One of my grand joys has been using a fountain pen. When we were kids my parents let us fill our own ink cartridges with syringe and a bottle of Shaeffer peacock blut “Quink”. I never had a ‘stick’ pen until I went to junior high school and I sharpened my pencils mostly with a pen knife (although I still fancy the smell of graphite and pencil shavings from a traditional, wall mounted sharpener).
I still love the feel of a good fountain pen nib on quality stock. I still do calligraphy although you would not know it from my remarks on my students’ papers. I would love to own a really good fountain pen, but that is a luxury I have never afforded myself. In the last five years, Pilot Pens came out with the Varsity Disposable fountain pen. Normally, I would not be caught dead with a disposable pen. What’s the point? Well, the point exactly was the point. The nibs on these cheap pens (about $2.50 each, American dollars) were so smooth to the touch on paper; plus, they worked on a wide variety of stock. The downside was that they were disposable.
No problem. You can pull off the nibs, refill them and then carry on as if new. I use the needlenose pliers on a Leatherman utility tool to ease it off and then refill them with a quality ink like Noodler’s Eternal Luxury Blue Fountain Pen Ink. (Yes, it really is called ‘eternal’.) Voila. I own these pens because I can open them. I have about twelve of them that I rotate in and out of my morning journal lineup. I filled up six of them today including one for my wife who was thrilled. No, really. I am her go-to guy for pens.
Here is what you need to do the job.
Here’s the finished work–like magic. Probably took me thirty minutes of very satisfying work to do this. I hummed some Warren Zevon the whole time, mostly “Nighttime in the Switching Yard”.
I have six pens anew here. I could be persuaded to part with a few for those who want to recycle them further. Just drop me a line at terryelliott at gmail dot com. I gotta figure out some kind of origami packaging with bubble pack, hmmm. Petty joys can sometimes grow large in the considering. What are your petty joys?