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A Single Pen Or A Whole Bunch?


Sui-Generis

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Earlier, I very nearly inked up my blue Kaco Retro, it's a new pen, never used it, but want something dedicated to Baystate Blue.

 

Regardless, I stopped myself, since I'm already trying to use up what DeAtramentis Document Dark Red is in my PenBBS 350 and still have my 580AL quarter full of DeAtramentis Document Blue-Grey.

 

I'd promised myself I wasn't going to have a whole bunch of pens on the go at once.

 

So how do the rest of you do it? Just one pen on the go at a time or a few? What are your reasons behind whatever way you swing?

Arguing with people on the Internet is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are at chess, the pigeon will just knock the pieces over, s**t on the board and strut around like it's victorious.

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I have easily over ten dozen of my pens inked at any one time, and that's not counting anything in my wife's personal fleet. I like having different inks on hand, nay, ready to write with, at any given time. Nineteen Wing Sung 3008 pens "permanently" inked with nineteen different shimmer inks, eleven Platinum Plaisir pens "permanently" inked with ten different Pilot Iroshizuku colours and the last one has just been reassigned to write with KWZ Sheen Machine, etc. That's why cap effectiveness at preventing ink evaporation when the pen is unused for several weeks or even months is high on my list of requirements/expectations of a fountain pen, irrespective of whether it's a $5 pen or a $500 pen.

 

Although, truth be told, I rarely use those WS3008 and Plaisir pens sitting in "shared" pen cups, but my wife does. She writes fiction and is a published author outside of her day job, and she likes using different ink colours every few lines or few paragraphs in her personal journals, story ideas notebook, and chapter drafts. I don't actually know if she uses any sort of systematic colour-coding. I have enough trouble just periodically exercising the few dozen of my pens that she doesn't touch.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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Tough. I have a 4 pen case that I transport my daily carry in and honestly I feel like that's even too much. Two inked pens is the perfect number for me. Gives me some variety at work and it ensures they actually get used.

 

When I'm up to 4 something's going to wind up sitting for days before it gets used.

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Have 10 to 20 pens inked at any one time. Works for me.

How's that work? Do you write a lot at home? I'd definitely forget about one if I had that many inked at once. I was going through the pens I'm hoping to sell and found a Waterman Perspective that I guess I never cleaned out. I thought I always made sure the pens that are out of use are cleaned before they're stored but I can't even remember the last time I used this pen- must have been 5 or 6 years ago.

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I have a little over a dozen pens, keep them all inked and use them at work. I work in a regulatory environmental lab so my color pallet is a little limited. I'm limited to either black or blue indelible ink. I basically have them inked with waterproof/bulletproof inks in varying shades of black and hues of blue. I do push a few boundaries with some blue's moving into purple but just blue enough to still be called blue. Or one black which is more really really dark green that it is almost black. The only way you can really tell is to compare it to a true black. So I keep them all inked with what I'm allowed to use at work, have 5 out on a stand on my desk, and rotate those 5 out every other week or so. Doing this lets me have my fix of a little color variety and all of them get some use. If (maybe that should be when) my pen collection grows larger I'm not sure what I will do, but what I've got going works for now.

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6 inked a week unless I have a week where I am doing it by brand. There might then be 7 or 8 pens inked up. I also have at least one RB or BP and a pencil.

 

I love pencils so sometimes I might also have a couple of those in the case (or cases).

the Danitrio Fellowship

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I go through spells where I have 8-12 pens inked up (not counting stuff like the cheapie Japanese brush pens that have highlighter ink in them). And then it gets unwieldy, and I go through spells of "No inking up anything until I get at least two flushed out!" to think the herd a bit.

But the days of "one pen" inked up at a time ended when I got more pens, and discovered that there was more to life than Quink Permanent Blue cartridges.

I do still have about 6 pens that really need to be flushed out (and another one that might not have gotten fully flushed). I did refill one pen, the TWSBI-580-AL, with distilled water, and did fill a pen that hadn't seen use for a bit. But I do need to get the "inked up" stash down to a more manageable number. The trouble of course is that I have all these samples to try....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I usually have 4-5 pens inked up at all times. When one runs out, I take the opportunity to try a new ink in it.

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Eight currently inked. Two at home, three on my desk at work, and three that I carry around with me.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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Typically I have 8 to 12 pens inked at any given time. Most of the time it is 10, but might be slightly more right now. I just brought my TWSBI 580 back in last night after a month or so out of rotation. The Noodler's Konrad after even longer.

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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3 to 4 inked that go to work with me, sometimes I use one only, but sometimes there are days when meetings, and other tasks that need note taking fill up the day. It can happen that I go through a pen fill before the day is over, so I need more than one pen ready.

I then usually also have a pen with me as back up, you know those times when a pen stops writing (despite being full)? happens rarely but you can't walk out of a meeting saying "excuse me, I need to refill/clean my pen" (although I have done that too once or twice...).

Regarding ink I usually have different shades if blue in each pen.

Then at home I usually have at least two other pens filled that sit on my desk.

Edited by sansenri
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Twenty something inks in thirty something pens... It's usually a question of "it feels like a Vert Empire / Asa Gao sort of day", which look so good with their Man 100 / Carène, although there are pens that are easier to take to work or with clients.

"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."

 

B. Russell

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between 3 and 7

This has always been my (rarely obtained) goal.

 

 

Sean :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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