How Many Inked Pens?

[AndyYNWA]

Usually 11 pens inked.

Right now 8...

[TSherbs]

 

When I open a bottle of ink, I use it till the last drop before opening another one. This forces me to buy that inks I will really use and to ink just correct amount of pens to use. See, it's a self-regulating system.

I do this with milk. Only.

[Arkanabar]

Astonishingly, five. For this time of year (Lent), that's a lot. During Lent, I take up a penance of using only black ink, particularly Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin, which is my most difficult to clean ink, that I dilute at 5:4 with water to mitigate feathering and other misbehavior.

Pelikan M200, filled with Red-Black. The only days I am going to let myself use it before Easter are the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19) and the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25).

Pilot Prera CM, filled with Purple Mix 4. It's gone dry and been rehydrated a few times, so I really ought to just get it cleaned up and put up for the time being.

Hero 616, filled with superdilute Heart of Darkness, for my 8x10.5 70 sheet spiral bullet journal. Once the HoD is gone, I'll be using dilute (2:1) Borealis Black.

Noodler's "Nikita" eyedropper, similar to the Charlie pen, filled with Bad Black Moccasin diluted 5:4 with distilled water. This has been my Lenten penitential pen and ink, but I think I'm going to start using my Jinhao X750 with this ink going forward. The "Nikita" is a bit slim and may burp, and I fret that if it winds up sideways in a pocket, I could have serious issues. On the other hand, the Jinhao is heavy -- 35g or so.

Esterbrook J in grey with 9550 nib, filled with Borealis Black diluted 2:1 with distilled water. This one was loaned to me through the Estie Loaner program, and I need to send it back (unless I can convince the lender to sell it to me).

[ftnpenfan]

Five pens currently inked because I use them to Zentangle as well as take notes, etc.

[TSherbs]

I cleaned two out and did not refill (!). I am down to seven. Progress.

[bigkahuna]

I cleaned two out and did not refill (!). I am down to seven. Progress.

 

I couldn't resist inking up three more... that brings me UP to seven. If "pro" and "con" are opposites, then this could be considered... "congress."

[Papermint]

I have reasons for keeping as few inked pens as possible:

• ...mental pressure.
• ...Anxiety of choice

 

Funny how different views can be. My pens are no source of pressure or anxiety to me. THey are a source of pure joy. I enjoy a lot having them all aligned on my desk, chosing a pen/ink to write with today...

[bayindirh]

 

Funny how different views can be. My pens are no source of pressure or anxiety to me. THey are a source of pure joy. I enjoy a lot having them all aligned on my desk, chosing a pen/ink to write with today...

 

The reasons for this "anxiety" is many. First of all, when I have too many pens inked, I cannot decide a pen to write, because I like them all equal. This really tires me. Second, I cannot have that much time at my desk for writing and this reduces my ink usage. I don't want to waste ink that I cannot use by in-pen drying and potentially damaging my pens.

 

And lastly, I'm really a minimal person, and find peace in spacious places.

[Carro]

I tried to quote an earlier post but couldnt quite do it. Anyway in reply to inkoteque aka inkdrink, I just gave your app a spin, -brilliant- It would take me a bit to input my various pens. I have about 25 and am expecting another 25 or so in the mail. (They are basically Chinese pens which I love dearly) and about 10 different bottles of ink. I am not an expert on anything pen or ink related and the most expensive pen I bought was about 40 dolars and I promply dropped it on its tines and the other a 40 dollar blue Lamy I lost at work but I have a lot of chinese pens - I love them -their price is right up my alley.

 

Long story short since I retired from nursing i decided to sell some of my hand made purses at our saturday market. -didnt go over well -I added my fountain pens AND I have sold 5 of them so far. I am selling cheaply - I had to ink about 7 or 8 to put on display and I didnt want to mix my inks. Because they did sell I have renewed my interest in all things fountain pen wise.

