What Pen Cleaning Day Left Behind
03/08/2016Clean pens, inky water, and a colorful paper towel…
My inked pens are down to three. It’s like going from long hair to a buzz cut, breezy and easy to maintain.
The skinny rotation won’t last long with a shipment due end of week, but it’s fine for now. A person could grow accustomed to living this way. For now, I am a lean, mean writing machine.
However, pen and paper tests require more variety. Though increasing the number of pens is not appealing, adding a red and a blue ink should be adequate for the next reviews. Noodler’s BERNing Red is en route which settles that color. For blue, should it be Sailor Sky High or Souten, Iroshizuku kon-peki, Noodler’s Ottoman Azure or Rohrer & Klinger Verdigris or Blau Permanent? As always, it’s hard to pick just one.
Two green inks of recent acquisition, Diamine Meadow and Noodler’s Gruene Cactus, deserve further exploration especially in clear barrels that show their inky colors to best advantage. The TWSBI Eco is almost empty and would look suitably, seasonally well-dressed in green. Well, at least that’s settled.
That limited rotation of red, blue, brown, violet and green always grows quickly to an unwieldy dozen with the addition of teal, turquoise, orange, burgundy, pink, and black or blue-black. That’s eleven with one slot open for a test ink. This is not promising. How do you inkophiles keep your rotation in check?
An Inkophile's Blog 
Verdigris!
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Nothing shy about that color. Which pen?
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Sadly (or maybe not) I don’t keep my rotation in check. At all. 🙂 I probably should, but I just ink my pens and then just use whatever color I feel like using at the time.
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How many do you have inked at a time? Is there such a thing for you as too many? Sometimes there are twenty to clean and that is when the three pen rotation looks very inviting. Very inviting!
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I have 22 inked at the moment, three freshly so. But I’d feel naked or something if I only carried three pens. Besides that’s when I’d want a different nib/ink combo than what I had with me
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Yikes! You carry all of your pens? That’s a big load. Two is my limit, but I also carry a mechanical pencil and a Sharpie Pen. A four pen case with a Rhodia pad completes my ensemble. Usually my bag contains a Midori as well so that’s enough weight for my shoulder and enough variety to keep me entertained and productive on short excursions. At an office for the day would change the equation in favor of more pens. Eight to ten in a cloth wrap provides ample variety and adds little weight to my bag, but I have done it. For 22 pens, I’d need a much larger bag. Yeah, much larger. 😉
The cleaning is what I find daunting. The trick is to swap inks as soon as the current color loses its thrill regardless of the number of pens in play. That’s where I fall short by thinking ink down the drain is a waste. Better to refill a pen with an ink that encourages use. Then put the less loved ink in a mister and decorate journal pages or use it to create doodles with a small brush. Good to the last drop!
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That’s a great idea of how to use your leftover ink. Me, I’m so indecisive I’d never figure out what pen to use. Best for me to just take them all and decide on the spur of the moment. I’m lazy, let’s face it. You are much more organized and motivated than I am is all;)
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Heh. I’ve cleaned 24 pens over the last two days. That’s sufficient motivation to be sure. 😀
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[…] Inkophile is down to three pens after a cleaning. […]
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