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A Silly Question, But Interesting


Charles Skinner

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Here is a silly question that likely has no answer! I have about ten bottles of ink from with I am using, and I will likely buy some more "colors" before I go to the "Great Pen Shop in the Sky!" I know that many of you have way, way more inks on your desk, or "bookcase" than I do! So here is the question. ----- What percentage of the ink made will ever end up on paper, and how much will be flushed years from now by a family member who cares nothing about it? If I had to guess, I think that perhaps 45% of the ink I buy will actually end up on paper. That may be a high number. We will never know, but what do you think? C. S.

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I've used about 30% of what I currently own, but none will be flushed when the Valkyries come for me. It's all going on the pyre with me. Valhalla needs scribes too ya know.

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Hi,

 

My codicil includes a request that my inky remainders be auctioned off and the proceeds go to FPN, so in my case the answer would be close to 100%.

 

Bye,

S1

Edited by Sandy1

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

 

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I can't say because I have no idea. It depends on how much I use and on how many I'm still going to order. Somewhere between 5 and 95%, maybe.

 

Mike

Life is too short to drink bad wine (Goethe)

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According to some folks, a Lamy cartridge contains about 1.5 ml ink and some say they get about 2 weeks writing from one cartridge. With steady use, I refill every week a standard sac in a single pen with moderate use. I know, I know, mileage will differ, but let's keep playing. We know from Bic that a Bic Cristal ballpoint pen produces 2 km of writing, ceteris paribus and contains perhaps 1 ml of ink. So lets say 1BC=1ml ink = 2km as our measure of distance written.

 

1 Lamy cartridge = 1.5 BC = 3 km (with me so far?)

 

An 80ml Diamine bottle = 80 BCs = 160 km

 

Now if we assume that you do in fact use 1.5 ml every 2 weeks = 3 ml per month or 36 ml per year, a bottle of Diamine will last a bit over 2 years if used steadily.

 

50 years of writing = 25 bottles of Diamine ink = 2000 ml ink = 4000 km of writing.

 

Your mileage may differ as they say.

...be like the ocean...

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According to some folks, a Lamy cartridge contains about 1.5 ml ink and some say they get about 2 weeks writing from one cartridge. With steady use, I refill every week a standard sac in a single pen with moderate use. I know, I know, mileage will differ, but let's keep playing. We know from Bic that a Bic Cristal ballpoint pen produces 2 km of writing, ceteris paribus and contains perhaps 1 ml of ink. So lets say 1BC=1ml ink = 2km as our measure of distance written.

 

1 Lamy cartridge = 1.5 BC = 3 km (with me so far?)

 

An 80ml Diamine bottle = 80 BCs = 160 km

 

Now if we assume that you do in fact use 1.5 ml every 2 weeks = 3 ml per month or 36 ml per year, a bottle of Diamine will last a bit over 2 years if used steadily.

 

50 years of writing = 25 bottles of Diamine ink = 2000 ml ink = 4000 km of writing.

 

Your mileage may differ as they say.

 

I love these kinds of nerdy/geeky/inky calculations.

 

So for my next trip, using this as the inky-distance standard, I can now calculate how much ink I'll need to get me from here to there. Lovely!

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I guess it depends on what you consider in your equation. If i include all the bottles that i have used in the past with the ones that i currently have then we are at least in the 80% to 90% use range. If we consider only the bottles that i have now with ink, it all depends on when i depart. As i approach retirement from teaching, i am being more selective in what inks i do purchase. I try to realistically match future use with purchases which means that some inks will not get replaced. For example, i use red in correcting papers. I have five bottles of three different reds. Will i replace them as they go empty? Probably not.

Edited by inkandseeds
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According to some folks, a Lamy cartridge contains about 1.5 ml ink and some say they get about 2 weeks writing from one cartridge. With steady use, I refill every week a standard sac in a single pen with moderate use. I know, I know, mileage will differ, but let's keep playing. We know from Bic that a Bic Cristal ballpoint pen produces 2 km of writing, ceteris paribus and contains perhaps 1 ml of ink. So lets say 1BC=1ml ink = 2km as our measure of distance written.

 

1 Lamy cartridge = 1.5 BC = 3 km (with me so far?)

 

An 80ml Diamine bottle = 80 BCs = 160 km

 

Now if we assume that you do in fact use 1.5 ml every 2 weeks = 3 ml per month or 36 ml per year, a bottle of Diamine will last a bit over 2 years if used steadily.

 

50 years of writing = 25 bottles of Diamine ink = 2000 ml ink = 4000 km of writing.

 

Your mileage may differ as they say.

 

Great calculation :-)

Ok, I just opened a new bottle of Diamine and since I always write one color to the end I'll see how long it lasts. I think my MB 146 with M nib needs some more ink compared to the Lamy.

