How to work a fountain pen.

There are three aspects to operating a fountain pen. There is opening it in the first place, there is filling, and then there is writing.

For all I know, you just found a mess of pens in the back of a flea-market desk (you lucky pup!).

Everyone in 1940 knew how to open a pen. "Bosh," you say, "everyone knows how now!" Actually, this is not the case. There's very few pen caps today which unscrew, while with vintage pens, that was the norm (at least, after about 1915). Check this out. These threads are fairly sturdy (usually), but will not stand up to someone who is determined to yank the cap off-- the result will be a cracked cap, most often. So, if you get an unfamiliar pen, give the cap a little twist first. If it isn't a screw-top, it won't hurt it to rotate a little.

Everyone in 1940 also knew how to fill a pen, but... you might not. I'll present instructions from common to less-so, and I encourage you to read first, then try, because sometimes a mistake in sequencing can lead to trouble-- sometimes damaging the pen, sometimes just spraying ink in places you don’t want it:

Cartridge Pens: You will find yourself looking at a pen with no obvious way to fill it. Try unscrewing the body from the section, and if you find nothing at all, have a look at the underside of the section. If you see anything like a little fang, you've got a cartridge pen. There will often be an empty cartridge left in the pen, which can be very good news if it's a discontinued type-- you can refill these with a syringe, although eventually a gap will open between the fang and the cartridge, rendering the pen leaky. There are currently not many styles of cartridge on the market-- Parker, Sheaffer and Lamy all make ones specific to their pens, and there are "International" types in a couple of sizes.

The Short Internationals are often carried in pairs down the barrel, butt-to-butt, so you can pretend you've got as much ink as everyone else.

Manufacturers usually recommend dropping a fresh cartridge into the barrel and then screwing the section back down, which drives the fang home in a very Edgar Allen Poe manner (or is it Henry James? No matter). Some pen-fanciers feel that this is stressful to the fang itself, and suggest pressing the cartridge into place before putting it into the barrel. This depends, I think, on the pen. On ones with a nice enclosure around the mounting point, this makes some sense, while on some of the older types, it's the high-road to getting covered with ink and getting the cartridge uselessly off-centre.

I highly recommend getting a "converter" for the pen-- just ask your favourite search engine to show you what comes up with "converter (your pen's maker's name)" and you should find some sources. These will be either aerometric or piston-type fillers, and you can follow the appropriate directions below. The advantage of these over the cartridges is mainly in being able to fill your pen with any available ink, and not having to litter the world with countless tiny plastic tubes as you reload your pen.

Aerometric Fillers: These are a less technical outgrowth of the lever-filler (below); the name, by the way, is like Kleenex-- once a trademark, now a type. To be strictly correct, it has to be a Parker pen, and others should be referred to as "squeeze fillers" but pendantic correctness is rare in this world. You approach this sort of pen in the same way as a cartridge filler, but will discover the filler fixed in place.

Many of these fillers have their instructions written on them, and it's a fairly obvious procedure even without them-- press the bar with the tip of the pen submerged to fill. In fixed aerometric fillers, there is generally a tube which brings ink up well inside the reservoir (like a vacumatic), which means several squishes to fill, but also more ink than a squeeze convertor, which will fill as much as it ever will on the first compression.

Lever Fillers: Which are easily distinguished by the fact that there is, great shock, a lever in the side of the pen.

Lifting this lever compresses a spring inside the pen, which in turn mashes a flexible bladder. Return the lever to rest, the bladder returns to its preferred shape, and if the beak of the pen is in fluid, it is drawn within (gently-- leave the pen in the ink about five seconds). At this point, do be careful about seating the lever in its place, as lifting it again will make the pen squirt ink.

