Pens and Ink: Pilot Namiki Resin Falcons & the Blue Hues experiment

During my Chistmas break from work I was catching up on Goulet Q&A (where Brian Goulet from the Goulet Pencompany answers FP and stationery related questions on a weekly basis) and in episode 106 a reader asked him

"Can the Pilot Falcon (resin) be converted into an eye dropper?" 

Which is something I have wondered about myself seeing I have 2 of these resin falcons. Brian tests them out with water and it seemed to work! But he also said it needs to be tested with inks and see if it leaks in the long run /during storage. He then asks to anyone whom owns a resin falcon to help and test this out as well. So I thought, why the hell not and satisfy my own curiosity?!

As I said I have two Falcons: an older Namiki branded one with Medium Soft nib with gold finish and a newer Pilot branded one with Soft Extra Fine nib with rhodium finish. I converted these falcons by using silicone grease and a spare O-rings I have from my TWSBI's. I put the O ring flush against the section's metal ring above the thread ends and applied a liberal amount of silicone grease on the treads of the section. With a pipette I 'droppered' the ink from the vials in the pen bodies. Then screwed tight.

I used to have a monthly  Goulet Inkdrop  subscription for over 2 years and still have SO many ink samples to try out in pens. Wanted to test some blue hues and used the following samples in my Falcons: Diamine Presidential Blue (kinda fitting with the whole election race going on in the US at the moment) and De Atramentis Atlantic Blue which is darker than I expected it to be. Both are fun alternative choices if you want to have a different work-safe Royal Blue ink tone in your pen. 

I used the Falcons in my daily mindfulness meditation journal and the ink flow in the writing kept up nicely. No blobs of ink gushing out of the pen as sometimes with eyedropper conversions can be the case (something to do with the heat of your hands that can build up an air bubble in the section and causes to blob ink ... or so someone told me, I flunked chemistry in high school...) I've had that in my Pilot preppy and 78G happen before, but nope not with these birds. I was very pleased with their performance.

They are quite pretty Birds too. But the real questions remains, do they leak? Well I am happy to report, no they do not! I've had them lying horizontally on my desk overnight on my notepad and no leakage. I've had them stored upright in my pen cube for a night too and no leakage. 

Pretty sweet! Now I can keep using these babies to test more samples with :)

The X-Files are back, baby! Sorry, super random, but I am loving the season so far!

So I think it's definitely safe to convert your resin falcons to an eyedropper. What you do have to consider though that it is tough to gage the ink levels in the pen as it's a solid black body and no ink window. Not really a solution for that except to write with your pen until it runs dry. Or maybe carefully unscrew the section and place the body upright in an ink tray and peek in the barrel with a bright flash/phone light? I would only test this when you are at home though... ink spillage may occur.

Comparison shot of the SEF pilot branded falcon and the older SM namiki falcon nibs with different Rhodium and Gold finishes. To me this is serious nibbage though some may or may not agree. Also check out Gourmetpens review with more facts, flex comparison and sexy nib shots! 

Hope this info helps when you are considering to eyedropper convert your Pilot/ Namiki Resin Falcon fountain pen. 

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté