How And How Often Do You Refill ?

[lmarine0510]

As others have already pointed out, your poll options are limited to a point to where I can't even answer it. I exclusively use sac filling pens and have never used cartridges in my life, as they are a waste of money and generate much more trash than bottle filling does. As far as my refilling schedule goes, I have a formula for calculating how often I refill my pens, d=n-1, where d represents the amount of days between filling and n represents the number of pens that I am carrying, and this is assuming that I carry at least two pens. For example, if I am carrying 2 pens with me, I take the time to dump and refill them every day. If I am carrying three pens, I do it every other day. This may seem a tad overkill, but I do quite a bit of writing in a day's time and it is not unusual for me to empty a pen with a smaller ink capacity in less than a day's time. I have yet to run out of ink using my current filling schedule.

[oneopentrail]

 

Well, when I put up the poll, I was under the impression that cartriges were a lot more popular than they seem to be. You are right, the second question should have been only "How often do you refill?".

 

Thank you for the comment!

 

On a fp forum though where many people will have higher end or vintage pens that are piston or have their own filling system.

[jar]

 

On a fp forum though where many people will have higher end or vintage pens that are piston or have their own filling system.

But many if not most of my high end pens are cartridge only or cartridge/converter filled.

[amberleadavis]

Since I keep about 25 pens inked at any one time, I have a rotation that lasts about a month, but about twice a week, pens need to be cleaned and refilled.

[ThirdeYe]

It depends on the pen and how many pens I have inked at the time. Sometimes I use a syringe to refill a cart and sometimes I use a converter. It's very rare that I actually use a new cartridge.

[amberleadavis]

That's a good point, it's very rare that I use a new cartridge. I only use them when the old ones wear out.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I refill cartridges using a syringe and blunt needle. For the poll I chose a frequency of about once a month. The frequency of refilling varies, of course. A short international cartridge will need to get refilled more often than a Sheaffer type I cartridge will.

 

I find flushing the cartridges pretty easy. Even the international cartridges will frequently just need to be held under the hot water tap. If they just won't let the water in I insert a blunt needle into the cartridge and use that as a sort of funnel to get the water in. A syringe and blunt needle can also be used for this, but I would use only cold water then.

 

I almost checked that I use piston fillers too, but I figured that might mess up the poll.

[Dronak]

The most accurate answer is the one you expect and purposely didn't include: I refill my pens when they run out of ink. That time period is pretty variable, and depends on a lot of things: the cartridge or converter's capacity, the number of pens I have inked up, how much I write, nib size, and probably other things that don't immediately come to mind. While I do track when I refill my pens, I don't keep a history, so I'm not sure how long they last. In the past ~7 months or so that I've been paying more attention (because I'm using more pens), I think I've had some where I had to refill about once a month, and others that last many months. I think my Pelikan P200 with a long Pelikan Edelstein cartridge still has some ink ~6 months after I first put it in. On the other hand, the two Noodler's flex pens I got used ink like crazy. I think I used all of a 2ml sample in one of them in less than one week. I didn't vote in the poll because I'm not sure what to answer, but I hope this is of some use.

 

Edit: As for how I fill, I use cartridges in some pens and converters in others. All of my bottled inks are samples though, since I only recently started trying something other than cartridges.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Dronak

[ac12]

 

 

That was made on purpose, I wanted to have an estimate on how long it takes for your pens to run out of ink. Of course, it depends on many factors.

 

 

The famous phrase "it depends."

 

In my case, it cannot be predicted, as I use my pens differently based on the ink color and a somewhat random usage. I may use one pen every day, and another just once a week or even longer. Also how long the ink load lasts, depends on MANY variables; nib size, paper absorbency, how much you write, humidity, etc.

So that question needs several other questions to make it work.

 

In college, I think I used a Parker cartridge in about 3 days.

Today, with several pens in my pen cup that I rotate among, that cartridge of ink may last several weeks or months, depending on the color of the ink. Green getting used the most and red the least, with blue and black in the middle.

Edited October 7, 2015 by ac12

[J85909266]

I have many types of filling methods. I very rarely buy carts, and when I do, I refill them with a syringe many times before disposal. Most of my fills last a couple weeks or more because I rotate pens often.

[brendonsie]

I fill daily, this is because i rotate through each of my pens taking a different one to work each day. Some use converters, never cartridges. Most of my pens are vintage and have other internal filling systems so makes more sense for me to use bottled ink.

 

Also filling daily lets use a variety of colors (im lucky work dont care what color my notes are written in). Currently i use a different color for each day of the week.

[Intellidepth]

I have to 'make' myself run out of ink in most pens as I like trying different colours all the time. Like, nearly every refill, in every pen. Exception is Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with Posting nib - filled with Sailor blue black - as it is my university exam pen which must work under exam circumstances without fail, with a permanent-ish ink, so it is dedicated.

 

Between 3-12 pens inked at any given time depending on discipline. Zero cartridge use. I have pistons, converters, and a couple of sacs.