen section. Also, if the pen body or pen section interior contains metal, it's advisable not to convert it into a eyedropper.
Maintenance: Pretty easy to clean, even easier if the pen is a demonstrator. The nib and feed can be flushed, the pen body can be easily cleaned using a cotton bud. Staining might occur with certain inks on certain pen materials.
My Thoughts: The only time I used an eyedropper from full capacity to burping level is a modified Platinum Preppy. Burping isn't an issue since I can visually track the level of ink and if you know what to look out for. Since I was using it during the exam period, I like the fact that I don't have to worry about running out of ink. The ink leakage worried me a little but luckily, it didn't happen. If you're looking for a workhorse pen, an eyedropper is the way to go due to its reliability and huge ink capacity.
Sac Pens (Lever, Crescent, Button etc...)
Sac pens are quite simply, pens that contain a rubber sac that is used to contain ink. Something is used to depress the pen sac, the nib is dipped into the ink, then the pen sac is released, and when the pen sac expands, ink is drawn into the sac. A lever-filler pen, like the Esterbrook, uses a lever to depress the ink sac; A crescent filler pen, like the Conklin, uses a crescent shaped button to depress the ink sac, and a button filler, like the C.E Levi pens, uses a button to bend a thin metal strip which will depress the pen sac.
Pros: To be honest I can't think of any pros here, perhaps a reason why most modern pens don't use pen sacs. If anyone can think of a pro, please list it in the comment, or reply to this thread.
Cons: Most ink sacs have small ink capacities, made even smaller by the fact that you won't achieve a full fill. I feel that ink sacs have a smaller ink capacity than cartridge converters. Your nib has to be immersed into the ink for the filling process too. Sac pens also have additional pen parts that can break, and these parts are almost impossible to find without taking from another pen.
Maintenance: I personally find sac pens hard to clean. The pen has to fill repeatedly with water, and it can't be taken apart for easier cleaning.
My Thoughts: Given 2 identical pens, one with a sac and the other with a different filling mechanism, I will probably choose the latter pen.
Sheaffer SnorkelSheaffer Snorkels are sac pens, they only differ in the way ink is collected. Basically, the feed holds a tube that connect directly to the sac. You wind out the tube, stick the tube in ink, depress the sac (I'm not going to go through the science here, except it's really cool), fill the sac with ink and then retract the nib.
Pros: Since you're using the tube to fill, only the tip of the tube touches the ink, hence only the tip requires cleaning. Extremely clean, a point that Sheaffer repeatedly promoted in its Snorkel advertisements. Also, since you don't have to immense the entire nib in ink, you don't need a high level of ink to fill the pen, just a thin layer to immerse the tip in.
Cons: In addition to the small ink capacity, the complexity of the filling mechanism makes it much harder to change the ink sac (not impossible to diy, but you need to buy additional tools and be very careful).
Maintenance: Snorkel pens are even harder to clean than other sac pens due to the fact that you can't flush out the feed with water; Any water ejected by the sac will come out by the tube, instead of through the feed like most pens. Fortunately, this can be done easily by removing the front of the pen which contains the feed.
My Thoughts: I love Snorkel pens, firstly for their nibs, and secondly for the novelty of the filling mechanism. However, if I am to be objective, and remove the novelty out of the equation, I will actually choose any other sac pens over the Snorkel.
Cartridge/Cartridge ConverterMost modern pens today are either cartridge-only (CO) pens or cartridge converter (CC) pens, the difference being that the former accepts only ink cartridges, while the latter (usually) accepts both cartridges and cartridge converters. Cartridges usually come in 2 lengths, a longer-body one or a shorter-body one. Sometimes, due to the design of the pen, the pen can only accepts short body cartridges. A cartridge converter is about the length of a longer-body one, so most of the time, a pen that can only accepts shorter-body ink cartridges will not be able to accept a cartridge converter. Another characteristic of cartridge converters is the opening on the end of the converter: International, or proprietary. Most CC pens, like the Edison and the Stipula pens, accept international cartridge converters, while other CC pens, like those from Sailor and Pilot, accept only converters made by them, hence the term "proprietary".
Pros: Ink cartridges are the easiest way to bring ink with you during travel, or to serve as a backup/emergency ink source. Back in school, I used to put 2 ink cartridges in my bag, and should I ever ran out of ink halfway, 2 ink cartridges will be more than enough to last me throughout the day. In addition, ink cartridges are almost impossible to burst or leak, hence I feel safe storing them anywhere on me or near me. An ink cartridge is cheap compared to a bottle of ink hence I will not lose a single night of sleep over losing an ink cartridge.
Cartridge converters are easy to fill, you can either fill it like a piston filler (more messy) or fill it by dipping the converter in the ink itself, the latter having the advantage of only requiring a small amount of ink. It's much cleaner this way too.
Most, if not all converters, are transparent and it's a simple matter to check your current ink level.
Lastly, converters are cheap. Should one fail, just go and buy another one for approximately US$15.
Cons: The biggest gripe that most people have (including me) is that most converters have small ink capacities (One exception might be the Pilot Con-70, but it's a proprietary converter, and only fit a small amount of Pilot pens). I personally find longer-body cartridges to have a satisfactory amount of ink, but per mL, they are more expensive than bottled ink.
Maintenance: I personally find CC pens to be the easiest to clean, due to the fact that you can break apart the pen down to its bare parts and cleaning each part by a cloth. Some converters can be taken apart and the inside of the converter tube cleaned with a cotton bud.
