Why use ink cartridges? A fountain pen musing.

[@ichirofakename]

1. I don't travel enough to have anything to say about travel with fountain pens. But I do use them; refilling cartridges is my preferred filling mechanism 2. For me the main downside of cartridges is waiting for the ink to saturate the feed & nib. 3. Softer cartridges, after being installed, may be squeezed to speed the saturation. The best I have found is Pilot's proprietary cartridges for the Petit1. Downsides: these are tiny cartridges, and not everybody is as fond of this cheap little pen as I am. 4. I'm intrigued by the new TWSBI Swipe pen, which comes with a new, giant cartridge. It looks big and sturdy, ideal for refilling. 5. I wonder what the carbon footprint of those brass stoppers is, compared to a cartridge. How many cartridges do you have to not throw out before the stopper is more ecologically sound? 6. I lied, actually my favorite filling mechanism is the aerometric on my $5 Wing Sung 765 from the 90's. By far the fastest, just a few seconds, AND the nib and feed are saturated. But this old tech is effectively over.

[@TilloArmadillo]

I'm from germany and cartridges are the standart here. In school you have to use a fountain Pen and it doesn't make sense to give a six year old kid a bottle and a converter in my opinion. Even with cartidges it's getting a mess some times. I'm studying right know and getting more in to botteld Ink due to the absurd variety of colors ^^ But for my studying I stick to cartridges cause the fear is to big of spilling Ink 😅

[@SilverSeaOT7]

Really enjoyed this! I need to get some of those stoppers. I like refilling the long international cartridges because they hold so much!

[@suzyzhang3505]

Thank you for this video. I recently purchased a kaweco sport with diamine sovereign cartridge set and I love this combination.

[@JosephDickson]

Airport security can be unpredictable. I stick to a pilot varsity when traveling.

[@paulherman5822]

It's basically about the convenience vs cost, really, if the amount of plastic thrown out isn't considered. I have given pens to people, and I give them with cartridges. Mainly because I want the person to be able to use the pen right away. Locally, it's just Parker Quink black in bottles, and an anemic selection of Parker cartridges, and Cross ones. Really a desert for someone who uses fountain pens. I seldom am where I would need the convenience of cartridges, but they have their place, or they'd never been invented. However, in general, they are still around 5x the price of bottled ink, per unit. Really depends on what you need.

[@ichirofakename]

Another issue is capacity, as many folk like pens to hold much more ink than a cartridge does. As a cartridge can be refilled in under half a minute, personally I see very little advantage in larger capacities.

[@paulherman5822]

@@ichirofakename There's a modern obsession with high capacity pens. In the past, the ones that have latex ink sacs hold generally around the same amount as a modern cartridge converter, in my experience. European brands tended to be piston filler, and held more, but I think that the American tendency to get in a hurry created a lot of the demand for cartridges in the early days. Now, cartridges dominate European pens, except for the higher priced pens, generally. Mainly because fountain pens are still more widely used there. Until recently, try to get the range of colours that were available in Europe, in the United States. Internet has changed this. 😁 Today, there's a lot of the cartridge converter pens.

[@kevinu.k.7042]

My heart sank when I saw the title of your video. I thought, "Oh, no, more plastic waste, more polluted seas." So bravo from here on an intelligent and thoughtful vlog. Yes, refilling them with a syringe is one step and as you say, the brass stoppers help too. However we simply need to stop using them from an environmental perspective. 'This can be recycled' is said so often by manufacturers when the product is commonly not recycled in a given country at all. HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), from which cartridges are made is commonly not recycled in many countries and too much plastic sent for recycling is sent on to poor countries where it is dumped. Alternatives might be a return to glass cartridges. My partial solution is to save and re-use the small diamine bottles (more plastic!) and carry a syringe as the openings are hopelessly narrow. Thanks for such a thoughtful and informative vlog.

[@DianaB4dawn]

I understand your point on pollution, but I also come from a country where kids in school learn handwriting with a pen. And cartridges. I wouldn't want to be the teacher to explain a seven year old how not to spill ink all over themselves. So cartridges are an amazing starter pen writing tool ;)

[@kevinu.k.7042]

​@@DianaB4dawn Chuckles, I agree with you. It's wonderful that schools in your country still do that. (Yes, I saw the Eszett in your name). There are no one size fits all answers. Using a recyclable plastic instead of polyethylene might be a start though. It's going to take a while for us all to come up to speed. Here in the UK supermarkets, who are a big plastics offender, appear to make little effort.

[@maibritton2882]

Great topic. As a lefty I never considered some of the inks you talked about. I want to branch out but TAG stationary kyo no oto Hisoku is my signature ink.

[@jorge23483]

I love pilots sepia ink cartridges, cartridges are convenient indeed and that's is their strength. I think the more environmentally friendly cartridge s are those that we can refill... and Noodler's ink cartridges (OG Goulet Pens story) 😂. Thank you for the video.

[@ichirofakename]

I love those Noodler's 308 refillable cartridges, that SCREW IN TO THE FEED. Personally I find refilling cartridges to be the least messy way to use bottled ink.

[@rebeccawhite2582]

I have purchased fountain pens for about 2 years and have yet to buy cartridges. I believe they are so terrible because they are disposable. I have a 16 yo son and want this world to be cleaner for him.

[@ramonafirehorse]

Would you feel comfortable flying with a filled cartridge with one of the brass stoppers?