The Pen Hospital in Kolkata will nurse your broken fountain pen back | Hacker News Reader

The Pen Hospital in Kolkata will nurse your broken fountain pen back

vogue.in

186 pointsaxiomdata31644 comments

I mostly write with fountain pens, primarily pre-1980s, but find myself rather confused by much of this article. Presumably there are terminology differences involved, but I have no idea what he is referring to by 'socket', why it needs to be washed weekly, or why he would add one to a pen. I can't find anything online, and the various uses of the word in the article don't really fit any part of a fountain pen that I do know about. I don't understand how a nib would be curved to fit a smaller hand: the 1930s Waterman reference he makes might be a reference to the Lady Patricia, but that's a smaller-bodied version of the at-the-time quite large Patrician; I don't think the nib, or even the size, is particularly different than Watermans before it. I'm also not sure I'd agree about modern pen mechanisms being more complex: while the article is inconsistent about when the shop was opened (77 years ago, but also late 1950s), that would have put the shop during his grandfather's time right around an era of pens like the Sheaffer Snorkel (filled through an extending snorkel by a pneumatic mechanism to avoid the nib, itself with an unusual cylindrical design, needing to be immersed in ink) that are particularly complex compared to modern fountain pens, which mostly seem to use typical, stiff nib and feed designs, and cartridges or converters rather than elaborate filling mechanisms.

I certainly don't 'wash off' a pen with water once a week when I'm using it, and I'm not even sure what that would mean. Unless there's a problem with ink flow, there should not be 'excess ink'. Is he saying the pen should be flushed once a week? That seems quite excessive. It's just very odd that he seems quite insistent about the necessity of something that I've never heard of.

I came here to say this. I have no idea what a socket might be.

I flush my pens monthly or if I intend to put it away for a while.

I think he must be talking about the ink bladder (and replacing, rather than adding), there's nothing else that makes sense. Although, depending on the properties of your ink, it shouldn't be necessary to rinse the bladder every week anyway.

You can pull out nibs and ink reservoirs. My guess is the socket is the connection between the two. Perhaps you would add a larger one to fit a different nib.

Pulling out the nib is only possible with a friction-fit nib and feed. Most modern pens (with a few exceptions) do not have friction-fit nibs.

"Ink reservoirs" can't always be pulled out either. A cartridge converter can definitely be taken out. "Reservoir" typically refers to a rubber or silicone bladder. These are usually fixed in place by an adhesive, and need some effort to remove.

Apparently "socket" is an archaic term for "nib unit". Even so, I would be very chary of unscrewing a nib unit and washing it every week.

I get the feeling that the article was written by someone who is completely unfamiliar with fountain pens, and who did not bother to do their homework.

For all I know, the author misheard "sac" as "socket". The recommendations of washing the pen once a week also sound completely off.

> I get the feeling that the article was written by someone who is completely unfamiliar with fountain pens, and who did not bother to do their homework.

The author's articles[0] are mostly posh listicles, so it wouldn't surprise me.

[0] https://www.vogue.in/author/debabratee-dhar

The only reasons I can think of to wash the nib unit on a regular basis would be:

1. The cap is not sealing correctly against the pen, letting the ink dry in the nib and feed

2. The ink is not water soluble, so if it does dry it cannot be fixed with a water flush

But these two problems were mostly solved 70 years ago.

I'm from Kerala in India and have visited a similarly named establishment in a town called Trichur https://www.thenewsminute.com/kerala/visit-hospital-kerala-t.... It's got some nostalgic value but not much more.

There's another shop which fountain pen enthusiasts might like as well. It's also in Kerala but closer to where I live called "Kim and Co.". They make pens with ebonite bodies. These don't have pistons on any other such reservoirs. You pour ink straight into the body and it stays there. Their claim to fame is that the thread is good enough so that with 3 turns, it locks and holds the ink without leaking. I have one of their pens but don't use it on a daily basis. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/304573-a-mast...

My own daily use pen is a Noodlers Ahab. The main reason I prefer this is because the nib is flexible and so you can do simply copperplate or spencerian using it. Great for headings.

> You pour ink straight into the body and it stays there.

If you want to search for more examples of this kind of pens, they are called eyedropper pens.

And the tip is to use a Syringe to "pour" the ink.

Yup. That's what I do.

I didn't know Kim and Co.; but I have handmade Indian fountain pens from ASA Pens, Ranga Pens and Fosfor Pens and all of them are excellent. And the price is a steal compared to what one can get in e.g. the EU.

My only peeve is that for some reason (cultural I guess?) most pens by these manufacturers are what I would consider very large (for my taste, 13-14 cm length closed and ~13 mm diameter, like a Platinum Century #3776 or an Aurora Optima, is a good size). I always end up fishing for the smallest models, e.g. I like the Ranga Markandeya.

