Inky T O D - How Long Does Any One Ink Stay In Your Pen?

[amberleadavis]

Now some of us have specific pens that ONLY get a particular ink, be sure to tell us about that combo. The real question though is the other inks - how long does it take you to use that fill and do you then reink with the same ink?

[The Blue Knight]

Until I have used it up!

[AllenG]

I don't put much ink in my pens just so I can change it out in a day or three.

Edited July 7, 2014 by AllenG

[Bookman]

An ink stays in a pen for as long as I can stand it. Two months is apparently my current limit. Omas Blue just finished 2 months in an E/D Singularity. I used it till it ran dry. These days a 2- or 3-week run is typical. But not all that long ago it was rare for any ink to remain in any pen longer than 2 weeks. Most pen-ink combos lasted only a few days and, frequently, only a day or two. My name is Bookman, and I'm a recovering compulsive ink-switcher. It didn't help matters that when I first got back into FPs I went from zero to 40 bottles in about a year and a half, buying any flashy color that turned my head. I have reduced my ink inventory since then through attrition, reordering favorites but trying few new inks, now down to around 25 bottles, and so I have fewer inks to switch to and nearly all are blue or blue-black—only three blacks, two reds, two browns, one purple, one violet, one green, and one orange. If I had more inks and more colors I would surely be back where I was.

[Sandy1]

Hi,

 

For my daily writer at the office and the two or three pens used in the field, each run a different ink until I am off duty. So that could be five days or quite a bit longer.

> Office: Parker Sonnet + 18K M gets Parker Quink BlBk+SOLV-X.

> Field A: rotring 600 + steel F gets MBMBl (switching to ESSRI.)

> Field B: Pelikan P99 Technixx + steel B gets Pelikan 4001 BlBk.

> Field C: Sailor DE + steel 40° fude gets Pilot yama-guri (may switch to NFPNGMBr.)

 

For personal writing, I switch ink+pen combos on a per document basis, so that is typically less than one day.

 

For a casual carry combo, it could be one to three days. (Unless its the Red Parker Super 21 with Sheaffer Skrip Turquoise.)

 

I don't keep an array of pens charged with ink 'in rotation'.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited July 7, 2014 by Sandy1

[pmhudepo]

I often use the same ink a few times in a particular pen -- maybe 3 refills. I don't keep track of anything except for pens (nib size, age and a few other details) so I might be mistaken.

 

For instance, some day I may feel like picking up my Waterman 52 with its flexible EF nib and I'll put Akkerman Bekakt Haags in it. I'll use it for a while -- practice, doodling, perhaps a letter or a note -- on a Sunday afternoon, or a short session before breakfast. A few weeks later I might feel like using something different and ink that up and start using it. After a week or two, I realize that there may still be some ink in the Waterman and I had better clean it before it dries up and causes trouble.

 

That is apart from the regular writers, the daily note-takers and journaling pens, like the Pelikan M800 with Asa-gao. The regulars get used for a couple of months before switching.

[Tas]

I posted this sometime in January. The only change has been the Waterman now has Mont Blanc Midnight Blue (original) in it.

Once a pen & ink combo is found they're rarely separated here. Probably why I have so many blooming pens!

 

 

http://www.taskyprianou.com/fpn_pen_and_ink_combos.jpg

 

My Noodler's Konrad recently married my otherwise disappointing Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. The two were made for each other and I'm down to my last few fills.

[napalm]

This is my dedicated "Asa Gao" pen, I never refill it with anything else, and it generally stays home:

My office/EDC pen is usually loaded with Asa Gao, but occasionally it may see Pilot Blue or Blue-Black, or even Parker Blue-Black when I run out of my regular blue inks.

I also have a couple of inexpensive pens (Pilot 78G, Elite regular) for fooling around with various other inks. These can see as much as 3-4 ink changes in one day.

Edited July 7, 2014 by napalm

[Bo Bo Olson]

Mostly I fill my piston pens, half full.

Lately I've been running Aurora blue in my 605 with a 400n's semi-flex B nib, because it's in my Pelikan two pen desk set, so is my most used pen.

The 605 had before I got the nib(&400n) mostly in the box because of the modern blobby 'butter smooth' only semi-nail nib.