My Thoughts: Personally, I find the many benefits to outweigh the con, and the small ink capacity problem can be solved by carrying a couple extra ink cartridges. Many people have gone out of the way to not buy CC pens, but not me.
Piston Filler
After CC pens, piston fillers are probably the most common modern pens, and many people love them. They are characterised by a piston mechanism in the pen body, controlled by a turnable blind cap at the back of the pen. Their prices range from the cheap (TWSBI 540 and the Lamy 2000) to the expensive (MontBlanc 149), so pretty much everyone can afford them.
Pros: A piston filler has the largest ink capacity after the eyedropper and vacuum filler. It's easier to fill than the vacuum filler, and it doesn't burp like the eyedropper. It is relatively clean and easy to fill too, just like the CC pens.
Cons: The first con is that your ink level must fully cover the entire nib unit. Fortunately, the filling process is not volatile like Vacuum Filling.
Another possible con is that not all piston fillers can be disensembled and that not all of them contains an ink window. This can make it hard to determine the ink level, or to ensure that the pen is totally clean after washing it.
Another possible con is with the piston seal breaking and depending on which pen you have, it may be expensive to repair. For example, with the TWSBI 540, the original seal is available almost free from TWSBI and you can just switch the seal yourself but if it's a MontBlanc pen, you might have to send it back to the customer service.
Maintenance: Some piston fillers, like the TWSBI 540, can be easily broken down to the individual parts, and hence they are extremely easy to clean. Others, like the MontBlancs, are much harder to take apart, meaning that they are harder to clean too. It's a pain in the ass slowly sucking up water, ejecting it, and then repeating the procedure again. It's a really slow process, and your hands may ache after a while with all the twisting.
My Thoughts: Well I don't have a particular love nor dislike for piston fillers. I like its larger ink capacity but I hate the fact that it takes so long to clean.
Vacuum Filler (Plunger Filler)
Vacuum fillers are similar to eyedroppers and piston fillers in the sense that the pen body itself is the container for the ink. There isn't any complex mechanism inside like the piston filler, just a tube and a seal. The pen body has 2 different internal diameters, and as the seal passes from the smaller inner diameter section to the larger, the vacuum behind the seal suddenly releases, and suck up the ink through the immersed nib. Normally you'll repeat the whole process 2 more times to get as much ink as possible into the pen.
I'll admit that I don't have alot of experiences with vacuum fillers. The only ones that I have any experiences with are the Pilot Custom 823, and the Visconti Homo Sapien.
The Pilot Custom 823 and the Twsbi Vac 700 are more like your typical vacuum fillers, with a rod and a seal in the pen body, and a turnable blind cap that can unlock your rod. I'm not sure if this applies to most vacuum fillers but at least for these 2 pens, when the blind cap is tightened fully, the seal will seal off the feed, preventing any ink in the pen body from flowing into the feed.
The Visconti Homo Sapien is abit more complex, and the right terminology for it is a "Double Reservoirs Power Filler". Basically, "Power Filler" is just Visconti's fanciful term for vacuum filler. The "Double Reservoirs" term, however, is interesting enough for me to do abit of explaining. Typically, changes in the atmospheric pressure and temperature will cause the air in the pen (converter or pen body, depending on what kind of pen you have) to expand or contract. When that air expands, it will force out the ink, causing ink leakage. One solution is to have combs in your feed. The combs will trap excess ink instead of allowing them to drip. For a piston filler or a CC pen, the ink in the pen isn't too significant, and the combs are usually enough to trap any leaking ink. However, a vacuum filler has a higher ink capacity, and the ink leaking out may be more than what the combs can handle. The Pilot Custom 823's and Twsbi Vac 700's solution is to have the seal trap the ink in the pen body (This system has its con which I will go into detail later on). Visconti decided to create 2 different ink reservoirs in the pen body (hence the term Double Reservoirs), with the smaller reservoir closer to the feed, and the larger reservoir closer to the back of the pen. The seal, when fully shut, will trap the majority of the ink in the larger reservoir, leaving a small amount in the smaller reservoir. This small amount of ink, if it leaks, will be trapped by feed combs.
Pros: There are three big pros to vacuum fillers.
Firstly is the huge ink capacity, second only to the eyedropper. In a piston filler, more than half of the pen body is taken up by the piston, but since the vacuum filler only contains a thin rod and a small seal, the rest can be filled with ink. Normal filling methods will get you about 70% full, while if you use specialty inkwells (like the Visconti Travelling Inkpot with the Visconti Power Filler, or the Twsibi Ink Bottle with the Twsbi Vac 700), you can reach maximum ink capacity, a full 100%.
Secondly, unlike eyedroppers, vacuum fillers don't burp. You can use to the last drop without worrying about huge ink blots appearing on your paper one day.
Thirdly, the seal means that there will be no major ink leakage. There is always a chance then due to extreme pressure changes, or vigorous shaking, most of the ink in your pen will leak out through your nib. Due to the seal in the vacuum filler, ink in the pen body will stay there.
There's actually a fourth pro but it only applies to the Visconti Double Reservoir Power Filler system, and I'll be talking about it later on.
