Category: Fountain Pens

The Tinkering of a Fountain Pen to Meet My Exacting Standards

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Sometimes you can’t find or afford a device that fully meets your needs. With a little bit of tinkering, however, you may be able to modify an existing device to meet your specifications. Last week I wrote about making modifications to an off the shelf keyboard with off the shelf parts. This type of tinkering works well for a lot of different projects where all you have to do to make modifications is swap between a variety of different parts with different attributes. In other cases, tinkering requires more extensive and sometimes irreversible modifications. Such was the case with one of the fountain pens I tinkered with. 

The pen in question is called the Opus 88 Koloro, and while I liked its high ink capacity, standard-sized nib that could be easily swapped, and feel in my hand, I found the nib a bit boring, the grip section very slippery, especially during long note taking sessions, and the cap, which required more than two full revolutions to remove, impractical. 

 

An interesting nib

Nib with Architect Grind

Nib with Architect Grind

In a blog post last semester, I wrote about the different types of nib “grinds” as features of tinkerability for fountain pens. One of my favorite grinds is called an architect nib, which has very thin down strokes and very thick cross strokes. While I have begun to grind my own nibs, this one was done by a nibmeister, Kirk Speer. The grind makes the exact same nib much more interesting and fun to write with.

A grippy grip

Sand-papered Grip Section

Sand-papered Grip Section

The stock grip section, which is shiny, textureless plastic, was slippery to hold. To fix this, I used some sandpaper to scratch up the grip section and make it tackier in the hand. I made horizontal circles, perpendicular to the length of the pen, so the rough ridges would create better grip. Though the aesthetic cohesiveness with the rest of the shiny plastic on the pen was all but gone, its usefulness, which is my priority, was improved.

A one twist cap

Ground-down threads

Ground-down threads

The last change I made was to reduce the number of rotations it took to unscrew the cap. To do this, I physically removed about half of the length of threads on the pen barrel. I used a dremel tool to remove the threads, then I smoothed the transition between the threads and grip with the same grit sandpaper I used for the grip. 

 

Concluding thoughts–technique

Some of these modifications do not require a high level of precision; it is hard to over-sand the grip section. But others are very delicate. The two main “subtractive” processes–grinding down a nib and reducing the threads–are permanent. If you go too far and remove too much, there is not much you can do about it. This is a lesson I learned through my own mistakes; it’s very easy to take a look at something, think you know what you need to do, and just keep working at it. By the time you check it again, you’ve irreparably changed it. So it is important to work very slowly and check often. You can see and track the changes on a smaller scale, and adjust before the changes are permanent. 

Many tinkering projects require making permanent changes like I made to this pen. The stakes are higher when the tinkering is irreversible, but when you get it right, the results are rewarding. In addition to the satisfaction of a device that works exactly the way you want it to, you will have the joy of tinkering it yourself.

 

Fountain Pen Companies That Get Tinkering Right

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I discussed last week how fountain pens are great writing implements to tinker with. Much of that is by their nature– from ink to nibs to body styles, fountain pens simply have more options out of the gate than ballpoint pens do. Some of the possibilities, however, come from fountain pen makers’ willingness to offer repairability, customizability, and tinkerability. In this post, I will highlight three companies that get tinkering right. 

 

TWSBI

TWSBI makes fountain pens with somewhat complicated filling systems. Their least expensive model, the TWSBI Eco is a “piston filler,” which is a pen with a piston mounted into the body. Piston fillers fill their entire barrels with ink as the piston moves down and up with a knob at the back of the pen. TWSBI produces several other models of piston-filling pens, and a vacuum filling pen, which fills with ink as a plunger purges the barrel of the pen of air when depressed, and the vacuum sucks ink into the barrel.

Complicated filling systems such as those TWSBI includes on its pens were typically reserved for high end, luxury pens before TWSBI introduced them in relatively cheap pens. The unfortunate truth is with a complicated filling system can come less reliability and increased need for maintenance. In particular, the piston on a piston filler or plunger of a vacuum filler can get stuck, needing a lubricant to run smoothly again. 

With every piston and vacuum filling penTWSBI includes the tool you need to disassemble it completely and the silicone grease used as a lubricant. Even better, if you break any part of the pen (with the exception of the nib), TWSBI will replace it, and the user only has to pay the cost of shipping. Repair and replacement are not only possible (which itself is rare for fountain pen companies), but also affordable. 

