The Mission: Writing All My Inked Up Pens Dry And Start Over ;)

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

I curently had 9 pens inked - I know that is not much for some around here, but I always found myself turning back to 2, 3 or 4 at best. Sooo, I had a brand new, untried one in the mail yesterday (a GT Sonnet Flighter) and I am still waiting for one Lattitude and the TWSBI Diamond AL in Lava.

 

So, not wanting to ink up more and more, I started to try to ink up less, writing them dry, cleaning and storing them and do a fresh start.

Thank goodness, the TWSBI is almost empty and the Level will probably be out of the equation, since I don't fancy taking it apart. It'll maybe get a Tanzanite filing and will be my backup.

 

Will I succeed? I also draw with the fountainpens and having a few of them inked up with different colours is nice as well. So my drawings will probably slowly go monochrome .

 

Do you do this? Writing until they're dry and do a fresh start?

This way I can find out which pen I miss most and will most likely keep inked up for he rest of the year.

 

I'll keep this updated.

 

Writing was on a filofax with my Parker Frontier Flighter GT and Iroshizuko chiku-rin

[praxim]

I am trying for that now. Five inked, want to come down to three or even two so I can ink another. I need only three minimum, four maximum, is how I am seeing it at the moment. Writing normally, to see which runs out first.

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

Three is probably a good number. A nice one for using at home, one nice to take with you and a cheaper one as backup or annotations with a different ink colour.

 

Since I'm a bit parker heavy in my small collection, I just might take a cartridge with me if I run out of ink. Or just another cleaned pen, the Lamy AL Star or the Jinhao x450/ Castell Loom with a Lamy or an international cartridge respectively.

Edited June 23, 2016 by parkerwasmyfirstlove

[ksm]

Been there, done that, but I won't be able to repeat it soon.

 

I think I can write my TWSBI's dry and stay with one “handwriting” pen (i.e. Pilot Prera with Plumix <B> nib and Sailor Kiwa Guro ink), but I'll need my italic pens (Pilot Parallel 2.4, Sheaffer Italic 2.0 and two Manuscripts 1.6 and 1.3mm; all of them loaded with Parker Quink Black or some other boring ink) inked for practice, unless I go with dip pens for practice.

 

Unfortunately this would leave me without a pen loaded with my favourite KWZI IG Green-Gold.

[shawndp]

I wis you all the best in your endeavour! Doing something similar myself because I feel like I have too many pens that do not see enough action. I started off with an Edison 1.1 with a cartridge full (nearly over), a Lamy Al-Star with Lilac cartridge (2/3 full but an EF nib), a Pilot Metro with an almost full cartridge (but with a CM nib) and a 1/3 full convertor on a Bexley with B nib. I think it is a good exercise once in a way - forces you to write with a pen continuously and really get to know it.

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

ksm: luckily, I'm not into italics - yet. For that purpose I plan using my Lami(s) and swap the nibs with the inked pen.

 

shawndp: That was one major point with my decision.

 

I guess I can report another empty pen by the end of the week.

[mcorrea]

I try to do that all the time. However, for one reason or another, I usually end up with 7-9 inked pens. But I have good reasons for each one of them being inked!

[Noihvo]

 

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I've had five inked pens for a couple of months now. But as I empty certain ones, I'm flushing them, putting them away, and rotating another in. At some point I'd like to get back down to my usual three or four, but I have a number that I had not used in a while, and wanted to try them out again.

 

If I have a trip planned for long enough in advance, I do sometimes try to empty all my currently filled pens ahead of time, then ink up one or two for the journey.

 

But all of the above is deceptive, because I cheat. I don't count my Pilot Varsities or my Esterbrook Dip-Less desk sets, all ready to go with rarely used colors.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Welcome to my world: too many inked pens. 'Butbutbut, I just GOTTA try that new ink! And the pen someone sent me, but with a different ink!'

