How Do You Tell How Much Ink Is Left In A Piston Filler?

[StrawberryJam]

So this might be a really dumb question, but how do you all tell how much ink is left in your piston filler pen? The vast majority of my pens are all cartridge/converter, so I just unscrew the body and look. But right now, I am using one of my Visconti Divinias for the first time, and am somewhat puzzled by how to determine how much ink I have left.

[Sasha Royale]

It holds a lot of ink. The actual amount of ink matters little, since each user consumes

at a different rate. I believe that there is a viewing window. You will be able to see when

the remaining quantity is sufficient for a few more pages. Filling it every two weeks should

be sufficient.

 

Sorry. I have nothing more to help.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Many have ink windows.

Can on some pens like the '50-65 fully stripped bodies of the Pelikan 400's and 140, hold it up and look in the light.

Fill it every couple of days and you are good to go...depends on how much you write...if not in school, once a week.

Edited January 22, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[New_Falcon]

Not sure about the Visconti Divinias, but with my Lamy pen I know my normal writing load it takes 3 days from fill to fill, so afternoon of day 3 I refill.

 

If I'm really curious I know that there are 5 rotations of the pen from the piston being closed to completely extended. The first rotation is just slack in the piston and then four more turns. So nib upwards I start extending the piston then when I see ink on the feed I stop. I then start closing the piston counting the number of rotations. If it takes 3 rotations to close the piston, taking off one for the slack leaves two rotations. So I've used 50% of ink and hence got 50% left. Sounds complicated but really pretty simple.

 

Still I go with the first method.

[Icywolfe]

Well when you feel the ink being dry that you can feel the pen is about to run out.

[I like mango cheesecake]

Turn the pen nib up and then unscrew the piston. Once ink starts to spew out of the nib you'll find out how much ink you have left by gauging how many turns of the piston you made

[Kataphract]

Twsbi - I glance casually at the pen and it is readily obvious. One of the reasons I bought the pen.

[______Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

Look thru the window.

 

You could weigh the pen empty and the fill it with ink and weigh it. So when ever you want to know how much ink is in it, you can weigh it. do some quick math (using slide ruler) to see how much ink is left.

[StrawberryJam]

Thanks, everyone! My pen does not have an ink window, sadly (although it has a bunch of sparkly crystals, whee!). I will try the 'twist and turn' method to see how I fared on my first run with this pen.

[ac12]

I would just treat a piston pen that you cannot see the ink like an ink sac pen. Either

- write until the ink line gets thin/light then refill

- refill the pen periodically (every 3rd day) or

- refill the pen just before any event that I thought was going to require a lot of writing.

 

The 2nd option will give you an idea of how much ink is left in the pen, so you can determine if you can go another day or not. But this depends on steady ink usage.

 

The 3rd option is to make sure you have a FULL pen for the event, so you don't run out of ink mid-event. But in that case, I always bring a spare pen.

 

The twist and turn will probably need to be done after leaving the pen nib-up overnight, so the ink in the feed can drain back into the cylinder. If you do it just after writing, turning the knob, might force ink that is in the feed out of the nib, giving you a false level. I will have to try this and see how my piston pens behave.

[PS104]

You could weigh the pen empty and the fill it with ink and weigh it. So when ever you want to know how much ink is in it, you can weigh it. do some quick math (using slide ruler) to see how much ink is left.

Nice. Glad to see you're not forgetting the over-70 crowd (I've still got my slide-rules (both 6-inch and 12-inch) somewhere) Don't trust modern electronics. Whadaya gonna do when the power goes out? I still sharpen my pencils with a hand-cranked sharpener (in addition to my fountain pens, of course)

 

Well when you feel the ink being dry that you can feel the pen is about to run out.

This is more symbiotic. It's asking you to become one-with-the-pen. Not a bad thing

[Oldane]

Ah yes, slide rules. I still have three of them lying around. One small pocket model and two larger polylogaritmic models (the one belonged to my late father in law, the other was my own). We used them when I was a medical student for making calculations on half times of drugs (we needed the polylogaritmic scales for that) - and of course every other type of calculation.

[Bo Bo Olson]

With a piston pen always let three drops back into the ink bottle. That lets a bit of air into the pen so it don't get vacuum locked.

[Stephen Lee Ogden]

I always carry a battery powered postal scale as an EDC ... I weigh the piston filler pen empty and then again when it is full. I then chart the standing weight of the pen after every use on a chart (Rhodia Dot Pad Ledger) so I know within a few nanoliters the quantity of ink remaining in the pen.

 

::: just kidding :::

[Kataphract]

Look thru the window.

You could weigh the pen empty and the fill it with ink and weigh it. So when ever you want to know how much ink is in it, you can weigh it. do some quick math (using slide ruler) to see how much ink is left.

Speaking of archaic technology, yes, in addition to fountain pens, I own a slide rule.

[Kataphract]

I still sharpen my pencils with a hand-cranked sharpener (in addition to my fountain pens, of course)

 

Only because Panasonic stopped making electric pencil sharpeners. My hand cranked one's warranty isn't voided by using colored pencils.

[Calamus plasticus]

Long store short: if the pen does not have an ink window, you can not know... that's the reason I give to my wife when she asks why I have so many pens and carry three of them dayly: I can not risk that one of them runs dry! :-)

[WaskiSquirrel]

Pens without an ink window make me nervous. I am interested in a Lamy 2000 stainless steel, but the lack of a window means I probably won't buy one. I own a Wahl-Eversharp Skyliner 50 which has a converter. I can't tell the ink level without pulling it out.

 

I can sort of tell by gently shaking the Skyliner, but I find it very unsatisfying. Even the really limited window in the regular Lamy 2000 is enough indication for me.

[Fazby]

Nice. Glad to see you're not forgetting the over-70 crowd (I've still got my slide-rules (both 6-inch and 12-inch) somewhere) Don't trust modern electronics. Whadaya gonna do when the power goes out? I still sharpen my pencils with a hand-cranked sharpener (in addition to my fountain pens, of course)

 

 

 

You sharpen your fountain pens?!

[Buzz_130]

You'll get to know the signs of your pens running low on ink without looking at an ink window. Most of my pens start to "feel" different as the lubricating flow of the ink over the nib lessens and makes the nib scratchier on the paper. It's subtle, but you can feel it. I often notice that the saturation of the ink starts to fade as the flow also slows. Unfortunately, these signs are in the "too late" category.

 

ac12 often gives advice to carry a second pen to avoid staring at a blank page with an empty pen in hand. I follow that advice all the time and make sure I have an extra pen in my pocket.

 

If you are concerned that you may consistently run out of ink, then a nightly or every other day fill is a great technique to ensure your pen is always ready to write.

 

Buzz