About Pump Pens

Pump Pens are fountain pens with a pump that let you force more ink or paint to the nib or brush. You don't have to pump all the time - gravity flow works most of the time. When you want more ink or paint, just press the pump, and you get what you press - from a drop to a gush.

Pump Pens are designed for everyday use, for drawing, sketching, and painting - whatever you like to do with a pen. You can use any ink or paint in our Pump Pens - they are made from plastic to which nothing adheres, so you don't have to worry about plugging up the pen. If the pen does plug up, you can flush it clean with tap water. If that doesn't work, you can poke out the obstruction with a paper clip.

Pump Pens were originally designed for thicker artistic media, such as India ink and acrylic paint, because you can't use these media in other fountain pens - they will soon plug up the pen and make it useless. We have since discovered that many artists are working with more modern inks and paints, which are thinner but still permanent and lightfast. To accommodate the wide variety of possible media, we offer pens with different flow rates.

Click a subject for more information:

• About Nib Pump Pens
• Use Any Ink or Paint?

About Nib Pump Pens

A fountain pen that works with India ink and acrylic paint! Artists get excited when they hear about our Nib Pump Pens.

We currently produce a variety of Nib Pump Pens for the most popular types of lettering and drawing nibs. You can see the complete list here - Nib Pump Pens. Most artists refer to their favorite dip nibs by brand name.

All Nib Pump Pens are identical except for the front end of the pen, which holds the nib and feed. Each Nib Pump Pen is customized for the specific type of nib employed. This means you can use your own Gillott 303 nibs in the Pump Pen for Gillott 303 nibs, but you cannot use a Hunt 101 nib in that pen. That said, some of our Nib Pens can accommodate of a similar size and shape. We just haven't yet compiled a list for mixing and matching nibs in each pen.

If you enjoy a nib that we haven't listed, please ask and we will test the nib in our pens to see if we can find a good fit for you.

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Use Any Ink or Paint?

When we say you can "use any ink or liquid paint", what do we mean?

There are two ways to take this - literally and practically. Literally, you can pump anything through the Pump Pen that flows, but you might not enjoy pumping enamel, lacquer or very thick acrylic paint. It moves slowly, and it appears on the end of the pen as paste.

Practically speaking, you can use any ink or paint that is typically used by artists. This is what me mean when we say you can use any ink or liquid paint in the Pump Pen.

Pump Pens let you use inks and paints that are traditionally not used in fountain pens, such as India ink and acrylic paint. These media are often too thick to flow through the narrow channels in a standard fountain pen. If you manage to get them to flow through such a pen, they can dry quickly and plug up your pen. This usually means you lose the pen, and most fountain pens are not cheap.

The default configuration for all Pump Pens is for vintage artistic media. We can modify the Pump Pen so it can handle modern inks and paints. We do this by providing a tighter feed that is designed to restrain the flow of thinner ink.

Be sure to notify us if you want to use modern media in your Pump Pen.

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