How To Refill A Pilot Takoizu Green Petit1 Fountain Pen With Pelikan 4001 Brillant Black Ink From An Old Bottle

(This is a lighthearted look at something every Penaholic who has ever owned a cartridge fountain pen has done)

For this project you will need the following: One donated Pilot Takoizu Green Petit1 mini fountain pen (Ah, where would we be without the kindness of others?); An old bottle of Pelikan Brilliant Black ink; An eye dropper; A pair of long noise tweezers; A sink (free of cats who drink from the sink) with running water; One facial tissue; One paper towel.

The procedure: Open the pen by unscrewing the back of the pen and removing the ink cartridge. If it's not empty then move to the sink and empty the ink out of the tube using gravity and water pressure. Turn the cartridge so that the mouth is facing down and allow the swirling water in the bottom of the sink to pull the ink from the cartridge. See the pretty green water? Squeeze the cartridge to siphon up more water. Turn the cartridge up and allow the water stream to force out more ink. Keep at it until all the ink is gone. Bye bye green ink! Once the cartridge is free of the green ink use the tweezers to remove the little green disk of plastic from the cartridge. Now you can shake any excess water from the tube and set it a side.

Next clean out all the green ink from the nib and the feed tube by running water through it and blowing the water and ink out the nib end. Your lungs supply the air, your lips go on the back of the feed tube and you blow. Repeat the process until all that comes out is clear water, or you pass out. Then blow out the water. You can also shake the nib and feed tube to help rid it of water. But no matter how hard you blow or shake, there will still be water in the feed tube. Dry the exterior of both the nib and feed tube as well as the now empty cartridge. Use the paper towel.

Dry the interior of the cartridge by rolling up one corner of the paper towel to form a long skinny spike. Stuff the spike into the cartridge. See how the paper towel absorbs the water? Remove the spike. Roll a second spike from a different corner of the paper towel. Dry the space between the outside of the feed tube and the inside of the connector. Use the spike. See how the paper towel absorbs the water? Once the nib and feed tube and the cartridge are dry it's time to refill the cartridge with fresh ink from the old bottle of Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black ink.

To refill the refill open the ink bottle and using the eye dropper siphon up some ink from the ink bottle. Very carefully poke the end of the eye dropper into the mouth of the cartridge. Don't poke it in too far! You need an air space so the air can escape the cartridge as the ink goes in. If you fail to do this you'll end up with ink spurting from the end of the cartridge! What a mess that would be! Don't fill the cartridge beyond the point where the cartridge widens out! If you do you'll be sorry! The wide part of the cartridge is the part that fits onto the feed tube. If you get any ink in the mouth of the cartridge remove it with a paper towel spike.

Now you are ready to attach the newly filled, with fresh ink from an old bottle of ink, cartridge to the feed tube. Hold the feed tube so that the nib is up, towards the ceiling. Take the refilled refill cartridge, holding it vertically, so the ink doesn't spill and make a mess, and shove it, gently, up the connector until it completely covers the feed tube. Now, holding the partially assembled pen over the sink, gently squeeze the ink cartridge to force the ink into the pen. Let gravity assist you by turning the nib down toward the sink. Once you see ink start to flow into the nib proper, stop squeezing! Now you'll notice that only bubbles of ink remain in the cartridge. It needs to filed again. Remove the ink cartridge and set the nib aside for the moment. Taking the eye dropper, siphon up more ink and holding the cartridge over the sink, use the eye dropper to force out any air pockets before refilling the cartridge for a second time. Once refilled replace it back onto the feed tube. There may be some watery ink between the cartridge and inner wall of the connector. If there is, yep, use the spike. If there are no more unused spikes on your paper towel, then get another one. Once the cartridge is seated and the pen dried, replace the tail piece and post the cap. You are now ready to write.

To get the ink flowing through the nib I like to draw circles, or rather one long continuous spiral, until the ink is flowing properly. You may choose the design that you like best. At first the ink will be watery, maybe even black/green. Keep moving the nib until you see solid black. When you do you can do some writing or drawing or cap the pen and move onto something else with the knowledge that you have accomplished, with minimal mess, a feat dear to every Penaholic's heart! You can now use the tissue to wipe the tears of joy from your face!

Many thanks to Nosferatuia for her generosity in giving me the Petit1 (Please visit her blog, Abysmal Musings), and to JetPens.com for the use of the photo.