 

Striving unsuccessfully to get down to five pens........could do that if I used them more....ie put up that 400n nibbed pen.

It is so nice just to grab a pen out of a desk set instead of un-capping them.

[Pentulant]

I have just a couple of pens that I refill with the same color each week.

 

I go through a lot of samples - some of them only stay in the pen for a couple of days before being rinsed out.

[colrehogan]

It depends on what nib I am using. The O3B's tend to go through ink quite a bit faster than the OM, the B, the M, the F, or especially the EF. Ok, I know, that is obvious. I have actually been changing ink colors when inking up my pens. One that has seen the same ink multiple times is the 147 OM. It has had two Diamine Deep Dark Red cartridges in a row. I found that my Edison Beaumont with OB nib really only likes Aurora Black. I have a Namiki Chinese Phoenix with F nib (writes like XXXF, IMO) seems to like Iroshizuku Take-sumi. I was originally going to just use Levenger Raven Black in that pen, but it writes sooooo narrow, that that ink didn't always work well. The Take-sumi does work with that pen.

 

Back to the original question. I try not to leave an ink in a pen for more than two weeks unless I have flushed it out (or used it all) and am using the same ink for the next fill. Does this happen? Not necessarily.

[sexauerw]

My Pilot Custom 823 with a Mottishaw .7mm cursive italic nib always gets refilled with Pilot Blue ink. Just about four years now and it's never been flushed and never seen any other ink.

 

Other pens in my rotation tend to last about two months before they either run dry or I decide to empty them because I want to play with different pens.

[Charles Rice]

I usually fill a pen twice and then change pens and inks.

[Cyhz]

Mostly there is no reason or time line for most of my ink filling. Inks that I consider "office appropriate" may get 2 or 3 fills in the same pen at the most, and that is usually only to help cut back on number of pens to clean each week. Other colors usually only get one fill and the time span for the fill depends on what the pen is used for. I have been guilty in the past of dumping ink just because I have been bored with it. I enjoy lots of different colors.

[amberleadavis]

I usually fill a pen twice and then change pens and inks.

 

 

With pink inks?

[inkstainedruth]

It depends on a number of factors.

Some pens only get one ink: I have a Noodler's Konrad which gets nothing but Kung Te Cheng, because my first Konrad (since lost) did so well with it. That pen however, tends to get refilled once or twice with distilled water before flushing (it's currently out of rotation). And I limit the use of BSB to a single pen simply because that way I don't have to be completely rabid about getting *every* molecule of ink out -- that pen isn't going to have anything else in it, so I don't have to worry about bad chemical interactions.

Other pens may get refilled if I really like an ink; or they may get refilled with distilled water simply because I don't have time (or am too lazy) to flush it. I had De Atramentis Red Roses in a Parker Vacumatic for at least a month. I just kept refilling it because it was too nice a combination. But of course when I *did* finally get around to flushing it, it was an interminable -- and infuriating -- process because I think I flushed it and re-flushed it for the better part of a week....

I do prefer to write pens dry. Which turns out to be a problem if I *don't* like the ink.... But I also found that if I have too many pens in rotation I can't keep up with writing with them. That leads to clogging issues.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[casualmerlinconstant]

One fill. Sometimes that takes a month (during holidays where I don't write a lot.) Sometimes takes a day or two when I'm in the middle of exam revision.

[NevynM]

One fill will last around a month for me... At the moment I'm emptying and cycling through samples I have, so changing around weekly. Once that's done I don't know what will happen....

[byggyns]

The ink stays in the pen through just one fill. Then, it gets flushed to make way for a new color. I'm still going through samples now, so I don't stay with one color very long. When the samples run out or low, I may keep the same color in the pen for more time. The last ink I kept for 2 fills was a sample of PR DC Electric Blue.

[odd_soul]

My ink will typically stay in my pens until it is gone. Sometimes, if I'm trying out an ink sample and I know I'm not in love with it, I'll empty it and switch inks. I have a lot of pens in my rotation, so it takes a while for the ink to be used up, sometimes months. It depends on the pen and its ink capacity. I do have some inks that I'll keep putting in the same pen over and over, but nothing is set in stone. I will not hesitate to change things up if I don't feel like looking at a certain color anymore.