Ink Bottle' Shapes

[AndreaDuni]

QUOTE (Paddler @ Apr 13 2007, 03:57 PM)

I haven't voted yet; I don't know what a "blind zone shape" is. However, I have found what I consider to be the ideal ink bottle shape. It is a Pelikan bottle shaped a bit like a stretched-out Z. It was made by Gunther Wagner and contains India ink for fountain pens ("shake well before using"). It contains 1 - 1/4 oz of ink. Whazzat - 38 ml? Anyway, you tip this bottle over onto its back and the ink glugs into the part of the bottle under the cap. You can't get the very last drop from a bottle because most pens lose suction when the ink level falls below the section grip. However, this bottle comes as close as any I've seen yet. Paddler

Blind zones shapes are that bottles with an uncovered angle also putting the pen and the nib in different positions u cannot reach the last little amount of ink. Tipical are Pelikan 30ml shapes, which seem to have no blind zones but if you try, you cannot fill the pen with the last amount because the nib cannot reach it.

 

Instead for the Pelikan India I have never seen it, and also I don't know anyone that can describe it so you can consider it as Cylindrical shape, also because as you said, you cannot use the last drops of ink.

[AndreaDuni]

mmm

no more people voting?

Maybe it is time to close the poll. So if I look at the results, I can say without any doubts that the best shape is the internal conical type, but I don't understand why producer don't use this kind or modifications of their own bottles placing a internal zone like in sheaffer's.

We all think that Noodler's has very good ink but bottles are very bad...

[Shangas]

I remember having this small bottle when I was a kid. Little ink-bottle. It had black ink in it, and it had a little black plastic cap. It was part of a SET, which came with a quill pen.

 

I remember I hated that bottle, because it was so-designed that it would be VERY easy to tip it over.

 

Consequently,

 

I like the Parker Quink bottles (Nice, fat bases. Hard to knock over), and the MB 'shoe' bottle. Again, nice and heavy, hard to knock over. And it has that little V-chamber to store ink in, when filling your pen. Very convenient...even if the shape is a bit weird....

[BillTheEditor]

mmm

no more people voting?

Maybe it is time to close the poll. So if I look at the results, I can say without any doubts that the best shape is the internal conical type, but I don't understand why producer don't use this kind or modifications of their own bottles placing a internal zone like in sheaffer's.

We all think that Noodler's has very good ink but bottles are very bad...

Don't close it until I've had a chance to tell you about what I found this weekend.

 

Sunday, I went to the Main Street Art Festival in Fort Worth, Texas. This is a huge event that takes up six city blocks in downtown Fort Worth and draws artists from around the world.

 

I happened to walk into the booth of Heinrich Andreas Schilling, a wood turner from Grunstadt, Germany. He had some unusual inkwells there in a design that was new to me. He was selling these as inkwells for dip pens, but they will work perfectly well for fountain pens.

 

The inkwells consisted of three parts: a wooden cap (with a plastic liner and screw threads), a wooden ring, and inside the wooden ring a glass bottle. The bottle is round, but the bottom has a conical extension in the center that is almost an inch deep and about a half-inch in diameter. This extension allows the user to completely immerse a nib in ink even when the bottle is almost empty. The wooden ring supports the bottle, since it would not stand up on its own.

 

If I can get a photo of this inkwell, I will post it later. Schilling has a web site (http://www.formdesign.de/x/schilling/), including a page titled, "fur den Schreibtisch" but there is no photo of the inkwell on it -- just pictures of his dip pen handles (which were very nice, only I didn't really need one) and a pen rest for the desktop. The inkwell I bought is made in black walnut (he had another done in pearwood) and has a tag on the bottom that identifies it as "NR 58." His contact information is on the web site, his English is better than my German (may not be saying much!), so if anyone is interested they could probably get in touch with him to ask about buying one of these.

