How Do You Display Your Inks?

[amberleadavis]

On 7/25/2020 at 4:09 PM, ParramattaPaul said:

Honestly, I don't display inks or much of anything else. There are two reasons, both of which are personal matters. Firstly, displays seemingly soon turn into clutter filling space, collecting dust, and needing tidying. The second is that I am am a somewhat private person, neither a braggard or ego invested, and having my possessions on display seems to be both bragging and egoistic.

 

But again, that is me personally, and no judgement is intended.

 

On 7/26/2020 at 2:43 AM, Astronymus said:

Without accusing you of being judgemental, I don't think everything put on display is a sign of bragging or egoistic. Sometimes one just wants to show pretty or otherwise interesting things to visitors. And some just like to look at it themselves.

 

I use them as an icebreaker.  I also give away pens and inks to visitors.  It's just part of my style.

[amberleadavis]

2 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

Crikey, that's a lot of ink  Very jealous - and of the space too. 

 

I actually try to hide my inks rather than display them! 

 

It's in my office.  I use it to talk with people. The hard part is organizing them and putting them away.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I had had them scattered around in a forest of pewter topped beer mugs in a glass doored bookcase. I could find them.

 

My bear died.

Civilization has arrived.

 

My wife retired, now they are in this nice box or another....labeled to which ink is in the boxes.

 

No more, I've not used that one in a while....it's more the big boys have their place, and the scattered small guys have to be hunted.

I find I come here to see which ink I should hunt for.

 

Don't come here often, in I'm down to seven pens inked, in order to use up old inks..........and if I come here soon I'll be back to 17 pens inked.

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

20 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

I had had them scattered around in a forest of pewter topped beer mugs in a glass doored bookcase. I could find them.

 

My bear died.

Civilization has arrived.

 

My wife retired, now they are in this nice box or another....labeled to which ink is in the boxes.

 

No more, I've not used that one in a while....it's more the big boys have their place, and the scattered small guys have to be hunted.

I find I come here to see which ink I should hunt for.

 

Don't come here often, in I'm down to seven pens inked, in order to use up old inks..........and if I come here soon I'll be back to 17 pens inked.

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the bear!

 

If you are down to 7 inked pens ... which inks?

[Bo Bo Olson]

Amber.... I will get you a re-supply of the once given papers....said that when I skinned my bear....only 5 1/2 feet from your address in my desk book 'case'. 

 

OK, just looked, no big enough envelopes....

Ah Ha, got to get another Oxford Optic 90g spiral notebook at my post office....oddly they have a supply of big envelopes.

 

In my 'new' Waterman Mann 200* F, MB Lavender Purple.

In my  'new' 149* F/M Herbin Le de Thee.

 

Someone dropped 149, the nib a small tad of a wave that prevented  nib alignment. , I had to burnish the nib with the blunt end of a drill; not having burnishing tools. Works fine now.

 

Still a big-fat pen; but not quite as Honking Big as I remember trying as a real noobie. In the mean while I'd slid into owning some large pens (being normally a vintage medium-small, standard or medium-large pen chaser & still.)

 

Those two pens* were in this 7 pen plastic bag  lot....(not counting the BP/RB C d'A)

All from @ '88-93 give or take.

Brown one is a Diplomat. Top black a W.Germany 800 OM. Both used and cleaned. Then the Mann200 and the big MB.

 

The green and silver one is a Pelikan Toledo Hunter B from '93, LE of 3,000. Not inked yet...working my way through the regular flex 5 pens.   My desert pen; in I never dreamed I'd own a Toledo..

.....149 either but that was 'just part of the plastic bag lot'. I was interested only in the Toledo and the W.Germany 800.

This and the above nibs are all regular flex.

 

The MB Noblise and the C dA are nails (one C d'A is for RB or BP). All are 18K. I doubt if I will ink them, I don't care much for nails.

The original owner had to have died @ '94. Then the widow just died.

There were two lots, in plastic bags. This one and another with two W.Germany 800, OF &OB. don't remember the other pens.

No pen boxes or I'd never won. Probably disguarded before the net & the used pen market.

(I tossed my P-75 box the day I bought it in '70/71..........had I looked in it, which I didn't in I knew how to fill it..........I'd not been so shocked 40 years later to find out it also took cartridges.)

 

All are 18K nibs.

Lamy Persona 18k nail,  CI B, Apache Sunset.

Green Marbled 14 K Pelikan Celebry F, Edelstein Aquamarine, cartridge.

Pelikan marbled brown 200, EF, 4001 Brilliant Green. I needed an editing pen....and my maxi-semi-flex Geha 790 EF....tends to write as and F.....still got slightly heavy hands, if I don't concentrate.

I liked the green-green 4001 green shading ink. I don't like the dull green non-shading ink replacement; everybody wanted. Luckily I got R&K Verdura...as my spare bottle of Brilliant green croaks. 

