My syringe.
No, fortunately I do not need to inject medications. This syringe is a tool I use with some of my fountain pens.
Some of my smaller pens only take cartridges. Like this Kaweco sport pen, for instance. It is too small for a converter. A converter is a bit that you plug into the pen, that allows you to fill it with bottled ink.
In the photo below there are two different types of converters. On the left is an aerometric converter. You squeeze the metal bar to fill the pen. The centre pen has a piston converter. You turn the converter to suck up the ink.
With a syringe I can refill my cartridges with bottled ink.
At this point, you may be wondering why on earth I would want to go to such lengths. Well, not all inks are available in cartridges. Also, buying and using disposable plastic cartridges seems to go against the environmental friendliness of the infinitely refillable fountain pen. (At this point M can point out that because I have zillions of fountain pens and inks, I’m not really being environmentally sound. He would be right, but – whisht! 🙂 )
In case you think this is an innovation I developed, well, no, it isn’t. Lots of fountain pen users do this. So much so you can even buy syringes, sold as fountain pen refill kits, online. Which is just as well, as chemists seem to have a real reluctance to sell syringes if you ask for them. I don’t know why this is.