 

Lather ... rinse ... repeat but CAN'T GO BACK MY MISSION.

 

[Video]

[zaddick]

I try very hard to stick to 3 inked pens, but it floats to 4 or 5 on occasion. Sometimes I just doodle or work on handwriting to finish one off. I have way too many pens I have never tried to fill pens multiple times. Actually that is a good gauge of how much I like a pen. If it gets inked twice or more while in rotation it is a keeper, for now.

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

Interesting input, I see, I'm not alone .

I have not as much to use as zaddick though

 

Also I think Varsity and Desk sets do not really count .

 

I guess, I can reduce the count very quickly in the next few days, almost wrote my second Frontier dry this evening and it had an almost full cartridge. While writing, I also did a bit of smoothing.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Varsities absolutely do not count. Neither do Preppys, for that matter, or Petits. I'd be sunk if they did.

[inkstainedruth]

At the moment I think I have 10 pens inked up for "real". That's not counting a couple that are seriously overdue for flushing ; plus three cheapie eyedropper brush pens and a Preppy highlighter pen (all of which have highlighter inks in them, but at least some of which probably *also* need to be flushed out; and three seriously dead Preppies currently set up as rollerball pens.

At the moment, I'm trying to use at least a couple of the in rotation ones a day. But every time I get the in rotation stash down to about 5 or 6 I buy ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ac12]

I go in cycles.

 

Over time, the number of inked pens increases; new pen, new ink, wanting to rotate in a pen.

Though I have them in primarily 3 places; pen cup (up to 15), pocket protector (to go portable) (x4), desk pens (x3) and a few loose pens (x3). The need for both a pen cup at home + pocket protector for outside the house, results in duplicate inkings.

At a certain point, when I have too many pens dry up on me, I will start to try to bring the number of inked pens down, by writing them dry. And by restraining inking up another pen.

 

But then the cycle begins again, and the number of inked pens increases.

 

Right now, I am in my down cycle of reducing pens. But still:

- black inks, 4 pens

- green inks, 5 pens

- blue inks, 4 pens

- red inks, 2 pens

 

That is 15 pens. I suppose that is better than 25+ pens.

Edited June 24, 2016 by ac12

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

Whoa! Nohivo, Ruth, ac12

that are quite some inked pens you got

 

5 to 6 inked pens still are a good downsized number. Currently, I have about two pens for annotation. Add 3 to four for notetaking and you're already at 5-6.

 

However, I really want the Pelikan Level empty of royal blue. Mine is a pretty good writer, but so unsexy imho.

[NinthSphere]

I was hoping to get my inked count down to 9 again. I did manage to cut 3 from the lineup as they ran empty. That just leaves the other 11, my edc trio, the ~1mm stub trio, the over 1mm stub/italic trio, & the single sleevers, a Panther 40 & a custom with Masuyama'd nibs. One of the ~1mm trio may get tucked away in the near future, but I just can't envision having less than 10.

[mcorrea]

I have some questions:

 

Do Metropolitans count? What about a Kultur? And the pocket pen (in my case a Kaweco sport)?

 

If these don't count then I'm down to six, pretty reasonable, I think.

[parkerwasmyfirstlove]

Lol, NinthSphere and mccorrea.

 

Count as you're pleased to. I don't own any Varsity and my listing describes all my currently inked pens.

 

BTW. minus one! Just run dry while I was writing a long letter. I just switch to the Lamy for now.

[shawndp]

I have some questions:

 

Do Metropolitans count? What about a Kultur? And the pocket pen (in my case a Kaweco sport)?

 

If these don't count then I'm down to six, pretty reasonable, I think.

 

I am counting my Metro... Basically the Varsity is pre-filled and for a lot of people non-refillable, which is why I guess they do not - similar to a rollerball like the Jetstream / G2. I have my Basic knocked out and the Edison running on fumes. In the end it will come down to the Al-Star vs Metro as both have large cartridges.