What Do You Do With Unused Ink

[River]

Sometimes I want to switch ink colors before I empty my cartridge.

 

Sometimes I retire a pen for a while. I don't want to leave it inked (won't it dry out and clog up).

 

It seems like a lot of you regularly cycle through pens, and only have a few that are "inked up."

 

What do you do with the rest of the ink?

 

Back in the bottle? Down to tube? Pour onto some scrap paper and swish around with a q-tip just so that you don't waste it?

[hsianloon]

Wish I never bought them..a Diamine Monaco Red sitting on my shelf, which I've never used more than twice...online ink shades, can be deceiving ;/

 

Guess you could trade them?

 

I use those unwanted inks for scribbling junk notes while studying.

 

The inks I like, for making the notes.

 

Managed to make it through 2010 without a catastrophic water spill on my notes and wiping them off the face of the earth just before the exam. *pats self on the back*

[voop]

f I want to change ink before the pen is empty, I either exhibit restraint - or take out and ink a fresh pen.

[Bronze]

- Down the sink it goes...

[antares1966]

The thrifty Scot comes out in me when it comes to ink, it's hard for me to flush out perfectly good ink from my pen

That being said, I would be leery of flushing ink from a pen back into the main bottle. Don't want to risk contamination, better to lose a few tenths of a ml than the whole bottle.

If you are someone who likes to change colors frequently, perhaps only filling the pen about halfway is a compromise? Have to fill more often but less waste.

[Ghost Plane]

Drain, then rinse.

[Halden]

Drain and Rinse. I do try to use it up but sometimes those new colours just call my name....

[Sleepy]

Back in the bottle. I'm colour blind so any possible contamination I wouldn't notice.

[larryinpa]

Journal. I started journaling recently and noticed that I go through ink pretty quickly. Good for the soul too.

[Dave the brew guy]

Buy more pens.

 

I avoid this problem by having more pens than inks.

[fwyun]

I would be leery of flushing ink from a pen back into the main bottle. Don't want to risk contamination,

 

 

I typically load pens from small vials which are filled from bottles. If a pen still has ink and I want to change out, the ink goes back into the vial. If there's contamination, it doesn't spread back to the bottle.

[River]

Where do you get the vials?

[fwyun]

Where do you get the vials?

 

In the past, I've gotten some from the local arts & crafts store.

 

There's a guy on FPN who can set you up with some; however, I believe the vials are back-ordered.

See the first post in the thread Ink Sample Exchange a.k.a "The KCat System".

 

Goulet Pens also has a (slightly different) version here

[dnb]

Back in the bottle it goes. No sense wasting it!

[Lloyd]

In-law's fish tank.:embarrassed_smile:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

just kiddin'

[antares1966]

I would be leery of flushing ink from a pen back into the main bottle. Don't want to risk contamination,

 

 

I typically load pens from small vials which are filled from bottles. If a pen still has ink and I want to change out, the ink goes back into the vial. If there's contamination, it doesn't spread back to the bottle.

 

 

Good solution, thanks for sharing!

[KCat]

depends on the ink. I was going to put Tsuki-yo into one of my VPs but discovered I still had plenty of Violet Vote in both of them. Since VV isn't terribly cheap and since it is one of my favorites, I opted to just finish it out.

 

If it's a cheaper ink that I am not too concerned about losing less than .5 ml, I'll rinse it out.

 

I rarely put it back in a vial or anything. I would with the Iroshizukus or CdA inks, though. Or a vintage ink I can't replace like my Sheaffer Lavender.

[SamCapote]

I'm also big on using the vials, and if it's soon after filling, I'll transfer it back...but not to bottles.

[Inka]

I transfer small amounts of my favorite inks into small vials from the main bottle/s.

I do this only after carefully & thoroughly shaking the original to well mix, then give time for air bubbles to settle out.

I then fill my fountain pens from those vials, straight out using piston or plunger fillers or use a 3cc syringe & blunt needle to extract what I need.

This has been serving me well for some time now.

 

The bottles I use vary, from 15ml/half-ounce Nalgene wide-mouth to small Lab-grade glass vials of @ 2 Dram [1/8 ounce]] in size/type.

I use the larger Nalgene bottles with the wide mouth to fill my large piston/plunger fill pens, the small glass vials to syringe-fill empty carts and converters.

I bought a carton of 12x Nalgene 30ml/ one ounce bottles to store certain mixes such as ink powders mixed with filtered water but rarely use those for anything else.

I've gotten bottles and vials from pen-partners, I've purchased them myself, for those that would like to see where I buy from the following are a couple of sources.

Nalgene bottles I typically buy from Nalgene Outdoor, the glass vials I typically buy from Specialty Bottle, but there have been other sources I've purchased from although those are my favorites.

 

For those times when I want to empty inks from pens and not return to a bottle or vial, I have one large amber glass bottle I've labeled as "Trash Blend".

That bottle has a couple of ounces of old inks of various types inside, all different colors too, I use it primarily as a dip-pen ink for writing and calligraphy practice and NEVER in my fountain pens.

The colors in it go from yellows to blacks, everything in between including turquoise/reds/greens/blues/blacks/browns, you name it, waterproof and non-waterproof alike, looks like a deep purple when used.

So far I've not once dumped any inks down the drain, never will unless at some point I discover molds or other serious issues that so far I've been fortunate enough to have never seen since I've been doing this.

Coming from a mixed Scottish/Irish/Welsh/Native American heritage may have something to do with not wanting to waste anything, may have nothing to do with that at all, bottom line I hate to waste and always try to use every drop of ink tot he best of my ability to do so.

[saskia_madding]

I only scrap the truly hideous colours. Other than that, I try adding a drop or two of another ink into the pen in order to change the colour to something I'll like more.

 

For example, if it is a boring blue, I'll add a drop of PR Sherwood green to get a fun teal colour. If it is a blah purple, I'll add some De Atramentis ruby red to get a wine colour.

 

And my overall advice is just not to fill your pen up entirely. I get bored quickly with colours and pens, so now I only fill any pen I use about halfway, which lets me switch inks and pens frequently with less waste.