Ink bottles to stay away from with thicker pens

[AimlessWanderer]

I've just had to rummage around, looking for this small plastic vial. I tried filling this Wing Sung demonstrator from a 30ml Diamine bottle, which was fairly full. The ink level is only about 3mm or 4mm below the top of the label, and I was still sucking air in.

It's a bit of a faff, having to fill this vial with a syringe, decant the excess back into the bottle when the pen is full, and have both those extra items to thoroughly clean before next use (it does stain too), but at least it gets the job done. That's one reason I don't use these pens very often, but thankfully, when I do use them, one fill lasts a very long time (depending which nib I am using).

Another thing I have been known to do (though not recommended for regular filling), is pull the nib and feed, "eyedropper" the pen down the section, and pop the nib and feed back in. This could cause premature wear on the feed/section though, I'd imagine.

 

[blethenstrom]

This discussion reminds me why I hesitate buying piston, vacuum and integral reservoir (vintage) pens. All of these are hard to fill from some ink bottles and/or hard to fill when the ink level gets really low in the bottle. I gravitate towards cartridge pens since you can syringe fill them and also get the last drop from the ink bottle. However, I do like my piston pens too, but have the same issues. Maybe a ink-shot inkwell will help in those cases. I don't own one, but maybe I will get one.