 

1.5 Lamy Joy, Edelstein Smoky Quartz.

 

Pelikan Silver Star P18/478. '63 and into the '70's. no markings to pen number, eyeball to a M. Is a Semi-Nail; which is one of the reasons I never chased that era. Edelstein Olivine cartridge.  Is a resent acquisition found in another auction house pen lot. In I don't care for nails and semi-nails it's not a pen I'd normally bought. 

 

I strive to buy in Auction houses, first I can check the nib, and normally only have dealers bidding instead of crazy fountain pen collectors. May not get the deal of a pen slipping low on the Bay, but a dealer has to make a profit and I don't.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

@Bo Bo Olson  WOW those are a nice set.

 

Not to worry about the paper, I am in no danger of being out of paper or being out ink. 

 

[Anne-Sophie]

Inks in use in the pantry, inks not in use in a plastic box.

 

Over the years, they have been kept as close as possible to a sink, that has a work surface, large enough for my refilling setup. 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

14 hours ago, Anne-Sophie said:

Inks in use in the pantry, inks not in use in a plastic box.

 

Over the years, they have been kept as close as possible to a sink, that has a work surface, large enough for my refilling setup. 

 

 

 

 

That seems quite reasonable.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I hate it....got to think which ink I want to use....before it was see the bottle or three hiding under my pewter beer mug jungle and ink.

Now I have an English Park of beer mugs with nothing 'hidden' ...and inks hidden in mostly a nice box, but a box where I got to read what in in this or that self of the box, or show off tin containers.

My next decision is what to ink my green Pelikan Hunter Toledo. I have 19 greenish inks..........I'm going to go away from green-green, so that's two out of the way.

That will drive me to Ink Reviews......Alone....

Ut oh, Bo Bo Alone in a sea of ink............What will happen?....

Only the Shadow Knows.

[inkstainedruth]

On 5/7/2021 at 6:02 PM, mizgeorge said:

Crikey, that's a lot of ink  Very jealous - and of the space too. 

 

I actually try to hide my inks rather than display them! 

When she first posted the pix a few years ago, I showed them to my husband, going, "See, I don't have THAT many inks..." -- and he looked at me and said "This is NOT a competition!"  And he did not appreciate it when I said "I think Sam Capote has even more...." 

But I agree with you.  I want my inks out of the light as much as possible -- I just don't have enough storage boxes to put them all in on the bookcases  which flank the antique Arts & Crafts style desk I bought in an antiques mall outside Indianapolis and we managed to shove into the back of the hatchback along with the luggage.  Once I finally get the knobs on the drawers of the dental cabinet I bought about a year ago for the pens with the first stimulus check, I can move the ink sample vial trays into the deeper drawers and free up another Ikea box.  And make the Philistine -- er, darling husband -- happy by getting a bunch of bottles and most of the sample vials out of the living room....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Well Ruth, we are after all, living in The Golden Age of Inks.

Future generations of proper houses will have to have an Ink Room to go along with the Winter Garden.

[inkstainedruth]

8 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Well Ruth, we are after all, living in The Golden Age of Inks.

Future generations of proper houses will have to have an Ink Room to go along with the Winter Garden.

Well, it's no worse than the "mansion" (literally) that my friend's parents bought and restored.  Her mom because a certified Interior Decorator just to "do the house justice", and they commissioned a handwoven rug to match the wallpaper in the formal dining room... ; of course her dad apparently told her "Linda, we could have sent you to Harvard on what we pay for heating bills every year!" (there were FOUR furnaces; and presumably a fifth one in the gatehouse at the bottom of the driveway).  The kitchen was the nearly twice the size of my living room (which is not small) and included a commercial size fridge AND a commercial size freezer; there was a center island that had the dishwasher and I think one of the sinks, plus the combo gas and electric range (6 burners total).  Then, off the kitchen was the "butler's pantry" which had a SECOND dishwasher in it (yes, her parents entertained a LOT).  But the thing I remember most of all the first time I got shown the house was that there was a metal-lined closet/storage room: THAT was to store the rugs in the summertime to keep the moths out....  

The house was on 6 acres on part of a ridge in really upscale neighborhood outside Pittsburgh.  The houses were designed so that they were far enough apart on the individual properties so it looked as if you owned the entire valley (I think the house was built in the 1920s -- my husband's and my first house was also built in the 1920s, and the footprint of OUR house was *maybe* the dimensions of the kitchen in that one (yeah, the ENTIRE house's footprint: living room, dining room, kitchen and the stairwell).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

What Ruth, You don't have an Ink Room, nor wet bar in the billiard room?

 

Actually I'm glad I don't have a wet bar, or I'd be just starting out, a noobie's noobie with pens and inks, with a ruined liver.

 

One of course starts the day with a properly made Bloody Mary with celery stalk.  After dinner one goes to snifter glass or on the rocks............in anything else is too complicated to mix....with one eye closed.

