The price of fountain pen ink

I am comparing options for my fountain pens regarding ink- cartridges vs ink bottles (inkwells).

[@hiltonprice2625]

If you are travelling cartridges are much more convenient. Also you can refill the cartridges with an inexpensive syringe so you don’t need to purchase a converter.

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

For that I would need the syringe:)

[@Schein1307]

@@TheMeanderingGentleman which is very cheap, even a medical syringe with a blunt (or grinded) tip

[@jamesaritchie1]

I don't find cartridges any more convenient when traveling. I take a piston fill pen. Five of them, actually. I also find refilling cartridges pretty useless. Really, why? You can buy cartridges already filled. Even Iroshizuku inks now come in cartridges. Or just buy a converter, if the pen doesn't come with one, or buy a piston fill or vac fill pen.

[@erics8757]

@@jamesaritchie1 refilling cartridges is hardly useless.you may prefer not to do it, but you save a TON of money doing it, especially if you go through a lot of cartridges.

[@drakegrizzell4258]

Always good to see someone testing the common perception for themselves to see if it is accurate. Excellent video!

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Thanks!

[@cjmillsnun]

Not only is it cheaper to use bottled ink, but it is better for the environment too. Cartridges are designed to be one use disposible plastic. Something that doesn't biodegrade. Bottled ink is normally in a glass bottle. Glass is recyclable into more glass.

[@matthewross1756]

However, you can usually get far more color options from the various companies in bottles than cartridges.

[@stevehuffman7453]

Some pens come with a converter. Jinhao, for example, ALWAYS come with a converter. All can use a long or short "international" cartridge (which cost considerably less than Parker and other proprietary cartridges, by the way.) Most Jinhao pens (the 599 and others with a cut-out ink window are obvious exceptions) can be eye dropper fed, as well, tho you need to check the barrel for leakage at the finial first, and you MIGHT need to apply a little silicon grease to the barrel/section threads, or fit a rubber or silicon "O" ring onto the section. Also, refill when they start to burp ink from your hand heating and expanding the air in the barrel. FYI: The metal barrel Jinhao pens (X450; X750; and 95, for example) don't heat the air in the barrel as fast from the heat from your hand, as the plastic pens, like the 992's, X159, and others.) Some pens on the market today can ONLY use bottled ink. The HERO 329 and 616,, which have a Parler-esq Aerometric Fill and piston or vacuum fill, and pens designed to be eye dropper fill pens. Vintage lever fill pens (my personal favorite fill system) are also bottled ink only. As others have mentioned, you can clean and refill cartridges using an inexpensive syringe, with whatever ink brand and color ink you want. When traveling or at the job-site (other than a desk job) cartridges ARE more convenient. The main disadvantage with cartridges is a VERY limited choice of colors, and from my experience, NONE are waterproof, with very few being water resistant, if that is an issue for you. With bottled ink, you can get waterproof fountain pen inks in several colors. I like and use primarily the Noodlers Bulletproof/Archival inks. Tho some (but not all) deAtramantis inks are quite water resistant -- after they have dried for 30 to 45 minutes. The five Diamine inks I've tried are not water resistant at all, at all, and wash off the paper, even after drying a full 24 hours or longer. ☹️👎 BTW, NEVER use "India Ink"/Dip Pen Ink, or ink pad inks in a fountain pen! At a minimum they will clog it, and MAY be (likely will be) near impossible to clean so the pen works properly. They MAY also be too acidic or otherwise chemically incompatible with the barrel, section, and/or nib/feed housing, or even a plastic (as opposed to an Ebonite) feed.

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Thanks for the information!

[@illustratedjournal]

Excellent. These are questions that trouble us fountain pen aficionados. Thanks!

[@geoffberteau2847]

Dude the volume is written on the bottle

[@HyTeddyBear]

Diamine inks are the most affordable inks in small bottles ( 30ml for about 5€ and 10€ for 80 ml) you can refill the cartriges with a syringe to get extra value there are 1L pelikan bottle inks for 35€ in black and blue j. herbin 100ml and 500 ml bottles also are really affordable for black inks you can go for cheaper , for blue i'd get something nice if i'm tired of royal blue and then you can spend more to get one fancy ink to scribble and doodle like lamy azurite

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Thanks for the comment!

[@jamesaritchie1]

Where in the world can you find J. Herbin in such massive bottles?

[@cjmillsnun]

@@jamesaritchie1 I'd like to know that too. Normally I find Herbin in 50ml bottles.

