How Many Pens Do You Have Inked At Any One Time?

[Moonfruit]

Just like it says in the title, how many do you keep inked? I have 7 inked at the moment but only really use 3 of them. The others are inked because I love the pens, but they dont get a lot of mileage on a daily basis.

[senzen]

25.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

Another frequent topic gets a new start. Not that there's anything wrong with that. People do naturally keep wondering about the same things, and how often do you want to revive old threads?

 

When I was just getting started with fountain pens, the answer would have been "all of them". My experience was with ballpoints, which take a very long time to dry out when unused, and gel pens, which also last a fairly long time. It didn't occur to me at first that fountain pens might be different.

 

As I acquired more pens and experience, the number came down. Now, between two and four would be typical, never less than one, and I haven't been over six in a while.

 

But I don't count the three Esterbrook Dip-Less desk pens, where I keep the inkwells constantly filled. Or several ( I think it's four) Pilot Varsity disposables, some of which have actually been refilled. I don't care if the Varsities dry out, but actually, they're pretty good about not doing that, and it's a way to keep some rarely used ink colors always available.

[Moonfruit]

Another frequent topic gets a new start. Not that there's anything wrong with that. People do naturally keep wondering about the same things, and how often do you want to revive old threads?

 

Apologies if this is an oft repeated topic! I must admit, I didn't use the search function, I just browsed back a few pages in this forum to see if it had been asked recently.

 

I find that the more pens I have inked, the more I chop and change unnecessarily. I change pens for no good reason other than I fancy seeing the other ink colour, or i'm bored of the smoothness of the pen i'm writing with and want to feel the feedback of my ground Pelikan or visa versa. My notebook pages are a rainbow of colours. Like a kids colouring book!

 

I think that my ideal number is two or three. Problem is that I have a felling that it will always be the same two or three.

[Actor-out-on-loan]

Imagine if topics were not revisited, how would one learn.

I have about ten inked currently. Most of which are pre 1930's an A A Waterman, a Mabie Todd (US) 2 Duo's, 2 Wahl's (one Gold seal) and Shaffer. They all get a sentence or two at least everyday. I also keep modern pens in rotation, a Phileas, a Parker, a Cross, a No Nonsense, these are the ones that leave the house everyday.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Actor-out-on-loan

[ENewton]

I almost always have two pens inked.

 

One has to have a narrow enough nib to be suitable for marking on listings our making annotations in a book. The other is for writing on nice paper. And most often, one is a vintage pen and one a modern pen.

[PAKMAN]

Back in the day I usually had 6 or so inked so I had a variety of inks available and different nibs. I wrote a lot. Now that I am retired and spending more time on exercise and health I rarely have more than two and it takes me forever to use up the ink in them to start another pen!

[Charles Skinner]

About six, I guess. C. S.

[inkstainedruth]

For me it varies. It depends on what I want to use, and what inks I want to use; so I get to the point where the number gets totally unwieldy, and then I go on a mad flushing regimen where I make myself promise not to ink anything else up until I get at least two pens flushed for every pen I want to ink up.

But that doesn't always happen, plus I get lazy about flushing and often just refill pens with distilled water and use them longer. Not to mention that a lot of my favorite pens hold a lot of ink (such as pens which are piston fillers). And right now I'm back to that but also want to fill a bunch for the July Ink Challenge (in another thread) -- this month's theme is "Inks you really like" -- my trouble of course being that I like too many! So I inked up three pens Wednesday night but still want to add at least three more inks into the mix....

I'm doomed....

Oh, and I'm not counting the three brush pens which are inked up with highlighter inks. Or three Preppies set up as rollerballs which are pretty much dead and will likely need to be introduced to the Rapido-eze to salvage.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[putteringpenman]

I usually have 3-4 pens inked. My Pilot Custom 823 always has Pilot Blue ink. My Nemosine Singularity has whatever ink I'm sampling at the time. My Platinum PTL-5000a has a light blue. And I may ink another pen if I need a different color for writing a letter or some other purpose.

[thx1138]

10 to 20.

Most of mine don't dry up even when left for a week or two.

[inotrym]

10 to 20.

Most of mine don't dry up even when left for a week or two.

 

What pens do you have? I always struggle with that.

[thx1138]

 

What pens do you have? I always struggle with that.

Couple of Platinum 3776

3 -4 parker 180's

Online germany (super nice nib with a pleasant squeak when writing for almost no money)

Cross century

Parker 75 sterling silver

Parker sonnet (probably most prone to needing a quick run under tap after a couple of weeks)

Parker esprit

Parker falcon

2 Parker 61's

2 Carenes

Paker insignia custom

2 Elysee FP

Lamy safari

Lamy 2000

Parker 100

FPR Himilaya

 

There are probably a couple more but too late to go digging around in my writing cases and pen wallets.

The two most inclined to dry out are the sonnet (but not as bad as some people experience) and the 75.

Edited July 20, 2018 by thx1138

[inotrym]

Thanks for the answer. The one thing I hate about FPs is the fact that you can't leave them unused for too long. I am always in the search for the best cap sealing.

[thx1138]

One of the non-drying out surprises is the 180's and classics. I have left a 180 for at least 4 weeks and it started without any troubles.

Edited July 20, 2018 by thx1138

[Bo Bo Olson]

Once for a few days last summer, I was down to 5 pens inked....from a normal 12-13...and it was not unusual to have occasionally 17 inked.

 

Sigh, now due to new pens...new inks.....I have 22 or it could even be 23 pens inked.........

 

At 5 pens inked, I can use up inks....and buy others....with 17 or more......I never see the bottom of an empty ink bottle.

I only got room for 50-60 ink bottles.

[inotrym]

One of the non-drying out surprises is the 180's and classics. I have left a 180 for at least 4 weeks and it started without any troubles.

 

Noted! Thanks for the heads-up!

[praxim]

Last time this was asked I probably said 6-7, up to 9, having started out at 2-3.

 

Despite now having more pens and inks, I currently stick with four, sometimes five.

[Lam1]

Anywhere from 15 to 25 or 30.

 

Mine also don’t dry up. I had 3 M800 inked for about 4 months and the last time I wrote with them was a month and a half ago. Yesterday all 3 wrote as if they had just been used. P51s and most Montblancs also come close to this, IME.

[ralfstc]

I find it also depends how many new/new to me pens I have at any time. It's hard to get a new pen, especially if it needs a little attention, and then not ink it once it's good to go. At this moment I have these inked:

 

Pelikan M805

Sheaffer Snorkel

PFM

Onoto K-Series

 

I think that's it. Obviously, I need to buy more pens!

 

Ralf