It would be good to compare fountain pens on the basis of the number of words they could write, but any fountain pen nib can be adjusted for stingy or generous ink flow, so any ranking of pens in these terms is meaningless. The smoothness and absorbency of the paper also has a large effect upon the number of words that can be written.
During my repair work and testing prior to return, I have monitored ink capacity for a number of pens. This has been done with water fill and the volume quoted is the maximum in ml. that can be extracted from the full pen. Measurements were made with a fine-needled medical syringe graduated in 0.02ml intervals. To facilitate comparison with previously published data on ink capacities, the conversion factor from ml to drops is between 20 and 25, bearing in mind that drop volume is dependent on the surface tension of the ink and on the geometry of the nib.
It is regrettable that many modern pens hold so little ink in comparison with their ancestors and thereby compare unfavourably with ball-point rivals in their ability to write for long periods without recharge.
