Ebonite eyedropper fountain pen

[Oliver X]

It's been a minute. I made this fountain pen recently. It's an eyedropper filler with a shut off valve. It's made from midnight blue, eight swirl, NYH ebonite purchased from Vermont Freehand and fitted with a Bock 380 nib, 18k, fine, purchased from Beaufort Ink. I didn't use the housing and instead friction fit the nib and feed directly into the section. I'm still not sure that was the best idea I've ever had, but it's working fine so far.

Questions, comments and criticism all welcome.

 

[Jim15]

Beautiful work.

 

[Woodchipper]

Nice. Isn't Ebonite he stuff that they use for bowling balls? Also, need to stop by and get a couple of bowling pins.
Joke: What is the quietest place in the world? Bowling alley...you can hear a pin drop!

 

[Oliver X]

Ebonite is the name of a company that makes bowling balls and is also used generically for hard rubber which is used to make all sorts of things including bowling balls. I don't have any idea which came first.

 

[floatslow]

very nice. the threads look amazing. I still shy away from executing an eye dropper thinking of the potential ink exodus. Kudos to you having it with a custom friction fit Nib housing. Would you suggest or be willing to inform at all on how you made it an eye dropper?

 

[Oliver X]

very nice. the threads look amazing. I still shy away from executing an eye dropper thinking of the potential ink exodus. Kudos to you having it with a custom friction fit Nib housing. Would you suggest or be willing to inform at all on how you made it an eye dropper?

Thanks. I really like eyedroppers for their ability to hold tons of ink. I made a post about another eyedropper I made that has a pretty thorough description of the construction: https://www.penturners.org/threads/ultem-and-brass-fountain-pen.175706/ This pen is mostly the same, but some of the details are a little different.

Simple eyedroppers, which I rarely make, are roughly the same in construction as a cartridge pen with the only caveat being that they need to be sealed. This is often done by users by simply greasing the threads on the nib housing and section with silicone grease. So long as the only path for ink and air is through the feed, it will usually work well enough. Adding a couple of o-rings into the design to seal the path around the housing and the section to barrel interface is better. The downside to eyedroppers without valves is that they can leak even if they're otherwise sealed.