If this pen is recently arrived in your hands, there is some chance that the bladder has turned into a hard mass. Breaking the lever is a VERY BAD THING, so be gentle-- if it's going to work, it shouldn't be too stiff, and it should also not make any crackling noises. I will often use a finger on the hand holding the pen to press down on the end of the lever that drops inside, and slip the finger that's doing the lifting down the lever as it comes up, in a possibly mis-directed attempt to avoid doing any damage to the lever or its mounting pin. Try to avoid pushing the lever past perpendicular, too. It's usually not going to cause damage, but it's alarming.

Button Fillers: In part a way of getting around patents on the lever fillers, these were also marginally safer than the lever pens as there was less chance of accidental emptying. The button is usually concealed by a "blind" cap which unscrews from the base of the pen (giving you an extra part to lose-- the down-side of this style).

Button filler, end cap off to show the button

The internal action is basically the same as the lever pens, but instead of directly mashing a spring, the button causes it to bow out sideways. Put the point in ink, press the button, release, wait a tic, and done.

The same caution about ossified sacs should be followed as for lever pens, likewise the matter of squirting (although with the blind cap in place, accidental discharge is more or less impossible). Less caution is needed in operation, though, as if you can push the button too hard or too far, you shouldn't be trying to use a pen-- perhaps a tree-trunk with one end charred.

Piston Fillers: Here I show my North American bias-- these are fairly common in Europe, as it was popularized by the German company Pelikan. Most piston fillers have something that looks like the blind cap of a button filler, which works a screw-press that drives a piston up and down inside the barrel-- often, the cap will lift slightly as the piston moves down, and settle as it draws in. Filling is just a matter of turning the knob enough in each direction to complete a piston stroke.

Some piston fillers will require the barrel to come off. These are generally cheaper pens, and the piston is just a stick with a seal on one end, which works exactly like a great big syringe.

Pneumatic Fillers: Found on Sheaffer pens, under the names Touchdown, Snorkel and TipDip, these systems are easily spotted by the knurled blind cap. This unscrews, and is fixed to a metal tube.

BLind cap on a touchdown pen, slightly raised.

In the case of the Snorkel, this will also reveal a little probe under the point.

The tube the blind cap attaches to is sealed except at the very ends of its stroke, and if the seals are as they should be, it will make a little huffing sound when drawn up. Pushing down on it compresses the air inside the barrel of the pen, which in turn compresses a sac. At the bottom of the stroke, the pressure is released, the sac expands, and ink enters.

You don't have to crush the action on these pens-- a full second for the downstroke seems to be about the most effective pace. Do not put the end of the pen in the ink until the tube is fully drawn-- it is not a syringe, and will not thank you for treating it as one. If you are a jerk, this pen can get you badly beaten, too-- all of them, especially the Snorkel, can launch a load of ink several feet in a single staining bolus. It is one of the more satisfying pens to load precisely because of this powerfully positive action.

I have a set of instructions for two of the three styles here. The only difference in the Touchdown is that you need to submerge the point a bit further.

Vacumatic Fillers: Appearing only on Parker pens of the 1930s and 1940s, this fill method was a way to use more of the pen barrel for ink storage. Parker claimed that it did away with the sac and its treacherous nature, but that's a bit disingenuous-- if you hold the toe of a sock between thumb and fore-finger, then pull the cuff of it over your wrist, you have a model of the Vacumatic filler, and you also have, still, a sock.

Still holding the toe, another hand draws the cuff up over the first hand

The cuff of the sock is over the hand which holds its toe.

There will be a blind cap at the end of this type of pen (most of which helpfully say "VACUMATIC" down the side), covering what might look very like a button filler mechanism, but could also be a shaft of aluminum or, as it the case with mine, a fragile-looking plastic rod (they look like that because they're fragile, so watch it!).

Plastic stem filler on 1945 version of Vacumatic

Pressing down on this (the first will pop up if turned) distends the rubber sock diaphragm, reducing the pen's interior volume. When it releases, ink is drawn up a breather tube, emerging well up inside the barrel of the pen. It can take anywhere up to 15 strokes to fill one of these pens, and you need to pause at the top of each to let the ink escape the tube. This is an infrequent activity, as these do carry quite a lot of ink.

