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Cartridge or Converter Ink

In pens that take converters or cartridges, I use:

  • I always use a converter

    Votes: 17 40.5%
  • I prefer a converter but sometimes use cartridges

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • It depends on the pen

    Votes: 4 9.5%
  • I prefer cartridges but sometimes use a converter

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • I only use cartridges

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • I use whatever strikes the mood at fill time

    Votes: 3 7.1%

  • Total voters
    42
Well the poll questions run the gamut. What are your thoughts on the subject?

I have many pens that take cartridges and I have converters for each. In my ink drawer I have many bottles of ink and a little baggie with the cartridges I have collected over the years - mostly supplied with a new pen. I simply prefer the variety of inks that I can use if bottle feeding and I’m not interested in refilling cartridges.

I can’t say I never used cartridges, but it has been at least 4 decades since I did. I remember in college always having a spare cartridge in my bag just in case. Occasionally it would get used in the middle of class. Since then, I have gotten more pens and haven’t had the need for the cartridges. When traveling, I also have a traveling inkpot.

Interested in your thoughts.
 
For pens that take international "short" cartridges, I tend to use converters most of the time, mainly because I'm using an ink that doesn't come in cartridges. For pens that use proprietary carts--Pilot, Parker, Lamy--I tend to refill the cartridges because they hold more ink than the converters.
 

tankerjohn

A little poofier than I prefer
I prefer the time-honored ritual of filling from a bottle - through the nib no less! Some converters work better than other. Platinum - perfection! Pilot Con-70 - meh, it works. International - too many to judge; the screw-on ones are best.

I won't knock anyone for preferring cartridges. They are useful and clean and easy and not everyone wants to futz with bottles of ink. I use them occasionally for travel. I don't think we few fountain pen geeks are filling up landfills and plastic islands in the ocean with ink cartridges. And anyway, they are reusable (though syringe filling cartridges is rather too sterile and clinical for me, like conceiving a baby in a laboratory instead of the bedroom, if you catch my drift, which is to say that it is sometimes a necessity but far from the ideal).
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
I typically have three pens inked, two with cartridges, and one from a bottle. Specific pens for each.

Blue spectrum cartridges:

IMG_20210914_230834.jpg

Red spectrum cartridges:

IMG_20210914_230948.jpg

Bottled inks:

IMG_20210914_231350_edit.jpg

The cartridge pens are all standard international. Two can take converters, and two cannot. However the bottled ink pens are three Parkers and one piston filler. I do have a few (maybe 10?) Parker cartridges, but the colours are so limited, that I'd rather use them with converters.

So, I suppose this could be simplified as cartridges for convenience and less mess, and converters if they don't have Std Int'l fittings.
 
If a pen comes without a converter or the converter fails, I’ll use a cartridge. It’s been years since I bought cartridges though. I use a syringe and refill from a bottle with an ink I want to use. Filling is easy and most cartridges will hold more ink than a converter.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
If a pen comes without a converter or the converter fails, I’ll use a cartridge. It’s been years since I bought cartridges though. I use a syringe and refill from a bottle with an ink I want to use. Filling is easy and most cartridges will hold more ink than a converter.

Yup! I do that too in my cartridge pens, but I only tend to refil them once, before moving on to a new cartridge. I'm a bit wary of the neck of the cartridge wearing loose, and coming adrift if used too many times.

I sometimes fill converters with a syringe too.
 
I just went through my cartridge stash. I thought the plastic cartridges would have protected the ink from evaporation essentially forever, That was incorrect.

The Skrip cartridges (maybe 40 years old) were roughly 1/4 full as was a Parker cartridge. The Lamy cartridge I had, which was at least 25 years old, was about half full. The only cartridges that were holding at full were Waterman cartridges, they appeared to still be full. I have no idea how old these are, but decades. I tossed all but the Waterman cartridges. I suspect my kids will toss those when I croak.
 

steveclarkus

Goose Poop Connoisseur
I mostly use my LAMY pens now and since I use only black ink, I use cartridges because of the simplicity and ease of use.
 
