Section too large for bottle neck

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, midnightblues said:

ohhhhh nooooooooo

I must admit I've not seen any evidence of evaporation buuuuut now I'm having a tiny panic

 

 

You aren't far from my neck of the woods.

As such, I strongly doubt that the climate chez vous will, for the next several months at least, be 'tropical' enough for you to need to worry about any ink evaporating through the walls of its plastic bottle 😉

 

I only decanted my dye-based Diamine ink into a glass bottle because of the sporadic nature of my use of it (the bottles of most inks last me for years), my miserly prudent nature, and the fact that I already had a suitable bottle conveniently to-hand.

Then again, if the ink that you are now worrying about (after reading about my tinfoil-hatted paranoiac's belt-&-braces approach to ink storage) is Diamine Registrars' Ink, I would definitely advise you to transfer it into an airtight glass bottle, because of the possibility that atmospheric oxygen could get in through the plastic, react with the ink, and thereby render it neither use nor ornament.

[Tommaso Santojanni]

On 10/22/2024 at 10:52 PM, Mercian said:

 

As far as I know, Chou Kuro is a pigment-based ink that contains components that will react badly with 'hard' tap-water (i.e. water that contains carbonate & sulphate salts of calcium and magnesium), and so one must take care to only flush one's pens with de-ionised water after using it, but it isn't an iron-gall ink.

 

Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black has a small amount of iron-gall in it. Pelikan used to describe this amount as "nur ein hauch" ('just a pinch'), but I don't think that they still use that phrase.

 

Montblanc and Lamy both used to make blue-black inks that were iron-gall inks, but both stopped doing so around 2013 or 2014, and their blue-black inks produced since 2014 are solely dye-based.

Somewhere on here there is a thread in which the bottle ident. numbers were listed for Montblanc's three versions of its blue-black ink, indicating which two of the three were iron-gall, and which one isn't.
The easiest way to tell, if one still has a vintage bottle of Montblanc Blue-Black (or the first formulation of 'Midnight Blue'), is to look on its packaging for the words 'permanent for documents'. The iron-gall blue-black and iron-gall 'Midnight blue' both say that on them.
The later, dye-based version of 'Midnight Blue', made after Mb dropped the iron-gall from the ink, doesn't say 'permanent for documents' on the bottle/packaging.

 

Montblanc replaced its iron-gall blue-black ink with a pigment-based black and a pigment-based blue for those who want to buy 'permanent' inks.

 

Edit to add:
I have now found (one of) the old post(s) that listed the bottle ident. nos for the i-g version of Montblanc inks:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/147140-montblanc-midnight-blue/?do=findComment&comment=4645368

 

@Mercian  

Thank you for your insights regarding iron-gall and pigment-based inks; the nuances of these formulations, especially with Montblanc, are of interst for me but, alas, I'm still learning and there is a wealth of curiosities to absorb!
 

@ all members, thank you for your vivacious engagement of my original help request! I did not imagine I would stir such discussions merely by asking about how best to refill pens with a particularly large section!

What an interesting and lively very community!

 

[Just J]

On 10/18/2024 at 4:00 PM, torstar said:

A dozen of these off ebay solved all my woes in this area...

 

 

Probably my lifetime all-time favorite ink bottle. My introduction to them was in the mid-50's, on my Grandmarm's desk. I remember being surprised when the ink drew low enough to reveal the side basin. Thought that was pure Genius, then - still do. That bottle's design addresses nearly every hurdle any inkpen user quill-to-fountain, faces. 

[torstar]

9 minutes ago, Just J said:

 

Probably my lifetime all-time favorite ink bottle. My introduction to them was in the mid-50's, on my Grandmarm's desk. I remember being surprised when the ink drew low enough to reveal the side basin. Thought that was pure Genius, then - still do. That bottle's design addresses nearly every hurdle any inkpen user quill-to-fountain, faces. 

 

And when they sit there for a few years they clean up almost like new.

 

That little plastic shelf makes life much more enjoyable.

 

 

[welch]

On 10/18/2024 at 4:00 PM, torstar said:

A dozen of these off ebay solved all my woes in this area...

 

 

This is the answer. I have a couple of these "topwell" Sheaffer bottles, and use them for any ink that has a lousy bottle...bad for amny reason. 

[torstar]

On 11/10/2024 at 6:34 PM, welch said:

 

This is the answer. I have a couple of these "topwell" Sheaffer bottles, and use them for any ink that has a lousy bottle...bad for amny reason. 

 

Excellent!

 

Haven't shattered one, so far.

 

 

[SHPenFan]

I have the same problem with small 15mL Pilot Iroshizuku ink vials, and that is why I spent $15 on a bottle of Lamy ink, finished using up that ink bottle, cleaned the bottle and poured the Iroshizuku into the bottle. For cleaning, you can actually detatch the bottom base (the one with the blotting paper) from the glass portion, and rinse the glass portion under water.

I suppose you could also get a 50mL Pilot Iroshizuku bottle or a 60mL Montblanc shoe-shaped bottle; I think Anderson Pens and a lot of other retailers sell empty bottles that they have decanted into ink samples for a very cheap price.

[Bo Bo Olson]

If one looks hard enough one can find air tight inkwells.

Softball sized.

 

Do make sure it has a glass or porcelain insert. So you can clean the inkwell.

As big but square.

Stagecoach proof.

I have over 40 single, and single and double ink well with bases...and only a few that close enough that you can keep the ink in a long time.

The rest of inkwells, you have to use up ..that...ink as your main ink. But you can find ones that allow any sized pen to use.

(In the old days one used one or if one had a doulbe inkwell just two inks....pouring water intothe inkwell when it started to dry out, or just adding more ink.)

 

If you tire of your main ink, pour it back into the bottle, clean the insert, and put in a new main ink.

 

Over in the  paraphernalia section, I have lots of my inkwells. It Must Have It's Insert, when buying.

[Beechwood]

... or you could always pour the ink into an egg cup, fill the pen and then return the ink

[liapuyat]

I have the Pineider Pen Filler, which is a budget version of the Visconti Traveling Inkwell. It fits the Montblanc 149, which is probably my girthiest pen. 

 

But I also recommend the 30ml wide-mouthed Nalgene bottles. They're light and compact and good for traveling with.