How to Fill a Fountain Pen? 5 Steps to Refill Ink in Fountain Pen

With its long history of writing, fountain pen has been used for daily record due to its flexible nib design could perform smoothly on both strong and gentle strokes. In practice, you can even make your fine writing become a work of art, with functionality and aesthetic. 

That is also the reason why fountain pen is still old but gold. Whether you are a beginner or an expert in fountain pen writing, the〝ink converter〞is a tool  we must learn to use. So how to fill a fountain pen? What is an ink converter and how to use it? What are the steps you can take when you first try an ink converter? Follow our steps, let us show you how to easily refill your fountain pen, the usage of ink converters injects soul into fountain pen and you can write easier with it.

 

What is ink converter? How to fill a fountain pen?

Just see how the good helper〝 syringe pump〞 works!

A good fountain pen needs to be replenished with ink to show the beauty of writing. There are two basic ways to fill your fountain pen: ink cartridge and ink converter. Ink converter is like syringe which based upon Pascal′s principle to pressure the liquid ink into fountain pen nib. By holding the cylinder behind the grip section. the knob is used to control the piston, so that negative pressure is formed in the cylinder, and the ink is sucked into it for storage.

The storage capacity of ink converter is larger than ink cartridge. Lots of ink producers prefer to launch special ink color as a form of ink bottles than ink cartridge. Therefore, ink converter has larger storage capacity and more color options for users.

Read more >> Parts of fountain pen: learn fountain pen anatomy

Instruction of Ink converter｜ 5 Steps of Replenishing Ink

In general, ink converter with syringe principle can be used correctly by following the 5 steps as shown below. The principle of ink converter of different brands is similar. Users can smoothly replenish ink by following the steps below even for the first-time user. The following are the 5 steps of “how to fill a fountain pen”.

1. Open

   Remove pen cap and unscrew the pen body to see the structure of ink converter behind the grip section.

2. Dip

   Dip the nib of fountain pen into ink bottle until the position of grip section.

3. Absorb

   Rotate the knob of the ink converter and observe whether the ink is sucked in smoothly by observing the transparent cylinder.

4. Clean

   Take out the fountain pen from ink bottle and wipe out ink on the nib and grip section after the ink converter is full. (It is recommended to clean it immediately after taking it out to prevent the ink from drying out.)

5. Cover

   Put the pen body back into pen and make sure to tight up the pen body.

Note of Ink Converter Clean: Don’t leave water on pen feed

After learning how to fill a fountain pen-skills of using ink converter, another essential skill is cleaning if you would like to change different ink color. In general, you can dip nib into clean water and repeatedly use ink converter to extract and discharge clean water. Clean the ink converter and ink feed by incoming and outgoing water until the water flowing out without ink.

After cleaning steps, make sure to dry fountain pen or store it in a cool and dry place for 5~7 days to keep pen feed clear.  Because the water is easily attached to pen feed, this will cause the ink to not flow out normally, and the ink supply will be intermittent when writing.