When I change ink I normally waste the old ink, instead of pouring it back in the bottle.
What’s your routine?
What’s your routine?
Do you reuse ink?
- Thread starter Mangew69
- Start date
I generally only ink one pen at a time. When it's done, I flush it out down the sink. No-rebottling / re-use of ink for me.
tankerjohn
A little poofier than I prefer
I’d rather dump a quarter ml of ink at the bottom of the converter than risk contaminating a whole bottle. I don’t know what the odds are of doing that, but the piece of mind is worth it to me.
I know one of our brothers here maintains a bottle of “dump pot brown”. There’s one way to use every drop.
I know one of our brothers here maintains a bottle of “dump pot brown”. There’s one way to use every drop.
Ink is cheap.
Going against the grain here, I do save ink occasionally from a fill, I've got a bottle I return ink to if I have a little left when cleaning a pen or changing inks, affectionately called "the Blue Dump" as I use mostly blue and blue-black. I've been tossing small amounts of various inks in there for over fifteen years -- surprisingly no trouble in there, probably due to all the phenol and other currently illegal biocides used in my vintage inks.
This 2 oz. bottle is currently over half full ... It probably is a mixture of about 40 different brands of ink made from the 1940s to present -- 2 drops here, 20 drops there. Beautiful shade of dark blue ink which I would never put in any precious vintage piston filler, Vacumatic, or other ink window pen. I do use it in old Esterbrooks, Sheaffers, and Eversharp sac pens. Fun stuff.
Yeah, ink is cheap. I guess I've been even cheaper.
This 2 oz. bottle is currently over half full ... It probably is a mixture of about 40 different brands of ink made from the 1940s to present -- 2 drops here, 20 drops there. Beautiful shade of dark blue ink which I would never put in any precious vintage piston filler, Vacumatic, or other ink window pen. I do use it in old Esterbrooks, Sheaffers, and Eversharp sac pens. Fun stuff.
Yeah, ink is cheap. I guess I've been even cheaper.
I almost always try to write a pen dry, even if I've decided the ink was a mistake. If I decide the pen was a mistake, though, I dump the remaining ink, usually into a wastebasket with enough Kleenex and paper towels to absorb it, then rinse out the pen before putting it away.
Ink may be cheap, but I dislike waste on principle. On the other hand, if a pen turns out to be a real displeasure to write with, then I'll go against my principles.
Ink may be cheap, but I dislike waste on principle. On the other hand, if a pen turns out to be a real displeasure to write with, then I'll go against my principles.
I always run the pen dry/empty before cleaning and then changing inks. So there's nothing to save.