Support your local post office - write letters!

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I expect to be able to use 35 to 40% of the current stash assuming that I never buy another bottle of ink.

 

Oops. Too late. Three bottles of Snake ink from Australia en route.

 

Make that 34 to 39 %.

 

My heirs will be directed to split my remnant inks between Amberlea (for use or redistribution) and Sandy1 to use for ink reviews and grocery lists.

Dave Campbell
Retired Science Teacher and Active Pen Addict
Every day is a chance to reduce my level of ignorance.

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My answer is, not much. But fortunately all my ink fits in a small box, so it will be the least of anyone's problems. Now, another way to look at it, which might give some of us a better feeling, is: what percentage of your inks will you use at least once? I'm trying to get near 100% on that.

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Start journalling, and writing a LOT, and use a WET WIDE pen, and you will chip into that stash of ink.

San Francisco Pen Show - August 28-30, 2020 - Redwood City, California

www.SFPenShow.com

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For about fifty years ---- yes, 50 years ---- I was a "black ink only man." During those years, my children would have had to pour out only a small amount of ink. "Buy one bottle, used it all, buy another bottle." Under that system, very little ink was wasted. I wonder how many of you also started out an a "one ink" man/woman and later in life, caught the sickness ----- that I did ---- of buying more ink than you can ever use!

 

C. S.

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For about fifty years ---- yes, 50 years ---- I was a "black ink only man." During those years, my children would have had to pour out only a small amount of ink. "Buy one bottle, used it all, buy another bottle." Under that system, very little ink was wasted. I wonder how many of you also started out an a "one ink" man/woman and later in life, caught the sickness ----- that I did ---- of buying more ink than you can ever use!

 

C. S.

I started out with two bottles. Levenger Raven Black and Cobalt Blue. Finished the blue and the black was getting low....bought Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. On my second bottle. Then it happened. Color. Now I have green, blue, red,orange and more.

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind" - Rudyard Kipling
"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

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I used Parker Quink Black for many many years. Then, just a few years ago, I purchased a bottle of Noodler's Black, then Apache Sunset...and now I have more color than any sane person could ever use.

Proud resident of the least visited state in the nation!

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I used Parker Quink Black for many many years. Then, just a few years ago, I purchased a bottle of Noodler's Black, then Apache Sunset...and now I have more color than any sane person could ever use.

 

Do we still qualify as sane?

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As the Quaker said to his wife "Everyone is a little bit queer but thee and me, and I'm not so sure about thee."

 

So now that we know I am totally sane, I still don't have enough inks. My wife and I only have about thirty or fourty bottles.

 

We have a lot of reds, yellows, oranges and blues. We don't have nearly as many greens yet. We have a few blacks (what you only have one black? how tedious).

 

We have finished a couple of bottles. But much more to go.

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an

 

As the Quaker said to his wife "Everyone is a little bit queer but thee and me, and I'm not so sure about thee."

So now that we know I am totally sane, I still don't have enough inks. My wife and I only have about thirty or fourty bottles.

We have a lot of reds, yellows, oranges and blues. We don't have nearly as many greens yet. We have a few blacks (what you only have one black? how tedious).

We have finished a couple of bottles. But much more to go.

and let us not forget, in our ever so sane sanity, about the blue-blacks and browns ....

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I use between 3 - 6 milliliters of ink per week, so theoretically if I stopped buying more inks I would run out long before I died, but I also know that's not likely to happen. I used to stick to one ink per pen, but then I realized that I'd need to regularly use way too many pens. Right now I'm trying to rotate between 5 or 6 inks at a time which keeps all of my bottles at approximately the same level.

 

According to my last count, I should use up all the ink I currently have in 10 years. Wish me luck.

Ink Sample Exchange Post


I have many unlisted but I'm trying not to spam the thread.


I also am happy to provide new vials for samples too!

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I use between 3 - 6 milliliters of ink per week, so theoretically if I stopped buying more inks I would run out long before I died, but I also know that's not likely to happen. I used to stick to one ink per pen, but then I realized that I'd need to regularly use way too many pens. Right now I'm trying to rotate between 5 or 6 inks at a time which keeps all of my bottles at approximately the same level.

 

According to my last count, I should use up all the ink I currently have in 10 years. Wish me luck.

Good luck!

Please come back and report 10 years later....😁

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If you consider the fact that I just sent 3ml X 16 pipettes to EACH of my two favorite reviewers .. that is approx 2x50ml of ink. Two bottles down in one day, yeah.. I can see myself using all my ink by ether writing, painting, and sharing. ;)

 

 

 

C.

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"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it's the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking,

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