Truly, the most economical ink option

[cashew]

Pelikan 4001 Bottled Ink, Brilliant Black, 1L, as of writing, at $55.08.

That works out to be 0.5 cents/mL of ink. In other words, $0.005/mL. Given that 1mL can give you anywhere between 10-20 pages depending on nib width, that's a lot of writing. I think that's honestly an entire lifetime's supply of ink.

And just when I thought that's as cheap as ink can go, China one ups them with $10/L bottles. How is this even possible? 🤯 Anyway, my point is, fountain pens are an economical alternative to disposable pens. I don't want to hear this nonsense about how fountain pens are an expensive hobby.

Comments

[sailorstarsun]

I like pencils. ^^

But when I do use pens, I use FriXion erasable pens, of which the ink is stupidly expensive. I can go through an ink cartridge in a month, and a new one is something like ￥120. But, I like the variety of colors, and, most importantly, that they're erasable, since I make so many mistakes when I write.

[cashew]

Pencils are great! :p I like pencils for sketching, as lead lends itself to smudging and shading much better than ink. The pencil people also have very deeply held beliefs about which pencils are best. Blackwing seem to be the one that everyone considers the best, although I've had a chance to try one and didn't really understand the love for it. But, surely hundreds of thousands of people can't be wrong when picking the best candidate, right? (*sweats in Amurica*)

FiXion are awesome. They're so awesome that Uni-Ball has copied the idea with their own line of erasable pens. So, hopefully the competition means the ink prices come down soon. 🤞

[sailorstarsun]

I don't draw or sketch at all, so the smudginess or softness of pencils doesn't mean much to me. ^^ I had to look up what a Blackwing pencil was. Looked pretty normal, cool eraser that can be changed. But because I do so much writing, any pencil that has to be sharpened just isn't for me. I exclusively use mechanical pencils, and once I discovered Kuru Toga pencils, I never looked back. ^_^ And I fill my fancy mechanical pencil with the cheapest ￥100 leads I can find.

[cashew]

Kuru Toga pencils are an engineering marvel. I heard about them like...five years ago or so. There were so many stupid people who scoffed at the idea of a pencil that rotates the lead for you and it made me backpedal right out of the pencil community. How can you not realize the amazing design of a pencil that rotates for you? How?!

I personally prefer writing in ink because I like the hand feel. As such, my pencils don't get much of a work out anymore. (Not to mention ink-only forms and stuff, so not a lot of use for pencils in non-hobby settings.) I really should take up more drawing to use up all the lead I've stored...