Vacuum Fillers: Most common on Sheaffer pens in the 1940s, this also shows up on some more exotic modern models. Unscrewing the blind cap exposes an unnervingly slender rod.

This works a piston in the body, but in an opposite way to a piston filler-- when forced downwards briskly, it makes a vacuum behind it. The inside of the barrel widens at the bottom, so at the bottom of the stroke, the vacuum is exposed to whatever is outside the point of the pen and draws it up inside. Ideally, that's ink. Note that unlike the Vacumatics, this really has no sacs at all involved, so ambering is less of an issue.

These pens do not enjoy a great reputation despite the vast supply of ink they can potentially carry. "Potentially" is the key word. They are frequently found with one seal or another not doing what it should, and this puts the kibosh on them filling. They can also dribble through the point that the rod exits the barrel, which is of course the lowest point in the pen when it's in carriage.

The seal at this point is most easily injured when someone pulls the rod out too quickly when there's still ink in the barrel-- this should escape around the piston, but hydraulic pressure will take any hole it can find. If the piston itself is somewhat compromised, it is still possible to draw some ink syringe-fashion, but not more than a couple of pages of writing.

Crescent Filler: A mid-point between the lever and the coin filler (below)-- there will be a fixed metal crescent to press down into a slot, forcing down a pressure bar and working the sac. Usually (barring dismemberment) there is some kind of safety cylinder under it to keep it from working when you don't want it to.

I haven't had a chance to play with one of these yet-- they strike me as reliable but perhaps uncomfortable to use if the alignment of point and slot aren't correct.

Twist Fillers: These pens have a rubber sac which is wrung like a towel by a knob on the back of the pen. Release the knob and the sac draws ink.

I've not had anything to do with this type of pen, but I have to imagine that the thing to remember when it comes to wringing things made of thin rubber is-- enough is enough, and more is way too much.

Coin Fillers: Essentially a lever filler without the lever-- frequently, this is a pen in which the lever has broken, but they also came into the world this way. The slot into which a lever would go is empty, and a dime or a token provided by the pen maker is pushed into it to compress the bar.

Bulb Fillers: These pens will open up like a button filler, but instead of a button, you'll find a rubber bulb. My understanding is (as I haven't got one myself), you squeeze the bulb in the same sort of easy rhythm used on a Vacumatic filler, and it takes several squishes to fill the pen up.

Eyedropper Fillers: Frankly, if you've got one of these, you're more likely a serious collector who knows what's what, and doesn't need my help. This is a very old sort of pen, although examples of the type do appear after 1930 (many current pens from India are of this sort). The pen contains no mechanism for filling whatever-- as the name impies, you dribble ink into its hollow body with an eyedropper or similar instrument, and it comes apart as does a cartridge pen. Some of my fellow enthusiasts have mentioned using a Snorkel pen as the injector, although this seems to be necessitate cleaning the Snorkel out once you've done filling the 'dropper. I use a syringe, which can be got at pharmacies without a jabber on them-- they're made for squirting liquid medications into the mouths of tiny babies. Insulin syringes are also well suited.

Capillary Fillers: These seem to me very like having the guts of a felt pen in a fountain pen. They're very rare indeed, and I understand that they're very reliable-- they have, after all, no moving parts. The most likely one to run across is an early Parker 61, which unscrews like an aerometric or cartridge filler, but presents a plastic tube with an absorbent end on it. Stick the tube in ink, give it a couple of minutes for the ink to migrate up the wick inside, and everything back together. Too simple. Non-Parker capillary fillers, most of which are Waterman's X Pen are even simpler-- they just go face-first into the ink and absorb it through the same parts it leaves through.

Of course, cleaning and changing ink colour are protracted exercises in tedium.

So, now there's ink in it, let's see how to write with it.

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