There are two types of Lever Fountain Pens, the “single stroke” and the “multiple stroke.” If the lever lifts toward the nib, it is a single stroke, if it lifts away from the nibs point, it is a multiple stroke. Fairly easy to fill, this style of filler system was developed by Sheaffer in a response to what he considered an ugly and unnecessary Crescent filling pen by Conklin. I’m with Mark Twain on this one, as I happen to disagree, as I have found the crescent fillers to be far less messy and awkward to handle in an ink bottle than the lever. If the ink bottle is getting short on ink, the lever frequently causes you to end up with ink on your fingers as you struggle to pull it out and then push it back in while the pens nib and section remain submersed in the ink in the bottle. Whereas, the crescent filling pens merely require the pressing of the crescent into the side of the pen as the nib and section are immersed in the ink within the bottle.
Single Stroke Lever: Compress sac by lifting lever until it stops (don’t pull down forcefully too much as you wouldn’t want to break off the lever), place the entire nib and about half of the section into the ink in the ink bottle/well, release lever leaving the nib and section in the ink for a few seconds. Pull the nib out, turn it upwards and wipe it clean with a cloth.
Multiple Stroke Lever: Place the entire nib and about half of the section into the ink in the ink well, lift the lever about five or six times, pausing a second in between, wait a second or two at the end, pull the pen out and turned upwards, wipe the nib clean with a cloth. You are ready to write!