 

YOUR APP is great and I appreciate being able to use it. I will give it a spin for awhile and see if it works for me -if it works for me perhaps I can be your beta tester -smile I will need to use the free session for now but perhaps later I will be able to donate something towards upkeep. I currently have about 10 pens inked currently want I want to ink my pink Lambitou and a couple of horse ones. Now I will - Thank You for sharing your app. -Carolyn

[mallymal1]

 

Funny how different views can be. My pens are no source of pressure or anxiety to me. THey are a source of pure joy. I enjoy a lot having them all aligned on my desk, chosing a pen/ink to write with today...

 

[ethernautrix]

 

Funny how different views can be. My pens are no source of pressure or anxiety to me. THey are a source of pure joy. I enjoy a lot having them all aligned on my desk, chosing a pen/ink to write with today...

I like your attitude!

 

I'm the type who sometimes feels... agitated with "too many" inked pens. Because I have to carry them all around with me (although I have been experimenting with leaving some at home when out on errands or bike rides, and so far so good).

 

Right now, though, I'm in the middle of HandOverThatPen's March Six-Pen Challenge [https://www.handoverthatpen.com/2017/02/26/6penchallenge/], so have only six pens inked. (I don't count the Platinum Preppy and Pilot Parallel. I never include them in counts. Hahaha.)

[inkotheque]

I tried to quote an earlier post but couldnt quite do it. Anyway in reply to inkoteque aka inkdrink, I just gave your app a spin, -brilliant- It would take me a bit to input my various pens. I have about 25 and am expecting another 25 or so in the mail. (They are basically Chinese pens which I love dearly) and about 10 different bottles of ink. I am not an expert on anything pen or ink related and the most expensive pen I bought was about 40 dolars and I promply dropped it on its tines and the other a 40 dollar blue Lamy I lost at work but I have a lot of chinese pens - I love them -their price is right up my alley.

 

Long story short since I retired from nursing i decided to sell some of my hand made purses at our saturday market. -didnt go over well -I added my fountain pens AND I have sold 5 of them so far. I am selling cheaply - I had to ink about 7 or 8 to put on display and I didnt want to mix my inks. Because they did sell I have renewed my interest in all things fountain pen wise.

 

YOUR APP is great and I appreciate being able to use it. I will give it a spin for awhile and see if it works for me -if it works for me perhaps I can be your beta tester -smile I will need to use the free session for now but perhaps later I will be able to donate something towards upkeep. I currently have about 10 pens inked currently want I want to ink my pink Lambitou and a couple of horse ones. Now I will - Thank You for sharing your app. -Carolyn

 

Dear Carolyn,

feel free to use the app as long as you want without donations. My goal was to give back to the community that is giving me so much. I'm happy if you can find it useful. I thought about implementing an import function as I'm sure most of us have already their pen in a database or an excel file but I was also willing to keep it as simple as possible. I'll think again what I can do without making things too complicated.

Enjoy your Inkdrinks!

[inkotheque]

Ooops! Just arrived. Now I need 6 new pens

 

 

[AndyYNWA]

Now all 11 pens are inked up again!

[Papermint]

I like your attitude!

I'm the type who sometimes feels... agitated with "too many" inked pens. Because I have to carry them all around with me (although I have been experimenting with leaving some at home when out on errands or bike rides, and so far so good).

 

Maybe I still have to reach this point where I feel stressed by too many inked pens. As a newbie right now I just feel excited my having the choice between so many inks and pens. I would create more pressure to have too many inks and pens I DON'T use. So I never fully ink a pen, I just use half a converter or piston filling so I'm able to have more inks in rotation. Also I guess it depends on how much you write. If you're only taking occasional notes at work a piston filling probably lasts a lot longer than for someone like me who also regularly writes journals and letters and loves to change ink/pen with every new letter or journal entry.

