Fountain Pen Help

[nicole.t]

Hi everyone!

A few years ago a friend gave me this fountain pen with a bottle of ink but no ink cartridge. The pen doesn't have any branding information on it so I have no way of knowing where to look for an ink cartridge. Can anyone help me identify this pen? And provide any suggestions for refillable ink cartridges? I have quite a bit of ink already that I would like to use.

I tried using a Schmidt universal refillable cartridge but it was way too big and not compatible with this nib. I'd really like to use this since it's pretty nice and was free for me, so any help/suggestions are much appreciated!

Thanks,
Nicole

[AnasaziWrites]

Hi everyone!

A few years ago a friend gave me this fountain pen with a bottle of ink but no ink cartridge. The pen doesn't have any branding information on it so I have no way of knowing where to look for an ink cartridge. Can anyone help me identify this pen? And provide any suggestions for refillable ink cartridges? I have quite a bit of ink already that I would like to use.

I tried using a Schmidt universal refillable cartridge but it was way too big and not compatible with this nib. I'd really like to use this since it's pretty nice and was free for me, so any help/suggestions are much appreciated!

Thanks,
Nicole

@nicole.t
Ask Frank or Sam at
pendemonium.com
and send them those photos and they probably can identify the pen and are likely to have a cartridge or filling mechanism for the pen as well.
Mike

[darrin1200]

Good morning @nicole.t .

I am not an expert, but most likely, this is an inexpensive “giveaway” pen. The first clue is that the only markings are the lpromotional” university name. Keep in mind, that fountain pens are much more prevalent in European education. This does not mean it’s no good.

Can you show a picture of the clip?
Sometimes the clip is the company identifier.

The “Iridium Point Germany” is indicative of an inexpensive pen. It does not mean it is made in Germany, and does not contain Iridium.

99 out of 100, these pens take a standard international cartridge.
The picture shows one of these, the lower one. Some people actually refill these, using a blunt syringe.
The upper one is a Schmidt K5 converter, which is very common. Is this the one you are trying? If so, It’s possible that the converter is to long to fit in the pen barrel. If this is the case, there are other converter possibilities.

I hope we can get this pen flowing for you.

[nicole.t]

@AnasaziWrites Thanks! I will reach out to them.

@darrin1200 Pictures of the clip are attached! Thanks for all the helpful info - I don't know anything about fountain pens, so this has been extremely helpful. I did try the Schmidt converter and it was definitely too long for the pen barrel. The barrel on this pen is pretty shallow, but I think the smaller cartridge in your picture would fit.

Thanks!
Nicole

[darrin1200]

Good morning Nicole

I don’t believe this is a “name brand”, although the construction looks well made. I’ll through the clip image out to my FP group, to see if anyone recognizes it.

Can you measure how deep the inside of the barrel is. I have a few different converters here and might have something short enough enough to fit.

With regards to ink, be very careful which inks you put into a fountain pen. They do not play well with many of the usual calligraphy inks, especially iron Gaul inks. A lot of the calligraphy inks, are a little “thicker” than fountain pen inks, and may clog the feed.

I am not sure where you are located, but there is a good chance you can find some standard international ink cartridges near by. I think Staples carries some.

[Estefa]

I agree that this is probably a giveaway or gift from the uni Köln, one of the oldest and most affluent public unis in Germany. From the branding it doesn’t look very old – the sigil from 1388 would have been prettier !

https://www.uni-koeln.de/

I guess a standard cartridge from Pelikan or Lamy should do the trick, as these are the most available ones in Germany (also for school children fountain pens – they start at age 7).

The nib looks a bit bent, but more exquisite than a school kid’s pen! This should be easy to fix – good luck!

[nicole.t]

Can you measure how deep the inside of the barrel is. I have a few different converters here and might have something short enough enough to fit.

The barrel is about 4.5 cm deep.

I hadn't thought of looking at staples. Depending on what you have, I may check out those options as well! The inks I have are fountain pen inks from Ferris Wheel Press - I've used them with a dip pen but have also heard really good things about them as fountain pen inks as well.

Thanks,
Nicole

[K-2]

Nice looking pen, @nicole.t - have you cleaned it yet?  You should at the very least flush it with water or pen-flush to make sure the feed is clear so that it'll draw the ink down to the nib (and any residual ink won't mix with the new ink - sometimes that causes clotting if they're not chemically compatible).  After you know it's clean, you can dip it into your Ferris Wheel ink (which is formulated to be safe in fountain pens) to see if the nib is writing okay too, before you spend a lot of time/money/energy getting a converter or cartridge for it.  Because, as @Estefa says - it looks like the nib is a little bent, but it can probably be replaced.

@darrin1200 gives good warnings about ink! Note that while some "iron gall" inks say that they are safe in fountain pens, they are always more acidic/corrosive, and it's best to avoid them in vintage pens.  "Calligraphy Inks" and "India Inks" are made with resins, shellacs or acrylics, and so will permanently clog and destroy the gills of a fountain pen's feed.  I would also avoid "pigmented" inks even though many of them advertise that they are safe for fountain pens - they require a higher level of maintenance, and if this is your first fountain pen, you may not want to fuss with it quite so much.

We had a thread on the forum a little while ago about refurbishing a beautiful vintage pen that includes ideas for cleaning and recommendations about fountain pen inks: https://theflourishforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=7188.0
@CarolOMalley - how's your pen?  did you get the nib fixed?  did you ink it up?

Finally -- I've been very interested in those Ferris Wheel inks, but haven't tried them myself.  Could you post about them too?  maybe show them off in your pen once it's up and running?  maybe show off how they've been behaving with your dip pens too?  @AnasaziWrites and I have both found that some fountain pen inks are MUCH better than others for dip pens, over in the Diamine Inkvent thread (which... I still have two more inks to go on).

--yours truly, K

[nicole.t]

@K-2 I had no idea about cleaning a pen before use - I will absolutely do that! I’ll check out the thread you linked for sure.

I personally don’t like the Ferris wheel inks with a dip pen. They’re beautiful for sure but they’re also thinner than traditional calligraphy inks so I’ve had a lot of issues with ink flow. I know there are ways to mitigate that but I’d rather not compromise the color because that’s really where the Ferris wheel inks shine. I’ve used them with a glass dip pen though and they work really well with that tool!

I will definitely do a post with the few inks I have after I try them with this fountain pen! Thanks again for the advice 

-Nicole