Noodler's Inkwell Bottle, Empty

[SueEllen]

I bought the TWSBI inkwell bottle-- beautiful. In fact, I bought two, so now I want a Diamond Pen so I can use that little tube-dealie designed just for the TWSBI pens. In my opinion, these gorgeous TWSBI Bottles are last-forever, leave-them-for-your-grandchildren-in-the-will kind of bottles. (Specifically mention them in the will, or the grandchildren will fight over them.)

 

However, I'd like several more empty bottles for my other inks (all Noodler's) and my family would not be happy if I bought any more $30 bottles before we fix the shower, replace the dishwasher, or any other expense on the long list of repair/replacements queue.

 

What if Nathan Tardiff made an inexpensive inkwell bottle? I mean, as a separate purchase, empty. Or offered a sold-separately little cone-well that could fit into the bottles currently sold?

 

Noodler's makes (wow!) fountain pens now, wouldn't that be a great next step?

 

I realize other ink bottles can be emptied and used, but I only use Noodler's inks and couldn't bear to dump out a full bottle of Levenger's just for the bottle. (I do shop around for empties.)

 

Maybe someone else has talked about this and I can't find the thread.

Or maybe Noodler's Headquarters already has a pile of petitions about this very idea.

 

What is the best way to plead for such a product?

Does anyone else think this is something they would buy?

[spiv]

It might be something I might buy...

but it's something Mr. Tardiff will likely never make.

Noodler's, to me, seems like a function over form type of place. Anything that ADDS to the price is to be avoided. You pay for Ink not glass. A pen, not gold trim.

I think an expensive container goes against the buisness model as I see it*

 

 

*and I may well be wrong.

[Bo Bo Olson]

There is a world of vintage and antique ink wells.

 

I recommend Twisbi and any other twist on cap ink wells, for these modern times.

 

We all have too many inks. The flip top ink wells will dry out, unless you are a ink limited write a lot type.

 

C/A, Pelikan Edelstein and some Japanese make fancy ink bottles.

MB is almost or perhaps is fancy too. Well worth saving even the older bottles for other folks ink.

Lamy is very nice.

 

I do find Waterman and regular Pelikan to be very functional bottles. Sigh, what am I going to do with my little Pelikan Wagner bottle with the built in pen rest?

 

I think one should bite the bullet and buy a set of Twisbi ink wells. One every Christmas or birthday.

 

What a Great Fathers day gift....exchange the tie for money and buy an ink well.

[SueEllen]

It might be something I might buy...

but it's something Mr. Tardiff will likely never make.

Noodler's, to me, seems like a function over form type of place. Anything that ADDS to the price is to be avoided. You pay for Ink not glass. A pen, not gold trim.

I think an expensive container goes against the buisness model as I see it*

 

 

*and I may well be wrong.

 

That's why I was picturing it as sold separately from the Ink-- I love that Noodler's is sold in the big bargain, full-to-the-top bottles. But! If someone could design for him some kind of little cone inkwell insert for the bottles that could be separately purchased-- I would buy a six-pack. Or a Catfish-Logo empty inkwell-type bottle for decanting the last bit of ink out of the big bottle (paper label logo to save expense?). Not a pricey item; as you say, functional and simple is a wonderful business model, indeed. The cone insert might be more feasible as a sold-separately item...

 

I love my TWSBI bottles, but... cheaper and simpler would be a nice addition, if it could be done. TWSBI is for a different market than what I'm picturing-- I would want both. Two TWSBI for my desk, a dozen Noodler inserts/bottles for my drawer.

[Erasmus]

 

 

That's why I was picturing it as sold separately from the Ink-- I love that Noodler's is sold in the big bargain, full-to-the-top bottles. But! If someone could design for him some kind of little cone inkwell insert for the bottles that could be separately purchased-- I would buy a six-pack. Or a Catfish-Logo empty inkwell-type bottle for decanting the last bit of ink out of the big bottle (paper label logo to save expense?). Not a pricey item; as you say, functional and simple is a wonderful business model, indeed. The cone insert might be more feasible as a sold-separately item...

 

I love my TWSBI bottles, but... cheaper and simpler would be a nice addition, if it could be done. TWSBI is for a different market than what I'm picturing-- I would want both. Two TWSBI for my desk, a dozen Noodler inserts/bottles for my drawer.

 

I'm with you , Sue. I use Nooder's almost excusively. I haven't run low enough in my bottles for this to be a problem yet, but I will, and I can't spend thirty dollars for each bottle. As nice as TWSBIs are, there's no point in me even getting one. I need Mr. Noodler to engineer a good, cheap solution.

