The trouble with some of these bottles is that they're designed for slender dip-pens. The little Herbin bottles are the most obvious example. They have a groove that's a pen-rest for a dip-pen, and because the bottle is open for a long time when you use a dip-pen, the small neck is to reduce the amount of air that gets in.
The Kaweco bottle is the same bottle used by Pelikan. Like the Waterman bottle, you can tilt it on the flat edge to get most of the ink out the bottle.
Twisbi makes some great ink bottles, some are designed for their pens, and some are designed to fill an international cartridge. They really make it easy to fill.
I feel like such an amateur. I have several of these Waterman bottles and I simply hadn't thought about placing it at an angle. That's so helpful, thank you! I also adore the Lamy bottles and the Iroshizuku ones (including the little 15ml ones that still feel wonderful in the hand and cute to the eye).
Different slant on inks, the bottle. I've just recently gotten back into fountain pens and new to the work of inks. So the bottles were not anything I even thought about until I got a few home. Private reserve and Noodlers, I now know to be really careful with until you use them some because that fill so full that you can slosh and make a mess. But certainly ease of access. Some bottles are tall and narrow that worry about tipping them when using a piston filler. So most of the time I've taken to using a syringe. But you have given me a new consideration when evaluating inks. Glad I found your site just this weekend. I'm amazed at the amount of content regarding fountain pens. It's great.
Hmm.. I just started into fountain pens this month and I learned to fill with the converter. I still bought the syringes from Goulet Pens to play with inks so that will be useful for later.
I enjoyed this! I was yelling right along with you about the wee J. Herbin bottle! I have three of them and I curse each time I choose to use the ink. One of my favourite bottles is an old one - a Sheaffer Scrip bottle which has a glass inkwell at the lip of the bottle. Another ancient bottle I have is from Montblanc. It is plastic and has weird edges on the bottom of the bottle - almost like a house of cards. It feels tippy. I agree with the Iroshizuku bottle. It is stunning! - roc
Excellent review. Very nicely formulated video. The only bottle that I missed and which can be in your best bottles is ' Akkerman ' bottle. I think, it's must for any ink lover.
I fill converts and cartridges with a syringe, my one piston filler with an ink miser. I judge bottles solely on esthetics with a strong preference for glass bottles. 3Oysters also has a tilt built in. Thank you for a very interesting video
thought this was really informative. i'm new to fountain pens & i've NEVER gave a though to the functionality & practicality of fountain pen ink bottles. rn i only have one bottle of Pelikan 4001 but i see now that you can tilt it on its' side like the Waterman's.
+Iblame Summers Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment! At the end of the day, it's what is on the inside that counts, but when an ink is SO close in colour with another brand I will always pick the one with a better bottle!
I loved this video. I fill all my pens with a syringe so I never need to worry about bottle shape but I love ink bottles and it was fun to see all the different kinds. I have one bottle of Iroshizuku in and it is definitely the most beautiful bottle out there IMHO. Thanks!
Carey you are such a natural talking to the camera. enjoyed this video very much. I am just getting started in the fountain pen hobby. Used FPs from 5th to 10th grade then it was off to ball point pens. I recalled the plesure I derived from using my mother's Shaeffer, so I just bought a Shaeffer 300 as my starter FP, loving it so far.
I love my eyedropper, for that very reason. If I really like the ink, once it gets too low to fill the pen, I get another of the same brand and color. Decent with a syringe, using a 23 guage needle. It does a great job of keeping fine particles from coming through, then add the extra ink to the new bottle. None gets wasted. My favorite, in all aspects is Parker Quink.
Though not reviewed Akkerman is the best ink bottle by far and the ink is very nice also. They are available at Anderson Pens and also at Vanness Pens. Enjoyed the video.
Oh. That's really cool. A marble inksaver. Also there seems to be an insert you can put into bottles to compensate for bad design (outside of tiny openings). It seems similar to the one in Pilot 70ml bottles. Or that Sailor. www.jetpens.com/Ink-Miser-Intra-Bottle-Inkwell-Black/pd/16378
Agree! I just filled a pen with some Edelstwin Tanzanite, which is half full, and it was a pain! Had to use a syringe. Does that Kaweco bottle tip, like the waterman?
