Too Many Pens, Too Much Ink!

[T4TEXAS]

Not a collector of pens or ink, for the most part. I got by like most folks in the past with two to three pens, but after taking them up gain about three years ago, I now have 10 inked! About 5 are of more value, but most are inexpensive-to-cheap Asian pens that I find write well enough to use regularly and to serve as a gift for interested friends and family.

 

While I had a hard time at first seeing fountain pens as a hobby rather than a daily tool, I realize I have sucuumbed to the allure of subtle differences in inks. I do not expect to see my serious pens grow by more than two per year, and Jinhaos make good dip testers.

 

Many more ink samples here than full bottles, and have not given all the samples an extended try yet. At this point I base most ink purchases on reviews, since I have learned which reviewers' tastes are similar to mine for a given color group.

 

Be calm. Rinse out a pen for a new ink. Or dedicate a pen to dip testing. Or just wait. Nothing wrong with waiting.

[Barkingpig]

I have an addictive personality & acquisitive nature; other interests were similar to the path I have followed here with pen & ink. I once was shocked to discover I had 76 place settings of ONE flatware pattern, when I got it out, polished it up to loan to a friend having a bigger party than she had silver, I realised "it is just the way I am." (I had 8 other sets of flatware, so there was NO good excuse for "having that happen!")

 

Pens were first to spiral out of bounds & inks have followed suit; I give either away when I decide I am no longer interested in them & have recently ordered 2 giant bottles of Pilot Black ink, plan a large purge of pens & notebooks which also have been breeding in their storage shelves. This will enable me to "feel better, serve a good cause & MAKE ROOM FOR MORE INKS! I just placed my THIRD order, in 10 days from "those nice folks @ Vanness," for more; the good news is much of it will be sent to friends & give me even greater joy.

 

I also enjoy reading posts here from other users who I find sometimes HAVE EVEN MORE PENS INKED THAN I KEEP; then I feel better, clean a few pens & start over.

[dcwaites]

I keep two nibs, a #5 and a #6, mounted in dip pen holders.

Any new ink, I can simply dip and write, and I get the same result as if I was using a FP.

If I really like the ink, then whatever ink in whatever pen is being least used at the moment gets turfed, and the new ink loaded.

 

I have recently started to use a set of 4x5 cards to keep track of the pens and the inks in them.

[Noihvo]

 

 

 

 

[chromantic]

This is a common occurrence in any activity - new initiates are always the most zealous. I'm trying to learn from Arkanabar's example and exercise some discipline and I've been whittling down my active rotation of pens.

 

As for the question of needing pens to test new inks, buy a few cheap Chinese pens - the Jinhao 599 Safari knock-off is a good pick, can be had for $1-$2 with free shipping and comes with a converter. Test the new inks with these and if you like one, flush one of your other pens and put the new ink in it.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Too many inks...possibly. More than I can reasonably use. But they make such a pretty display! And there are some I've been happy to get, like when xfountainpens discontinued their Chesterfield line and put them all on sale and I snagged some of the 'Antique' colors. And some I've been pleased to pass along to others, since I'm moving away from SuperSaturated Inks (and they know who they are!)

 

As for buying more, I could always tell myself, 'But it's a MB LE and I can always sell it later.'

 

But we all know I'd be lying.

[Pensei]

Do you think the good folks at VanNess, Anderson, Goulet, etc., ever fill a large order from a frequent customer and wonder, like a bartender, if the customer has had "one too many"? Because I suspect a fair amount of their business comes from the "addicts."

[ca49reber]

Do you think the good folks at VanNess, Anderson, Goulet, etc., ever fill a large order from a frequent customer and wonder, like a bartender, if the customer has had "one too many"? Because I suspect a fair amount of their business comes from the "addicts."

Hey, I have orders in right now to all 3.

[chromantic]

Hey, I have orders in right now to all 3.

 

Do you think they talk amongst themselves? "Hey, I got an order from ..." "Yeah, me, too!" "Same here!"

[Barkingpig]

I have my doubts there is much "chit chat" among them; but if I am mistaken, I hope they enjoy comparing orders. (There could be some interesting analysis available by comparison!)

