When You Ink Up Your Pen Do You ...

[Sal the List Maker]

...fill up the entire converter? Or just enough to get you through whatever your writing task is?

 

My pens are on active rotation, but the ink rotation depends on my mood and I can go for weeks without touching a pen. And then I'd need to change the ink or clean the pen and the ink goes to waste. So now I tend to ink just a little bit unless it's a pen/ink colour I know I'll use a lot.

[PAKMAN]

SInce I don't write as much as I did in the past and like to have several pens inked and in use with different inks, I rarely fill up the entire converter.

[jchch1950]

I don't use many colours of ink and mostly every thing in one . The other only to highlight something. always fill the converter full.

[Sal the List Maker]

SInce I don't write as much as I did in the past and like to have several pens inked and in use with different inks, I rarely fill up the entire converter.

I never really thought of not filling it up until this very day! And I've been using FP for 40 years!

 

I don't use many colours of ink and mostly every thing in one . The other only to highlight something. always fill the converter full.

 

Ahah! I have always filled the converter up but lately I feel that it's wasteful. Why do you say to always fill it full?

[ardene]

I do fill up the entire converter.

[Glenn-SC]

I fill the pen completely (converter, piston, whatever)

 

A partial fill would waste a lot of ink and water in cleaning the residual ink out of the pen.

[Estycollector]

I fill the Lamy converter completely. Also, I tend to carry two FP's for work in case one runs out of ink. I use only Waterman Serenity Blue.

[praxim]

Given that my pens are entirely dry, probably for months, before they are filled again, a normal full fill action will result in about a half to three quarter fill. This happens because the collector must also be saturated and the feed filled. If the pen were wet from a previous fill, these parts would not consume some of the fill. Think of it as the filling mechanism drawing air in the first instance, even though the collector and section are immersed.

 

So, I fill my pens but they do not fill. This suits me perfectly. I keep four in rotation, mostly.

[Aysedasi]

Always fill to full. Just seems right that way.

[bayindirh]

...fill up the entire converter? Or just enough to get you through whatever your writing task is?

 

My pens are on active rotation, but the ink rotation depends on my mood and I can go for weeks without touching a pen. And then I'd need to change the ink or clean the pen and the ink goes to waste. So now I tend to ink just a little bit unless it's a pen/ink colour I know I'll use a lot.

Depends. I generally rotate 2-3 pens at most, one being my EDC these pens are always filled to full and they rarely change colors/bottles. If I'm tempted to try an ink, I either half fill a cartridge or get just enough to wet a pen. If I want to put it into active rotation, that pen is refilled to full and one is retired from rotation.

 

Otherwise I waste too much ink.

[jacksterp]

Generally speaking a full fill.

 

In for a penny - in for a pound.

[inkstainedruth]

I tend to fill the pen completely, or as completely as I can. Pens get rotated somewhat on whim, so I may refill a pen with the same ink two or three times before swapping it out; or I might get lazy and refill with distilled water (sometimes that works and sometimes the ink on the page becomes too illegible) before flushing; or, if I dislike the ink's color or behavior (drippy/dry/cloggy/poor flow/feathering/whatever) or it's an an iron gall or pigmented ink, I may flush after a single fill. Depends entirely on the combo of pen and ink what it will be, but I don't like partial fills.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

 

 

 

Ahah! I have always filled the converter up but lately I feel that it's wasteful. Why do you say to always fill it full?

 

Full with the converter in the pen.

[A Smug Dill]

...fill up the entire converter?

Yes, as a matter of policy.

 

Or just enough to get you through whatever your writing task is?

I can only think of two (types of) occasions on which I would have a writing task that begins and ends the same day (or even within the same week): when I am doing some sort of ink testing/review/comparison, in which case the writing outcome on paper itself is not the goal of the task, or when I was preparing invitations, places cards, thank-you cards or some such for my wedding last year. I'd have to atypically have such reservations about an ink, based on its reputation/notoriety, to expect not to want to write with it at all after testing/reviewing it for normal, everyday or random writing applications.

 

... I can go for weeks without touching a pen. And then I'd need to change the ink or clean the pen and the ink goes to waste.

Exactly why, as the owner of the object, I always consider a fountain pen — of any make, and not just Lamy — that wouldn't prevent total evaporation and drying out of the contents of a fully-filled converter if capped and unused for three months — to be of inferior quality either in design or in manufacture/execution, even if the brand is Platinum (which I like) instead of Parker (for which I have no time whatsoever).

[Charles Rice]

I go all the way. Forces me to write more.

[Freddy]

...fill up the entire converter? Or just enough to get you through whatever your writing task is?

 

My pens are on active rotation, but the ink rotation depends on my mood and I can go for weeks without touching a pen. And then I'd need to change the ink or clean the pen and the ink goes to waste. So now I tend to ink just a little bit unless it's a pen/ink colour I know I'll use a lot.

 

Sal, I just fill 'em up.

 

Based on what you wrote...appears you have everything under control ...

 

Fred

 

Beware the Jabberwocky ................... ..................... ........................ ......

........................ ...................... .......................... .................... ................

[MHBru]

filled all the way

[KaB]

I always fill them up completely. Never considered to do otherwise.

[DonLeone]

First time using the pen I do a half fill of Lamy Blue. It's my default ink. Because every pen has had Lamy Blue in it, I can gauge how the pen would behave with other inks.

 

After that I tend to fill for the task at hand. My more flexible ones and ink brushes I'll fill to the max because they need the juice to keep going.

[AlexLeGrande]

As a retiree with a lot of pens, a lot of inks, and a daily journal to keep, most of my pens are dipped, not filled, and then washed clean after use. The pens that I use the most, my "go-to's," filled to capacity.