For the Caran d’Ache bottle, if you still have the box you could put it in the box so it’s much easier to fill when you’re almost finished. Not too sure how much more you would get out of it though
Vintage Sheaffer's Skrip "Tip-Well" bottles have a huge neck and a very clever internal section that lets you fill your pen, right down to the last tablespoon of ink in the bottle. Unfortunately, this style of bottle was phased out in the 1990s, after about 50 years of service, because it was too expensive to make. But the vintage bottles are easy to find, and they're pretty cheap.
May I add that if you Google "industrial syringes" on the Net, you can obtain really simple and cheap syringes (I think 5ml would be a good volume, or for transferring from one bottle to another, 10 ml size). With these you can easily and cleanly fill pen cartridges and pen reservoirs easily and you can empty the ink bottle down to the last virtual drop of ink. Of course flush all vessels directly after use. So this is my little additional bit of experience I think helps when working with fountain pens. Thanks!
Great explanation, Carrie. Thank you very much for making the video. I have a question: I am about to buy my first bottle of ink, ever, and I am down to either Pilot Iroshizuku or Diamine (in similar colors). Which of the two brands would you recommend more based out of the ink itself? I know the Pilot's bottle is way better (and nicer). Thanks much, Rafael
Thanks for the thorough review. The TWSBI ink well you showed is sold for $25 at Goulet. I was wondering what your experience is with this ink well, and is it worth the price.
Hey! Always enjoyed your videos! Have you ever checked out inks from Sailor Original Series? If you didn't, you should! They have some of the prettiest inks, and the triangular ink bottle is great.
i remember my grandpa used to use a medical injector to pump the fountain pen ink into a uniball roller pen. Im personally no fan of roller pen but it was always a pleasure to see how he wrote with it.
This was a very helpful video. You might want to try out the Levenger Bottled inks. I really enjoy using all of their inks. My two favorites are Cobalt Blue and Shiraz. The bottles have a plastic insert similar to the TWSBI bottles and the Pilot/Namiki bottles. There's also a David's Tea in town. I'll stop out there and try some of your recommendations
Have any travel inkwells that are smaller/not so bulky like the twsbi and made of glass? I have some victorian era inkwells that I like to use but not take with me. I'm a fan of dip pens but I'd like to know if you have ideas for travelling with inks and how you'd store them.
I would like to see your solutions when you are not able to draw ink from bottle. I just ordered ink from Goulet Pens including their sample bottles. Those are small & narrow & would work, I think to refill with ink from difficult bottles.
I only use one pen and one ink I have a Pilot Pearly white Decimo and only use Pilot Iroshizuku inks. I believe in buying the best of everything in my life. The Pilot ink bottles are a delight to look at and wonderfully practical with its V well at the bottom to get the last of the ink. At the moment I am using a lilac colour Pilot ink. murasaki-shikibu. The Pilot Decimo is a Pearly white and has a medium 14k Rhodium plated (silver looking) nib. I wish I had found these two beautiful things years ago. Still when I was poor I bought a Jinhao X750 Shimmering Sands and fitted a Jowo 1.1 nib. The ink I used was Diamine Havasu Turquoise. The Diamine 80ml bottles have nice wide necks but the 30ml ones have very narrow necks. Waterman's Serenity blue is an ink I liked and waterman have the best bottles of the cheaper inks. The tilting ability is great.
Have you considered making a inkwell for some of your crappy bottles by cutting down a 10ml centrifuge tube? The tubes have a cone shaped bottom so you can fit the nib into it. If you don't want to adapt a tube to the bottle you can still decant into a tube (you can make a holder with cardboard and tape or glue), and they come with their own caps. The 10ml tube size is 10ml Depth: Approx. 10.5cm / 4.13inch, Inner Diameter: Approx. 13mm / 0.51inch. You can get 5 tubes for about $2.50 us. While a bit long they could be cut down to fit into a bottle. You could even buy a larger tube (they also come in 15 and 50 ml sizes) and use the tube instead of the bottle.
I also like Lamy ink bottles because they have a well in them to collect the ink around the nib. I have had no trouble with Lamy blue ink but found that Lamy black ink was clogging my black Lamy Safari pen. Therefore I flushed the pen and the bottle ,and filled the Lamy bottle with Parker black Quink. Now I have good quality black ink in a well designed bottle and the pen no longer gets clogged. Bob Major Adelaide South Australia.
