So I finally got around to removing the boring blue cartridge of ink that came with my Phileas and putting in the ink converter. It took a little longer than I expected: I washed, waited, and loaded up some fresh J. Herbin bleu nuit… and then suddenly couldn’t get the two halves of the pen to close.
As a fountain pen novice, of course I figured I must be doing something wrong. I took the converter out, examined it, compared its length and shape to the other cartridge. The converter was a tiny bit longer, but other than that there weren’t any substantial differences. I scoured the Internet to see if anyone else had had the same experience. No-one had. Finally, I set the whole mess aside and resolved to make a trip up to Art Brown to figure out what was going on.
As it turns out, I’d been sent the wrong kind of converter, one that wasn’t even made by Waterman in the first place. I guess that’s the danger of buying pens from an anonymous retailer on Amazon (Pendemonium was all sold out!). Art Brown was more than happy to sell me the proper converter, however, and now I’m inked up and ready to go.
My first tests—photographed on a breezy day, hence the presence of the snail shell / makeshift paperweight—above and after the jump…