 

I did not mean to offend anyone, just find it funny and a bit strange that someone who is collecting inks AND pens tries to challenge themselves not to ink too many pens at the same time (I understand that 20 or 25 might bee a wee bit to much though ;-))

[Tas]

Oh my. Forty one inked pens on the desk raring to go

Mostly filled with blue black of some sort too

I wrote a line with each one last night, just to check. Only one hard start.

 

That's why they're on my desk, reliable soldiers ready and willing to step into action at any moment.
The military prison / hospital, a tin in my drawer containing troublesome and sickly "soldiers", is almost at capacity

[bayindirh]

 

Maybe I still have to reach this point where I feel stressed by too many inked pens. As a newbie right now I just feel excited my having the choice between so many inks and pens. I would create more pressure to have too many inks and pens I DON'T use. So I never fully ink a pen, I just use half a converter or piston filling so I'm able to have more inks in rotation. Also I guess it depends on how much you write. If you're only taking occasional notes at work a piston filling probably lasts a lot longer than for someone like me who also regularly writes journals and letters and loves to change ink/pen with every new letter or journal entry.

 

I did not mean to offend anyone, just find it funny and a bit strange that someone who is collecting inks AND pens tries to challenge themselves not to ink too many pens at the same time (I understand that 20 or 25 might bee a wee bit to much though ;-))

 

 

That's normal When you start a new hobby, it's perfectly normal to try, learn, understand and taste as much as you can. Also in that phase you will develop your taste and shape your inventory and way of enjoying this hobby. You may end up inking much more pens, or maybe will ink much less...

 

Also, you're not offending anyone. We are all not in same circumstances and don't have the same tastes, and that's perfectly OK. Some of us work with paper a lot during the day. I'm not, however I'm addicted to fountain pens and paper.

 

I use paper to do my daily to-do lists, take notes and journaling pretty much every day. Unfortunately I had to use put a long break to my fountain pen usage for various reasons, but the paper usage continued. So, my journals and notebooks I currently use are not bought with fountain pens in mind. This also severely limits my ink and pen choices to dry ones.

 

Actually, I'm in the process of using my stocks of paper and ink right now, so I can use the new ink I bought, use the more fountain pen friendly paper I have, however I hate wasting stuff and nobody wants my old notebooks, so I cannot give them away, and need to use them.

[Mercian]

Maybe I still have to reach this point where I feel stressed by too many inked pens. As a newbie right now I just feel excited my having the choice between so many inks and pens.

I may be wrong, but did you say (in the thread asking people to name their first pen) that all your pens are AL-Stars?

 

Once you start buying different types of pen you may find that the feeling of 'guilt' about 'neglecting' a particular type of pen while repeatedly using pens of another type gets stronger in you :-D

 

Then again, the Pathetic Fallacy is ridiculously strong in me... :-(

[Lexus77]

Oh, I use at least four:
Three for my bullet journal:
1 for the date, 1 for notes on the weather and my health, 1 for the body of text and the rest.
Then, I also use a 'normal' journal, that I don't use daily, but in which I write 'columns' about the things that interest me, or things that are happening in my life. Exploring my thoughts, sort of. I often use a fourth colour in that one. emphasizing with 1 of the three I use in my bullet journal, or with a fifth pen.

[cattar]

Oh my. Forty one inked pens on the desk raring to go

Mostly filled with blue black of some sort too

I wrote a line with each one last night, just to check. Only one hard start.

 

That's why they're on my desk, reliable soldiers ready and willing to step into action at any moment.

The military prison / hospital, a tin in my drawer containing troublesome and sickly "soldiers", is almost at capacity

 

Aw. I've got 4 in hospital now, resacs & a grind.

I've seen your inky posts. How much ink do you go through in a week?

 

For the OP. I usually have 2-5 pens inked, depending on how much ink I'm using per week.

And 3 dip pens with their own ink array.

 

 

eta. thoughts

Edited March 17, 2017 by cattar