The enclosed pen has a hand made ebonite feed inspired by an 1879 stylo that is fitted with a fine Swiss made ink-ball tip. Some replacement tips to refillable rollerball pens today cost between $15 and $35 – whereas you can obtain 4 of these friction fit replacement tips for $2 from your the Noodler’s dealer. The pen itself costs about the same as a bottle of ink and within a few fillings it has paid for itself when compared to the costs of fraud resisting disposable (and thus wasteful) rollerball pens (which now range between $1.35 and $7.20 each – only to be tossed away after a single use). The pen is NOT physically durable and will not survive being thrown on a hard floor! Be careful with it! The material was attractive due far more to its high level of chemical durability (which might be of use with a future specialty ink for this pen – or to artists who might experiment with alcohol/solvent inks).
The clip design was preferred due to a test with a fine dress shirt and a silk tie – the other clips caught and this one does not…even on the finest material. The nibbed model is available as a fine-medium only with a limited supply of flexible nibs as well. Care and maintenance includes occasionally clearing droplets of moisture from the cap interior with a q-tip, rinsing out now and then with tap water, and above all – keeping the bubble of air at less than ½ the volume of the barrel (either by refilling the pen OR through the expulsion of the air by twisting the piston unit forward to remove the air bubble while holding the pen point up with a paper towel around the tip and leaving the piston in its new forward position). This pen is NOT insulated and the air in the chamber can be subject to expansion when exposed to the heat of your hand. With some attention paid to the air level, it will perform as well as the classic stylo pens of the first half of the 20th century. In exchange for this one liability the pen can hold more ink than most disposable rollarball pens on the market – and you also have a feed mechanism that can be interchanged with numerous different filling mechanisms for use with other kinds of pens – both vintage and modern (it has been fit to the nib/feed sleeves of several German made piston filling pens of the modern era, as well as fitting the section diameter of a Wahl lever filler, for example – just be sure the air can enter the ink chamber from the spiral end to replace the ink that is used by writing – note an air fissure can be cut further forward IF needed as the ebonite is that versatile & can be cut/carved….and the feed can then have multiple pens for use).
To fill: 1. cover the point until the ink covers the front half of the black section grip…2. unscrew the small end cap (if you worry about losing it – post the main cap on it and screw it off that way) and then twist the filler knob until the piston moves all the way forward and all the way back TWICE to ensure ink is pushed into the ink ball feed (and always rinse the pen out with ¼ ammonia and ¾ water when changing inks)…3. remove the pen from the ink and clean off the excess ink with a paper towel – and BE SURE TO WICK the excess ink from between the ebonite feed and the section (all self filling stylos required wicking of the ink between the feed and section after filling for the past 95 years, as excess ink in the section can drip otherwise)…4.remember this is still a fountain pen despite having a ball tip – it feeds as a fountain pen and can have as wet a line as a fountain pen – and best of all it can use every fountain pen ink you can think of….AND if you forget about it and it dries out – pull out the metal ink ball tip, rinse the pen out well, and install another one for 25 cents. If the piston seal ever fails, no need to send it to a repair shop that will charge more than you paid for the pen – simply obtain a piece of tire inner tube and use it to grip the filler threads at the barrel rim – firmly unscrew the unit, pop off the piston from the arrow mount (it can be pulled or pried off the mount) and affix TWO cut 1 cm diameter disks of the inner tube rubber and pin prick center holes (slip pin pricked holes over the arrow and disks will snap into place) – apply some silicone grease to the new “piston” and re-assemble. Silicone grease is available for just over $1 in the plumbing section of your local hardware store – look near “faucet parts” – one tub is enough to usually last a lifetime. THIS IS THE ONLY ESENTIALLY “FREE” PISTON REPAIR YOU WILL EVER SEE RECOMMENDED BY A PEN MANUFACTURER! Why do we include this information? Simple…it further helps to make the fountain pen the most economically viable writing instrument on earth. –People in Massachusetts, Maryland, California, Switzerland, and within the nations of the Indian subcontinent – all helped make this pen possible.
MSRP $14.00
