How to Refill a Fountain Pen Ink Cartridge

Why would you refill ink cartridges?

  • To save money, so you don't have to buy a converter for your cartridge/converter pen
  • Higher ink capacity, some cartridges have higher ink capacities than their matching converters
  • More ink options, as some pens only take cartridges like the Kaweco Sport 

What you'll need to refill your ink cartridges:

  • A fountain pen that takes cartridges
  • Empty ink cartridges (you'll need to save these, as you usually can't buy them empty)
  • At least one ink syringe, two make the process faster
  • Water
  • Bottled ink

That's it! You're essentially just flushing the dirty cartridge out with water and refilling it with ink. This process isn't quite as convenient as filling a pen with a converter, but it can be really helpful in certain situations!

If you don't have any used ink cartridges on hand or if you'd just prefer to buy brand new empty ink cartridges, Private Reserve has them available in the short standard international size. Noodler's also makes some refillable ink cartridges made to fit their Ahab and a few other of their fountain pens.