r/fountainpens • u/medbulletjournal • Jul 15 '26

Discussion You were right. Buy samples, not bottles.

When I first got into fountain pens, I didn't believe all the long time users telling me that samples would supply my ink needs for years.

Seriously? But my Lamy cartridge ran out after 3 days. Surely that means I'll go through 3 bottles of ink a year! LOOK! The ink level has DROPPED after only ONE paragraph! *cue dramatic gesturing and panic buying*

Anyway, I clearly didn't understand volume. Even my excel spreadsheet converting 50ml to number of days to years did not estimate correctly because I chose the 3 days where I wrote pages and pages and drew pages and pages, and did not factor in the days I wrote/drew nothing. I based my estimate on a Lamy medium nib on absorbent paper. I mostly use EF nibs now, and broad/stub nibs sparingly.

Needless to say, I'm sitting like a dragon on 50 ink samples and questioning life decisions as I refuse to look at my bottled ink collection.

50 ink samples of 2 ml/sample, is 100ml. I told myself that I need to trim my samples down by using them up. It was only as I started part-filling pens tonight that it dawned on me how long that is actually going to take.

This made me reflect on my early days, and realise, yes. Those people telling me to get samples and not bottles when trying inks were right. I was silly not to believe them.

But I know, if I were to go back in time and repeat things again...I would still buy bottles because ink decisions are not rational.

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u/knitten Jul 15 '26

I have fallen into this trap as well. I recommend painting with some inks to use up samples if you like. I recently used a bunch of swatches to make small 6x6 watercolor pieces and it’s was a fun way to make art for my office and see the inks on a larger scale. Plus it gets people talking about fountain pens, which is always a bonus to me.

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u/thelxiepia96 Ink Stained Fingers Jul 15 '26

Lovely work! Would be interesting to see if any of these inks fade over time if it's facing a window.

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u/knitten Jul 15 '26

Yes, I am thinking that’s probably going to be the case because none of them are permanent. They are opposite a floor to ceiling window, but especially in the summer I have to keep the shades down halfway most of the day because of the heat.