[tfwall]

but it's something Mr. Tardiff will likely never make.

Noodler's, to me, seems like a function over form type of place. Anything that ADDS to the price is to be avoided. You pay for Ink not glass. A pen, not gold trim.

I think an expensive container goes against the buisness model as I see it*

 

This.

[Bo Bo Olson]

""""I love my TWSBI bottles, but... cheaper and simpler would be a nice addition, if it could be done. TWSBI is for a different market than what I'm picturing-- I would want both. Two TWSBI for my desk, a dozen Noodler inserts/bottles for my drawer.""""

 

MB bottles, Pelikan, Lamy and Waterman bottles...cheap and good bottles. Soak the paper off.

Can't get cheaper.

 

Speedy spent a lot of time with us here, running ideas through.

Then Speedy rejected substandard bottles and delayed

issue.

 

You can eat at generic McDonnalds or you can go to Five Guys for a real hamburger.

 

Speedy's bottle/wells are actually relitively cheap for the quality.

 

Visconti went from glass to plastic. Perhaps you can lay your hands on some plastic Visconti bottles.

 

Once a month like going to church, I spend half a day looking at US, English and German Ebay for ink wells; and I know what the better ones and ones I can afford go for.

 

 

Speedy has a good well made, well thought out multi method of use product at a fair price. $25 for a heirloom product is dammed find for today.

 

You buy cheap all you can get is cheap. Of course you can always put your Noodlers ink in a Pelikan and a Waterman bottle . Both are more formed for little ink loading than a Noodler bottle.

Edited November 3, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[JimB]

 

C/A, Pelikan Edelstein and some Japanese make fancy ink bottles.

MB is almost or perhaps is fancy too. Well worth saving even the older bottles for other folks ink.

Lamy is very nice.

 

Namiki, Montblanc and Sailor ink bottles are great. I actually considered buying a couple of Namiki inks just for the bottles, and tossing the ink. But that Blue is too good to toss! Still, for 1 TWSBI inkwell you could get 2 full bottles of Namiki, or maybe of 2 of the Sailor. Montblanc, maybe 1.5

Edited November 3, 2011 by januaryman

[AtomicLeo]

Actually what I would like to see a travelling ink well. The only modern travelling ink well is the Visconti and it's $80. I'd spend $25-$40 for a well made traveling ink well.

[Bo Bo Olson]

You are mistaking ink bottles for ink wells.

Like mistaking roller balls for fountain pens.

 

I got a few more double inkwells and single inkwells too.

€ 4

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/SAM_0436.jpg

 

€ 70 softball sized with pressure sealing. 50 ml with the insert, 70 ml with out it.

Too big for today's many inks.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMAG0218.jpg

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMAG0219.jpg

 

€ 30-40

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm300/BoBoOlson/IMAG0085.jpg

 

I have some regular flip tops too but I got rid of the pictures.

 

The screw top ones I do have are mini-inkwells.

 

 

A good ink well today, is a screw top one; due to too many inks.

High quality aluminum, double cap, two filling systems, six colors; very good glass...and it don't mean just one for each color, if one used one's imagination; a red for a red brown, a green for a green brown, along with an other color for browns if you happen to be having a brown moment.

 

It is a good ink well. Some ink companies make good ink well bottles. It's been a while since Parker, Sheaffer and Esterbrook made desk ink wells.

 

If Speedy was in the end sell ink, some one would complain the bottles are too expensive.

 

Yes, you should complain if hung with a new rope. A proper rope should be 5 years old and properly stretched out so it is slack.

 

I think it's a very nice set of ink wells.

Yep back when ink wells were in...they too were sold EMPTY.

 

A Victorian era stagecoach proof traveling ink well is something I want too. I've seen them go past me. :embarrassed_smile:

Edited November 3, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[RGH]

You can buy empty, used ink bottles (that are a marginally better than Noodler's) from the Goulets'.

 

Cheap for some nice bottles!

 

http://www.gouletpens.com/Empty_Ink_Bottles_s/921.htm

 

With the ink drop they must have dozens available a month. Figure out what style you like best and go for it.

 

I suspect that in terms of filling you pen, the Iroshizuki are the best (and obviously the most expensive!) because they have the little dip in the middle, for the last bit of ink.

[spiv]

because they have the little dip in the middle, for the last bit of ink.

