Ink runs out eventually. It happens. What to do?

Pens taken apart to show cartridges and ink used

I draw a lot with fountain pens. I know some of my pens really well. I like the way they feel in my hand and how they draw or write. Others are newer for me. They were gifts or I just haven’t used them very much yet. They all need ink somehow though to work. There are disposable ink cartridges that are available for many pens, but I like to get refillable cartridges so I can try out different inks and because it’s more environmentally friendly.

Tonight I spent some time refilling six of my pens with five different inks and five different styles of ink cartridges. Some were easy to fill and made little mess. Others required more care with the addition of a syringe to suck up some ink from the bottle to then inject enough, but not too much into the cartridge and then reassemble. Wash the syringe in order to not contaminate the next jar of ink and repeat with filling the next cartridge.. Wash hands thoroughly at the end. Fortunately soap gets rid of most of the ink stains.

The next step is to take notes of what ink did I use with what pen. I usually do this with a picture and later transfer the details into a notebook. This is also a time to check if the ink is slowly smoothly or not. Sometimes a pen will be stubborn and that will require a full cleaning of all the parts. Most of these from tonight seem like they are working well. I’ll take apart the problem pen another day.

On to drawing.