Do you ever count your inks?

[Pen Ffynnon]

Curiosity finally drove me to it. I figured 30-45-ish. There were (whispers)  109.

 

My name is Pen Ffynnon and I have a problem (storage, mainly).

 

Anyone else want to confess? (Promising self to go on an ink diet. Knows she's lying to herself. Is okay with that.)

 

[inkstainedruth]

I don't even pretend to count at this point.  A few years ago my husband told me that he tells people that the pens were just the gateway to the "real" collection -- the inks.  I said I was pretty sure that I did NOT have NEARLY as much ink as Sam Capote or Amberlea Davis and HE said, "THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION!"

And of course I bought two bottles of ink (one new, one a mostly full bottle of vintage ink that I already have) and got two more as freebies a few weeks ago at B/W.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Estycollector]

I am trying to understand how one uses so much ink. Someone could look at my small, but significant collection of writing instruments and say, "I am trying to understand how one uses so many pens". However, unless you have hundreds of pen pals or you are an author writing best sellers or screen plays in various shades, I am stumped. Please explain. 

[Pen Ffynnon]

23 minutes ago, Estycollector said:

I am trying to understand how one uses so much ink. Someone could look at my small, but significant collection of writing instruments and say, "I am trying to understand how one uses so many pens". However, unless you have hundreds of pen pals or you are an author writing best sellers or screen plays in various shades, I am stumped. Please explain. 

That's assuming sticking with a single bottle and working your way through it. I prefer matching inks in some pens, more somber inks for work notes, sometimes I want something more playful. I *am* working on a book and prefer to handwrite--some that I know I want to keep is written in one shade, alternative pathways, so to speak, are written in another. Stuff that seems like it might be good, but needs work get another shade. I think I currently have 8 pens inked in various colors at the moment and a couple more fine nibs inked for practicing katakana and hiragama (haven't worked my way to kanji yet). So....a number of bottles in play at any one time, none of them getting used up quickly. Besides colors.

[Pen Ffynnon]

"...and HE said, "THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION!"" Says, who??!?  😂

 

I envy your collection of vintage bottles, ISR!

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, Pen Ffynnon said:

My name is Pen Ffynnon and I have a problem (storage, mainly).

Over 900 bottles, even before seven bottles of Karkos ink arrived this week.

[Penguincollector]

  Oh no, no counting around here! I do keep a notebook of my “ ink library,” bottles with enough ink to give samples to anyone who wants to swap, or is looking for a specific ink. I have a vague idea, but that doesn’t count  samples, small bottles, cartridges,  or rare/discontinued inks that are running low. 

[Pen Ffynnon]

26 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Over 900 bottles, even before seven bottles of Karkos ink arrived this week.

Wow! I've read many of your posts about the inks you find, ones I've never even heard of, and they're amazing! And thank you for sharing--I love reading your notes on the inks you find.

[Estycollector]

1 hour ago, Pen Ffynnon said:

That's assuming sticking with a single bottle and working your way through it. I prefer matching inks in some pens, more somber inks for work notes, sometimes I want something more playful. I *am* working on a book and prefer to handwrite--some that I know I want to keep is written in one shade, alternative pathways, so to speak, are written in another. Stuff that seems like it might be good, but needs work get another shade. I think I currently have 8 pens inked in various colors at the moment and a couple more fine nibs inked for practicing katakana and hiragama (haven't worked my way to kanji yet). So....a number of bottles in play at any one time, none of them getting used up quickly. Besides colors.

Cool and congratulations on your book. Thank you for explaining. 

[Pen Ffynnon]

24 minutes ago, Penguincollector said:

  Oh no, no counting around here! I do keep a notebook of my “ ink library,” bottles with enough ink to give samples to anyone who wants to swap, or is looking for a specific ink. I have a vague idea, but that doesn’t count  samples, small bottles, cartridges,  or rare/discontinued inks that are running low. 

Offer's still open for me to bring samples to the pen show in Portland! I'm always happy to enable a fellow ink- maniac.   I'm going to pin down my husband this weekend about the road-trip.

[Pen Ffynnon]

Just now, Estycollector said:

Cool and congratulations on your book. Thank you for explaining. 

