Eye Dropper Fountain Pens

[Raissermesser]

One is one the way, courtesy of a bottle of Noodler's Heart of Darkness. The plan is to decant part of it into a rapidly emptying bottle of Noodler's Black, but it comes with a Charlie pen. The extra supply of ink you get with eye dropper pens is attractive, but understand that they "burp" more easily due to changes in air pressure inside the barrel due to body heat.

Anybody use eye dropper fountain pens much? What's your take on them?

 

[Vacumatic]

I had a 1920s Mabie Todd eyedropper and your burping suggestion was spot on, a splodge of ink would appear mid line and ruin the page, as you say air pressure changes caused by the heat from your hand expanding the air inside the barrel.

Put me off them for good.

In any case, not entirely sure that I would appreciate a huge ink capacity, I quite like to chop and change my inks and pens and dont leave multiple pens part full of ink.



Looking forward to hearing what other people have to say on using more modern eye droppers.

 

[captp]

Yep. The Charlie is probe to burping. I retired it, I have plenty of FPs that don't burp. Platinum Preppy hasn't burped on me yet.

 

[kcore]

I feel like the Preppy would be a good pen to eye dropper because of all of the fins and space it has in the section to take the little bit of ink that can end up wanting to burp out.

 

[tube_guy]

I use an Asa Pens Genius, which I eye dropper fill. I keep it in my shirt pocket, facing up, when it's not in use. That keeps the pen warm and causes any expansion to occur while the nib is facing up. I rarely have a problem with burping, until the pen is almost empty. If I keep it better than halfway full, it'll never burp ink.

 

[SmoovD]

^^^^^ +1.

 

[r0ckrat]

I use an Asa Pens Genius, which I eye dropper fill. I keep it in my shirt pocket, facing up, when it's not in use. That keeps the pen warm and causes any expansion to occur while the nib is facing up. I rarely have a problem with burping, until the pen is almost empty. If I keep it better than halfway full, it'll never burp ink.

This. Works with the Charlie as well. If it's a color you like, and you plan on continuous use, then just top it up when it falls below half-full and you will avoid 90% of any burping issues.

 

[Doc4]

I have had great success with eyedropper pens, on the whole. The Pilot 78g is probably my all-time favourite to eyedropper, followed closely by the Kaweco sport. The key is that the resevoir that will hold the ink has to be all non-metal.

I had good results with the Platinum Preppies that came with Noodler bottles as well, although I found the plastic used to be too brittle for longterm success. But the pen came free and is only like $2 when you buy it ... price may have gone up a bit since I was in the market ... so can't really complain.

I did get a couple of the other pens free with Noodler bottles, and they were not successful. This was several years ago, and I don't know if they have changed or upgraded since but ... if you have an unpleasant experience with your Charlie do not let it put you off the concept of eyedropper pens on the whole.

Burping tends to be mostly when the pens are getting empty, so filling them up again is a good way to fix the problem.

 

[TropicalHotDogNight]

There is a particular utilitarian simplicity to eyedropper fillers (particularly demonstrator style pens with clear parts) that really appeals to me. Watching the ink slosh around in the body of the pen is satisfying. That being said, I don't tend to commit to inks for very long. I like to continually try out samples in my quest for the elusive "perfect ink." Sometimes I'm just picky about inks and can't find what I really want, and other times I am in the mood for the novelty of using a milliliter or so of some fun new color and then moving on. Eyedroppers are not great for this.

I had a Platinum Preppy EF filled eyedropper style with Diamine Ancient Copper for a couple of years. As I rarely used it, a lot of ink evaporated and it nearly went empty. Never once did it burp! Although I suspect burping would be more likely if I had used it frequently. A pen sitting in a drawer doesn't behave like one that is always being moved around and exposed to temperature/pressure changes.

I recently bought a TWSBI Eco, and I find that it's a nice happy medium between the look and capacity of an eyedropper fill, and the convenience of a cartridge filler. I'm beginning to like large piston fillers.

 

[Doc4]

I like to continually try out samples in my quest for the elusive "perfect ink." ... Eyedroppers are not great for this.

I found that getting the Goulet samples ... be it the monthly subscription or just ordering what intrigued me ... worked well with an eyedropper. I'd just pour the whole sample into the pen body, seal it up, and be ready to write with the new ink.

Of course, that meant I was basically committed to the ink to the end of the sample but ... to me ... that didn't seem like all that long. I tended to use only a few pens at a time and also to go for the broader nibs (often an italic or stub) so ink use was fairly heavy and the sample got used up pretty quickly.

 

[Slivovitz]

I have an Opus 88 Koloro which I bought in late 2017, taking advantage of a sale price. It's a rather nice design, an eyedropper only with a release valve at the end so that you never have ink flow problems, and of course it holds a lot of ink. Unfortunately, I find the fine steel nib to be rather uninspiring. I've wondered if I might have liked their medium nib better, but I'm not going to pay to find out.

