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When Do You Refill Your Pens?


vistafan

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Hi everyone,

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I searched and could not fine anything. When do you refill your pens? When you feel like doing so or do you refill once your pen has run out of ink? I often want to try out a new ink (I'm a new collector so do not have many pens) however my pen will still have half a cartridge/converter full of ink.

 

For those who refill when you feel like doing so, what do you do with the ink that you have not used up? Do you simply flush it away?

 

Thanks in advance :)

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I refill my pens when they get to be less than half full, but I keep using the same color until it's gone--I only own a few bottles of ink and mostly use samples. If for some reason I had to switch colors, I would probably squirt whatever hadn't been used yet back into the sample or bottle.

Edited by box_camera
Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss. Joan Didion
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I refill when empty. Or when leaving in the morning and I know I need a lot of ink (then I just add more ink).

 

Usually I have a one pen - one ink policy, plus a few tryout pens.

 

When changing inks, some prefer to dump the remaining ink for not contaminating the bottle. I just pour the ink back into the bottle. In so many years I have never encountered a problem with that.

With cartridges it's difficult, because it's a hassle to close them well. So I write with them until they are empty.

Greetings,

Michael

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I don't recall being surprised at a bone dry pen too often.

 

When the cartridge is getting low I just syringe in enough to complete the .6ml

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Thanks :) That's a good idea about placing the ink back into the bottle. I need to purchase some dip/glass pens - may be a better way to try out ink, without the need to refill pens.

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Thanks :) That's a good idea about placing the ink back into the bottle. I need to purchase some dip/glass pens - may be a better way to try out ink, without the need to refill pens.

Hmmm. I never do that because of all the warnings I've heard about contamination. And if I happen to have a bit of soar or water or a different color in my pen, that too gets dumped into the ink mothership! Ink is cheap. Mostly.

It is easier to stay out than get out. - Mark Twain

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I don't use cartridges and refill my pen(s) when they're empty. If I'm refilling with the same color, there's no need to flush the pen, but ... if I want to change colors, I flush shake dry with a paper towel and the thermometer shake, then refill with a different color. If I'm going to add a different pen to my rotation, I flush, allow the pen to dry and put it away. I've been keeping about 6 pens in rotation, each with a different color ink. Only 2 or three of my rotation pens have remained in rotation ... two have been there for weeks, but ink color has changed each time they were empty. I'm always changing ink colors! LOL

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I don't use cartridges and refill my pen(s) when they're empty. If I'm refilling with the same color, there's no need to flush the pen, but ... if I want to change colors, I flush shake dry with a paper towel and the thermometer shake, then refill with a different color. If I'm going to add a different pen to my rotation, I flush, allow the pen to dry and put it away. I've been keeping about 6 pens in rotation, each with a different color ink. Only 2 or three of my rotation pens have remained in rotation ... two have been there for weeks, but ink color has changed each time they were empty. I'm always changing ink colors! LOL

 

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Thanks :) That's a good idea about placing the ink back into the bottle. I need to purchase some dip/glass pens - may be a better way to try out ink, without the need to refill pens.

Hmmm. I never do that because of all the warnings I've heard about contamination. And if I happen to have a bit of soar or water or a different color in my pen, that too gets dumped into the ink mothership! Ink is cheap. Mostly.

 

I agree, perhaps its wasteful but why risk contaminating an entire bottle of ink it really is cheap enough IMHO to just let it go. My pens and inks are a tool sure but they are fun to use and using and changing different inks are part of the fun.

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

- Mark Twain in a Letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888

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I have only a few pens inked at any one time now. Different colours and I write with them all in some notebooks or one pen/colour only in others. So I'll use up the ink in a pen before refilling with the same colour or changing. I run cartridges until they're empty. If emptying a converter or whatever, I'll empty back into the bottle and haven't had any problems. I've one notebook which I only write in with one pen and one ink. My spleen-venting book.

Edited by The Good Captain

The Good Captain

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If you're trying an ink there's no reason to fill the pen completely.

