Welcome to Issue#42. The monsoon is upon us - which means we have weather that is pleasant, but also ink drying times are ever so slightly longer with the increased humidity!

I must also place on record that one of favourite book descriptions is, “The fifth book in an increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy.”

In this issue, Nandini writes about putting a converter in a Parker 51, I share some writing samples of Palapitta Eeka, we briefly look at the Junlai 930, and speculate about Pelikan Hubs.

Most well-maintained Vintage pens are a joy to use and the nibs to die for. Changing sacs and cleaning? Not so much. So, when I came across this video by Inquiring Minds on converting a Parker 51 Aerometric to accept Cartridges and Converters, I was keen to give it a shot. For some reason, I was unable to purchase the adapter from the eBay link given in the video. So messaged and emailed the Seller who eventually responded.

Turns out the seller (and manufacturer), Sriram, is a mechanical engineer based in Andhra Pradesh and a very helpful person indeed. He does projects for engineering companies and pens are a hobby. The adapters made by him are turned in brass, look and feel sturdy and well-made and do not significantly increase the weight of the pen. He asked me for detailed pictures of the connector to identify the pen model. Turns out that my pen is a Mark I from 1948 with an O ring and is quite uncommon. He did not have a compatible adapter ready with him but promised to make one for me once his current project got over.

Within a week I got a message that my adapters were ready. Payment by bank transfer (Rs 800/- per adapter) and a week later, the adapters were in my hand. Thank you, India Post!

I followed the very detailed instructions given in the eBay link and in the Inquiring Minds video, taking care to cut the feeder tube as shown. My pen came without a feeder tube and my jugaad fix came from a spray bottle. Apparently, the feeder tube is not necessary and the later models did away with them altogether. The pen was already disassembled when I got the adapters, and the entire process took less than an hour. I forgot all about the clutch ring and had to redo the hood installation else it could have been done faster. I used a converter from a Parker Sonnet.

So, the next time you need a sac replacement and don’t feel up to it, do consider giving this a shot. Currently the adapters provided by Sriram accept Parker proprietary converters and cartridges. I have asked him to consider making adapters that are compatible with standard international cartridges as well. Sriram can be contacted through eBay and also at [email protected]

In last week’s pen meet, we had the opportunity to try out the Junlai 930. Not only is this a massive pen with a massive nib, it is also one of the first Chinese pens to come with a B nib.

The pen is a winner - it is really well balanced and easy to write with, despite its massive size, and the B nib writes beautifully well and is paired with a feed that complete justice to it. It writes smooth and wet.

Here is an image of it along with the pens it is looking to emulate - the Montblanc 146 and 149.

Last week, we launched the Inka Palapitta Eeka ink. The name of the ink series and the ink itself has a bit of a story behind it. We are big fnas (as most enthusiasts are) of Pilot’s Iroshizuku series of inks. The name of the line, as well as the names of the inks themselves, are in Japanese. Most of the names indicate the colours using names that have a cultural significance. We followed the same practice when naming our ink series and first ink (and hopefully, all upcoming inks!).

The line is named Inka. The word means ‘more’ in Telugu, and indicates the quest of the enthusiast to always seek ways of getting more out of our hobbies. The fact that is is so close to the word ink made it playfully self-referential.

For our first ink, we wanted an everyday use ink that would also have a bit of playfulness. We were rather pleased when the ink came out very much like we expected it to. The name Palapitta Eeka stands for the feathers of the Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis), the state bird of Telangana, where we are based. The bird has a special cultural significance in this region, and the striking blue of its hidden feathers that are exposed only when the bird is in flight was the inspiration behind the colour of the ink.

The ink is quick drying, and easy to read with its vibrant blue. At the same time, it is easy to wash out of your fountain pens. Here are a few writing samples of the ink in different line widths.

We’ll keep tracking the latest gossip about the Pelikan Hubs.

An enquiry to Pelikan elicited a non-answer that gave nothing away:

The language in this is so vague that it can mean anything.

There is also one claim that further information will be released by the end of June, but this is only a claim with nothing to back it up.

We will keep tracking Pelikan Hubs developments here.

Share your take on fountain pens and related things in one (or more!) of our upcoming issues.

Any and all content you share will belong to you and will be credited to your name (or a pen name of your choice) and linked to any of your online profiles. Ideal content would be a write-up between 200 and 400 words with 1 to 5 images.

Here are a few things that can go in the Fountain Pen Weekly:

• Pen / ink / paper ownership experience

• Favorites in FP, ink, paper etc.

• Your social handles with your FP content - Insta, FB, Twitter, Reddit

• Any FP-related content you want to call out - articles, podcasts, videos.

If you have any other ideas as well, do share, and I will be happy to think about it.

That’s all from me this week. Don’t Panic!

Questions? Feedback? Just hit reply on this email or write in at [email protected]