Do you have a minimum ink capacity requirement?

[Pixlr]

I can't ever bring myself to buy a pen with under a millimeter of ink capacity. It's what keeps me from buying a Pro Gear. That Sailor nib and body is gorgeous but... Half a milliliter? I can't do it.

Do you find your options limited because of this barrier?

[VertOlive]

I'm such an Ink Gadabout, I almost never fill any pen because I'll want to try another ink in it well before I use the entire pen capacity. So no problem with even the teeniest ink volume for me.

[snedwos]

It has never bothered me. I like self-filling pens for the elegance rather than the capacity. In fact, I almost find high capacity annoying, since I don't get to change colour as often. And I have enough pens inked and on me at a time, that running out is not really a concern.

Maybe you should sit down and assess why ink capacity matters to you. Is running out of ink something that would cause you trouble? Is it just an arbitrary criterion that just sounds important, and therefore must be? I think that unless you're going to be sitting down to long writing sessions without access to an ink bottle, ink capacity isn't really a practical concern. I definitely don't think you should allow it to deprive you of owning and using a really nice pen (I have no experience of Sailor pens, btw. The inks, on the other hand... :drool: ).

Maybe you should go for the Realo version.

[caribbean_skye]

minimum ink capacity would be enough ink to fill a page. i get sick of ink colours easily so i rarely fill up completely.

[jar]

Do I find my optoions limited based on how much ink a pen can hold? Of course not.

[mhosea]

Nope. Agree with the previous four responses. I have, OTOH, been reluctant to buy a pen because the ink capacity was far too much in conjunction with the pen being hard to clean (it's less than ideal to have a large ink chamber and only a little ink in it). It wouldn't stop me if I liked the pen's ergonomics, but a minimum capacity? Not yet.

BTW, if you fill an empty (full-size) Sailor Pro-Gear using the converter, you can suck up about 0.8ml of ink. Subtract the ink you will wick out of the feed after filling, and I expect the effective capacity is something like 0.7ml, probably a little more. If you primed the feed and then put in a refilled Sailor cartridge, effective capacity would be over 1ml, I am sure.

[gbryal]

Heh. Nothing makes me happier than running out of ink. It's the only think I dislike about my Vac-700s. They hold a lot of ink, and I don't know of a way to make them drink less than a giant gulp when filling (it just goes THOOMP and it's full).

Running out of ink means I can either clean and store my pen or clean and change inks. I can't bring myself to throw out good ink and I think it's unhygienic to dump it back in the bottle.

I suppose there is a minimum amount if I was really doing serious writing, like more than a wordy letter to someone, but I haven't run into it yet, even with my smallest converter.

[Laura N]

I can't ever bring myself to buy a pen with under a millimeter of ink capacity. It's what keeps me from buying a Pro Gear. That Sailor nib and body is gorgeous but... Half a milliliter? I can't do it.

Do you find your options limited because of this barrier?

I'm the opposite, if anything. I have one pen, a Pilot Custom 823 with a fine nib, that I absolutely love writing with, yet I am considering selling it just because its ink capacity is so huge. I'm an ink person, so I like to rotate.

Since Sailor nibs run fine, no matter what Sailor nib I use, even a broad, I find a fill lasts a long time (or, with a Sailor fine, practically forever).

Maybe one day you can experiment with a c/c pen, and see if in practice it's really such a problem. You can always carry two pens or fill your pen just before leaving the house. It seems a shame to "limit your options" if you don't want to.

[Pixlr]

I guess the main thing that makes me different from (apparently) all of you is that I almost never change ink color. I like my dark purple Yama-budo, no matter how many other inks I try. It is still my go-to.

And the reason I'm so bent on having high capacity is not because I don't have access to refill in time, but simply because I'm a student and I don't like to refill as often as I had to. In my Metropolitan, I wrote enough to have to refill more than once per week and that was just annoying for me.

[Quantum Sailor]

I don't mind ink capacity I mind filling system more. If I'm paying a significant amount of money for a pen I don't like it being a converter. I don't mind filling up a pen. I don't know that I've actually drained my pens before changing ink more than a handful of times.

[mhosea]

I guess the main thing that makes me different from (apparently) all of you is that I almost never change ink color.
[snip]
In my Metropolitan, I wrote enough to have to refill more than once per week and that was just annoying for me.

Well, that, and I have about 12 pens inked at any one time and never carry the same one two days in a row. This is not one of those things where you should be expecting a lot of people to feel the same, rather one of those things where you have to follow your own instincts, and to hell with what everyone else wants...figuratively speaking, of course.

Some good pens for you would be a Pilot Custom 823 and pretty much any bulb filler, e.g.

http://www.indy-pen-dance.com/Gate-City-New-Postal.html

The price on the New-Postal seems a little steep to me, BTW.

[rdcalhoon]

I think the most times I have refilled a pen with the same ink is probably three times. I like to change inks. I'm more concerned about ease of cleaning than capacity.

[Laura N]

... This is not one of those things where you should be expecting a lot of people to feel the same, rather one of those things where you have to follow your own instincts, and to hell with what everyone else wants...figuratively speaking, of course. ....

Excellent advice.

[Tony Rex]

I can't ever bring myself to buy a pen with under a millimeter of ink capacity. It's what keeps me from buying a Pro Gear. That Sailor nib and body is gorgeous but... Half a milliliter? I can't do it.

Pilot Custom 912. CON-70. Pro Gear styling. Silver furniture (less temptation to thieves at uni). Very reasonably priced at around $175 new.

[tinysnail]

It depends on what I'm using the pen for. My school pens are a Safari, an Al-Star, and a Metropolitan. I rotate their use but still have to refill two of them every day. Since they're worky pens and I use the same inks in them, I would like a larger capacity for sure! I wish they were a lot better in that department.

However, my "fun" pens that I use for correspondence or doodling or scrap work or journaling or WHATEVER are the pens I like to change inks in often. Those don't have to have gargantuan ink capacities since 1. I want to switch inks often and 2. if I run out of ink, it's not urgent since it's not as if I'm in the middle of class or anything. Funny enough, my pens with bigger capacity have ended up in this category for whatever reason. Looks like I need to straighten out my system!

[ac12]

I guess the main thing that makes me different from (apparently) all of you is that I almost never change ink color. I like my dark purple Yama-budo, no matter how many other inks I try. It is still my go-to.

And the reason I'm so bent on having high capacity is not because I don't have access to refill in time, but simply because I'm a student and I don't like to refill as often as I had to. In my Metropolitan, I wrote enough to have to refill more than once per week and that was just annoying for me.

If you use a fountain pen, YOU need to adapt to it.
I do not understand your adverse feeling to refilling a pen more than once a week.
Just make it a routine, 2 times a week, refill on Sun and Wed night. Once it is a routine, it won't bother you as much.

When I was in college, when my cartridge fountain pen ran dry, I just swapped in a new cartridge. I did not complain that a cartridge would not last a whole week.
And my Parker 51 at home got refilled when it ran dry. No complaints about how long or short it lasted.
And in college, I used black ink for all 7 years.

[Jon Szanto]

I'm an ink person, so I like to rotate.

[mhosea]

I'm an ink person, so I like to rotate.

Is she just going to keep doing that all night?

[Jon Szanto]

I'm an ink person, so I like to rotate.

Is she just going to keep doing that all night?

Crack.

[hsianloon]

Used to bother me loads as I write the whole day long at work, and am constantly on the move.

Just started bringing two pens , and now I even have a Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Black....ah that matte black and ninja like nib...