Outlier alert. I got a FP starter kit in a BST trade that included converters. My two pens since then are both piston fillers. I have never used a cartridge.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I tossed all but the Waterman cartridges. I suspect my kids will toss those when I croak.

Old carts can also be used as refillable on pens you don't have a converter for. Just keep refilling it with a syringe. Eventually they wear out where you join them to the feed, but they can last a while.

But yeah ... the carts do in fact have the ink evaporate out over time.
 
Old carts can also be used as refillable on pens you don't have a converter for. Just keep refilling it with a syringe. Eventually they wear out where you join them to the feed, but they can last a while.

But yeah ... the carts do in fact have the ink evaporate out over time.

Yeah, but converters are easier. They fill through the nib, so you don't have to prime the feed like you do if you use a cart. Plus, no syringe to clean up.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Yeah, but converters are easier. They fill through the nib, so you don't have to prime the feed like you do if you use a cart. Plus, no syringe to clean up.

Absolutely.

But sometimes converters aren't available for a given pen, or you don't have one, so you make do with reusing the cartridge.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Absolutely.

But sometimes converters aren't available for a given pen, or you don't have one, so you make do with reusing the cartridge.

Plus cartridge pens often have room in the barrel for a spare cartridge in the otherwise dead space of a converter plunger/screw. Or in the case of the likes of Parker, gives a significantly bigger reservoir in the long cartridge.

I still keep a converter or piston filled pen handy/ready though.
 

Rudy Vey

Shaving baby skin and turkey necks
Most of my pens are piston fillers - Pelikan - I have a few pens that would require cartridges, but I prefer the converters.
Reason is that these are quite universal and I can fill the ink in it I like. Cartridges are limited to certain pens and colors.
 
Plus cartridge pens often have room in the barrel for a spare cartridge in the otherwise dead space of a converter plunger/screw. Or in the case of the likes of Parker, gives a significantly bigger reservoir in the long cartridge.

I still keep a converter or piston filled pen handy/ready though.

You really should try a Visconti Manhattan. Talk about an ink reservoir. It will keep you busy for weeks where carts will go for days. There are plenty of other non-cart/converter pens that will hold a boatload more ink than a cart.

Another plus of a non-cart pen is you are not at its mercy for when you have to refill it. With converters, pistons, levers, vacuumatics, etc. you can fill when you want and keep on going. You don't get stuck in the middle of a meeting with a dead pen and having to fiddle with it to get it going.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
My vote is converter in all pens that take them. I like messing around with a bottle of ink. That way I can get it on my hands. 😂
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
You really should try a Visconti Manhattan. Talk about an ink reservoir. It will keep you busy for weeks where carts will go for days. There are plenty of other non-cart/converter pens that will hold a boatload more ink than a cart.

Another plus of a non-cart pen is you are not at its mercy for when you have to refill it. With converters, pistons, levers, vacuumatics, etc. you can fill when you want and keep on going. You don't get stuck in the middle of a meeting with a dead pen and having to fiddle with it to get it going.

No Visconti's here. Way out of my budget. I do have a demonstrator though, if I want a "marathon" pen.

I do agree that converters etc can be filled before waiting for it to be emptied. If I had the same ink as bottles, as I do in carts, I could achieve the same with a syringe/pipette. However all my cartridges are different to all my bottled inks, so I'd have to mix in the nearest I had.

In fact, I'd probably be more inclined to refill the converter with a syringe anyway, so I'm not having to bundle up the pen in rags, to deal with it blowing the feed ink out while expelling the bubble in the tank.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Most of my pens are piston fillers - Pelikan - I have a few pens that would require cartridges, but I prefer the converters.
Reason is that these are quite universal and I can fill the ink in it I like. Cartridges are limited to certain pens and colors.

Ditto.

I like being able to top up a piston-fill or converter, where with the cart I just have to wait for it to run dry ... rather like preferring the rechargeable batteries in my flashlights instead of going for disposable batteries.

And to keep the metaphor going ... I prefer a "18650" flashlight rather than one that takes AA batteries. So that would mean going for the higher capacity piston rather than the converter.
 
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