Making Ink Last

[dlk613]

I'm new to fountain pens, having just gotten mine this Sunday. I have been very surprised by how quickly mine seems to use ink though. I am using a Pilot Metropolitan medium nib pen, and I am already most of the way through the cartridge that came with the pen. From what I could find online, it is normal for fountain pens to use ink more quickly than the ballpoint pens I'm used to, but I still did not expect the ink to run out so quickly. I have some Noodler's X-feather black being shipped to me since I was having issues with feathering with the ink that came with the pen, and I hope that that bottle will last me for a while.

However, is there a way to use ink more slowly? I understand that a medium nib will tend to allow more ink to flow than a finer nib, but I intend to stick with this pen for a while. So, would a different type of ink, maybe a more viscous ink, drain more slowly given its lower flow rate?

[sciumbasci]

What pen are you using?

I have my bottle of Rohrer&Klingner Scabiosa (50mL) February 2015 and it is still 1/3 full.

 

Or you mean perhaps each fill?

[Buzz_130]

Welcome to FPN and the world of fountain pen users. Yes, your fountain pen will go through ink, but the members view this usage as an excuse to buy more ink!

 

I know how many days of work I will get out of each of my fountain pens. On my vintage Sheaffers, I expect about two days of writing. With my Parker "51"s, I will end up with about two weeks of work.

 

The width of the nib, the flow of the nib, and the ability of the paper to absorb the ink will affect the use of your ink. If you like how your Metro writes (and if you are running out of ink, I will assume you do), the only other variable you can change is the paper.

 

Ink has different qualities, and people will describe their inks as wet or dry. This characteristic must be matched to the nib. For example, if I have a wet noodle and don't want the ink to go right through the paper, I would match this nib with a dry ink.

 

Some members have luck with saturated inks to add water to them. Noodler's is a typical favorite because the inks tend toward high concentration of colors. Do some research here and watch how some members describe how they decant their inks, add different ratios of water, and explore the results.

 

My advice: keep writing and explore the amazing world of fountain pen inks. Buy samples of inks that interest you and then invest in some bottles. You'll be back soon asking for advice on your next fountain pen.

 

Buzz

[mhguda]

Ink is cheap IMHO and it's not worth risking clogging your pen up by using a more viscous ink...

Also, the cartridge you got with the pen may not have been completely full to begin with.

Hopefully you got a few extra cartridges? If so, I'd say just pop in the next one. It will be a good idea to keep track of how much ink you use, if you feel that it goes too fast...

Anyway, enjoy the experience, if the pen writes well you will use ink up quickly, it's when you don't write the ink in the pen lasts and lasts and lasts...

[chromantic]

Noooooooo, turn back now, before it's too late. That obligatory warning out of the way, welcome!

 

Yes, fountain pen ink goes quick (faster, of course, if you write a lot) and the various tricks - finer nibs, drier inks, etc - offer only marginal help. With a cartridge pen, the easiest solution is to carry extra carts in your bag/man purse/backpack. If you're someone who writes a lot, say, a student, consider getting an eye-dropper pen - they hold an awful lot of ink.

 

You can, also, carry 2 or 3 pens with you. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[ENewton]

A cartridge doesn't last long, but a bottle lasts a long time. Probably your concerns will vanish once you see how many fills you get out of that new bottle of ink.

 

But the fact that you are concerned about both ink consumption and feathering makes me want to reinforce the comment made above with regard to paper. If the paper you use is too absorbent, that factor can account for both faster ink consumption and feathering. The best papers for fountain pens cost more than you might want to pay, but the good news is that there are also many inexpensive papers compatible with fountain pens. The HP printer paper I use is fountain-pen friendly, and if you search elsewhere on this forum, you will find references to types of paper you can find at Staples, for example.

 

Most importantly, although there are obviously members of this forum who don't have to worry about how much money they spend on pens and ink, it doesn't have to be expensive to be a fountain-pen user. Your Metropolitan is a good pen that you will have for decades, and an inexpensive bottle of ink can last you many months, even a year, depending on how much writing you do.

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! Glad to have you as a member!! Sometimes our thrill with writing with our new pen leads to quickly using up that first load of ink. That slows down with time. A bottle should last you a good long time!

[dlk613]

Thanks for the helpful replies and warm welcome, everyone.

The majority of my writing is note-taking and solving equations, which I usually do in pencil so I can erase any mistakes or changes that need to be made (although I do use my fountain pen as much as I can). I use my fountain pen primarily for recording experiments in a university-issued laboratory notebook, so unfortunately I can't change the paper I'm using. The notebook filler paper I use for note-taking actually works very well with the pen, but the lab notebook takes priority until the end of the semester. To answer several of the other questions/suggestions that have been posed: the pen came with one cartridge, probably 7/8 full, and a press plate converter, so as soon as the cartridge runs out (or as soon as the new ink comes in) I'm through with the ink that came with the pen. I've looked into how to do an eyedropper conversion out of curiosity, and apparently ink and metal (like the barrel of the Metropolitan) don't do well together. Maybe one day I'll get another fountain pen and start building a collection, but for now I'd like to stick to the one since I do like how it writes.

I didn't realize bottles last as long as they do, so hopefully my concern is unfounded. I enjoy writing with this pen very much and hope it will last for a very long time!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the helpful replies and warm welcome, everyone.

The majority of my writing is note-taking and solving equations, which I usually do in pencil so I can erase any mistakes or changes that need to be made (although I do use my fountain pen as much as I can). I use my fountain pen primarily for recording experiments in a university-issued laboratory notebook, so unfortunately I can't change the paper I'm using. The notebook filler paper I use for note-taking actually works very well with the pen, but the lab notebook takes priority until the end of the semester. To answer several of the other questions/suggestions that have been posed: the pen came with one cartridge, probably 7/8 full, and a press plate converter, so as soon as the cartridge runs out (or as soon as the new ink comes in) I'm through with the ink that came with the pen. I've looked into how to do an eyedropper conversion out of curiosity, and apparently ink and metal (like the barrel of the Metropolitan) don't do well together. Maybe one day I'll get another fountain pen and start building a collection, but for now I'd like to stick to the one since I do like how it writes.

I didn't realize bottles last as long as they do, so hopefully my concern is unfounded. I enjoy writing with this pen very much and hope it will last for a very long time!

 

Don't throw out the empty cartridge, either. They are refillable by means of a plastic pipette or even a glass eyedropper.

[Bookman]

Rely on bottled ink, rather than cartridges, as much as you can. That one change will move the your ink supply's finish line quite a long distance. And keep in mind it is axiomatic that if you don't write much with a fountain pen you won't use all that much fountain pen ink; and if you write more, you'll use more. This isn't even a function of the sickness (Hello, I'm Bookman, and I'm a paper-hoarder and I might be an ink-addict); this is just demand and supply/resupply. To that end I recommend you buy another bottle of ink. Even assuming you could afford it I would not recommend you go on an ink-buying binge. Just one, single bottle. And I recommend you do it (buy a different ink, perhaps a different color and a different ink-maker) while the X-Feather Black is plenty full. Then when you can, you might add a third bottle, maybe another black ink. The surest way I've found to slow the dropping of a bottle's ink level is to supply it with companions.