I am just curious what other folks thoughts are on fill mechanisms. Here are mine.
I have around 75 fountain pens, so have a variety of fill mechanisms. I prefer piston fillers. Below are my thoughts.
1. Piston fillers - easy to use, robust mechanism and holds a lot of ink. Many have a sight window to see the ink level - handy. Great for travelers because of the large reservoir.
2. Lever filler - decent ink volume and easy to use. These mechanisms can be more fragile than most other types and when an ink sack goes bad, at best you are out of luck, sometimes that creates a mess. Relatively easy to fix, but maintenance, especially with vintage pens, is predictable.
3. Squeeze fillers - these are a hybrid of lever and converter filler technologies. Found in many Parker 51s. The "converter" is not removable and is filled by pressing and releasing a bar on the side. To access the bar, the barrel of the pen is removed. I have not had a squeeze filler go bad, but it is not unheard of. Relative low maintenance and easy to use.
4. Converter - these come in twist to fill, squeeze to fill and more rarely, push to fill. They are easily replaced, so maintenance is a breeze, but they hold the least ink, so refilling is a, more or less, constant chore. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your pen rotation strategy.
5. Cartridge - simple plastic cartridges that slip into the pen and are punctured by closing the pen. Relatively clean to use and great for travelers. Cons are: lack of ink choice, lack of volume and more difficult to get a dry pen started.
6. Snorkel - Sheaffer made a great snorkel back in the 1950s or so. Fun to use and relatively clean when filling as the retractable snorkel is the only part that hits the ink. The snorkel was mated with a piston filling mechanism. Mine writes very well, but the retracted snorkel mechanism takes up reservoir room, thereby, reducing ink capacity.
7. Eye dropper - these are really old school pens. There are various methods used to retract or remove the nib and you use an eye dropper to fill the reservoir. In mine, the nib retracts for filling AND capping. There is a gasket in the cap to prevent ink loss when carrying the pen which holds copious amounts of ink. Cons - you WILL make a mess with these. Pros - they hold a ton of ink and are a blast to use. Relatively low maintenance.
What do you have? What do you like best?
I have around 75 fountain pens, so have a variety of fill mechanisms. I prefer piston fillers. Below are my thoughts.
1. Piston fillers - easy to use, robust mechanism and holds a lot of ink. Many have a sight window to see the ink level - handy. Great for travelers because of the large reservoir.
2. Lever filler - decent ink volume and easy to use. These mechanisms can be more fragile than most other types and when an ink sack goes bad, at best you are out of luck, sometimes that creates a mess. Relatively easy to fix, but maintenance, especially with vintage pens, is predictable.
3. Squeeze fillers - these are a hybrid of lever and converter filler technologies. Found in many Parker 51s. The "converter" is not removable and is filled by pressing and releasing a bar on the side. To access the bar, the barrel of the pen is removed. I have not had a squeeze filler go bad, but it is not unheard of. Relative low maintenance and easy to use.
4. Converter - these come in twist to fill, squeeze to fill and more rarely, push to fill. They are easily replaced, so maintenance is a breeze, but they hold the least ink, so refilling is a, more or less, constant chore. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your pen rotation strategy.
5. Cartridge - simple plastic cartridges that slip into the pen and are punctured by closing the pen. Relatively clean to use and great for travelers. Cons are: lack of ink choice, lack of volume and more difficult to get a dry pen started.
6. Snorkel - Sheaffer made a great snorkel back in the 1950s or so. Fun to use and relatively clean when filling as the retractable snorkel is the only part that hits the ink. The snorkel was mated with a piston filling mechanism. Mine writes very well, but the retracted snorkel mechanism takes up reservoir room, thereby, reducing ink capacity.
7. Eye dropper - these are really old school pens. There are various methods used to retract or remove the nib and you use an eye dropper to fill the reservoir. In mine, the nib retracts for filling AND capping. There is a gasket in the cap to prevent ink loss when carrying the pen which holds copious amounts of ink. Cons - you WILL make a mess with these. Pros - they hold a ton of ink and are a blast to use. Relatively low maintenance.
What do you have? What do you like best?
