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Seeking options for large-scale nib organization and storage


Hagbard Celine

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I have lots of nibs. An unreasonable number, and I’m always acquiring more. Originally it was just interesting nibs, or more frequently job lots of random nibs, looking for interesting calligraphy implements. Then I started making Frankenpens, and looking for choice candidate nibs, and my collection grew by an order of magnitude or two and is still expanding. When I started gathering so many I switched from sorting them by maker in a couple of plastic grid storage organizers. They had 36 cells, each about 1” x 1.5”. I quickly outgrew that and started storing them in small zip bags, 1.5” x 2” and stood those up in the cells of those same organizers. The main advantage to this is it’s very, very cheap—all you need are the bags and an ultra fine Sharpie. That’s kept me going for months, but it’s getting increasingly problematic as the number grows. What worked fine for hundreds of nibs becomes unwieldy when it’s thousands. The photo shows what the current selection is like.762236B2-8F9F-4E0D-A5A0-5D0C0E6683A1.thumb.jpeg.1d6d5091f3974a8a9fea87ce7d2e15cf.jpeg

 

On the left are Frankenpen candidate nibs, the middle vertical row is other dip nibs in two boxes, A to L and M to Z respectively; all three of these boxes are sorted alphabetically by maker and then nib number. Behind them are a number of small individual storage boxes for nibs of which I have too many copies to fit in the zip bags. Right front is fountain pen nibs by maker, behind that Speedball pens still in the plastic grid cells, organized by pen number. Not shown is an approx. 12” x 9” x 2” box of sets and other containers of more Speedball and similar nibs.

 

I’ve been looking around the internet searching for suggestions that might be more usable long term. But honestly, I haven’t seen anything better that doesn’t either take up vastly more space, or is vastly more expensive, or both. I don’t anticipate doing better than this, really, at least until I can afford a nice dedicated cabinet with many thin drawers with many small compartments. And even then, that’s just a logistical storage space option since the nibs would probably still be in little zip bags. I mostly just wanted to post this here on the off chance someone has previously run into this problem and found a better solution.

 

Thanks,

—Hagbard Celine

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Wow! That is an impressive collection!

 

I can't think of anything much better than that system.Personally I cut the ends off envelopes and use those, and they fit in a little filing box (lovely old orange shellacked wood box from a French stationery store). But then I have the odd dozen. 🙂

Too many pens, too little time!

http://fountainpenlove.blogspot.fr/

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I have a few hundred dip pen nibs, gathered over the past thirty years, and have found a storage solution that works well for me. The method should scale to a few thousand nibs, but as I already have enough nibs to last a few lifetimes that is not tested.

 

The key idea, that dramatically changed my storage system many years ago, was the realisation that storing every different type of item in a separate labelled container served no useful purpose!

 

For example, If I wanted a specific named nib and had to look through 20 boxes to find the box label indicating that specific nib type then all would be well. But if I had to look through 150 labelled boxes or bags or compartments the system would eventually become impractical.

Also I wanted to store and access more information than could be written on a small label or box lid.

And I wanted to change that information as I used up nibs, or bought more nibs, or measured some feature of the nibs such as shank diameter or downforce needed to spread tines by 1.5mm.

 

So I dumped all my nibs into just a half dozen storage jars! Each jar contained ten to fifty or more nibs. The jars were labelled "Pot 1", "Pot 2", etc. All nibs of a specific type were carefully kept together, but they now shared their jar with many other nibs.

And I created an Excel spreadsheet table into which I entered details of all the nibs.

Each row of the Excel table is a "record" for one specific nib type. Each column of the table has a descriptive heading.

Column headings include things like "Name", "Maker", "Code letter or number", "Number in stock", "General notes", and most importantly "Storage Pot".

 

Using the system:

If I need to take a new "Kennett Needle Pen" from storage I do not start by looking through labels. There are no labels beyond the pot numbering!

Instead I open the Excel spreadsheet. Then use one of many alternative methods to find the row in the spreadsheet table that holds information about that Kennet pen, and scroll sideways to the column headed "Storage Pot".

In a few moments I have found that those pens live in "Pot 5", and that I have a 34 of them in stock. OK, Let's take two! Change the value 34 to be 32, and save the Excel spreadsheet.

Then I open "Pot 5" and pour out a jumbled heap of nibs onto a sheet of paper laid on the desktop. Sifting through the pile with tweezers I find two of the nibs I want in less time than it takes to write this sentence, and then use the sheet of paper to pour all the others back into their pot.

