If you are interested in Japanese pocket pens, note that they rarely arrive with converters. Each manufacturer uses a proprietary cart or converter design so you will most likely need to buy that separately although some sellers will include a single cart with your purchased pen. Read the fine print to be certain what you are getting since Western style converters and carts just won’t work.
Pilot pocket pens can use the current CON-20 converter but not the larger Pilot converters. Sailor and Platinum pocket pens do not work with the converters currently sold by those companies. There are a couple of workarounds and adapters available for Platinum pocket pens but I have not used one myself to give a recommendation.
Refilling a cartridge is the easiest solution to using an older Sailor or Platinum pen if you intend to use a variety of inks. A pipette or eye dropper can easily be used to do the trick and will fill the cartridge quite full especially compared to a poorly constructed converter. So you just might come out ahead using this option.
Many online vendors offer Pilot and Sailor supplies though Platinum can be a bit harder to locate. The U.S. companies from which I have purchased Japanese carts and converters are Pendemonium, The Pear Tree Pen Company and Swisher Pens though there are many others. All three companies make excellent ink so if you decide to stick with their cartridges, you shouldn’t be disappointed.