If you look closely in markets and bazaars you can often come across little niche boutique shops like this: Repair shops for instance that specialize in repairing old school video game consoles. They toil all day replacing aging capacitors, upgrading boards to work with modern TVs and put out clean crisp pixel output, rebuilding broken consoles using harvested parts, replacing batteries of old cartridges, replacing worn cases, and even selling karts with libraries of multiple (pirated) ROMs installed. They don’t make much money, but it sustains their work.

Interesting story to show up the same day as "The rise of the disposable car": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40512517

In Cuba, they refill disposable lighters: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6ysxekWL9Gk

It's quite sad how many disposable e-smoke thingies one can find littering the streets, even in a quite nice city like the one I live. OTOH: Most times it's another small rechargeable battery for my electronics projects. Madness

Gives me great joy to see my hometown, the City of Joy (Kolkata) making it to the frontpage of HN. :`)

Indeed, quite lovely to see. Wish someone did a piece on 'Metro Gali', where there are people like this for cameras.

Fountain Pen Hospital in NYC is also pretty good. Kolkata is probably a lot less expensive though haha

I was going to mention them! Absolutely lovely people and assortment. Bought a great 1980s Pelikan M400 from them.

P.s. They're on Murray Street, where Sonic Youth used to have their old rehearsal space.

Great place.

Weird thing... The links in that article are to totally unrelated pages on the same Vogue India site.

eg. the first link `pen` takes you to an article about therapy.

Anyone know why they might do this? Is it some SEO trick?

Or, if you're in the U.S.:

https://fountainpenhospital.com/

I remember my first and only visit to Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the late 1990s. I had never seen such a huge density of pen shops anywhere else. I am not a collector, but I used to like pens then because I was a student. I loved that place.

Then off to penisland to recuperate

Edit: I guess youngins don't remember pen island penisland.com

It's .net

I stand corrected

I would love a class on taking care of my fountain pens. Maybe I'll find something on YouTube.

JetPens has a video and article for the care of fountain pens.

Most fountain pen issues can usually be fixed by a good, thorough, cleaning.

If the nib is scratchy, its tines are likely misaligned, and need alignment. You'll need a 10x (or better) jeweller's loupe to check the tines for alignment.

More complex solutions for more complex problems exist, but these are the most common by far. It is possible to pick up these things by watching videos, but I'd recommend you to make contact with your local fountain pen club - such things do exist :)

Don’t do it.

I did, about eight years ago. Now there is a lathe in my office that I use to make replacement parts for century-old pens.

The rabbit hole is deep, but boy have you gone far

Ah yes, the logical endpoint of any quirky hobby - becoming so invested in it that your family simply has to smile and nod approvingly while they pray it doesn't spill over into the living room.

That said, if you're that skilled with a lathe, it should probably be considered a useful life skill.

Growing up, my mom drew the line on vintage motorcycle parts in the dishwasher. Sometimes though, in the winter, the motorcycles were allowed inside. God bless her.

That is lovely to hear! You brightened my day a little more. Keep doing it, and maybe share a blog post about your work? I know there are dozens (!) of us who would read it closely :)

1. Search for "TWSBI Eco" at https://www.jetpens.com and buy the color you like best.

2. Fill it with the ink you like best. In general, you can't go wrong with Pilot Iroshizuku (again, jetpens)

3. When you're done using this pen, twist it (no need to overdo the torque).

4. When you next need to use it, months (or even a year) later, It. Will. Work.

I own several different fountain pens, and this one is the only one that I can truly call "maintenance-free".

Of course, if you do enjoy tinkering with your fountain pens, don't let me stop you. It's a wonderful hobby!

What a lovely read. Sometimes I forget why I keep opening HN everyday, and then I remember.

I will wash my pen once a week from now on!

Please don't wash your pen once a week. You only need to flush it if you're changing inks, or if you're putting it away in storage. As long as you're writing with your pen at least once in a couple of days, _and_ you're using a reasonable ink - you most certainly do not need to wash it every week.

You don't have to take my word for it -- just hang out on FPN, or even better, hang out with your local fountain pen club.

This is without a doubt the most Kolkata thing I have ever seen

Some seal in my pen broke and ink leaks out around where I hold it. It's disappointing, but I'm unlikely to travel around the world to fix it! I'd happily ship it to them and take my chances on getting it back, because it's not like I can use it right now anyway.

Unfortunately, though, I also developed a fondness for stone paper, and apparently that doesn't pair well with fountain pens.

What’s the brand/model? Maybe you can find the part and replace it.

Stone paper is a very fine sand paper in practice. Eats fountain pen nibs.

I don't know how I'd find out. It isn't marked. I picked it up for 10€ in France almost 20 years ago, and while it's my favorite pen I've ever written with, I don't hand write things enough that I ever got really into pens such that I could figure it out. I would need the pen hospital to identify what kind of fixing it needed.

You can share a photo of it with me, or there's a forum called fountainpennetwork (https://www.fountainpennetwork.com). They're friendly and knowledgeable bunch. You can ask them.

I'd love to see a fountain pen with its clip in a cast. But seriously, +1 for doing the repairs and reducing waste.

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