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

[Komitadjie]

Depends on the pen, to be honest. I have one dedicated expressly to BSB, that one never changes inks. Then there's my VP, that has had Carbon Black in it since the day I received it, and with the exception of a one-day stint with Heart of Darkness, has not had anything else.

 

My Safaris and AlStars change the most, they're kind of the pen I test stuff out in. Generally, an ink will stay in them a few weeks, or until the fill is exhausted, then it will usually change to a different one. I seldom refill one with the same ink that was in it the previous fill.

[ArchiMark]

Like others, I tend to let a pen run out of ink before refilling.

 

Depending upon which of several (2 - 3) pens I've filled I'm using a lot will determine how long before a pen needs refilling. Probably the most used pen gets refilled about every 2 weeks. Other pens are probably refilled about every month or so....

 

As most of my fountain pen usage is at work writing notes during meetings or updating To Do list, I tend to use the same inks for quite a while. Probably change after 2 - 3 refills of one color.

 

Mostly use blue-black inks with an occasional change to a blue or blue-green or brown ink. Sometimes I think I should try some more colors......but somehow don't get around to it....

[IWantThat]

I usually have a few pens filled at a time - a work-friendly blue or something dark, a light color for highlighting/margin notes, and something fun like purple or green.

 

Whether I refill or switch inks depends on my mood and any projects coming up for which one pen/ink combo or another might work best. Oh, and if I have a new(er) ink, it gets tested in a few pens until I find my fave combo.

[Mr. Pink]

 

 

With pink inks?

Yeah, right, smarty! Actually, I do have some pink ink. It came with my Varsity Pack. I only use it when I write down my favorite carrot cake recipes.

[amberleadavis]

Yeah, right, smarty! Actually, I do have some pink ink. It came with my Varsity Pack. I only use it when I write down my favorite carrot cake recipes.

 

I can't help myself. I love to think of you, when I think pink. I know you'll bite.

[Mr. Pink]

 

I can't help myself. I love to think of you, when I think pink. I know you'll bite.

Tell ya what - if you want to be a pen-pal, I'll write all my letters to you in pink - just to get rid of the stuff.

[Chi Town]

Right now I have 19 pens all inked up and ready to write all with different colors! I typically keep the color in a pen until I get tired of it, then clean the pen out and store it..........Seldom does my " writing" collection ever fall below 10 pens........And Never do I use Black or Blue inks, but I use everything in between. :-)

[zepp]

Too lazy to fully wash pen to change ink, so 1 pen gets assigned to 1 ink :/

[napalm]

Too lazy to fully wash pen to change ink, so 1 pen gets assigned to 1 ink :/

seems like you need moar penz... otherwise how could you test more inks?

[_Stormin_]

Aside from my dedicated BSB pen, no matter how much I like something each ink has only been lasting one fill.

[Runnin_Ute]

Kind of depends.....

 

• The True Writer Silver Anniversary gets a pretty steady diet of Diamine Sherwood Green. I don't know what it is about that gunmetal finish and that green that just says leave me here. Tried Diamine Steel Blue in it recently and it wasn't nearly as interesting.
• The Al Star (1.1) has seen a lot of Diamine Classic Red lately. Right now it is one of two pens - the other my Parker 45 Flighter 14K M filled with a sample I got from amberleadavis......"Blue Amber"
• Right now my Konrad ( is filled with 54th Massachusetts, recently it has had Classic Red and Apache Sunset - which has been a regular resident there.
• My Parker 51 Special has Waterman Serenity Blue right now. First fill since I have owned it.
• The Pelikan 120 M & K sees mostly Pelikan 4001 Blue Black - has Akkerman Voorhout Violet in it right now.
• Two with black right now - Pilot Metropolitan (cartridge) and Parker IM Premium Twin Metal Chiseled (Noodler's)
• Esterbrook J - 54th Massachusetts
• M150 - Diamine Blue Black
• M205 Toledo Red - Apache Sunset
• M205 black- 4001 Blue Black
• Phileas - Callifolio Bosphore
• Parker 45 - Levenger Empyrean

I don't normally have that many with the same ink. The Esterbrook seems to get changed more frequently than some of the others.

[PAKMAN]

I tend to have 4-5 pens inked lately. I mostly partial fill them so they will empty in a reasonable time period (about 3 weeks). They get one fill and go back into the cabinet and another comes out to play. The main exception is a new pen is fully filled and may get refilled once.

[Vgimlet]

Right now I have 19 pens all inked up and ready to write all with different colors! I typically keep the color in a pen until I get tired of it, then clean the pen out and store it..........Seldom does my " writing" collection ever fall below 10 pens........And Never do I use Black or Blue inks, but I use everything in between. :-)

I have 19 pens inked too! Dog avatar + 19 pens= no coincidence. (LOL)

 

Dedicated pens - Black Platimum F ED - Heart of Darkness

Dark Blue Plaisir F - Noodler's Liberty's Elysium

Pink Pilot Crystal F - Noodler's Black Swan in Australian Roses

Lamy Safary Red F - Diamine Red Dragon (so far...this may change...)