Cons: The one big con about the vacuum fillers is the filling process. Like the piston fillers, your ink level must fully cover the entire nib unit. The Visconti Homo Sapien has a HUGE nib so this can be a problem. In addition, vacuum fillers are messy fillers. As the ink is sucked in by a vacuum, it's very fast and violent process, so you need enough empty bottle space overhead if not any splashing will end on your table. The best generic bottle that I've found is the Noodler's bottle. Due to its thinner and taller profile, you need lesser ink (compared to most other bottle) to obtain a sufficient volume, yet the small bottle opening should prevent stray drops from falling out. Despite that, you still need quite a large amount of ink. Recently, I move back from Madison, Wisconsin to Singapore and I faced the problem of shipping all my inks (I have about 50+). Not sure if you notice, but most ink bottles are made of thick glass and pretty heavy. So I decide to transfer all my ink to small plastic vials. The problem is now, they are filled to the brim and I can't fill piston fillers, or vacuum fillers with them.
The second con has to do with the pen seal. If the pen cap is badly designed, and if the weather is dry, it's very likely that the ink in the feed will dry up, making it hard to start up. That's the problem that I faced with the Pilot Custom 823. I ended up storing it with the back cap loose, running the risk of the seal moving and squirting out ink. And this is where the double reservoirs advantage comes in. The ink in the smaller reservoir not only ensure that the feed won't dry out, but it allows me to start writing immediately instead of waiting for ink to flow out from the pen body and into the feed. From the design of the double reservoirs, the smaller reservoir should have roughly the same capacity as a converter. The only unfortunate thing is that this design is only available on certain pens.
Maintenance: Vacuum fillers are quite hard to clean from my experience, especially if they cannot be taken apart. My Pilot Custom 823 was semi-transparent so it's easy to see any leftover ink stain, and I notice that it's almost impossible to clean out leftover ink located behind the seal and at the back of the pen. Normally, I will pull out the plunger fully, and use an cotton bud to wipe out any ink stains but ink stains at the back of the seal (when the plunger is pulled out) can not be reached by the cotton bud. With a opaque pen like the Homo Sapiens, it's impossible to tell if the pen is cleaned (The water stream leaving the pen may be clear but there can still be stains left behind in the pen).
My Thoughts: Right now the only vacuum filler that I have is the Visconti Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately I haven't been using it in a long while because of my ink bottles issue, and it is likely that I won't be able to use it until I bought a Visconti Travelling Inkpot. A pity since the pen is such a joy to use. My advice is try to go for vacuum fillers that have accessories to help you obtain a tidy, yet full fill, like Visconti vacuum fillers with the Travelling Inkpot, and the Twsbi Vac 700 with the Twsbi ink bottle.
Bulk Filler (New!)
I wasn't planning on writing about any pens with rare filling mechanisms (Like Gate City Pen's Belmont, which is a syringe filler, or the Dune pen, which has a new pump mechanism) because I won't have any hands-on experiences with them. However, the Conid Fountainbel Bulk Filler is so innovative, and intriguing that I will like to talk about it here, let you guys know how it works and the pros and cons that I predict with such a system.
I think of the bulk filler as an adaptation of the syringe filler. The body of the syringe filler is basically a syringe. You immerse the nib in ink, pull out the plunger as you would do for a normal syringe, and viola, you get a filled pen. The problem is half of the pen body is taken up by the pulled out syringe so effectively, the ink capacity of the pen is half of the pen body.
The bulk filler improves on the above by designing the rod to be separable from the seal, so instead of leaving some room in the pen body to contain the rod, you can separate the rod from the seal, and store the rod in the pen body after filling, leaving from the seal at the end of the pen body. This means that the rest of the pen can be used to store ink. The ink capacity should most definitely be larger than that of a piston filler and roughly similar to that of a vacuum filler of a same size.
Pros: Of course, the first pro is the huge ink capacity as mentioned before like with the vacuum filler. A second pro is a much cleaner and easier way to fill. It's easier to get a 100% fill too. Filling this will be like filling a piston filler or a syringe. Although you'll need to fully immerse your nib, at least you won't get any splashing that you will normally get with a vacuum filler.
Cons: The first con that I can think of off the top of my head is that you'll need a high enough ink level to fully immerse the nib in order to fill it. Another con is that this filling mechanism is only available from one company and in one pen model so you'll be extremely limited in the variety of choices. Plus the pen is expensive enough to be considered top tier. Another possible con is with the ink leaking past the seal into the back of the pen. Normally in a piston filler, this only happens if the seal around the pen body breaks but in this case, with the moveable rod, it's possible that ink may slip through the seal through that route. However, without using the pen for a period of time, I cannot confirm if this will ever happen.
Maintenance: Just like with piston fillers and vacuum fillers, if the pen can be taken apart easily it will be easier to clean. Even if it can't, I predict that it will still be easier to clean than the piston filler or the vacuum filler. For the piston filler, you move the piston by twisting the back cap. To get the pen clean, you'll likely have to flush the pen multiple times and this become not only time consuming, but a serious pain in the ass (well, your hand will be aching too). For the vacuum filler, as I mentioned earlier, the ink stains that are located at the back of the seal are the ones that will be almost impossible to get out. You won't get these 2 problems with the bulk filler, hence I predict that it will be easier to clean.
My Thoughts: This is definitely a pen to keep an eye out for. Right now, Conid is selling only a demonstrator version which happens to be a LE version too. They mentioned that there will be a regular version in the future after the LE sales have concluded and that this version will be cheaper than the demonstrator. This regular version will be the one that I'll get.
