Let's Laugh At Ourselves - What's Your Worst Newbie Ink Mistake?

[PaperDarts]

Wow, this topic makes me feel that I have lots of company. My most memorable goofs, the first one long ago and the second one disturbingly recent:

 

1) demonstrating to a friend how a converter worked and turning the knob too vigorously. Black ink all over her curtains, her table cloth, and her cat.

 

2) unscrewing the nib section for a pen and putting the barrel down...forgetting that it was a full eye-dropper pen...

[Bristol24]

My "mother of all newbie ink mistakes": Early on as a newbie fountain pen enthusiast with a newly acquired Parker 21 Super, I got out my pen and pulled the cap off with my right hand while holding the barrel of the pen in my left. The cap, for some reason was more difficult coming off and I ended up flinging Parker Quink Permanent Black on myself and the person in front of me. This is where I learned to "push" the cap off with my right thumb as I hold the barrel in my right hand while covering the cap with my left hand. No jerking...no ink fling...and no fruitless dry cleaning bill.

 

Cliff

[linkoiram]

One mistake I made was putting a drop of dish soap in already wet noodlers black ink without knowing that it was the pen that was the problem, not the ink. With my first fountain pen I didn't realize that ink could just evaporate (jinhao x450) like it did, so this observation and ruining of a bottle of noodlers put me off of trying more fountain pens for a good couple of years.

[dennis_f]

My "mother of all newbie ink mistakes": Early on as a newbie fountain pen enthusiast with a newly acquired Parker 21 Super, I got out my pen and pulled the cap off with my right hand while holding the barrel of the pen in my left. The cap, for some reason was more difficult coming off and I ended up flinging Parker Quink Permanent Black on myself and the person in front of me. This is where I learned to "push" the cap off with my right thumb as I hold the barrel in my right hand while covering the cap with my left hand. No jerking...no ink fling...and no fruitless dry cleaning bill.

 

Cliff

 

Been there... learned the same lesson!

[Arkanabar]

My worst was to drop a Hero 616 I was filling into the sample vial of Heart of Darkness I was filling from -- it held 7ml, and it had 5ml in it. I splashed my white shirt with ink. I promptly went off to the washroom and rinsed as much of the HoD as I could from that poly-cotton polo. MOST of it rinsed out, but hardly all.

[chromantic]

Probably making snap judgments on new inks I was trying. Of course, there are some where's it's obvious from the get-go that they're stinkers *cough* Harmonious Green *cough* but I learned that some need to 'settle in' a few days to show their full potential.

Edited July 11, 2020 by chromantic