In Case of bottles my favorite are waterman ideal ink ( same with gimborn and akkerman bottle), the Classic pelikan bottles ( the best ever), in Case of the inks I like permanent inks like pelikan fountain India, hero carbon, yamura ink, and pilot ( all colors), no need to worry of rain, water, but just be disipline to flush and rinse out the pens once in a day
I have 3 bottles, all are in your "best" range. They're Montblanc, Lamy, and Iroshizuku. (We have the same ink color in the Iro and the MB!) I cant believe my luck! :D
With a flat-based bottle, e.g., Parker Quink, you can easily dip down to the bottom corner dregs if you push a "golf ball" of BluTack onto your desktop, then press the bottle securely into it to hold it at a jaunty angle. You also eliminate the risk of knocking over the bottle.
Nicely done! Very valuable info for people getting into the hobby, these things most people learn the hard way. I mostly use eyedropper filled pens so I seldom look at the utility of a bottle and so tend to indulge my design sense. I seldom buy any ink if I don't like the bottle. That being said I agree with your choices but would mention OMAS bottle which both looks cool and functions well. Enjoyed the vid!
Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to watch it! I haven't had experience with a bottle from Omas yet (I've only ever used samples of the ink) but they do look very cool, like a fancy waterman bottle!
Pens & Tea Fancy Waterman bottle sums it up pretty well. Beware of their blue though (if you haven't tried it yet), beautiful hue but bleeds through nearly everything. Also one more exceptional bottle I enjoy is Akkermann but I don't think you have those over there in Canada. That one is the best I have ever used as far as utility goes. And it looks particularly cool.
Nicely done, Kerry. Good descriptions along with your reasoning. I definitely agree with your comments about both the J. Herbin Ink (esp: Lie de Thé) and their bottles (horrible)! Fortunately, Goulet Pens also sold me a pair of ink syringes that solve that issue. Iroshizuku inks are marvelous with great colors and superb performance; I just wish their inks were a little less pricey. On the other hand, both their inks and their bottles are works of art and worth the price.
+Randy R I use ink syringes pretty regularly, anyone who doesn't know me probably will think I have a drug problem because of all the syringes I have lying around my house hahaha
+Pens & Tea -- :D Yep. Me too. But then I show them its very blunt tip and ask them if they really think I'm brave enough to stick that "needle" into my arm. Once they see my ink bottle collection, they understand. Thanks for uploading your video!
I think the short squat bottles take their design cues from dip pens and bottles designed for dip pens where dipping in too far will get ink on the handle so a short bottle works well. But that is not at all helpful for filling fountain pens.
I just received my first ever J. Herbin ink; Eclat de saphir. I LOVE this ink, although I can foresee the issues that you mentioned. I especially love the completely superfluous ink rest...
Is there an expiration date for ink when it gets old? Like for instance, you have a brand new bottle of ink and kept in a dark, cool place without opening it. Will it get old after a short amount of time or will it last a long time?
if it is stored in a glass bottle, pretty much any ink will last longer than the person that bought it. There are only 2 things you really need to be aware of. First of all: keep the ink out of UV light. UV breaks up the dyes, meaning it will 'destroy' the colour. Second: keep your bottles closed when not using them. The greatest enemy of ink is mold. Ink can resist a certain amount of mold, but if it goes over that it will turn bad. so why glass? The problem plastic cartridges / bottles have is that the water will over time evaporate, leaving you with a higher concentration of ink that might clogg your pen and darken the colour. Best not to leave plastic cartridges lying around for more than a year or so.
The best bottle out there is by Akkerman ink. They also sell empty bottles. Also Lamy Mango is such gorgeous shading ink and very wet. I know you like wet ink. 😉
Another "good" ink bottle design (and ink) is the Pelikan 2fl.oz (62.5 ml) bottle; has a reasonably large mouth (I fill me MB 149 from it) and can be placed on its side when low on ink. Thanks from an informative video.
HAH! I'm a first timer with fountain pens, and it seems that out of absolutely blind luck I picked one of the best and cheapest ink bottles (the Lamy one). It's on regular blue though, I think the turquoise one isn't available in my country yet (they only had plain blue, plain red, and plain black) I'm curious about green and brown inks though... I kinda picked blue out of workplace necesity rather than personal preference.
