Most Durable Bottles

[RudraDev]

Hi, I'll be going to college in a few weeks and I want to keep using my fountain pens; but I don't want to bring the easy to break fragile glass bottles that most inks come in into the chaos of college life.

Is there a more durable way to store my ink?

[almoore]

A good glass bottle like a Diamine or a Pure Pens should be strong enough to withstand day to day life but if you don't want glass your other option is either a plastic container (such as a clinical universal sample container - these are generally inexpensive and leak proof) or a portable inkwell such as the Visconti.

 

My last thought would be a small medicine bottle, such as an eye dropper bottle. That way you get the best of both worlds by being able to fill either an eye dropper pen or a piston/converter pen from the same bottle.

 

Al

[lapis]

As re glass bottles -- incl. of course their whole lids -- I'd recommend Graf von Faber-Castell. Sure, they're expensive, because they each contain 75 ml. At present there are 18 colors. Otherwise, get the empty Nalgene bottles, e.g. 1 oz = 30 ml, 2 oz = 60 ml etc. Absolutely indestructable.

[uceroy]

I think most bottles would be fine, but I personally like the ones from the Pelikan 4001 range. Nice and compact and easy to fill from. You can wrap it in a cloth and then in a ziplock back to avoid the worst-case scenario. Another option is the 30 ml plastic Diamine bottles, but they are a pain to fill from.

There are plenty of small plastic containers available which would probably suit your needs as well 😊 Good luck and enjoy college!

 

PS. using pens with large capacity, like the TWSBI eco, would probably give you the option to leave bottles at the dorms, otherwise cartridges could help too.

[melro]

have you considered a traveling inkwell or the pineider pen filler ?

[wallylynn]

Nalgene bottle for dorm. 5ml sample vial for daily carry. (taped, bagged?) for a commercial ink bottle, I like the Lamy bottles best. Wide untippable base and filling well.

[XYZZY]

It wasn't clear if you have ink already and want better bottles to put it into, or if you're buying ink and want to make you choice based on the bottle it comes in. For the former: Nalgene bottles. They can be found in small sizes (1, 2, 4oz). I'm surprised at how high the prices are on Amazon. And more surprised that The Container Store has ok prices. You can probably find cheaper if you look around, but I'll let you do that.

[Paisa95]

Hi, the Robert Oster inks come in plastic bottles and they are terrific!! Easy to fill with, even the oversized piston pens.

 

F.

[sirgilbert357]

As re glass bottles -- incl. of course their whole lids -- I'd recommend Graf von Faber-Castell. Sure, they're expensive, because they each contain 75 ml. At present there are 18 colors. Otherwise, get the empty Nalgene bottles, e.g. 1 oz = 30 ml, 2 oz = 60 ml etc. Absolutely indestructable.

 

 

+1 for Nalgene bottles. If you don't want glass, you are wasting your time looking at anything else. Just get the Nalgene and be done with it.

[JakobS]

When I was in college, I used mostly the 80ml Diamine bottles, with a splattering of Pelikan, Private Reserve, Waterman, and Lamy for good measure. Never broke a bottle, and I had a good many nutters living about too! I was known to carry one of the 80ml Diamine bottles in my khaki pockets if I had a feeling a pen would run out of ink while I was on campus. I more often do that with KWZ bottles these days. If you're going to be in, might all well go all in......

Edited March 15, 2019 by JakobS

[Kalessin]

In forty years of writing with fountain pens and using glass ink bottles, I've never managed to break one (though I've never dropped one, either). Most ink bottles, especially from major pen companies, are quite thick for their small size.

[XYZZY]

In forty years of writing with fountain pens and using glass ink bottles, I've never managed to break one (though I've never dropped one, either). Most ink bottles, especially from major pen companies, are quite thick for their small size.

 

I've been meaning to circle back to that point, too. I/we did a lot of crazy stuff in college. I can't think of anything that we did that would make me worry about having glass ink bottles. I would think that if an ink bottle wont survive your college life then you need to leave behind your phone, tablet, computer, etc as well.

 

However I can imagine that shipping from home to college could be an issue. If you're moving your own stuff then it's not a big deal. If you're shipping (even if checked baggage), and if you're taking MANY bottles, then I could imagine that the shipping could become cost/space prohibitive. Whereas if all your ink was in Nalgege bottles then you just ensure the tops are on and then toss them unprotected into a shoebox and don't worry about handing them off to the freight handlers.

[pen2paper]

You've had multiple good responses (nalgene if you decant to plastic), however if you have older Mont Blanc glass bottled ink, these have been known to crack/leak under threads...burgundy for one.

[Houston]

You've had multiple good responses (nalgene if you decant to plastic), however if you have older Mont Blanc glass bottled ink, these have been known to crack/leak under threads...burgundy for one.

 

+1, and not just for MontBlank. The thing to worry about with glass bottles isn't so much the glass breaking. The weakest point on many (all?) ink bottles is the cap, or the join with the cap. The only two ink bottles I've had "break" in decades of use were actually cracked caps, while the bottles themselves remained perfectly sound.

 

Nalgene bottles are an outstanding solution. I like that some inks, like Blackstone, are actually sold in them.

[lapis]

Right! It's most often the caps which conk out. Sometimes it's the very cap itself (as said above) , where the top disk breaks off of the underpart with the threading, e.g. Noodler's, Pelikan, MB. But it's also common that the sealing disk inside sticks to the top rim of the glass and is just too hard and messy to pry off, e.g. Pelikan, MB....

[BaronWulfraed]

Can't help WRT campus -- my college was a daily commute

 

I used to think the old Sheaffer Skrip bottles (with the filling well) were sturdy... But the tin caps were trash.

 

Levenger's Erlenmeyer flask bottles appear fairly strong, with a better plastic cap (and inner fill well).

 

I tend to like bottles with filling wells. Bare jars are so... tedious. Especially when half empty and one has to find a support to tilt the bottle to get a deep enough pool of ink for the filling mechanism to draw from. Not everyone can reserve a Sheaffer Snorkel for those last drops of ink. The MontBlanc "boot" has a sort of filling well, but the rectangular bottle shape makes me suspect it might have a weak point at the heel/sole if dropped.

[1nkulus]

No issues with Noodlers in the last decade, they have traveled all over.

 

You should be able to find a decent PET bottle in India.

Besides, it is college not an ink bottle throwing fest. It is more likely to get nicked than broken.

 

OTOH, you can always buy ink in the local city/town unless the college is off the beaten track.

What ink/brands do you use?

Edited March 23, 2019 by 1nkulus

[Intensity]

Lamy bottles are thick and quite stable.

[RudraDev]

No issues with Noodlers in the last decade, they have traveled all over.

 

You should be able to find a decent PET bottle in India.

Besides, it is college not an ink bottle throwing fest. It is more likely to get nicked than broken.

 

OTOH, you can always buy ink in the local city/town unless the college is off the beaten track.

What ink/brands do you use?

I mostly use Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Budo and Diamine Majestic Blue, but I have 10 other inks that I use at least a few days every week. I'm a student, and I have to write a lot. My bottle of Yama-Budo is half empty from one month of use.

[1nkulus]

I mostly use Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Budo and Diamine Majestic Blue, but I have 10 other inks that I use at least a few days every week. I'm a student, and I have to write a lot. My bottle of Yama-Budo is half empty from one month of use.

 

If you have access to Diamine, I would stick with it. The bottles are robust (both 30 and 80ml), plenty of colours to choose and it is VFM.

You can also try the Pelham Blue from the new Gibson range.

 

OTOH, how much do the Diamine and Pelikan inks cost in India?