Rollerball
This section really shouldn't belong to this article but such pens are so interesting I thought I'll just make a short section on it and put it at the end.
I'm referring to rollerballs that take fountain pen inks, normally from a converter or cartridges, sometimes from an eyedropper or piston filler too.
From my knowledge, there are 3 such rollerballs tips available. The cheapest ones are those found in Noodler's pens and Platinum Preppy pens. It consists of a cotton wick attached to the rollerball tip. The wick will suck up the ink, and transfer it to the tip, simple as that. The second rollerball tips are the Ink Ball and Mega Ink Ball collections by Monteverde. I'm not sure if the tips that were used on both of them are the same, nor how do they work. I also could not find any replacement tips. The last rollerball tips are made by Schmidt and they are the ones that I am most familiar with. Replacement tips are also relatively easy to find too.
For the pros and cons, I'll just talk about the pros and cons of such a system. I'll discuss more about the pros and cons of each type of tips in the "My Thoughts" section.
Pros: The big pro is that you get to use your multiple array of fountain pen inks with the ease of a rollerball tip. There are many big cons to fountain pen use, which explains why it is still considered a niche item. There are also certain instances where a fountain pen just won't do, like lending your pen to a non-fp user or writing on carbon paper. In these instances, such a rollerball pen can come in useful.
Cons: The first con is that you're limited in choices of line width. I believe the Noodler's pens rollerball tips are only available in 0.5mm, the Schmidts are only available in 0.7mm and the Ink ball tips are also only available in 1 width (though I'm not sure what that width is). The next con is that these tips are not as durable as normal fountain pen nibs. Normal nibs are designed to last almost forever, proof being that many vintage nibs now are still fully functional. Rollerball tips are not designed to last forever, and it's likely that you may have to change more than once in a year's worth of intensive usage.
Maintenance: For the life of me, I do not know how to wash rollerball tips. You can't flush the tips normally like you do with a normal nib. For the ones with the wick, you can soak the wick till it's clean again, but for the other 2, I have no idea how to clean them. The best I can think of is to first remove the ink source, write with the tip till no more ink comes out, and use water to wash the inside as well as you can. My current Schmidt tip was clogged up from my last use and I haven't been able to get a good flow of ink from it ever since. Think I'll have to change to a new tip....
My Thoughts: I've owned both the Noodler's rollerball pen (piston filler) and the Schmidt tip (in the form of the Visconti Rembrandt Eco Roller) and tried the Monteverde Invincia Ink Ball in a pen shop. I'll talk about the Noodler's one first.
The biggest problem with it is that the wick can not absorbed ink fast enough to allow you to write for long. For example, one night's worth of non-usage will probably let me write for one page before drying out. After that, I'll probably have to wait 15mins for every word or less. The tip was smooth when working, but the delivery system was so bad that you just can't use the pen for a long period of time. The tip may be cheap, but in my opinion, it isn't worth getting.
The Invincia Ink Ball that I tried was pretty bad, it was rough, and kept skipping, unlike a normal rollerball. The one that I've tried may have been a lemon, but even the shop assistant agreed with me that the Ink Ball was that bad. Given my bad experience with it, and that fact that I couldn't find any replacement tip, my recommendation is to skip this too, or at least take the chance to use it for yourself and see if you like the feel of it.
My Rembrandt Eco Roller was a dream to use. It felt like most rollerballs, smooth with a consistent ink flow, no skipping, and no burping when you write hard with it. The Schmidt replacement tips can be bought from a number of places too but so far, I haven't found a Singaporean source for it. This is worth getting, in fact, you might want to get multiple tips, one for each color, so you won't face the problem of cleaning it and loading another ink into it. I recommend always keeping one of them in your pencil case, in case you need to lend a pen to a friend, or if your fountain pens dry up and stop writing, or if you need to sign a check on carbon paper.
Eyedropper
I'll start off with the simplest design, the eyedropper. Currently on the market, there aren't alot of pens specifically designed to be an eyedropper, but there are alot of pens that can be converted to be eyedroppers with a few modifications (adding a o-slip ring and silicon gel). Some designs, like the Danitrio Mikado has a built in valve to prevent ink leakage.
Pros: The entire pen body is the ink container, hence the biggest advantage is MASSIVE ink capacity, a desirable trait if you're a heavy writer. Furthermore, if your pen is a demonstrator, you can easily keep track on the level of ink left. Another pro is that with the simple design, there are little to no parts that can break or malfunction, so it should be more durable than another pen with a different filler mechanism made from the same materials.
The filling process is also extremely clean since the ink is dripped directly into the pen body. The nib does not have to be dipped into the ink in order to fill up the pen.
Cons: From my experiences, eyedroppers "burp" when the level of ink drops to ~30% or less. "Burping" is when a large drop of ink just spew out from the nib for no reason. Usually, you'll notice that the nib will be wetter than usual before burping occurs so most of the time, you can stop writing before a huge drop of ink splashes all over your paper. There are a couple of explanations as to why this happens and the current theory that I subscribe to is that when the ink level drops low, the air in the remaining empty volume expands rapidly due to the heat radiating from your palm, pushing ink out the nib, hence the "burping". I think the valve built into the Mikado is meant to prevent this but I cannot confirm the effectiveness of this design. Another less important con is that with the huge ink capacity, it takes forever for you to use up all the ink and switch over to a new one.
Another potential con is when using a modified eyedropper. If not done properly, ink leak is highly possible through the part where your pen body screws into your pen section. Also, if the pen body or pen section interior contains metal, it's advisable not to convert it into a eyedropper.