Green Plaisir F - Noodler's Gruene Cactus (same as above)

Eventually I will have a dedicated pen for my Noodler's Apache Sunset, which is playing musical pens right now.

 

 

 

I am deep into trying out samples right now. If I like a color I will keep it in the pen until I use the sample up, unless I change pens and put the rest of the ink in a pen with one of my "fancy" nibs (broad, flex, calligraphy). If I don't like it, I will rinse and change it after a week, two maximum. If I dislike it enough I discard the rest of the sample. (Maybe I should offer them for free somewhere.)

[Mezzie]

My charcoal Al-Star always has black, my purple Al-Star always has burgundy, and my green Platinum Balance always has green. Those, plus my yellow Pilot Parallel filled with firefly (yellow) highlighter ink, get me through my workday.

 

My yellow Safari is a dedicated Blue Ghost pen.

 

The only other color inks I have are a green highlighter ink and 54th Mass. The remaining pens might have any color in them at any given time, but there's a good chance at least one has burgundy as that's my favorite ink color.

[da vinci]

I only have one pen inked at a time. Takes me about 2 weeks to get through a cartridge or convertor fill. Then it gets cleaned and rotated out. No consistancy of ink fill colour.

[ac12]

Funny thing, after about a year of use, I just decided to evict Cross/Pelikan blue ink from my Parker 51 desk pen and replace it with Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue. After using different inks ink different pens, I decided that the Cross ink in the Parker 51 was too light. The P51 was not wet enough for the ink. I wanted something darker, and easier for my middle age eyes to read, and still a medium blue. Although if PR-DCSS blue failed to meet my expectations, my next option was Diamine Midnight.

 

My desk pens tend to be more stable in their inks, except when I get frustrated as above. Because none are c/c, and thus are more difficult and time consuming to clean to change inks.

[Arkanabar]

It's alive ... ALIVE!!!

 

The longest running pen & ink combo I have is the aqua M205 F my wife got me for Christmas in 2018 (IIRC) which has run with the Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku that matches it delightfully and that she'd given me at Christmas a few years before, when I was thinking that Yama-Guri could be the Essential Brown.  It took me a few days to decide how to ink that pen, but it was inspired.  I use it for all the billets-doux that I write to her.

[Runnin_Ute]

Only a couple get the same ink on a consistent basis.  Typically I keep eight to twelve pens inked. Right now that number is ten.

 

I bought the Pelikan 140 and it's wonderful 14k F nib in August 2017. Outside of two fills in the first month of I think it was Diamine Sherwood Green, it has been inked continuously ever since with Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. (last fill 3/19)

 

The Platinum 3776 Century Borgogne (B) isn't inked right now, but is almost always inked with Diamine Merlot. The Newton Townsend (F) in dark purple ebonite is rarely inked with anything but purple. Right now (and seems to be most of the time) it is Levenger Amethyst. (3/23)

 

My Pelikan M400 White Tortoise (B) gets either KWZI El Dorado or Edelstein Olivine most of the time. Right now it is inked with Olivine. (4/9)

 

On average, a pen will stay inked with the same ink for two fills. Sometimes, I will determine a combination doesn't work well together (like Akkerman Vorhout Violet with my M600 old style 18k OB nib) and it will get emptied even before a first fill is finished. The timeline on a fill, might be a few days or a few weeks.

 

 

[mizgeorge]

I have a MB149 that was given to me in 1985 that has only ever been inked with MB Emerald Green. I try only to use the vintage version, but have no doubt that supplies of that will eventually run out and I'll have to resort to the 2018 one.

 

I have many other dedicated combos - from Aurora Black for a favourite 88 to Platinum Carbon for their desk pens, but I think the MB has probably lasted the longest. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Never having BSB, never needed a dedicated pen............I have a gray plastic index card box....and all or next to all my pens on a card........and I keep forgetting to keep the cards up to date.

 Most of my inks are put up in some sort of boxes. So I no longer can just wander over to the beer mug filled glass doored book case and find any ink I run across in Inky thoughts or Ink reviews.

 

I went from Quink black to Pelikan Tanzinite in my P-75. My Dupont Clasic is running pelikan smoky quartz on the second load.

I've no idea what is in the other 4-5 pens....Actually only one ink looks 'good'.

I have to move that gray plastic index card box to on my desk, with in reach. Being 5 foot away is too far to be of use.

 

And the sooner i print out this 90g printer paper the better. It is no better than other brands 80g.