Pen Storage Ideas

[Paul-in-SF]

100 yen option from Seria:

 

 

More on this, please? Is there a website? Might they ship overseas? Thanks.

[Paul-in-SF]

MKE, I tried to quote two of your posts to answer them in one post, but I can't figure out how Multi-Quote works. So here are my answers, and you can probably figure out which posts I'm replying to.

 

No, I have not heard from Pendora yet, I emailed them the second time (after they said to wait two weeks) on March 2nd, so it's been 7 working days. I'll probably try again around next Monday if I don't hear. The email I'm using is pendora@usa.com, which must work because they replied to it the first time. Maybe I ended up in the Spam file the 2nd time. If anyone else succeeds in reaching them, put in a kind word for me, please?

 

Now for the drawer dimensions. the interior height with nothing inside appears to be precisely 1/2" however the distance from the inside floor of the drawer to the bottom of the drawer above seems to be about 0.8", due to space allowed between drawers. The material in the flocked plastic pen trays from gopens.com appear to be 0.03" thick as best I can measure with my calipers. One issue with storing larger pens is the clip, but it can work fine if you turn the clip partway to the side. Also it's not always an issue of the depth of the drawer but the width of the tray slots, some pens that fit the vertical space don't fit in the slot very well and so stick up too high. This is often the case with pens that are thick in the middle, like my Sailor Pro Gear Realo. The slots are at most 1/2" wide, and the Sailor is nearly 2/3" wide so it sits up too high and doesn't allow the drawer to close. It fits fine in a wider slot.

 

There are other cases where a pen will fit in the tray and in the drawer by itself, but it needs to have slimmer pens on either side, that is, you can't put two pens side by side if they are pushing the limits of the pen slot size. If it helps, I have a Pelikan M600 and a Pilot Falcon side by side, and I don't think I would want to put anything bigger than the Falcon next to the Pelikan.

 

Based on what someone else posted, it sounds like the Pendora tray slots would be about 50% wider, so about 3/4", which would accommodate any of my pens, since my biggest pen is .71" inches at its thickest point. I certainly look forward to getting some if they ever feel like contacting me.

 

Since I wrote my previous post on these trays, I have removed a couple of those dividers from one of my drawers, and they don't appear to be structural, but it does leave vertical slots in the front and back of the drawer where they were inserted. They were also glued to the bottom, so I had to destroy the dividers to get them out (well, I didn't try very hard to preserve them, so maybe you could if you had more patience than I did).

 

I hope this helps. I think someone suggested lining the trays with felt or something, but that takes away a lot of the space, and I think these flocked pen trays provide enough protection from knocks and dings. Disclaimer on this point: I'm 70 and I haven't done research nor have experience for very long-term storage, because my horizon is probably fairly short.

Edited March 12, 2020 by Paul-in-SF

[mke]

 

More on this, please? Is there a website? Might they ship overseas? Thanks.

Seria is a Japanese $1 shop. Their products often change very quickly between available and not available - so it is possible that it is not coming back when their current stock is down.

 

Fudefan told me that it is a dish drying rack.

[Arkanabar]

I use three solutions.

The pens I have inked are in a three cup wooden desk accessory, in an eight slot open-cell foam insert that fits into one of the cups. Two of the slots hold sample vials. The cups are at least big enough to hold two packs of 3x5 cards each. I got this on clearance from Levenger. The Morgan pen cup and Unifier are the successor products.

Uninked pens I have interest in using live in a pocket knife case somewhat similar in design to this one, but with only one elastic band per knife slot. Mine holds sixteen pens, each taking the place of two knives.

Finally, I have an 18-pen roll (made from a fat quarter) and an 8 pen roll that my wife made for me, on the same basic design as the polyester felt rolls sold by His Nibs, though with a longer flap. These live in the box that also holds all my ink bottles, most of my sample vials, and all my spare parts and pen tools (except for a Goulet Grip that lives in an external pocket of the knife case).

[mke]

100 yen option from Seria:

 

Today, I bought two of these trays. 95% excellent! They are made from a soft type of polyethylene (LDPE, I think) and they can be cut. I think I am going now for a cheaper solution with plastic cabinets in which I will fit in these trays. You can see below that I can fit it 11 pens in a tray for $1.

@Fudefan

It is also available online at several places, just search for the Japanese Article Number JAN: 4965534906715

 

 

 

 

For those who live in Japan, here is the tray with label so you can show at Seria. Otherwise it can take a while until they realize what it is.

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by mke

[85AKbN]

^ brilliant.

[inkstainedruth]

On Friday I went to an estate sale and saw what would be the ultimate in storage -- a couple of antique dental cabinets. Beautiful pieces of furniture, with marble countertops, but also had lots of shallow drawers.

Only problems? Trying to figure out how to get one of them home and where to then put it in my house. And, of course, the four figure price tags on them... each....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Paul-in-SF]

Chrisrap52 on Youtube has a video that just popped up in my feed although it was put online in 2017, where he shows a cabinet that he found at an unfinished furniture store that looks like it was made specifically for pens -- it has 12 shallow drawers that hold 600 pens or more, and two deeper drawers at the bottom that would be good for ink. He shows the name of the store in the video (here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqTdB67eCqg) but I don't know if they still have anything like that now. If I didn't already have so much time invested in what I have, I'd be all over that. I don't have nearly that many pens, but the extra drawers could hold tools and supplies, everything in one place.