Maintenance: Pretty easy to clean, even easier if the pen is a demonstrator. The nib and feed can be flushed, the pen body can be easily cleaned using a cotton bud. Staining might occur with certain inks on certain pen materials.
My Thoughts: The only time I used an eyedropper from full capacity to burping level is a modified Platinum Preppy. Burping isn't an issue since I can visually track the level of ink and if you know what to look out for. Since I was using it during the exam period, I like the fact that I don't have to worry about running out of ink. The ink leakage worried me a little but luckily, it didn't happen. If you're looking for a workhorse pen, an eyedropper is the way to go due to its reliability and huge ink capacity.
Sac Pens (Lever, Crescent, Button etc...)
Sac pens are quite simply, pens that contain a rubber sac that is used to contain ink. Something is used to depress the pen sac, the nib is dipped into the ink, then the pen sac is released, and when the pen sac expands, ink is drawn into the sac. A lever-filler pen, like the Esterbrook, uses a lever to depress the ink sac; A crescent filler pen, like the Conklin, uses a crescent shaped button to depress the ink sac, and a button filler, like the C.E Levi pens, uses a button to bend a thin metal strip which will depress the pen sac.
Pros: To be honest I can't think of any pros here, perhaps a reason why most modern pens don't use pen sacs. If anyone can think of a pro, please list it in the comment, or reply to this thread.
Cons: Most ink sacs have small ink capacities, made even smaller by the fact that you won't achieve a full fill. I feel that ink sacs have a smaller ink capacity than cartridge converters. Your nib has to be immersed into the ink for the filling process too. Sac pens also have additional pen parts that can break, and these parts are almost impossible to find without taking from another pen.
Maintenance: I personally find sac pens hard to clean. The pen has to fill repeatedly with water, and it can't be taken apart for easier cleaning.
My Thoughts: Given 2 identical pens, one with a sac and the other with a different filling mechanism, I will probably choose the latter pen.
Sheaffer SnorkelSheaffer Snorkels are sac pens, they only differ in the way ink is collected. Basically, the feed holds a tube that connect directly to the sac. You wind out the tube, stick the tube in ink, depress the sac (I'm not going to go through the science here, except it's really cool), fill the sac with ink and then retract the nib.
Pros: Since you're using the tube to fill, only the tip of the tube touches the ink, hence only the tip requires cleaning. Extremely clean, a point that Sheaffer repeatedly promoted in its Snorkel advertisements. Also, since you don't have to immense the entire nib in ink, you don't need a high level of ink to fill the pen, just a thin layer to immerse the tip in.
Cons: In addition to the small ink capacity, the complexity of the filling mechanism makes it much harder to change the ink sac (not impossible to diy, but you need to buy additional tools and be very careful).
Maintenance: Snorkel pens are even harder to clean than other sac pens due to the fact that you can't flush out the feed with water; Any water ejected by the sac will come out by the tube, instead of through the feed like most pens. Fortunately, this can be done easily by removing the front of the pen which contains the feed.
My Thoughts: I love Snorkel pens, firstly for their nibs, and secondly for the novelty of the filling mechanism. However, if I am to be objective, and remove the novelty out of the equation, I will actually choose any other sac pens over the Snorkel.
Cartridge/Cartridge ConverterMost modern pens today are either cartridge-only (CO) pens or cartridge converter (CC) pens, the difference being that the former accepts only ink cartridges, while the latter (usually) accepts both cartridges and cartridge converters. Cartridges usually come in 2 lengths, a longer-body one or a shorter-body one. Sometimes, due to the design of the pen, the pen can only accepts short body cartridges. A cartridge converter is about the length of a longer-body one, so most of the time, a pen that can only accepts shorter-body ink cartridges will not be able to accept a cartridge converter. Another characteristic of cartridge converters is the opening on the end of the converter: International, or proprietary. Most CC pens, like the Edison and the Stipula pens, accept international cartridge converters, while other CC pens, like those from Sailor and Pilot, accept only converters made by them, hence the term "proprietary".
Pros: Ink cartridges are the easiest way to bring ink with you during travel, or to serve as a backup/emergency ink source. Back in school, I used to put 2 ink cartridges in my bag, and should I ever ran out of ink halfway, 2 ink cartridges will be more than enough to last me throughout the day. In addition, ink cartridges are almost impossible to burst or leak, hence I feel safe storing them anywhere on me or near me. An ink cartridge is cheap compared to a bottle of ink hence I will not lose a single night of sleep over losing an ink cartridge.
Cartridge converters are easy to fill, you can either fill it like a piston filler (more messy) or fill it by dipping the converter in the ink itself, the latter having the advantage of only requiring a small amount of ink. It's much cleaner this way too.
Most, if not all converters, are transparent and it's a simple matter to check your current ink level.
Lastly, converters are cheap. Should one fail, just go and buy another one for approximately US$15.
Cons: The biggest gripe that most people have (including me) is that most converters have small ink capacities (One exception might be the Pilot Con-70, but it's a proprietary converter, and only fit a small amount of Pilot pens). I personally find longer-body cartridges to have a satisfactory amount of ink, but per mL, they are more expensive than bottled ink.
Maintenance: I personally find CC pens to be the easiest to clean, due to the fact that you can break apart the pen down to its bare parts and cleaning each part by a cloth. Some converters can be taken apart and the inside of the converter tube cleaned with a cotton bud.
