#fountainpen 1/ My new Sheaffer comes w a converter for bottle-filling, so even tho I also ordered a few cartridges, I gave it its 1st fill from the bottle that, happily, I also ordered. A converter is essentially a cartridge that you fill w a twist mechanism rather than replace.
2/ My into to #fountainpen culture came in 1st grade, where our teacher, imported from England, gave us all fountain pens, also imported from England, in April, after allowing us nothing but pencils until then. Bottle-fill only, w a lever filling a non-removable ink bladder.
3/ Come 2nd grade, a cartridge pen culture broke out, w Sheaffer vs. Esterbrook taking the place of the Ford/Chevy debates that consumed our elders. All these pens sold for about a buck. I was Esterbrook, but over time came to agree they were too “scratchy.”
4/ Besides, Sheaffers were available back then w translucent barrels, so you cd keep track of their ink. That was beyond cool. I forget whether it was Alison who converted me to Sheaffers, but by 3rd grade we were spending a lot of time together - cracking jokes - and...
5/...keeping score by how much ink we cd get on our fingers thru schoolwork in a day. This as much as anything underwrote the our shift from “permanent black” & “permanent blue-black” to “washable blue” - Sheaffer cartridge & bottled-ink colors of the day.
6/ Well Esterbrook is back in business (check out the Fahrney’s catalogue). I have an inexpensive medium-point Parker, a new Esterbrook fine-point but not the right cartridges for it (hence the bottled-ink purchase), and now this new Sheaffer...
7/...(fine point, bc Sheaffer tends to cut large). (I’m also back in touch w Alison.)
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