Inky T O D - How Much Ink Do You Really Use?

[Bookman]

Sort of like a few of the above members, I do use what I have but not all that much. After all, I didn't buy them just to use them, but just to collect them and in my spare time -- like when I can't sleep -- count them instead of counting sheep, Frigzample, yup, all 30 old CdAs are there, all 8 Lamys, 37 Herbins, 22 Pelikans, 8 Graf vons, 19 R&Ks, 9 Watermans etc. Sure, I have a few more, but, boy, as re new CdAs, Iroshis, Sailors, Parkers, Bung Box, De Atramentis, Noodler's and Diamines... those all make up tons of inks I still need.

 

I counted the empties, myself. Didn't throw them away for some reason. Took about 30 seconds.

[_Stormin_]

As far as I can tell ink bottles do not have bottoms.

 

A BIC pen holds about .3ml of ink and can write for about 2 miles.

That means a 50ml bottle is good for around 300 miles.

I have 26 bottles of ink, so I will have drawn a line 6000 miles long before I deplete my stock.

 

I probably go through no more than 450 miles of ink a year.

Little bit of a deductive fallacy there, but you're mind is in the right place. That BIC throws down ink at a miserly rate compared to even the driest writing fountain pen. The conclusion is pretty entertaining though! Math is a bit off, and at that ratio the 26 bottles would be well over EIGHT THOUSAND MILES. (Sorry, I have to do math like that all day, so I've become rather quick at it even without a calculator.) That's a line from my home in Virginia to Moscow in Russia, and then draw that same line BACK.

 

I think I go through a combined "full" bottle every other month, but have the hardest time not ordering at least one or two every month... Some of it is the desire to try different shades and properties of ink, other purchases are true necessity (I will never be "out of" Bernanke Black/Blue/Q'Eternity as I use them daily), and then there is the occasional oddball bottle bought simply to hit a shipping minimum. (Amazon Add On Items anyone?) I don't have any stress about the amount I have simply because I know that I will be in good enough supply should I need to limit purchases for a while.

[amberleadavis]

I use a lot of ink. I even use the ink out of ballpoint pens.

 

Here's my most recent desk blotter.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140530_200942.jpg

[pajaro]

I use a lot of ink. I even use the ink out of ballpoint pens.

 

Here's my most recent desk blotter.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/Inked_Today/slides/20140530_200942.jpg

 

That is so way cool.

[Algester]

depends... 1-2 ML a day when flexing?

[mirosc]

about 3/4 to 1 bottle a month (50ml).

[Paddler]

About 40 ml per month.

[JBat]

As a percentage of all the different inks I own so far, not very much. That percentage is dipping, of course, because I keep buying new colors.

[Zilknitha]

I started keeping a record of how many times I refill my pens to see how much ink I use. A bit obsessive I know, but I was curious. So far I have gone through 11.8ml. Roughly thats 1ml out of each of the 10 bottles I have. Yet, this has been a slow drawing and writing month for me.

[CaptainBA]

During class and meetings, I'll use about 1 mL a day. On a typical work day without class, I'll use less than that. That's not including the writing I do outside of work which is pretty variable.

Edited June 2, 2014 by CaptainBA

[Cyber6]

Well, a fellow FPNer asked about ways that some of us ink hoarders use our ink (or if we just sleep on it like inky dragons).

 

How much ink do you use? BTW, gifting it does count.

 

In that case.. I just "used".. 60 ml... (5ml X 12 vials).. (Yes Amber... these are your samples.. lol)

 

 

 

Last year... I gifted approx 85 vials (5ml X 85 = 425ml) and approx 12 full bottles of ink... (approx. 900ml... most noodlers, a few Sailor and a couple of Herbin)..

 

That gives you a grand total of 1325ml... or approx 15 bottles(90ml) or 26 bottles (50ml)... and that without counting that my daughter (14years old) is an artist and goes through ink like a champ... ..... I like to play with ink and colors (ink mixing), I also doodle like crazy and take random notes at work...

 

I cannot accurately quantify my daughters and my usage. I usually have between 20-25 pens inked, one daughter (writer) has all her 5 pens inked and the other daughter (artist) has all her 8 pens inked. If you do an average of 2ml per pen (some are eyedroppers, some are lever fillers, most are piston fillers.. and there are at least 5 TWSBI's among us) .. that is approx 70ml..

 

My artist girl and I go through ink faster than my other daughter.. So lets say... I refill all my pens every 2-3 months (that's approx 50ml every three months... I mainly use wet BB and Flex pens) and my daughters .. usually every month (approx 25ml... My artist girl .. sometimes goes through her pens twice on weekends... and holidays)

 

Keeping a conservative count.... 50X4 + 25X12 = 200ml + 300ml = 500ml/year (If you want to use 1.75ml as the average amount.. then it becomes.. approx 437ml/year)

 

 

So for last year... 1325ml(gift) + 500ml(used) = 1825ml... That is an approximation, but I believe is on the conservative side.

 

 

So far this year... I ordered 150 vials on Jan 6... and I have less than 25 vials left. This time.. I did send a few batches of 2ml/each (I was sending the full set of Toucan inks 2ml X 14=28ml) to several people... All in all.. maybe around 400ml on 125vials..

 

 

Phew... ... I think I need to go and buy more ink........

[PAKMAN]

I don't use enough! I have close to 75 bottles and always replace favorites when they get low. Non favorites may never get used up! I only journal about 1/2 to one page a day and do a few crosswords. Since I retired from full time work I use much less ink!

[wvbeetlebug]

I have a modest amount of ink. Say less than 20 bottles. The only one I ever actually used up was a bottle of Sheaffer Skrip in Jet Black. It is my go to black ink and yes I bought another bottle. I need to write and doodle more.

 

I do work in an environment where I am not limited to only blue and black ink which is a huge plus.

[amberleadavis]

Yep, you need more ink, because you are using more than 50 bottles a year. That leaves no ink for hoarding. Thank you for sending me inks.

[FayeV]

I have no idea how much ink I use. I really don't write as much as I used to, certainly not enough to justify the amount of ink I am amassing. I recently started to keep a record of when I refill a pen, writing down the date, pen and ink color. Now if I could get an idea of how much ink each pen holds, and keep recording this over the next year, then maybe I'll get a better picture of how much ink I use.

[colrehogan]

Not nearly enough.

[VivienR]

Between 1-1,5 ml/week... with the rate of my ink collection grows probably will not have problems, maybe only with the limited editions, or with those are withdrawn from the production line.

[indigoskye]

I've only been buying ink since last year. I've never had a bottle go empty before, but I have seen my black and 54th Mass bottles start to go down. These are the two inks I use daily. The rest of my bottles are still near the top, but they are the different colored inks that I only use occasionally. This is why I generally will not buy a larger bottle than 30ml with a colored ink such as a green or purple. 30ml goes a long way.

[amberleadavis]

A little followup on a related topic:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/300222-cost-analysis-of-fountain-pen-ink-vs-ballpoint/?do=findComment&comment=3504074

[Abner C. Kemp]

Big broad nibs seem to be the best way to go through inks, unfortunately I don't like super broad nibs so wet pens are the next best thing. I have more ink than I'll ever use in my entire life though -- at some point you just realize "it is what it is". Eventually, I'd like to dole out a whole bunch of samples but I suppose that counts as gifting. So, yea, I pretty much sleep on them like an ink dragon.

 

BTW, Amber is that you in the new avatar?? I've always wanted to put a face to the handwriting.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Abner C. Kemp