 

By the way, I did finally reach Pendora (pendora@usa.com) and managed to get an order for larger pen tray liners in before she starts traveling again in a couple of days. The trays are currently $8 each plus $17 shipping for the order. Apparently various colors are available. My advice, if you really want some of these trays for larger pens, is to just drop her a line every couple of weeks until you hear back from her.

 

mke, thanks for the details on that tray. We have Daiso here in San Francisco, so I'll check them out to see if they have this or anything like it (I'm thinking of it as a temporary landing station for new pens and inked pens, separate from storage). My online search for that item only brought up Japanese language sites plus one in Singapore.

[mke]

I had checked at Daiso in Japan but they didn't had it nor something similar.

Even our local Seria shop must reorder it for me which could take up to 2 month.

[bsenn]

For a "temporary landing station" I like wood trays, either the inbox type or silverware drawer inserts, with the gopens inserts. Generally the insert costs more than the wood tray (at thrift stores or flea markets).

 

Edited to add: the wood trays also work great for ink.

[mke]

I have decided to make my own wooden cabinet to match my book shelves.

 

While the KingdomNote/ToyoCraft/Maruzen solutions look very nice, they are a bit pricey. The pen cases sold in Ebay (from US) are also good-looking but the shipping fees are heavy. Even the trays from gopens.com would nearly double the price to get it to Japan.

 

Meanwhile, however, I am in need of a temporary storage. So I bought a simple plastic letter case+5 trays from Seria - that should do it temporarily.

 

Thank you for all your input.

 

[Paul-in-SF]

mke, I like that very much, it shows a creative approach to re-purposing "cheap" stuff to meet your needs. I'm a big fan of that path (I'd rather spend my money on pens than storage).

 

In other pen storage news, my large-pen tray liners from pendora arrived today, and I am very pleased. They don't go back as far as the ones from gopens, but that is perfect for my drawers, they fit almost exactly (I had to cut the lip off the front) (on the gopens trays I have to cut them to fit and what's left over is pretty much waste material). I can fit 15 large pens in a drawer now, again almost exactly, if there are no drawer dividers. If there are dividers and I take out one divider on one side I can fit 7 large pens very nicely on that side. With the dividers in they don't fit very well, I can only get 3 pens per section and it's pretty loose. Nevertheless, I finally feel like I am approaching a finished state on my drawers.

 

Next step: organizing the pens in the drawers. So far the pens have been scattered anywhere in the drawers and I have kept track externally in my database where to find a pen. I'd like to arrange them in a more logical order, by country of origin and then by make and model, if possible. The large pens may have to still be separated out to their own drawers.

 

This is how I'm keeping busy while isolated at home. I really need to get out of the house for a while. .

 

 

[sansenri]

I'm looking for the drawer solution, but have not found what I like yet.

 

I have used the Muji trays at times, they are really well made, although not designed for pens,so a lot of space is lost.

They are also quite expensive if you have lots of pens.

[tinta]

Cheap available & relatively crushproof. Pens , inks in bottles, carts, papers etc all have the same Rubbermade box.

 

For storing pens the expense is the individual leather pen cases by Pellikan. Those are not cheap,but worth it

[sansenri]

another thing I've been doing when occasion and time allows is turn some of these old cutlery boxes into pen holders.

This one came from my parents' in law, not sure what was in it but they seemed to have saved the box for some 40 years...

 

I'm not totally happy with my attempt, I need to improve the bottom tray and make it black (the white sides are ugly)

but at least I know what to do next.

Covering the self made cardboard pen holder with felt was really more difficult than expected...

[Wahl]

This is how I store my main collection, in my bookcase

 

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by Wahl

[Paul-in-SF]

Wahl, that looks very nice. Where does one find plastic holders like that? It looks like they were made for pens, or something of a similar size and shape.

[Wahl]

Wahl, that looks very nice. Where does one find plastic holders like that? It looks like they were made for pens, or something of a similar size and shape.

 

 

Actually it´s methacrylate, made to order, my design.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Wahl

[WaskiSquirrel]

I ended up buying a Gerstner machinist's chest and a base unit. The world changed a lot after I ordered them!

The main unit is a 9 drawer chest. I used pen trays from gopens to line them. The base unit has been delayed, probably by the changes in the world, but should be here on Monday. It will add an additional 3 drawers. The 9 drawers using these pen trays hold 150 pens. There is a top area that could probably hold 26 more pens, but I'm using it to store vintage pens that are awaiting restoration.

In the future, there is a rolling bottom that can be ordered and would probably hold ink bottles and other supplies, but I've spent enough on this for now, and don't really want to do any frivolous purchases until the current situation is over.

 

For anyone curious about the Gerstner brand, I would suggest purchasing the "International" version. It is significantly less expensive and still of good build quality.

 

Here are a few photos with description.

 

It comes in a pleasant oak finish. I like it so well that I decided to put it in the living room.

 

Opening it reveals 9 drawers and the top area. Yes, I do realize that the cover slides in. I chose to leave it out to demonstrate it in this picture.

 

The top area has a tray which can be removed.

 

The 6 small drawers hold 12 pens each. This is my TOZ/Penkala collection.

 

The 3 larger drawers hold 26 pens each. This is my Parker collection.

[amberleadavis]

OH MY I am totally in love!