[Joe in Seattle]

I keep a glass dip pen to test inks

[Buzz_130]

Dip pen to test the new inks, and I also use a Qtip to swab the ink colors for comparison to its peers.

 

I rotate my pens and ink. As a pen runs dry, I flush and store the pen, grab a new pen and ink, record in the pen and ink logs, and the write.

 

I don't recomend filling all of your pens. I found it hard to keep all of them in use, and nibs started to dry out for the less-used pens. The work to thoroughly clean these misfits wasn't worth the prestige of keeping them all full.

 

Buzz

[Abner C. Kemp]

Many of us face the same problem. I own wayyyyy more ink than I do pens. That said, I do keep a stable of very cheap Chinese pens at hand just in case an ink sample comes my way that I just *have* to try before any of my main writers are available. You could also invest in a glass dip pen although I find mine rather useless as the saturation is always off.

[Studio97]

I'm afraid to count how many fountain pens I have but only a few bottles of ink and a collection of factory cartridges.

I belong to "pen & ink & notebook & art supplies anonymous". We meet monthly, talk about our problem and then continue our behavior as if everything is normal. I'm OK. You're OK. We're ALL OK.

[tamiya]

Do you think the good folks at VanNess, Anderson, Goulet, etc., ever fill a large order from a frequent customer and wonder, like a bartender, if the customer has had "one too many"? Because I suspect a fair amount of their business comes from the "addicts."

 

I'm more curious if, like for drinking & gambling addictions, they ever get ordered by Spouse or Judge to bar purchasing by known addicts

[Sasha Royale]

@ "Too Many Pens, Too Much Ink! "

 

Nonsense !

 

However, consider acquiring a pen, to be kept clean, for trial of inks.

[rudyhou]

i rotate the use of my pens and inks, and so i never ink all of my pens at once. if you really have to ink them all, best to have a dip/glass pen available to test out inks. otherwise, the easiest solution is just to buy more pens. perhaps, a set of affordable fps solely for ink testing purpose.

[KingRoach]

Out of the few fountain pens that I have, one particular pen I did not like so much. It was rather broad and wet or some paper, a bit scratchy on other papers. The thing turns out to be a kind of Italian School Pen, with a proprietary built-in piston converter, with a relatively large capacity I would say, but the pen was wet enough in my opinion to require that much.

 

Now that I got into this stuff, this pen has now become a "keeper" pen under the desigtation "ink testing pen". This is because it is VERY easy to fill, flush, cleans really well by just flushing, and sends enough ink to paper to call it enjoyable.

 

I suggest find a wet pen that cleans easily, and keep it specifically for testing new inks. One page at a time.

[MRose]

Does Dip Pen Rings the bell? LOL! Reading everyone's comments makes me feel that I'm falling into a craziness with so many pens and so many inks, the only hope I have is discipline...write on!

[amberleadavis]

Charles, I have written about 5 pages on this and I will post them when I find time to scan and upload.

 

The long and short of it. During my ink a day extravaganza last year I learned a lot. As you know, I ended the year having cleaned and flushed more than 366 pens.

 

First - don't fill the pen all the way. By the end of my adventure, I was no longer using my TWSBIs, Pelikans, MBs or Sheaffers because they all had large ink capacities, and I only used pens that consumed huge amounts of ink. I'm happily using them now and not using as many inks.

 

Second - experiment with 1/2 filled cartridges. You are not then stuck with an ink that does not work well with that pen.

 

Third - If you don't like the ink, try adding another ink and learn about the mix. I discovered my Parker Penman Sapphire replacement with way.

 

Fourth - Fill from vials without cleaning your pens. Warnings - Don't do this with inks that are known to not mix well (BSB and QSH) and don't do this from the bottles or you will contaminate the entire bottle.

 

Fifth - When you are done with an ink, immediately expel any extra ink and refill with soapy water until you have time to properly flush. This means that the ink will not dry out in the feed and require extra work.

 

Sixth - Get rid of anything you won't use - sell it or give it away but don't let it clutter your life.