I think J. Herbin designe might be thinked for dipping pens because it has a pen sit. Maybe you could try a glass pen with that. Any way, great video. P.S. Private Reserve's bottles look like a jar of balm, I don't know if I'd fill my pen or rub it over my knee.
Answer, get used to an ink syringe, and clear miser/decant samplers to protect your pen nibs, and further prevent of possible contamination of the bottle ink. Contact of pen to glass will wear down nibs, plus impact with the glass might introduce a microscopic crack, and break the bottle.
I take my converter out of the pen fill put it in the bottle of ink, fill it then return it to the pen. I like this way because I can get more ink in the converter more easily.
I have a Namiki ink bottle which has an arrangement like the Sailor. Not sure what it actually looks like yet, as I haven't finished it. I've long wondered why ink bottle design had been so awful, with the ubiquitous Quink (almost the only ink available most places in the UK) being frustratingly bad.
It's a shame that you weren't around when the classic Sheaffer Skrip bottles, with the glass inner well, was the best selling in this nation. Cap was same width as the bottle, a dream to use. Of course, that was before the chi-chi practice of using fp's and ink as playthings...
WOW! Had NO CLUE that the Lamy bottle had a fake bottom. When seeing photos online, I thought they were tiny. I've only seen them in person once and was surprised by how much bigger they were than I expected. Seems like a false promise to have a bottle that big without it being filled with ink and instead stuffing the bottom with paper.
I use FOOD COLORING as substitute for ink. Works well, has nice colour, texture and flow, but be sure to get the food coloring without OIL and SUGAR in it (!) And I use a siringe and needle to fill my pens, preferably when I am NOT drunk ... (hic!)
One solution and good investment would be the ink-shot inkwell of the ink miser range, made by Luxury Brands of American. It is a simple device that can be used with any pen filling system - piston filler or converter. With this device you can just about use every drop of ink regardless of the bottle shape because you transfer/decant from your ink bottle into this device. This is especially excellent when you look at the prices of some of the inks you mentioned. Check out their website: www.luxurybrandsusa.com and see if you can purchase one in your country Canada. Good luck.
+urbanmiss26 A LONG time lol, I had to work hard to go through a entire bottle of ink. If you only used one bottle of ink exclusively in all your pens and never used anything else (It also depends on how ofter you write, what you use to write, and write on...) then I would guess it would take you a year to go through a standard 50ml bottle
A good evaluation from Kerry. I use just one bottle of Parker quink (--- boring I know! though I've devised a fiendish plan to convert the bottle when empty into a parrafin lamp!) with mostly just two pens, a modern vac filler and a 1920s Onoto de la rue ; and I do snail mail about once per week , plus my note books and shopping lists, and at my present rate, looks like I'll get my quink bottle empty for repurposing after about 14 months or so. 😳
I said that I was only giving a general idea of what I thought made a good bottle because these are only ones I personally own. I don't own any akkerman bottles unfortunately, they are extraordinarily difficult to get in Canada
@@PensandTea Hey is there a reason why inks can't be in plastic bottles? Super caustic industrial chemicals are also transported hundreds if not thousands of miles in huge blue colored plastic barrels, so IDK what the issue could be. I have a topical medicine that has this straw mechanism in it, where you squeeze the bottle and about 1.5ml of the solution comes up to a reservoir at the top and stays there until you use it. The bottle can be used till the last drop. I bet that will save the cost of the glass, shipping will be easier as well unlike glass...