Edited April 24, 2007 by BillTheEditor

[AndreaDuni]

Thank you very much for this information. It confirms my opinion that the perfect shape is the internal conical or internal inkwell one. I will contact Schilling as soon as possible and I will suggest him to join FPN. As someone suggested for a FPN LE pen than also a FPN LE inkwell could be a good idea. The pen was made in USA the inkwell could be made in EU.

[AndreaDuni]

No more people voting?

[Shangas]

HOOOOOOOOOOOLD THE BOAT!!! *runs frantically towards it*

 

*Jumps in and presses his choice-button*

 

Okay, I voted.

[Tricia]

I haven't voted only because the only thing I care about in an ink bottle is the ink inside.

 

I have one of the MB shoe bottles and it is cool, but since the Noodler's hold more I really like them.

 

Let me amend my first statement to add that I don't like caps that get stuck, but so far that's only happened with a metal cap on a old bottle of Skrip (in the squat cylinder, in case there's a different shape out there).

 

Oh, and a mild annoyance that the metal cap on the 'crystal' bottle that comes with J Herbin's Ink for Man isn't metal at all but silverized plastic.

[rattybad1]

You might want to change Levenger from the "other" category to the first category listed here (conical filling systems). Their bottles are oddly shaped but they are fitted with the conical filling system that puts them in the first category, not the last.

[AndreaDuni]

As I asked in post #12 of this thread, if someone can show me this famous internal ink well, I sure will put levenger ink bottle in the first category. I have searched for pics on internet but never found it, and in Italy levenger is not sold.

[rattybad1]

As I asked in post #12 of this thread, if someone can show me this famous internal ink well, I sure will put levenger ink bottle in the first category. I have searched for pics on internet but never found it, and in Italy levenger is not sold.

 

Pic's a little blurry and askew, but this is an empty bottle of Levenger Cobalt Blue with the internal well.

 

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m285/rattybad1/LiveJournal2007/levbot.jpg

[AndreaDuni]

This is definetely of the first category. Only one problem: I'm not able to edit the poll... So consider the Levenger in the first category.

[Paddler]

Here are pictures of the Pelikan bottle I mentioned in a post on page two. If you use a snorkel, you can suck up the last drop.

 

Paddler

 

[Col]

Another vote for the Mont Blanc bottle, which is combines excellent functionality with elegance. I'm not really qualified to pass judgment on the contents, since I have only one bottle (of Bordeaux). Having said that, I've had no flow problems with it in a range of pens, and I like the colour a lot.

 

Another interesting type, which I acquired from PenGallery recently, is a Pelikan 'Antique' bottle which incorporates a pen rest - see picture.

[AndreaDuni]

The pen rest is the fifth category and has only two votes because here we are voting the usefulness not the beauty. I like the pen rest, too. I have a Gunther Wagner edition. About Mont Blanc: I have only one colour, Bordeaux, as yours. Do you like it? I like the shadow feature, visible with broad and stub nibs more than medium and fine. I have some skips and flowing problems with some paper like amalfi paper.

[Col]

The pen rest is the fifth category

Ah, sorry - I missed that for some reason.

 

About Mont Blanc: I have only one colour, Bordeaux, as yours. Do you like it?

I do; but although I've tried it in a few different pens, I haven't tried it on a wide range of papers and so haven't encountered any skipping issues (yet).

[AndreaDuni]

Now that we are over 17000 members, I hope there is someone else interested in this poll.

Come on

I'm talking to you

Come on...

[Titivillus]

I voted Internal Conical Systems, but I agree with Kees. Those old Sheaffer bottles were the best.

 

I've got two for sale in the Marketplace right now!

 

K

 

[MrRogers]

I like Lamy bottles with the internal well and blotter paper dispenser, some design concept

 

MrR

[ZeleniLav]

I honestly don't know. I've never emptied a bottle using a pen itself. My favourite filling method are syringe-refilled cartridges, so I have no problems with there being too little ink in a bottle. And if I would happen reach the point when I couldn't get the remaining ink out, I'd simply dump it into another bottle of the same ink...