 

Over the years the system has grown and developed.

Many new columns have been inserted, but data is entered into those columns only where I need it.

Sometimes I have got lucky and won an unopened box of 100 or 144 nibs. Then a new storage jar is added to the physical store to hold just that one type of nib.

I think I have about 20 jars now, with no plans to bulk-buy any more nibs. But if I did want to store more nibs in the future then I would probably switch to larger jars, with more nibs in each jar, in preference to adding more jars (or bags or tray cells or drawers).

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That system sounds fantastic @dipper. I have also found that I go from organized to way over-organized in a way that doesn't provide practical benefit. At some point I realize that creating cubby-holes and putting things into them is taking more time than it saves.  The solution is frequently in the spirit of "less is more", as you have described here.  

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Wow, thanks for all the thoughtful and interesting replies. I don’t know why I’m always surprised at the quality of the information I get here. 😁

 

I am intrigued by the fishing tackle storage idea, I’ll follow up on that. I can’t attribute that or see the other previous good ideas because I’m so new at this I haven’t figured out how to make the read replies appear again. 🤦‍♂️ But I do have to say dipper’s rather… freeform approach is odd but worth exploring; I was a database designer/programmer before i retired, so the structure of your collected data is familiar. I’m not sure I’d go quite that generalized in bin assignments, but spending less time labeling and sorting little zip bags is very appealing. I’ll give that some thought.

 

Thanks again!

—HC

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Pendemonium is a vintage pen shop/online shop run by Sam and Frank Fiorella since before FPN, this forum was created.

 

I saw and they sold beautiful antique trays from dip pen nib manufacturers, which were store displays, they had a slot for each nib number, which could hold a number of them.

 

Email them, they might found a new one on their way to the L.A pen show, they visit antique shops, fairs, flee markets to find vintage fountain pens, dip pens, desk accessories items.

 

Their object descriptions is always honest, as they point out defects (minuscule nicks, discolored areas, missing labels) or missing parts (missing original dip pen/ballpoint/pen from a desk set) and describing the replacement.

 

Client since 2006, when I was a complete newbie to the hobby and could have been easily taken advantage of.

Is it fair for an intelligent and family oriented mammal to be separated from his/her family and spend his/her life starved in a concrete jail?

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On 1/15/2023 at 9:59 AM, Anne-Sophie said:

 

Pendemonium is a vintage pen shop/online shop run by Sam and Frank Fiorella since before FPN, this forum was created.

 

I saw and they sold beautiful antique trays from dip pen nib manufacturers, which were store displays, they had a slot for each nib number, which could hold a number of them.

 

Email them, they might found a new one on their way to the L.A pen show, they visit antique shops, fairs, flee markets to find vintage fountain pens, dip pens, desk accessories items.

 

Their object descriptions is always honest, as they point out defects (minuscule nicks, discolored areas, missing labels) or missing parts (missing original dip pen/ballpoint/pen from a desk set) and describing the replacement.

 

Client since 2006, when I was a complete newbie to the hobby and could have been easily taken advantage of.

Thanks so much for this info, I will definitely check them out!

—HC

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  • 10 months later...

Just thought I’d dip in here—hah! No pun intended—after almost a year just to say I still haven’t found anything better than the little zip bags. Once you get into having to sort hundreds of nibs, there’s just not much choice.

 

One thing I have learned, however: use labels on the bags. Writing on the bags directly, even with Sharpies or other “permanent” pens, fades away after a while.

—HC

IMG_8548.jpeg

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If you can track down Artline markers, with xylene as an ingredient, they last almost forever on plastic bags. they also don't rub off very easily.

The environmentally friendly markers with out xylene fade very quickly.

In Australia they are marketed as "Artline 17 industrial" markers.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/26/2023 at 6:50 PM, Hagbard Celine said:

Just thought I’d dip in here—hah! No pun intended—after almost a year just to say I still haven’t found anything better than the little zip bags. Once you get into having to sort hundreds of nibs, there’s just not much choice.

 

One thing I have learned, however: use labels on the bags. Writing on the bags directly, even with Sharpies or other “permanent” pens, fades away after a while.

—HC

IMG_8548.jpeg

 

How wide are the little plastic square that store the zip bags?

 

Office Depot has thin drawers on wheels one has primary color and one has pastel drawers, it could be a good solution.

 

Have you checked used furniture stores, for antique file cabinets?

 

 

 

 

Is it fair for an intelligent and family oriented mammal to be separated from his/her family and spend his/her life starved in a concrete jail?

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