Oh,no worries! I kind of admire people that can stick with a single bottle and follow it all the way through. Maybe when I find that "perfect" ink, I'll be able to do that.

 

And thanks for the good wishes! I'll need 'em. 😄

[Penguincollector]

6 minutes ago, Pen Ffynnon said:

Offer's still open for me to bring samples to the pen show in Portland! I'm always happy to enable a fellow ink- maniac.   I'm going to pin down my husband this weekend about the road-trip.

  I’ll take you up on that! It has to be a swap, though.  Closer to July, I will message you said ink library list and you can choose which ones you want to try. 

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, Pen Ffynnon said:

"...and HE said, "THIS IS NOT A COMPETITION!"" Says, who??!?  😂

Well, we ARE talking about a guy who basically just uses Namiki Black and Namiki Blue.  He did pick up a bottle of one of the Noodler's black inks but I don't remember which one, and seems to have misplaced the bottle (or else it ran off to Bermuda with the Lamy Safari he wanted me to get him a couple of years ago when I was ordering that year's al-Star SE... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

Yes.  I count my bottles of ink.  I have 2 1/2, 1 liter bottles of Pelikan Royal blue, and 2,  1 liter bottles of Pelikan black, and one 50 ml bottle of Pelikan red for grading an marking books.

[Estycollector]

4 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Well, we ARE talking about a guy who basically just uses Namiki Black and Namiki Blue.  He did pick up a bottle of one of the Noodler's black inks but I don't remember which one, and seems to have misplaced the bottle (or else it ran off to Bermuda with the Lamy Safari he wanted me to get him a couple of years ago when I was ordering that year's al-Star SE... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Sounds like a good novel or historical fiction subject. 

[Estycollector]

1 hour ago, Pen Ffynnon said:

Oh,no worries! I kind of admire people that can stick with a single bottle and follow it all the way through. Maybe when I find that "perfect" ink, I'll be able to do that.

 

And thanks for the good wishes! I'll need 'em. 😄

I just love Serenity Blue. It's a pretty ink!! 

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, Estycollector said:

Sounds like a good novel or historical fiction subject. 

As for Waterman Serenity Blue, I do like really it, but have a Slight (okay, more than slight) preference for Mysterious Blue (Waterman's blue-black).  Which is my "go to" ink for my Red Shadow Wave Vacumatic (it just looks SOOOOO good coming out of that pen).  And I ran that ink through that pen for three years of it being in constant use rotation with other pens -- with NO maintenance other than refilling the pen as needed.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lectraplayer]

I wonder if "not really inks" that you can run though a fountain pen just as well counts--stuff like, maybe... food coloring? Part of why I asked is because I wound up salvaging 20 ounces or so (or one average soda bottle, forget how many mL that is, though 16 ounces is 500 mL for reference) from an industrial gallon jug of McCormick Blue that got destroyed on our floor. Now I have, probably, at least a decade of just that, and I wasn't able to save all that was still in the container after the mishap.

 

Other than that, I have a collection of mostly Noodler's inks as of right now, though I do keep a few random mixes that I've made. Let's see, I have all three of the Baystate inks that I've found (Blue, Concord Grape, and Cake Cod Cranberry) as well as all the Polar inks (black, blue, green, and brown.) Still looking for a good fire engine red, though.

 

Oh... I also have a number of Dragon Catfish highlighter inks, and Firefly, as well as some Parker highlighter inks.

[Lithium466]

I don't want to count...at this point I prefer to let myself being carried by unexpected finds in my ink stash, things I had forgotten about, old favourites fallen out of fashion, inks I hated at first try that somehow, with a new paper/pen pairing, sometimes, manage to seduce me again.

In most things in life I am usually a pragmatic person, but not with ink. Oh I do try, trying to look at an ink surface tension, looking at reviews on three different uncalibrated screens, thinking pen pairings that could work, but fail repeatedly.

[Mr. Pink]

M collection is certainly not in the 100+ club, but never-the-less what I do have will way out last me.  The question is, what will happen to it after I tip over.  I don't have any young relatives who use a fountain pen.  And I have never seen used bottles of ink that were donated to thrift stored.  Does it all go down the drain?  I can see it now: a huge ink stain floating down the Mississippi River.  No matter, if I see an ink I just have to have (pink?), all the boaters on the river will just have to deal with it.