Whilst having a bit of a tidy up in my workroom the other day I came across my first ever fountain pen. It was a gift to me from a friend whilst we were at university. I am not sure who made it – there is no logo on it apart from a Mickey Mouse one! But don’t let that fool you – this is a nice solid metal pen with a two-tone iridium nib from Germany, which has a nice bit of flex to it and it came complete with it’s own pouch. From memory it was purchased at Smith & Caughey here in Auckland.

Obviously after years and years of no use it took a couple of attempts to get the ink flowing again. I first tried just holding the nib section under running water and initially that seemed to have worked, but then when left over night the ink flow was a bit patchy again. So I soaked the nib section in Higgins pen cleaning solution and viola we are back in action.

I assume the main reason I stopped using it was that at the time I didn’t know where to buy replacement cartridges from. I was not as knowledgeable in such things as I am now! It takes the “international” cartridge that we stock form J. Herbin. Problem solved. I shall never be without ink again.

Rather than adding it to my pencil case though I think I may, in light of the fact that it has it’s own pouch, have this as my handbag pen.

As I understand the frustration of not being able to find ink cartridges for your pen, we are attempting to stock most fountain pen ink cartridges in store. Currently we have J.Herbin international/universal, Lamy, Parker, Waterman and soon we will have Cross. If we can be of any assistance in finding the correct cartridges for your pen please don’t hesitate to contact us.