 

SchonDSGN

Ian Schon is a machinist who designed a fountain pen called the Pocket 6, which fits a large #6 sized nib into a small pen body. Aside from being a novel pen for its small size, it takes a standard nib unit, which means nibs are easily swapped between different grip sections. 

Where SchonDSGN excels from a tinkering front is the continuous development and improvement of the design, which is made available to modify or upgrade existing pens. I originally bought the pen with a Bock nib, a brand which is generally considered to be less reliable and a worse writing experience than the other major nib manufacturer, Jowo. Unfortunately, Jowo and Bock nib units are not interchangeable. Later, SchonDSGN released a new pen grip with threads for better Jowo nib, and made this part available to modify existing pens. After the initial release of the Jowo-compatible grip, a grip section with a completely different shape and material was released. It was also compatible with every model of Pocket 6, and it is the grip section that I used on my own pen.


Unlike most pens, where most possibilities for change and customizations stop after the pen is purchased, Schon DSGN pens keep evolving, and even an old pen can be modified to be something new. 

 

Nibmeisters

In my first blog post, I hinted at nib grinding, which is the act of taking a round nib and, well, grinding parts of the metal away to give the nib a specific shape, which affects the look (and feel) of the writing. Though I personally grind my own nibs, many fountain pen users who are less inclined to do their own tinkering can still use and experience custom nib grinds. Nibmeisters customize, tune, and repair (tinker with!) the nibs of pens people send to them, unlocking a new frontier of writing style and experience formerly inaccessible to people not comfortable with tinkering for themselves. 

 

Fountain Pens: A Pen System for Tinkering

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Fountain pens are a nearly 200 year old invention long overshadowed by the convenience and (to some) improved usability of cheap and ubiquitous ballpoint pens. 

However, fountain pens are also remarkable writing tools which expand a world of possibility in writing that many have no idea exist. Hear me out.

Using a normal ballpoint pen is simple. You take it out of your pocket, maybe take a cap off, maybe click it, and you are ready to write. There is no set up necessary, few options, and few ways that you can go wrong short of running out of ink. For most people, this is perfect. It does all that they might need in a simple, foolproof package with no need to change a single thing about it. I admit, there are very few people in the world who look at that experience and think, “Wouldn’t this be better if it were more complicated?”

For those who choose to venture on a path of complication, fountain pens offer endless possibilities to tinker with the way you write. I believe one of the greatest things about fountain pens is that they are complex. The fountain pen experience has three important components: the nib, which is a piece of metal that comes in contact with the paper and spreads ink, the ink, and the pen itself. With this complexity comes the opportunity to tailor your experience to meet your needs and provide delight. Instead of a completely integrated ballpoint pen with limited colors, styles, and line width choices, a fountain pen gives you interchangeable options for line widths with different nibs, ink colors with various inks, and a dazzling array pen sizes and styles.

 

Nibs

Whereas standard ballpoint pens come in 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm line widths, fountain pen nibs come standard in extra fine, fine, medium fine, medium, broad, 1.1mm sizes, offering a much greater range of possibility for writing. Regardless of the size at which you want to write, fountain pens have an option. And if you are not pleased with the nib you have, they are easily swapped (and can even be customized by daring tinkerers willing to grind away at the metal!)

 

Inks

Ballpoints are commonly available in black, blue, and red. From neons and pastels to bold colors and every shade of black you can think of, it is no exaggeration to say there are hundreds of fountain pen inks. Some have interesting properties like sheening, where the ink reflects a different color when put in the light, and shading, where the ink has different levels of saturation in different parts of the letter, and shimmering, with particles of mica powder which stay on the page as glitter. Some even do all three at the same time. Any ink can be put into any fountain pen, and when you are tired of it, you can use a different ink!

 

Sizes and styles

Because fountain pens are already a step past a normal ballpoint pen, why not choose one that fits a look you enjoy? Fountain pens aren’t boxed into simple, cheap to mass produce pen bodies, and you can find a pen in your style if you look for it. 

You can choose a pen with great ink capacity or interesting acrylic. You can choose a pen with an interesting internal ink filling system. You can choose a large pen or a pocket pen. And you can mix and match those features to find what you will love in a pen.

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Superfluous tinkering can be wonderful. Just do something because it is fun and without pressure because it is unnecessary. Some of the best tinkering happens with devices that are boring, but useful. A little bit of tinkering can bring joy to mundane, everyday tasks.