Also a Stipula Passaporto, once of the special editions where the cap screws into the posted position. Haven't used it in a while, as I always had ink flow problems with it. Others have not reported an issue with this, but I haven't come up with a really good solution. I like the nib a little better than the Koloro, though.

And I've eyedroppered a couple of cheap cartridge pens, Platinum Preppy, Kaweco plastic Sport, just to see how it would go. Not recently, but at some point in my fountain pen journey. It worked, but didn't inspire me to keep on doing it. Part of that is the nibs on those specific pens. Most of my favorites are not suitable for eyedroppering for one reason or another. The idea of having a huge ink supply in a fountain pen is nice, but with a little forethought, I have never run out at an important time. I always have a spare pen with me. And besides, I like switching between pens.

 

[Claudel Xerxes]

A converted Platinum Preppy was mostly what I used for notes in college.

 

[KW Driver]

I’ve eyedroppered most that were capable of it that I’ve had. Pelican Pelicano stayed eyedroppered for a long time and worked well for me as a folio note taking pen.

 

[Raissermesser]

Feel a bit stupid, because the Pilot Varsity fountain pens are essentially eye dropper pens. Sure enough, you can find how-tos on removing the feed and filling with an eye dropper. Since the Varsity feed looks similar to the Preppy's, that bodes well for a Preppy conversion.

 

[tankerjohn]

Feel a bit stupid, because the Pilot Varsity fountain pens are essentially eye dropper pens. Sure enough, you can find how-tos on removing the feed and filling with an eye dropper. Since the Varsity feed looks similar to the Preppy's, that bodes well for a Preppy conversion.

I've never eyedroppered a pen, but I do know from reading around that Preppies are pretty commonly converted. Goulet (and probably other retailers) even sell gaskets specifically for that.

 

[TropicalHotDogNight]

I've never eyedroppered a pen, but I do know from reading around that Preppies are pretty commonly converted. Goulet (and probably other retailers) even sell gaskets specifically for that.

All you have to do is slip an O ring on the threaded section, and then rub some silicone grease on the threads before screwing the pen back together. It's as simple as that. Since the threads are rather loose, I use lots of grease. Slather it on with a Q tip and wipe away the excess when you are done.

 

[KW Driver]

Preppies probably need the gasket. Every other pen of mine that I’ve eyedroppered’s been fine with just grease.

 

[Raissermesser]

Preppies probably need the gasket. Every other pen of mine that I’ve eyedroppered’s been fine with just grease.

Found a fix online that used Teflon (tm) plumber's tape on the threads. Looked at that and went "Umm...rather have the O ring.

FWIW, have found silicone grease in the plumbing section of a hardware store before. The O rings are another issue, but have seen them around as well. The problem is finding the right ones. I'm not throwing off on Goulet Pens (have always had a good experience with them), but tend to avoid ordering things if at all possible.

 

[Vacumatic]

Found a fix online that used Teflon (tm) plumber's tape on the threads. Looked at that and went "Umm...rather have the O ring.

FWIW, have found silicone grease in the plumbing section of a hardware store before. The O rings are another issue, but have seen them around as well. The problem is finding the right ones. I'm not throwing off on Goulet Pens (have always had a good experience with them), but tend to avoid ordering things if at all possible.

There is a chain of German owned supermarkets that sells oddments alongside your regular groceries. some are irresistable even if you have no immediate need such as this box of Jubillee clips, the last time I needed a clip was 40 years ago, they also have a box of assorted O rings. all for under $5.

 

[Slivovitz]

Found a fix online that used Teflon (tm) plumber's tape on the threads. Looked at that and went "Umm...rather have the O ring.

FWIW, have found silicone grease in the plumbing section of a hardware store before. The O rings are another issue, but have seen them around as well. The problem is finding the right ones. I'm not throwing off on Goulet Pens (have always had a good experience with them), but tend to avoid ordering things if at all possible.

As I recall (and it's quite a few years now since I eyedroppered a Preppy), the O-Rings that Goulet sells are not a Preppy specific size that fits exactly. They are large enough to stretch without breaking on the barrel of that pen, but small enough that you wouldn't necessarily think of using them for that exact purpose. If you can find a little bag of assorted O-Rings at your local hardware store for not too much, then there's a chance that one will work.

Other pens may not need an O-Ring at all; it's just that the Preppy is so cheaply made that Goulet's suggests having a little extra insurance.

I just thought of another pen that I eyedropper filled at one point, an Edison Hudson. No O-Ring required, and I don't recall if I used any silicone grease, probably not. This was probably the nicest pen on which I tried the experiment. Unfortunately, I just haven't liked the pen overall enough to keep using it. Nothing you can point to as actually wrong, but there are other pens that feel more comfortable to use, and which have nicer nibs.