When You Ink Up Your Pen Do You ...

[Astronymus]

Depends on what I plan to do.

[sentience]

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.

This is genius. I find myself flushing (to the point of removing the nib if I can) every new LAMY I buy to get rid of the residual Blue before filling it with another ink, to avoid contaminating the bottle. I should just use it with some Blue first!

[Venemo]

It depends. If I know it will be used up quickly, or the pen can hold a large amount of ink without drying out, then I usually just fill it up completely. For example, the Platinum 3776 Century has this slip and seal mechanism which does a superb job preventing it from drying out, so I know I can fill it up and it will be always ready when I need it.

[bemon]

I fill up my converters all the way, but larger capacity piston filler pens I usually go for a half fill.

[Dimy]

...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.

I stick with one pen which I will use a lot, fill it to completely with color for daily using as for less use one I go for half converter or less which allows me peace of mind of completely using ink without wastage.

[pajaro]

I usually fill the filler full, but sometimes I don't feel it's needed. I began to feel some time back that there was some tyranny at work, making me fill the filler up. I think the P 51 Vac models led me to believe it was impossible, so I felt that fill-it-up compulsion could, as an old friend used to say, "shav it in the oven."

Edited August 27, 2020 by pajaro

[millertime]

I do the same as Charles. Fill them full and makes me write more.🖋️

[IvoryParker]

Fill em up every time just like my car..... Force of habit I suppose 

[N1003U]

58 minutes ago, IvoryParker said:

Fill em up every time just like my car..... Force of habit I suppose 

 

I'm like that, too, but since this is a Lamy forum, and every Lamy I own is a cartridge/converter filler (I will add a 2000 to the group someday, I suppose, but for now they are all C/C pens), I have a more or less tradition of using first the (blue) cartridge that is provided with the pen.

 

Lamy Blue is a nice color, I don't need to worry about residual ink from the manufacturing/QC process, and I don't see the point in stocking up on loose blue Lamy cartridges.

 

When the factory cartridge is used up, then I give the pen a good flush and clean, and (typically) add a converter and put the pen into my regular rotation with whatever ink I am in the mood for.

 

This may also explain why I have never purchased a bottle of Lamy Blue, despite the fact that I like it. I get as much as I desire to use from the factory cartridges.

 

When I do fill, it is always a full fill (to the point of expelling any entrained air and re-filling). If I am not sure I am going to like an ink, I dip it first.

[Ferocity]

it depends

 

1.) if it's a vintage pen, usually before cleaning it I'll add half a milliliter to a full milliliter of pure H2O and use the ink that was already there for as long as I can before I thoroughly clean the pen.

 

2.) if it's a new pen or a vintage pen that's already been thoroughly cleaned, I fill the converter, the feed and everything else in contact with ink all the way as close to 100% as possible. Then I see how long it lets me write for = )

 

3.) if it's one of the 6 or 7 that I have inked up, then whichever pen it is out of those, I did fill it up to as close to 100% as possible.

 

4.) if it's one of the pens that I don't usually use but I want to use then I only had a couple drops of ink to the tip. in order to get the minimal amount of ink on there as possible.

 

 

usually I don't put in a little bit of ink in the converter because the feed and the fins grab so much ink that I think it's a bit wasteful. So I use a ton of ink if I'm just going to use the pen for a while. when I know I'm only going to be writing a letter or two, what I do is I take a syringe and add a few drops of ink at the tip of the pen where the feed and nib come into contact. the ink just gets sucked up and Bam you've got yourself a fully functional writing instrument. Then i just write and write until I'm done, and then proceed to clean the heck out of it. That way I don't waste a ton of ink plus I don't need to get the whole pen's internals totally covered in ink and I still get to use whatever pen I want regardless of the day or anything = )

plus I feel that it saves the nibs from unnecessary microscratches plus it saves a lot of time when cleaning them up plus makes it a whole lot easier to clean+maintain the ones I haven't gotten to put on rotation for a while this way (in my opinion).