@@Swanicorn One huge reason is that people LOVE glass bottles. If they didn't companies wouldn't put so much money into designing them. The number of people who buy an ink just for the bottle is staggering. Too, nearly all plastics allow water to very slowly evaporate right through the plastic This takes years, and even decades, to be noticeable with large containers, but with something as small as a bottle of ink, it can happen relatively fast. I've come across a number of unopened bottles of ink from the thirties, forties, and even fifties that were bone dry. These were glass bottles, but with plastic caps. No one will lose this much water due to evaporation, but they can lose enough over a few years to change the consistency and color of the ink. Even the plastic ink cartridges are made from allows pretty rapid evaporation. There isn't much ink in a cartridge, and they can dry out remarkably fast. You can usually reconstitute the ink with distilled water, but who wants to do that? If you line plastic, as companies do with many chemicals, then it gets more expensive, and you can't see the ink. People want to see the ink, and I'm no exception. I won't buy any ink that comes in a bottle I can't see through. I don't have to see the color of the ink, but I do need to see the ink level without opening the bottle. You may not think people woul;d have a bottle of ink long enough for evaporation to be a problem, but I know people who use their fountain pens every day, but who have never once emptied a bottle of ink, even after twenty years. This is because they may have sixty or seventy bottles, plus a couple of hundred sample vials, and buy more ink every month. One fellow in my fountain pen group has well over two hundred full size bottles of ink. He doesn't even know how many fifteen ml bottles he has, let alone how many sample vials. But he keeps right on buying new inks. I use a lot more ink than most fountain pen users because writing has been my business. All sorts of writing. I usually go through four or five large bottles of ink every year And I use a lot of inks just for pleasure, but don't empty all the bottles. I have twenty-seven pens inked up right now, each with a different ink. But it really comes down to the fact that the vast majority of ink users love glass, and hate plastic. I'm the same way, and I'm not even an ink person. I love the way fountain pens write, and ink is a distant second. But even I hate plastic, and even I have close to a hundred bottles of ink.
@@jamesaritchie1 I think there are 2 kinds of people in this scenario. There are some who are just collectors and seldom write. Maybe a page once a week kind of writer or use the pen only for signatures and what you are saying makes sense for those kind of people. I am one who writes A LOT and so I go through my inks fast. I came across a company that sells ink in 1 litre plastic bottles and now I have 2 of those. One of them is half empty already. I transfer it from the big plastic bottle into a nice glass bottle that I have from the past. The problem is, that ink is not that great and so I keep wishing that the rest of the companies also sold ink in retail-size bulk. Like 1 liter bottles is enough. That saves so much money and overseas shipping issues. You can love glass bottles but once you have like 50 of those, EMPTY, sitting in your cabinet in all sorts of shapes sizes and mechanisms, you'll maybe see my point then. I am not a collector, I am a user. Say you like the Akkerman bottle, when you have 6 of those bottles empty, will you still fancy buying another one in a fancy bottle or would you wish you just got the ink minus the cost of the glass and the shipping involved with it being glass. I am not speaking any fancy shimmering or limited edition ink, I am speaking everyday use practical ink. Simple things like Royal Blue or Permanent Black or Advocate's ink. If you use like 1-2 bottles every 2-3 months, chances are your cabinet will be full of empty ink bottles. I think this problem arises from people not using fountain pens as daily writers or maybe they type on a gadget, hence no requirement for bulk. That is sad cuz my entire family uses fountain pens cuz they are super economical to use. That has been the case since 6 years.
The trouble with some of these bottles is that they're designed for slender dip-pens. The little Herbin bottles are the most obvious example. They have a groove that's a pen-rest for a dip-pen, and because the bottle is open for a long time when you use a dip-pen, the small neck is to reduce the amount of air that gets in.
OofusTwillip Nice to know there is some reason for those J. Herbin bottles. Thanks for the info.
I watched this at 1.25 speed and your passion and frustration really shines. It was genuinely hilarious (in a good way). Thanks for the video!
The Kaweco bottle is the same bottle used by Pelikan. Like the Waterman bottle, you can tilt it on the flat edge to get most of the ink out the bottle.
Thanks. I was wondering.
For some reason I find the sound of a glass bottle being capped so satisfying.
and sound of the ink when you shake the bottle
Twisbi makes some great ink bottles, some are designed for their pens, and some are designed to fill an international cartridge.
They really make it easy to fill.
I have watched this video twice now! A great resource, when deciding which inks to buy a full bottle of. Thanks!
I feel like such an amateur. I have several of these Waterman bottles and I simply hadn't thought about placing it at an angle. That's so helpful, thank you! I also adore the Lamy bottles and the Iroshizuku ones (including the little 15ml ones that still feel wonderful in the hand and cute to the eye).
As for bottles. The Akkerman bottles are really just pefect. The Iroshizuku bottles are my second favourite.