 

AKA a sediment collector

[Tumbleweedtoo]

Two reasons I like the new TWSBI bottles. I have a problem putting my pen too deeply into a tall bottle and withdrawing a messy pen that is a problem to clean. TWSBI bottle with the cone, problem solved. With some of my larger Pelikan pens, some of my ink bottles are too shallow so the pen will not draw the ink. With the taller TWSBI bottle, problem solved. To me, these beautiful bottles are a great value for the problems they solve and are well worth the price. Speedy put a lot of thought into them and may have solved some problems he did not even think about at the time. I like the Noodler's bottles, but I tend to put the pen too deeply into their bottles. I can, however, put the Noodler's ink into a TWSBI bottle.

 

All the best,

T

[Farace]

I'd been thinking it might be worthwhile looking for a nice plastic cap for old Skrip bottles with the built-in well. They're not bad bottles, aside from the rusty tin caps. I must have at least two or three of them.

[SueEllen]

I am concerned that I haven't expressed myself well.

 

Reservoir bottle. That's what a meant. Not an inkwell bottle. I do not want an inkwell.

 

I would never disrespect the TWSBI bottle. I have two. I love them. I put my two most-used inks, Noodler's Black and Legal Lapis, in the two TWSBI bottles.

 

I have 6 Noodler's inks and buy those only. Therefore, I have 4 additional bottles that "need" reservoirs. Refilling a pen is much easier when the bottle has a reservoir at the top (a reservoir big enough for large nibs).

 

I would not expect Noodler's Inks to be sold in more expensive bottles with a reservoir. I would not want that. Noodler's Ink is sold perfectly as it is: just Ink.

 

I was hoping that a separate product-- a reservoir bottle with one of those cone inserts, or just cone inserts that can fit the current bottles-- could be devised.

 

The separate product I envision, an empty reservoir bottle or a multi-pack of cone inserts, would not compete with the absolutely perfect TWSBI bottle.

 

TWSBI bottles are perfect. Designed and manufactured with love and the full cooperation of the fountain-pen community, they are fully functional art. I have spent $60 on two. I do not think they are expensive for what they are. They are a wise purchase and well-priced, but if I want a reservoir bottles at $25 each, I would still need an additional $100 to have handy-dandy reservoir bottles for my other Noodler's inks. (And then 4 TSWBI bottles would be kept in a drawer.)

 

There is nothing wrong with having something beautiful and practical as well as something that is practical only. I have a gorgeous leather coat as well as a not-so-lovely cloth coat. My cloth coat is well made. It is not a cheapie version of my leather coat. The two coats serve different purposes, even though they have the same function. So it is that I might want a beautiful TWSBI reservoir bottle as well as a clean, well-made, inexpensive reservoir bottle.

 

I know of used bottles out there. I scan the ones available regularly. As some of you have said, each has a fault: a reservoir too shallow, a rusty lid, or unstable when you get to the last drop. These will do if that's all there is-- I'll find the one that is closest to my needs and settle.

 

But if there were to be a functional only, sold-separately empty reservoir bottle that is perfectly un-beautiful; has a tight screw-on, non-rusting cap, and a single fill-method only because for most of us that's all we need, wouldn't Nathan Tardiff be the perfect person to design/sell it?

 

Anyway-- if there was such a thing, I would buy four to use with my other less-used Noodler's colors that I keep in the drawer.

 

I was hoping that hundreds of you would say, "Yes, me too!" and we would demonstrate ourselves as a market for un-lovely, inexpensive, practical-only bottle for the drawer in addition to high-end art, kept for generations, on-top-of-the-desk bottles.

 

I'm sorry if I made anyone think I was disrespectful, or lazy for not looking at existing possibilities. And I'm sorry for the REALLY long post.

[Erasmus]

Me too, me too! http://http://www.emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/smileys/cheerleader2-smiley.gif Come on, Noodler's!

[RGH]

It almost sounds to me like you'd like Noodler's (or someone else?) to make a plastic insert (like TWSBI) that would fit in most bottles - or at least in Noodler's, or an easily available 'other' bottle. That would at least 'help' the problem if not totally solve it.

 

That certainly doesn't sound too much against Nathan's ethos ...?

 

 

 

I am concerned that I haven't expressed myself well.

 

Reservoir bottle. That's what a meant. Not an inkwell bottle. I do not want an inkwell.

 

I would never disrespect the TWSBI bottle. I have two. I love them. I put my two most-used inks, Noodler's Black and Legal Lapis, in the two TWSBI bottles.

