Bought a cross aventura..Now what?

[imatabor]

As stated I bought a Cross Aventura at a local salvage for a cheap price. It came with one cartage. This is my first Fountain pen so this is all new.

My first impressions are:
1. It is very smooth, is makes mt ballpoint pens feel like they are scrapping the paper.
2. The cartage seems small, not sure how long it will last.
3. I makes me want to write nicer. Writing with some nice makes me want to work on my penmanship.

A couple of question if I can:

1. My handwriting is pretty small, would a fine nib be better than the med that it comes with.
2. The ink cartage seems small, is this like buying a cheap printer and then pay a fortune for the ink?
3. I have read here about something about "Converters". My impression is that this is a refillable option. Does this pen work with one? Where can you get one.
4. It is to late but is this a decent pen?

 

[NinthSphere]

1 Depends on how small your small handwriting is. I print small, but write cursive larger. I use everything from a fine to a 1.5ish italic. You might rather adapt your writing to the size of the nib.

2 It doesn't have to be. There are cheaper carts, you can refill carts, or dig up a converter. Look around shops like Goulet for ink you like & buy samples before settling on bottles.

3 Google tells me the Aventura is coverter compatible. This should work, although you may have to remove a spring in the pen barrel, used to secure a cartridge, first.

4 You could certainly do worse. I'm not a fan of metal sections, but it looks like a nice pen. If it works for you, that's all that matters.

 

[Runnin_Ute]

I used to have a Aventura. Nice pen. You did ok. It wrote well but didn't get the use it deserved so I PIF'd it to a newbie over on FPN several months back. Mine had a converter. I think there are multiple converters for Cross pens. Make sure you get the right one. Or you can just refill cartridges with whatever ink you want. (make sure it is fountain pen ink - not all inks are created equal. Some inks have shellac in them and will gum up your pen. Goulet Pens, Andersen Pens Vanness Pens are some retailers that carry the correct ink.

 

[Vacumatic]

If you buy a converter take care because Cross make two different types, a push in and a screw in. Your pen takes the push in. They used to be colour coded, amber or green, amber was the push in type but I think that has now ben stopped.

If your handwriting is small, that is lower case letters are smaller than half way between the lines on a standard notebook (which usually has spacing at 1/4 inch), you may be better getting a new pen with a fine nib.

To see if this makes in practice I would suggest a fine nibbed pen such as the Jinhao 599 which can be bought from ebay for less than $2 including shipping. That pen comes with a converter or could take international cartridges (not Cross) if you preferred.

I am on another forum giving advice on penmanship and some people on there had the opinion that a fountain pen gives you a free ticket to the land of elegant writing, it doesn't. In my experience, lots of practice and concentration are the real way forward although I understand the proposition that committing to the act of buying a good pen in order to accomplish a given task is the first step in the process. As Nancy says, you will never learn to fish on a borrowed line.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Welcome to the club, John!

The guys have given you some good advice so far. The only thing that I want to mention, is that if you have small handwriting, you might want to steer clear of the Jinhao. I can see why Vacumatic suggested them, but they come with a fairly bold, medium nib. Granted, you could buy a fine-tip nib to put in it, but it might just be easier to get a pen that comes with a nib that you'd prefer.

 

[Vacumatic]

A fine nibbed Jinhao 599 is available Claudel, slightly different design to the regular 599

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

A fine nibbed Jinhao 599 is available Claudel, slightly different design to the regular 599

Nice. I guess I haven't checked out Jinhaos for quite a while, but I'd only seen them with medium nibs. Thanks, for the info.

 

[imatabor]

Thanks for the replies.

How do you refill the cart? I have visions of the first time tried refilling my ink jet printer cartridges. It looked like a rainbow threw up all over the kitchen sink (not as pretty as it sounds)
Is a convertor just a large cartridge?
I also see that the prefilled cartridges are around 1 buck a piece, how long does a cart last?

Lastly in the reviews for I see a pen described as "leaving a wet line". Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

Thanks for the replies.

How do you refill the cart? I have visions of the first time tried refilling my ink jet printer cartridges. It looked like a rainbow threw up all over the kitchen sink (not as pretty as it sounds)
Is a convertor just a large cartridge?
I also see that the prefilled cartridges are around 1 buck a piece, how long does a cart last?

Lastly in the reviews for I see a pen described as "leaving a wet line". Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

A converter is essentially a purposefully reusable cartridge. How long a cart will last depends on the nib size, the ink, the paper, and the flow of the ink. Leaving a wet line is referring to a lot of ink coming out of the nib when it's put to paper. It can be wither a good or bad thing, depending on the users intent. If the user is writing with an extra-fine nib, then a wet line could be good because it'll provide enough ink to keep the pen from skipping. If the user is writing with a 1.5mm stub nib on some cheap paper, then a wet line could cause oversaturation, feathering, bleed-through, wrinkling of the paper, etc.

Here's how to refill the a converter or cartridge.

Video Reference and Tutorial Guides