[@Owner.of.omniverse]

in india cheapest ink cost 0.4$ for 60 ml . and good inks cost aroung 1$ for 60 ml

[@taccora]

You need converters or (if you like a larger ink capacity), you need an empty cartridge and a syringe. Either way, bottled inks are usually more cost effect, but not always convenient if you run out of ink while you're out and about.

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Yes, what I usually do is have a backup pen.

[@taccora]

@@TheMeanderingGentleman Me too. I keep at least 8 pens inked at a time.

[@misleadingstudios]

Good job man, keep up the good content

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Thanks, I will!

[@eleanor.shadow]

This is why I prefer demonstrator pens like the Pilot Custom Heritage 92 - no need for a converter, much larger ink capacity and I can see how much ink I’ve got left just by looking, since it’s transparent 😅

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

:)

[@terratenientesalgo2511]

in my case i still find the bottle more useful because i dont write a lot so i need to be able to choose how much ink i will put in my pen or put it back in the bottle if i know i will be away for a while so it doesnt dry, cartriges won´t give me that freedom so i stick with having a desk full of bottles.

[@channelsixtynine069]

With our Australian play-money, EVERYTHING is expensive. : / It is generally the case with consumables, that packaging is the most expensive part of the product, not the contents. This goes for construction glues and paints the same would apply to inks, anything that requires a package to contain the product.

[@LEVELGAZANOW]

Great.video however, I don’t purchase ink bottles because of price or the environment. Frankly, filling and cleaning a fountain pen is simply therapeutic for me. Similar to polishing dress shoes, shaving with a DE razor or cleaning my weapons, I simply enjoy the process.

[@MitchellJBridges]

It all depends on what ink you bought. Id say noohlers x feather is the best value and it works on the cheapest paper.

[@asakurachaos]

personally I love the Pilot inks like yama-budo and asa-gao but they are pretty expensive but the cheapest ink I have is from Daiso black ink that I got from Japan for 100 yen for 180 ml. I wasn't a big fountain pen lover back then so I only got 2 black ink bottles but still I use it the most because it is water-resistant(or waterproof) . As well if I know I will travel I try to fill out my pens if I want to take them so I will be sure I will have enough ink since they have their own cartridges . So a syringe is a excellent edition to have so the things won't get messy

[@Tailslol]

Serenity blue is generally cheaper in cartridge pack,the color is generally deeper too strangely.

[@tonyshaw13]

it is even better when the fountain pen you have, has a converter included with it

[@fsdfsdgvdfsgsdfg7075]

Excellent video.

[@PalaceMidasMusic]

That's very interesting if not very surprising to know. Thanks. I use a Parker fountain pen, I'm wondering are the convertors compatible with any fountain pen?

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Usually each brand has their own kind of converter.

[@eleanor.shadow]

Most brands will take what’s called a universal cartridge converter, but other brands (such as Parker) will have proprietary converters. Basically, if your pen takes universal cartridges, it’ll take a universal converter :)

[@autisticdrone.]

Try refilling your old cartridges if you don’t have ink converter.

[@thaisfrota]

btw, where you're buying the pelikan ink for 2 euros? In Portugal the bottle costs between 6 to 9 euros a bottle 😵‍💫

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Eastern Europe:)

[@Johan-vk5yd]

Charming video!

[@jacobling2119]

You can certainly refill cartridges with blunt tip syringe. Then you don't need to buy a converter, and the syringe can serve multiple different pens, and is useful in pen cleaning. Your thumb nail certainly looks click-baity.

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Sorry to disappoint.

[@jamesaritchie1]

You can, but there is no reason to do so.

[@strider04]

​@jamesaritchie1, that's not true. There are some good reasons to refill cartridges. 1 Some pens can't take converters, and 2 cartridges also tend to hold more ink than converters

[@NightPhoenixPress]

Yoooo! Is that the silver Jinhao fine point I see?

[@kunalroy1421]

In India We Get the Convertors for Parker for Free with The Pen...

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

:)

[@Cortesevasive]

You can literally google cartridge capacities and bottle capacities.

[@r.vincenta.9678]

Yes but that won't be as fun. Plus, personally validating the numbers you see online can be a worthy endeavor.

[@Cortesevasive]

@@r.vincenta.9678 thats fun. It is interesting. What inks do you use brother ?

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

Yes but I wanted to make my own measurements (and they were almost the same as online).

[@jamesaritchie1]

@@r.vincenta.9678 Not if you time is worth anything at all.

[@MuhammadRaza-kq8vm]

It's Price please

[@keithallen97]

Wow , never need to refill the converter in just a day 😮

[@duygubayram5485]

Well the expensive inks I buy are like 25 euros not 5 😅

[@TheMeanderingGentleman]

:)