 

I find a glass pen was worth the investment for checking ink especially with my Ink Drop subscription.

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I generally try to use up as much of the ink in the pen as possible but I also dump any remaining ink residue from my pens to avoid contamination. I do like using cartridges because you can actually see how much ink is left to be used. Also, I re-use spent cartridges after thoroughly flushing them with water using an ink syringe and letting them dry completely. Whenever I want to change ink colors in a pen I first make sure that I thoroughly clean out the pen, nib and all, using water and a bulb syringe (if necessary) and let the pen dry. Once this is done I use my ink syringe to load ink into one of my saved empty cartridges from the bottle of ink that I want to use and simply insert the "new" cartridge. And I agree...a glass pen or one of the old-fashioned Speed Ball models are wonderful for trying out different ink colors. I love my beautiful art glass pen and I love using lots of different colors!

Edited by ladyinthemists

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I either dump the ink or fill it into one of my filling and temporary storage containers. I already had problems with contamination and losing multiple bottles of ink (worst case of cause, but this happened to me) because I wanted to safe 0.2ml just isn't worth the risk.

 

I don't even take the risk to fill my pens right from the bottle anymore (at least most of the time). I have some inks I won't use up in a decade and losing them because of contamination would be really annoying.

 

I try to refill my pens as soon as they are empty. I simply try to avoid filling in too much, this works usually. I have to dump 0.5 to 2 ml per month though, because I like to change my ink often.

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I hate the waste of dumping good ink, possibly because I've never had contamination problems. One question though: what happens when you fill a pen like an aerometric Parker? If you follow instructions, you press and release the bar a few times. Doesn't this mean contamination is still possible?

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I too enjoy using a variety of inks at home and work. I also 'need' to use a variety of nib widths and grinds. At any given time I may have 6 pens inked at work (a seminary) and another 6 at home. Generally I use a pen until it is empty and then refill. My Pel M605 with a CI broad nib is always inked with MB Blue-Black; given the ink's permanent nature it gets cleaned after every two or three fills. Pens rotating out of use will be washed and left uncapped to dry completely before being put back in the pen case.

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I don't worry too much when I refill as I always carry 2 pens; a detail/jotter and a flex pen. I don't think I've ever run both out at once.

 

I keep a shoe style ink bottle for when I change ink colors, usually a black/blue/gray/green shade and usually Noodler's.

 

I'll dump anything left in the pens into that bottle labeled "Graveyard Blue-Black". I have a couple pens that I only use that ink with. I've never had any trouble with it and I like that it's always changing hue. :blush:

How can you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

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I too use the ink bottle of combining when discarding a partially filled pen when switching colors. I find empty or near empty ink sampler vials perfect for this. I have a blue-green whatever, a funky brown thing, and a couple others that I have no name for. I use these whenever I just want something wierd or different to write with.

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I don't worry too much when I refill as I always carry 2 pens; a detail/jotter and a flex pen. I don't think I've ever run both out at once.

 

I keep a shoe style ink bottle for when I change ink colors, usually a black/blue/gray/green shade and usually Noodler's.

 

I'll dump anything left in the pens into that bottle labeled "Graveyard Blue-Black". I have a couple pens that I only use that ink with. I've never had any trouble with it and I like that it's always changing hue. :blush:

Me too. If I ever need to 'dump' ink it goes into a 'general' bottle, and I use that for paintings on big sheets of paper, regardless of colour. I always find it very freeing to have this stock of cheap, otherwise wasted ink for experimenting with. Maybe try it with a big Japanese calligraphy brush - gets your arm and shoulder moving!

Sincerely, beak.

 

God does not work in mysterious ways – he works in ways that are indistinguishable from his non-existence.

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I try not to use cartridges and I save the empty ones. Needle and syringe are the key tools to refilling them.

All bleeding stops...eventually

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...oh yeah, I tend to refill after using up a cartridge. I've been putting in less and less ink lately as it's easier to refill then to use up and sometimes I like a change of colour.

All bleeding stops...eventually

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