My Thoughts: Personally, I find the many benefits to outweigh the con, and the small ink capacity problem can be solved by carrying a couple extra ink cartridges. Many people have gone out of the way to not buy CC pens, but not me.
Piston Filler
After CC pens, piston fillers are probably the most common modern pens, and many people love them. They are characterised by a piston mechanism in the pen body, controlled by a turnable blind cap at the back of the pen. Their prices range from the cheap (TWSBI 540 and the Lamy 2000) to the expensive (MontBlanc 149), so pretty much everyone can afford them.
Pros: A piston filler has the largest ink capacity after the eyedropper and vacuum filler. It's easier to fill than the vacuum filler, and it doesn't burp like the eyedropper. It is relatively clean and easy to fill too, just like the CC pens.
Cons: The first con is that your ink level must fully cover the entire nib unit. Fortunately, the filling process is not volatile like Vacuum Filling.
Another possible con is that not all piston fillers can be disensembled and that not all of them contains an ink window. This can make it hard to determine the ink level, or to ensure that the pen is totally clean after washing it.
Another possible con is with the piston seal breaking and depending on which pen you have, it may be expensive to repair. For example, with the TWSBI 540, the original seal is available almost free from TWSBI and you can just switch the seal yourself but if it's a MontBlanc pen, you might have to send it back to the customer service.
Maintenance: Some piston fillers, like the TWSBI 540, can be easily broken down to the individual parts, and hence they are extremely easy to clean. Others, like the MontBlancs, are much harder to take apart, meaning that they are harder to clean too. It's a pain in the ass slowly sucking up water, ejecting it, and then repeating the procedure again. It's a really slow process, and your hands may ache after a while with all the twisting.
My Thoughts: Well I don't have a particular love nor dislike for piston fillers. I like its larger ink capacity but I hate the fact that it takes so long to clean.
Vacuum Filler (Plunger Filler)
Vacuum fillers are similar to eyedroppers and piston fillers in the sense that the pen body itself is the container for the ink. There isn't any complex mechanism inside like the piston filler, just a tube and a seal. The pen body has 2 different internal diameters, and as the seal passes from the smaller inner diameter section to the larger, the vacuum behind the seal suddenly releases, and suck up the ink through the immersed nib. Normally you'll repeat the whole process 2 more times to get as much ink as possible into the pen.
I'll admit that I don't have alot of experiences with vacuum fillers. The only ones that I have any experiences with are the Pilot Custom 823, and the Visconti Homo Sapien.
The Pilot Custom 823 and the Twsbi Vac 700 are more like your typical vacuum fillers, with a rod and a seal in the pen body, and a turnable blind cap that can unlock your rod. I'm not sure if this applies to most vacuum fillers but at least for these 2 pens, when the blind cap is tightened fully, the seal will seal off the feed, preventing any ink in the pen body from flowing into the feed.
The Visconti Homo Sapien is abit more complex, and the right terminology for it is a "Double Reservoirs Power Filler". Basically, "Power Filler" is just Visconti's fanciful term for vacuum filler. The "Double Reservoirs" term, however, is interesting enough for me to do abit of explaining. Typically, changes in the atmospheric pressure and temperature will cause the air in the pen (converter or pen body, depending on what kind of pen you have) to expand or contract. When that air expands, it will force out the ink, causing ink leakage. One solution is to have combs in your feed. The combs will trap excess ink instead of allowing them to drip. For a piston filler or a CC pen, the ink in the pen isn't too significant, and the combs are usually enough to trap any leaking ink. However, a vacuum filler has a higher ink capacity, and the ink leaking out may be more than what the combs can handle. The Pilot Custom 823's and Twsbi Vac 700's solution is to have the seal trap the ink in the pen body (This system has its con which I will go into detail later on). Visconti decided to create 2 different ink reservoirs in the pen body (hence the term Double Reservoirs), with the smaller reservoir closer to the feed, and the larger reservoir closer to the back of the pen. The seal, when fully shut, will trap the majority of the ink in the larger reservoir, leaving a small amount in the smaller reservoir. This small amount of ink, if it leaks, will be trapped by feed combs.
Pros: There are three big pros to vacuum fillers.
Firstly is the huge ink capacity, second only to the eyedropper. In a piston filler, more than half of the pen body is taken up by the piston, but since the vacuum filler only contains a thin rod and a small seal, the rest can be filled with ink. Normal filling methods will get you about 70% full, while if you use specialty inkwells (like the Visconti Travelling Inkpot with the Visconti Power Filler, or the Twsibi Ink Bottle with the Twsbi Vac 700), you can reach maximum ink capacity, a full 100%.
Secondly, unlike eyedroppers, vacuum fillers don't burp. You can use to the last drop without worrying about huge ink blots appearing on your paper one day.
Thirdly, the seal means that there will be no major ink leakage. There is always a chance then due to extreme pressure changes, or vigorous shaking, most of the ink in your pen will leak out through your nib. Due to the seal in the vacuum filler, ink in the pen body will stay there.
There's actually a fourth pro but it only applies to the Visconti Double Reservoir Power Filler system, and I'll be talking about it later on.
