I've been looking over the Art Brown web site, as the Pen Fair is this week and I'll be dropping by on Wednesday to look at a few pens and purchase a few items (a new bottle of Iroshizuku ink is planned, among other things).
While looking at the Pilot inks, this came up--a Pilot Vanishing Point Metal Pen Cap. I have to say that my Pilot vanishing point decimo has always worried me a bit as there is no cap and no way to make sure ink doesn't drip out. This would do the trick, I'll have to bring my pen and give it a try.
Looks like the little thingy that came with my Vanishing Point to cover the cartridges -- adding more stability to the plastic with the clicker. Let us know, though, if it is a cap. I find it strange that the "capless" pen would have a cap.
ReplyDeleteCan't tell the diameter of the cylinder from the photo, but it looks like one of those old fashioned pencil length extenders. One of those you can stick a short pencil into to add length and gain a better grip. No?
ReplyDeleteThat cap is to cover the ink cartridge in the Vanishing Points because the cartridges cannot handle continued clicking.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bleets. If it were a little shorter, I'd guess from the photo alone a pencil point protector for wood-cased pencils, found at one time especially among draftsmen.
ReplyDeletePencil point protectors, both metal and plastic, can still be found, I think, at www.pencilthings.com from Don Bell. Likewise with pencil extenders.
Derwent and Alvin carry well-manufactured all-aluminum pencil extenders (or lengtheners) available from Jerry's Artarama (Derwent) and En-Ser Reprographic (Alvin), the latter a surveyor and blueprint supply shop in Youngstown, Ohio. Derwent carries 2 extenders in its blister pack, one slightly larger in inside diameter than the other; Alvin is a 3-pack, all the same diameter. Both about $8 if my memory's okay.
Bleets, I like to think pencil extenders are less old-fashioned than just little known and difficult to find. Until the late 1990s when it shut down, we had a super office supplies' store that still carried open-stock "stationers' notions" (my term) in easy-to-reach waist-level display cases. That helped acquaint me with useful products that I'd never know enough to search for on my own.
Jack/Youngstown
Thanks Sidney, now I see the ink cartridge shape and the hole on the end. Unfortunately, Art Brown's website doesn't give much of an explanation for what it is other than being a cap for a VP fountain pen. :)
ReplyDeleteUmmm ... this goes over the cartridge when you use that in the pen. Your Decimo has a cap, just like all vanishing point pens, that keeps it from drying out. It's a little trap-door mechanism inside the barrel that moves neatly out of the way when you extend the nib unit out of your barrel by activating whatever mechanism the pen has. Look closely in the end of the barrel and you'll see it there. Same thing on retractable Sharpies, by the way.
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