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Double Ended Pens – An Update

Hi Pen Fans!

About 3 months ago, we announced an interesting double ended pen that a lot of people found to be a pretty unique option. 

I’ll post photos below, and you can also read the entire announcement here if you have not already.

At the time of announcing this pen, some people had concerns regarding whether having an extra ink reservoir could lead to ink leaking out the nib, since one nib could be pointing down.  This concern is legitimate, and as a result, at the time of announcing this pen, I was recommending that this pen remains a desk pen, and not an "on-the-go" pen.

Well since then, we’ve sold plenty of these pens, and we’ve also been running our own tests.

I’m happy to share that there’s no reason to be concerned with this issue anymore than you would any other pen.  I haven’t had one owner report back to me with any leaks, spurts, or problems.  I’ve found the same results with my own personal double ended pen that’s been residing on my desk for the last couple of months as a daily user.  I’ll attach a photo below showing how I’ve been storing the pen among my daily users.


(I realize that a lot of you might want to know what my dailys are.  Left to Right….Beaumont Pneumatic, Encore Bulb Filler, Pearl Double Ended, Menlo Pump Filler, Encore 2012 LE AP, Parker Vacumatic, Chilton) 

So the Double Ended Pen has been stored with the nib down for a couple of months now, and has been used extensively with no problem.  When I test for nib weeping, I’ll pay attention to whether or not a feed fin is saturated.  If 2-3 fins become saturated, then no big deal, that’s what they are designed to do….contain ink burps.  However, this pen has not shown a single fin saturated.  I have also ran a twisted paper towel inside the caps, looking for any traces of ink.  No traces.  I also have customers reporting the same results.  And then I also have customers who are taking the pens to and from work, also with no problems.

So my initial speculation is showing to be true.  The ink reserviors are simply not large enough to have a significant effect on pushing ink out the nib when the nibs are facing down under normal conditions.

Now obviously, I wouldn’t recommend putting one of these pens in your shirt pocket and then going for a jog, but I’m not sure that I’d recommend that with any Edison Pen!

I will keep running these tests, and I’ll keep asking for owner feedback.  But for now, my recommendation is to use these pens on your desk confidently with the pen laying on it’s side, or with a nib down.  If you want to take the pen with you on-the-go, then just use the same common sense that you would with any other fountain pen.  If this recommendation changes over time as we keep getting feedback and doing our own tests, I’ll update my recommendation.

As a side note, we have been playing around with other designs as Double Ended Pens.  We successfully made a Morgan double ended, and we are currently playing around with a Beaumont, so if you have interest in a Double Ended pen, it looks like most of our models can be made this way.

If anyone has any questions, please reach out!

Brian at Edison

10 replies on “Double Ended Pens – An Update”

I haven’t had any problems either. My double ended Pearl is taken to work every day and I’ve never had a drop of ink in the cap or any fins filled with ink. It’s working well.

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