Cons: The one big con about the vacuum fillers is the filling process. Like the piston fillers, your ink level must fully cover the entire nib unit. The Visconti Homo Sapien has a HUGE nib so this can be a problem. In addition, vacuum fillers are messy fillers. As the ink is sucked in by a vacuum, it's very fast and violent process, so you need enough empty bottle space overhead if not any splashing will end on your table. The best generic bottle that I've found is the Noodler's bottle. Due to its thinner and taller profile, you need lesser ink (compared to most other bottle) to obtain a sufficient volume, yet the small bottle opening should prevent stray drops from falling out. Despite that, you still need quite a large amount of ink. Recently, I move back from Madison, Wisconsin to Singapore and I faced the problem of shipping all my inks (I have about 50+). Not sure if you notice, but most ink bottles are made of thick glass and pretty heavy. So I decide to transfer all my ink to small plastic vials. The problem is now, they are filled to the brim and I can't fill piston fillers, or vacuum fillers with them.
The second con has to do with the pen seal. If the pen cap is badly designed, and if the weather is dry, it's very likely that the ink in the feed will dry up, making it hard to start up. That's the problem that I faced with the Pilot Custom 823. I ended up storing it with the back cap loose, running the risk of the seal moving and squirting out ink. And this is where the double reservoirs advantage comes in. The ink in the smaller reservoir not only ensure that the feed won't dry out, but it allows me to start writing immediately instead of waiting for ink to flow out from the pen body and into the feed. From the design of the double reservoirs, the smaller reservoir should have roughly the same capacity as a converter. The only unfortunate thing is that this design is only available on certain pens.
Maintenance: Vacuum fillers are quite hard to clean from my experience, especially if they cannot be taken apart. My Pilot Custom 823 was semi-transparent so it's easy to see any leftover ink stain, and I notice that it's almost impossible to clean out leftover ink located behind the seal and at the back of the pen. Normally, I will pull out the plunger fully, and use an cotton bud to wipe out any ink stains but ink stains at the back of the seal (when the plunger is pulled out) can not be reached by the cotton bud. With a opaque pen like the Homo Sapiens, it's impossible to tell if the pen is cleaned (The water stream leaving the pen may be clear but there can still be stains left behind in the pen).
My Thoughts: Right now the only vacuum filler that I have is the Visconti Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately I haven't been using it in a long while because of my ink bottles issue, and it is likely that I won't be able to use it until I bought a Visconti Travelling Inkpot. A pity since the pen is such a joy to use. My advice is try to go for vacuum fillers that have accessories to help you obtain a tidy, yet full fill, like Visconti vacuum fillers with the Travelling Inkpot, and the Twsbi Vac 700 with the Twsbi ink bottle.
Bulk Filler (New!)
I wasn't planning on writing about any pens with rare filling mechanisms (Like Gate City Pen's Belmont, which is a syringe filler, or the Dune pen, which has a new pump mechanism) because I won't have any hands-on experiences with them. However, the Conid Fountainbel Bulk Filler is so innovative, and intriguing that I will like to talk about it here, let you guys know how it works and the pros and cons that I predict with such a system.
I think of the bulk filler as an adaptation of the syringe filler. The body of the syringe filler is basically a syringe. You immerse the nib in ink, pull out the plunger as you would do for a normal syringe, and viola, you get a filled pen. The problem is half of the pen body is taken up by the pulled out syringe so effectively, the ink capacity of the pen is half of the pen body.
The bulk filler improves on the above by designing the rod to be separable from the seal, so instead of leaving some room in the pen body to contain the rod, you can separate the rod from the seal, and store the rod in the pen body after filling, leaving from the seal at the end of the pen body. This means that the rest of the pen can be used to store ink. The ink capacity should most definitely be larger than that of a piston filler and roughly similar to that of a vacuum filler of a same size.
Pros: Of course, the first pro is the huge ink capacity as mentioned before like with the vacuum filler. A second pro is a much cleaner and easier way to fill. It's easier to get a 100% fill too. Filling this will be like filling a piston filler or a syringe. Although you'll need to fully immerse your nib, at least you won't get any splashing that you will normally get with a vacuum filler.
Cons: The first con that I can think of off the top of my head is that you'll need a high enough ink level to fully immerse the nib in order to fill it. Another con is that this filling mechanism is only available from one company and in one pen model so you'll be extremely limited in the variety of choices. Plus the pen is expensive enough to be considered top tier. Another possible con is with the ink leaking past the seal into the back of the pen. Normally in a piston filler, this only happens if the seal around the pen body breaks but in this case, with the moveable rod, it's possible that ink may slip through the seal through that route. However, without using the pen for a period of time, I cannot confirm if this will ever happen.
Maintenance: Just like with piston fillers and vacuum fillers, if the pen can be taken apart easily it will be easier to clean. Even if it can't, I predict that it will still be easier to clean than the piston filler or the vacuum filler. For the piston filler, you move the piston by twisting the back cap. To get the pen clean, you'll likely have to flush the pen multiple times and this become not only time consuming, but a serious pain in the ass (well, your hand will be aching too). For the vacuum filler, as I mentioned earlier, the ink stains that are located at the back of the seal are the ones that will be almost impossible to get out. You won't get these 2 problems with the bulk filler, hence I predict that it will be easier to clean.
My Thoughts: This is definitely a pen to keep an eye out for. Right now, Conid is selling only a demonstrator version which happens to be a LE version too. They mentioned that there will be a regular version in the future after the LE sales have concluded and that this version will be cheaper than the demonstrator. This regular version will be the one that I'll get.
Rollerball
This section really shouldn't belong to this article but such pens are so interesting I thought I'll just make a short section on it and put it at the end.