[inkstainedruth]

I don't have a wet bar (we did have a dry bar in the basement of the house we lived in up in Massachusetts, because the basement was mostly finished).  Nor a billiards room (I think we got rid of the ping pong table because we don't have room for it, either -- I was a bit sad about that because that was the table my brother and I played ping pong on as a kid in my parents' basement), and we don't even have room for an upright piano at the moment (we used to have one but it wasn't in good shape and we gave it away to a friend to use on a movie set years ago); there's now too many shelves in the dining room for one at the moment; and we didn't have room on the moving truck for the one we had in Massachusetts, which is a complete bummer because it was very nice looking -- that one got donated to the boarding school my husband's niece and nephew went to, and we actually got a tax write-off).  

There was a lovely playing baby grand (for FREE) at the place I got the dental cabinet from last year, and my husband was just drooling over it, and I'm standing there going "WHERE WOULD WE PUT IT?"  The ONLY place in the house where there MIGHT be room for a baby grand currently has a table in the way (with a lot of random papers on it, and piles of books -- and a bunch of boxes and storage tubs underneath it).  

Much as I love my house, and its lovely big windows (especially on the first floor), I don't have a lot available wall space -- especially because of the lovely big windows.  And after the moving guys dealt with getting the dental cabinet of the stairs, I shudder to think how they'd do turning the corners on the stairwell with even an upright piano....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[JakobS]

The majority of my inks are stored in their boxes (if they came in one) in a secretary desk, and maybe twenty or so are either stored in small plastic bin, or on a table in my living room. The secretary desk though small, actually holds about sixty inks, all my sealing wax and seals, most of my A5 paper, and Renew Point nibs for my Esterbrooks, and dip pens too. 

[Daneaxe]

For a long while, I had my ink in a cardboard box in which my 1st delivery of ink was shipped. This worked fine, until I simply outgrew it by a large margin...

(1st pic)

Then recently, I got a nice corner cabinet, sturdily built, with a glass door and built-in lamp.

(2nd pic)

You can now inspect my inks and see if any of them catch your fancy - anybody who comes for a visit gets free samples! Looking closely, you will also see my 'Bayeux Tapestry' pen holder displaying a few of my pens, the Pilot Metro in front.

(3rd pic)

 

Hope people get inspired to get organised, in a box or a cabinet, whatever suits you 😃

 

Stay safe,

Daneaxe

[NgunnawalJack]

Mine are thrown in a corner of an IKEA drawer next to my desk.

🤪

[NgunnawalJack]

On 9/1/2020 at 8:13 PM, ParramattaPaul said:

Egad! And here I thought I had too many inks at ten bottles and an assortment of cartridges.

Me too!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Counting little cartridge boxes, some 90 inks.............well the 7 are dip pen inks....do they count?

I can clearly remember thinking as a noobie that 10-12 pens and 10 inks would be enough.

When retired the word !@#$%^&*budget means regularity of buying is disrupted. So buying is done in waves.............other wise I'd have lots more inks....................................I have enough inks I don't use....or use enough.

A Senator...some 30 years old....looks like others from an earlier era. regular flex M. 

Pen and ink for a pound of coffee on the local free to bottle or this or pound of coffee network local drive to market.

With it.....my 'newest' ink. A blue-black.

When one buys enough old vintage or semi-vintage pens....old dried blue comes out like a cloud. BB comes out sort of stringy. There was but a small little faint line at the end of the barrel. Had I know it would take 15 minutes or longer to clean the pen, I'd just half filled the piston and wrote it dry.

Uhu was harder to clean out of that Senator than expected.

 

(

I'd not planned on doing a BB, (had somehow fallen into the Blue Trap,) and I need to get two more pens emptied (want a max of 7 to use up more ink) before I can think of loading this ink.

 

I do have a typical late '40's-early '50's Uhu Primus fountain pen.....hummm....got to now take a harder look at that old Uhu pen; which hadn't been on any list to use.

Now a lesser attractive black and gold Uhu Primus with school pen school number like a Geha...will get the call.  H. Wagner once owned it.

If I like the nib. It is an F that can pass for EF. More a high angle flatfooted tip than a stub. Sort of like a hard semi-flex....but all that don't count...the pen don't work!!!! At first I thought it had a blind cap...but I am spoiled, it had been such a long time since I had a pen that didn't work....

A pen may have had a shot cork, or gasket 1.0 but at least the piston moved; so I don't consider it shot. It was part of a live auction lot.....and the least part of it....a shoulder shrug pen......and now the pen shrugged back. Couldn't have broken up the live auction lot as was.

 

So much for plan A...............I would expect a BB from that era to be a dry ink, so a wet Pelikan might be the pen.

Then to see if the regular flex makes the ink shade, or if it's dry enough to tame a semi-flex...... Maybe I'll dip check and go with the better for the ink nib.

[amberleadavis]

The newest potions cabinet has been installed!