How many pens do you keep inked?

I'm retired - so no pen use at work - but I journal every day. I like stub nibs but I'm finding that some of my pens are very hard starting (dried up nib?) if I don't use them fairly frequently. I definitely have favorites and the pens at the end of my list are being a bit balky.

Is the answer to keep fewer pens inked (I currently have 7 inked)?

with all my new pens and inks, all of them are currently inked lol

but usually only 3 or 4

I don't have trouble with pens drying out. I think I currently have 5 pens inked. Pelikans, Pilots, Sailors, and Platinums all seem to be fine with sitting unused for a while. Vintage pens, especially those with a pressure release hole in the cap and no inner liner probably fare worse.

-Andy

I have six inked right now...I should probably get it down to three or four. But that would mean not having them available for spur-of-the moment playtime! I find as long as I use them regularly and don't let them sit inked and idle for too long (i.e., several weeks), I don't have any performance issues. I've got one supposed iron gall ink (Hero 232 Blue-Black) but that's in an inexpensive C-C pen (Camlin Elelgante) that gets used daily (I keep it in the kitchen for notes and shopping lists). Even if it were to turn to sludge, it shouldn't be a problem to clean it out.

I am terrible about leaving pens inked and some of them have dried out over time. But I have never had any real problems getting then going again. I do tend to stay away from bullet and even water proof inks though, and up until just recently away from iron gall inks. I plan on being pretty careful with the latter.

No permanent inks or iron gall inks, but all my pens are inked.

I always have ink in 2. On very rare occasion I have 3, but never more than that...with 3 kids, I have no safe place to put more than that.

One on my desk, one in my bag.

One at a time

I usually have 5 or 6 inked. Three Lamy Safaris, one each with black, blue and red ink. Plus a couple of others which I don't use much.

Two or three.

At the moment, I have 8 inked including 2 I travel with; the other 6 are on my desk. A total of 5 or 6 is more usual, but today it is 8.

Usually one at a time. Sometimes two.

I usually only keep 2 inked, but I have a bad habit of not cleaning them promptly when I switch pens. Case in point, I have two pens soaking on my desk at the moment, 2 in my pocket (only one is actually inked... the other ran out yesterday), and 3 in my case that need a good flushing.

Usually just one, but with the Pelikans that I have I will on occasion cheat simply because they hold so much ink.

Usually 10+ pens, currently I have 12 pens inked. I do quite a bit of corespence, I like to use a variety of pens and ink colors.

beginish said:

One at a time

Click to expand...

Same. Sometimes two, but not often.
The inked ones live in my shirt pocket, the rest are in my pen roll in my desk.

Too many are inked at once.

I will get down to four or five inked, which eventually will be the size of my collection....

Well, there are two that don't count. But since there are exactly two of these, and I'm mentioning them, feel free to count them. These are two Pilot Varsities, one refilled with Noodler's Fox (red) and the other with Noodler's La Reine Mauve, a rich purple. Now in my better pens, neither of these is the best ink to use, and I rarely want to use red anyway. The LRM will clog my normal pens while leading to terrible nib creep. In the Varsities, though, with their large, many-vaned feeds, they will sit unused for over a month, and start right up with no fuss when I need a little water-resistant red or purple emphasis. And if I did spoil the pens, I'd just mark it up to experience and move on.

Not counting those two, I will keep between two and four pens inked. Right now it's four. Some time ago it might have been much more, but that turned out to be untenable. It would be great if I could keep all of my fountain pens inked indefinitely, and pick one up and start writing with it after any amount of time. Although some pens would last longer than others, it doesn't really work that way.

A Pelikan M200 Demonstrator on my desk and an Edison Herald in my pocket. Also a Pelikan M205 highlighter. And a red Platinum Preppy.