A Silly Question, But Interesting

[lapis]

Good luck!

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

... and in the meantime.........................

[Flaxmoore]

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.

 

I shall see you there, Brother. Sköl!

[Scrivener1]

Assuming a normal lifespan, I think all that will be left when I go will be whatever remains of the bottles then in use of my handful of main colors. A couple of years ago I decided to curb the acquisitive tendency for clutter and expense reasons. Since then I've been working on using up the 10-12 bottles I didn't really care for too much, and choosing one or two favorites in each of my (four) main colors of use: in order, brown, blue, wine colored, green. A lot could change between now and then, though.

[knarflj]

I was for years a one-bottle-at-a-time person. No longer, but my ink collection is still small compared to many here (I'm guessing around a dozen bottles and a couple dozen sample vials that still have a little ink in them). There are two of us in the house who use the ink, and a couple of our kids are fountain pen users, so I expect all the ink will be used one way or another.

 

Jenny

[zwack]

wine colored,

Presumably white wine, or perhaps you like a nice rosé?

 

:-D

[cobalt]

Further thoughts on ink mileage (kilometrage?) for our ink bottle collectors. I've been writing the last few months pretty consistently with a Wahl's Skyline (yes one of those) with a broad flexible nib, so wet you could bathe in it.

 

Let's do some fun with figures. We know that nibs range from wee tiny things to the really wide italics and range from needles to noodles. For the x-axis, nib width: a fine nib is a "1" and a typical broad nib is a "3" and obviously a medium is a "2" and for the y-axis, flex, a needle is a 1 and a noodle is a 3. See where this is going? We have a matrix of nibs across the top and wetness along the bottom. So if you take the typlical mileage from the earlier post and multiply the x and y of the matrix you'll get numbers ranging from 1 to 9. A suggestive result is that a broad needle = 3 = a fine noodle for ink consumption. This gives us Km/T (Kilometers per tank of ink)

 

[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.]

 

just divide the mileage by the number from the matrix and you'll have a guide for the how much you might actually get.

 

My 3-3 Wahls = 9 and divided into my typical bottle of Diamine 80ml ink = 160/9 = about 18 Km/T

 

Gosh, I need to check my stock of inks, I fear I may getting near to the end of the road!

 

Ciao

[Pravda]

I don't know about the inked I own, but I worry about my LE pens! Every few years or so, I make it a point to tell the wife: these are NOT just pens you know, they're worth something! Sad really..

[NickiStew]

I'll ensure that all my inks, and there are a fair few, are sent to deserving ink geeks who promise to use them.

[IrishEyes]

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.

 

HEY! Who you calling "a little bit queer"? Everyone knows I'M the sane one in this household, right? Hmmmmm?

 

How much of what we currently have will I go through in my lifetime? Dog knows, as I don't know how long my lifetime will be (and I don't want to know!). But I use a lot of reds, oranges, yellows and blues on a daily basis, while Z uses a lot of darker colors, and we both write, daily, so we're doing ok, I think :-). If things get dicey in the future, I imagine we'll share them out with FPN members, rather than have my kiddos, who have no interest in fps and ink, pour them down the sink, toilet, or whatever. As for the pens, I'd hope to sell them (some are pretty darn expensive) to people who would appreciate them.

Edited May 31, 2016 by IrishEyes