 

I have 6 Noodler's inks and buy those only. Therefore, I have 4 additional bottles that "need" reservoirs. Refilling a pen is much easier when the bottle has a reservoir at the top (a reservoir big enough for large nibs).

 

I would not expect Noodler's Inks to be sold in more expensive bottles with a reservoir. I would not want that. Noodler's Ink is sold perfectly as it is: just Ink.

 

I was hoping that a separate product-- a reservoir bottle with one of those cone inserts, or just cone inserts that can fit the current bottles-- could be devised.

 

The separate product I envision, an empty reservoir bottle or a multi-pack of cone inserts, would not compete with the absolutely perfect TWSBI bottle.

 

TWSBI bottles are perfect. Designed and manufactured with love and the full cooperation of the fountain-pen community, they are fully functional art. I have spent $60 on two. I do not think they are expensive for what they are. They are a wise purchase and well-priced, but if I want a reservoir bottles at $25 each, I would still need an additional $100 to have handy-dandy reservoir bottles for my other Noodler's inks. (And then 4 TSWBI bottles would be kept in a drawer.)

 

There is nothing wrong with having something beautiful and practical as well as something that is practical only. I have a gorgeous leather coat as well as a not-so-lovely cloth coat. My cloth coat is well made. It is not a cheapie version of my leather coat. The two coats serve different purposes, even though they have the same function. So it is that I might want a beautiful TWSBI reservoir bottle as well as a clean, well-made, inexpensive reservoir bottle.

 

I know of used bottles out there. I scan the ones available regularly. As some of you have said, each has a fault: a reservoir too shallow, a rusty lid, or unstable when you get to the last drop. These will do if that's all there is-- I'll find the one that is closest to my needs and settle.

 

But if there were to be a functional only, sold-separately empty reservoir bottle that is perfectly un-beautiful; has a tight screw-on, non-rusting cap, and a single fill-method only because for most of us that's all we need, wouldn't Nathan Tardiff be the perfect person to design/sell it?

 

Anyway-- if there was such a thing, I would buy four to use with my other less-used Noodler's colors that I keep in the drawer.

 

I was hoping that hundreds of you would say, "Yes, me too!" and we would demonstrate ourselves as a market for un-lovely, inexpensive, practical-only bottle for the drawer in addition to high-end art, kept for generations, on-top-of-the-desk bottles.

 

I'm sorry if I made anyone think I was disrespectful, or lazy for not looking at existing possibilities. And I'm sorry for the REALLY long post.

[jaqcp]

I bought the TWSBI inkwell bottle-- beautiful. In fact, I bought two, so now I want a Diamond Pen so I can use that little tube-dealie designed just for the TWSBI pens. In my opinion, these gorgeous TWSBI Bottles are last-forever, leave-them-for-your-grandchildren-in-the-will kind of bottles. (Specifically mention them in the will, or the grandchildren will fight over them.)

 

However, I'd like several more empty bottles for my other inks (all Noodler's) and my family would not be happy if I bought any more $30 bottles before we fix the shower, replace the dishwasher, or any other expense on the long list of repair/replacements queue.

 

What if Nathan Tardiff made an inexpensive inkwell bottle? I mean, as a separate purchase, empty. Or offered a sold-separately little cone-well that could fit into the bottles currently sold?

 

Noodler's makes (wow!) fountain pens now, wouldn't that be a great next step?

 

I realize other ink bottles can be emptied and used, but I only use Noodler's inks and couldn't bear to dump out a full bottle of Levenger's just for the bottle. (I do shop around for empties.)

 

Maybe someone else has talked about this and I can't find the thread.

Or maybe Noodler's Headquarters already has a pile of petitions about this very idea.

 

What is the best way to plead for such a product?

Does anyone else think this is something they would buy?

 

I have 6 glass Sheaffer Skrip bottles (4x4oz and 2x2oz, some with ink inside) that have the internal "well" to trap some ink for easier filling that I could ship for $45 if you are interested. They are presently listed in the Classified section of you want to see pics.

 

 

 

[SueEllen]

Yes! Exactly. Thank you for saying it better. (and far more briefly).

[SueEllen]

Oops! I hit "fast reply" which has me responding to the wrong post. Thank you, RGH, for your succinct statement of my needs.

 

And thank you, JAQCP, for pointing out the listing of the Sheaffer bottles-- I have one, but the reservoir is too shallow for my pen. (But aren't those just the coolest things?)