I'm referring to rollerballs that take fountain pen inks, normally from a converter or cartridges, sometimes from an eyedropper or piston filler too.
From my knowledge, there are 3 such rollerballs tips available. The cheapest ones are those found in Noodler's pens and Platinum Preppy pens. It consists of a cotton wick attached to the rollerball tip. The wick will suck up the ink, and transfer it to the tip, simple as that. The second rollerball tips are the Ink Ball and Mega Ink Ball collections by Monteverde. I'm not sure if the tips that were used on both of them are the same, nor how do they work. I also could not find any replacement tips. The last rollerball tips are made by Schmidt and they are the ones that I am most familiar with. Replacement tips are also relatively easy to find too.
For the pros and cons, I'll just talk about the pros and cons of such a system. I'll discuss more about the pros and cons of each type of tips in the "My Thoughts" section.
Pros: The big pro is that you get to use your multiple array of fountain pen inks with the ease of a rollerball tip. There are many big cons to fountain pen use, which explains why it is still considered a niche item. There are also certain instances where a fountain pen just won't do, like lending your pen to a non-fp user or writing on carbon paper. In these instances, such a rollerball pen can come in useful.
Cons: The first con is that you're limited in choices of line width. I believe the Noodler's pens rollerball tips are only available in 0.5mm, the Schmidts are only available in 0.7mm and the Ink ball tips are also only available in 1 width (though I'm not sure what that width is). The next con is that these tips are not as durable as normal fountain pen nibs. Normal nibs are designed to last almost forever, proof being that many vintage nibs now are still fully functional. Rollerball tips are not designed to last forever, and it's likely that you may have to change more than once in a year's worth of intensive usage.
Maintenance: For the life of me, I do not know how to wash rollerball tips. You can't flush the tips normally like you do with a normal nib. For the ones with the wick, you can soak the wick till it's clean again, but for the other 2, I have no idea how to clean them. The best I can think of is to first remove the ink source, write with the tip till no more ink comes out, and use water to wash the inside as well as you can. My current Schmidt tip was clogged up from my last use and I haven't been able to get a good flow of ink from it ever since. Think I'll have to change to a new tip....
My Thoughts: I've owned both the Noodler's rollerball pen (piston filler) and the Schmidt tip (in the form of the Visconti Rembrandt Eco Roller) and tried the Monteverde Invincia Ink Ball in a pen shop. I'll talk about the Noodler's one first.
The biggest problem with it is that the wick can not absorbed ink fast enough to allow you to write for long. For example, one night's worth of non-usage will probably let me write for one page before drying out. After that, I'll probably have to wait 15mins for every word or less. The tip was smooth when working, but the delivery system was so bad that you just can't use the pen for a long period of time. The tip may be cheap, but in my opinion, it isn't worth getting.
The Invincia Ink Ball that I tried was pretty bad, it was rough, and kept skipping, unlike a normal rollerball. The one that I've tried may have been a lemon, but even the shop assistant agreed with me that the Ink Ball was that bad. Given my bad experience with it, and that fact that I couldn't find any replacement tip, my recommendation is to skip this too, or at least take the chance to use it for yourself and see if you like the feel of it.
My Rembrandt Eco Roller was a dream to use. It felt like most rollerballs, smooth with a consistent ink flow, no skipping, and no burping when you write hard with it. The Schmidt replacement tips can be bought from a number of places too but so far, I haven't found a Singaporean source for it. This is worth getting, in fact, you might want to get multiple tips, one for each color, so you won't face the problem of cleaning it and loading another ink into it. I recommend always keeping one of them in your pencil case, in case you need to lend a pen to a friend, or if your fountain pens dry up and stop writing, or if you need to sign a check on carbon paper.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
"Selling" a C.E Levi fountain pen...
For those who does not know what a "C.E Levi" fountain pen is, you can check his blog C.E Levi fountain pen or my review C.E Levi fountain pen review for information.
About a year ago, Cameron (the maker of C.E Levi pens) offered 50 pens with a discount of US$150 each with the condition that the buyer writes a detailed review of the pen. The review does not have to be positive, just well written and detailed. I paid for 3 of these slots, and used one of them on the Nox that was reviewed on my blog. I am planning to use another of the slots on the woodgrain Nox, and regarding my last slot, I will like to sell it.
So here's the deal: You get any C.E Levi fp model for US$150 off the retail price, and you have to write a review on your pen, preferably within 2 months of receiving the pen. If you don't want to write a review, I am willing to write one for you, but I'll need to spend a week with the pen, to be reasonably familiar with it.
If you're interested, or you'll like to know more, send me an email: twistedmetal16@gmail.com
About a year ago, Cameron (the maker of C.E Levi pens) offered 50 pens with a discount of US$150 each with the condition that the buyer writes a detailed review of the pen. The review does not have to be positive, just well written and detailed. I paid for 3 of these slots, and used one of them on the Nox that was reviewed on my blog. I am planning to use another of the slots on the woodgrain Nox, and regarding my last slot, I will like to sell it.
So here's the deal: You get any C.E Levi fp model for US$150 off the retail price, and you have to write a review on your pen, preferably within 2 months of receiving the pen. If you don't want to write a review, I am willing to write one for you, but I'll need to spend a week with the pen, to be reasonably familiar with it.
If you're interested, or you'll like to know more, send me an email: twistedmetal16@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)