+MrPleers I'll get my hands on an Akkerman ink eventually haha
I love the bottles of Akkerman Ink. Just fabulous.
Different slant on inks, the bottle. I've just recently gotten back into fountain pens and new to the work of inks. So the bottles were not anything I even thought about until I got a few home. Private reserve and Noodlers, I now know to be really careful with until you use them some because that fill so full that you can slosh and make a mess. But certainly ease of access. Some bottles are tall and narrow that worry about tipping them when using a piston filler. So most of the time I've taken to using a syringe. But you have given me a new consideration when evaluating inks. Glad I found your site just this weekend. I'm amazed at the amount of content regarding fountain pens. It's great.
Hmm.. I just started into fountain pens this month and I learned to fill with the converter. I still bought the syringes from Goulet Pens to play with inks so that will be useful for later.
I enjoyed this! I was yelling right along with you about the wee J. Herbin bottle! I have three of them and I curse each time I choose to use the ink. One of my favourite bottles is an old one - a Sheaffer Scrip bottle which has a glass inkwell at the lip of the bottle. Another ancient bottle I have is from Montblanc. It is plastic and has weird edges on the bottom of the bottle - almost like a house of cards. It feels tippy. I agree with the Iroshizuku bottle. It is stunning! - roc
+popparoc46 Thanks or watching! the J.Herbin ink is amazing, but the bottles are so terrible lol, they kill me!
Thank You, I am just getting into fountain pens and this was very useful information.
Surprisingly interesting and informative. Never would have known or guessed why some of those bottles are designed the way they are. Thank you.
+Jim Serrett thank you for watching!
Excellent review. Very nicely formulated video. The only bottle that I missed and which can be in your best bottles is ' Akkerman ' bottle. I think, it's must for any ink lover.
I can't wait to get one!
I have also ordered directly from the manufacturer. Waiting eagerly to try the Shocking Blue # 05
I fill converts and cartridges with a syringe, my one piston filler with an ink miser. I judge bottles solely on esthetics with a strong preference for glass bottles. 3Oysters also has a tilt built in. Thank you for a very interesting video
My favorite ink bottle is the Ackerman design is aesthetically pleasing to look at and is an effective elegant design.
thought this was really informative. i'm new to fountain pens & i've NEVER gave a though to the functionality & practicality of fountain pen ink bottles. rn i only have one bottle of Pelikan 4001 but i see now that you can tilt it on its' side like the Waterman's.
+Iblame Summers Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment! At the end of the day, it's what is on the inside that counts, but when an ink is SO close in colour with another brand I will always pick the one with a better bottle!
You can keep the bottle and get liter refills of that Pelikan in certain colors for ~$75 on eBay.
I loved this video. I fill all my pens with a syringe so I never need to worry about bottle shape but I love ink bottles and it was fun to see all the different kinds. I have one bottle of Iroshizuku in and it is definitely the most beautiful bottle out there IMHO. Thanks!
Carey you are such a natural talking to the camera. enjoyed this video very much. I am just getting started in the fountain pen hobby. Used FPs from 5th to 10th grade then it was off to ball point pens. I recalled the plesure I derived from using my mother's Shaeffer, so I just bought a Shaeffer 300 as my starter FP, loving it so far.
+wagsbass Thanks you for the kind words! I haven't used a Shaeffer 300 but I've heard good things 👍🏻
I love my eyedropper, for that very reason. If I really like the ink, once it gets too low to fill the pen, I get another of the same brand and color. Decent with a syringe, using a 23 guage needle. It does a great job of keeping fine particles from coming through, then add the extra ink to the new bottle. None gets wasted. My favorite, in all aspects is Parker Quink.
Though not reviewed Akkerman is the best ink bottle by far and the ink is very nice also. They are available at Anderson Pens and also at Vanness Pens. Enjoyed the video.
Oh. That's really cool. A marble inksaver.
Also there seems to be an insert you can put into bottles to compensate for bad design (outside of tiny openings). It seems similar to the one in Pilot 70ml bottles. Or that Sailor. www.jetpens.com/Ink-Miser-Intra-Bottle-Inkwell-Black/pd/16378
What if you tip the Kaweco like the Waterman?
Agree! I just filled a pen with some Edelstwin Tanzanite, which is half full, and it was a pain! Had to use a syringe.
Does that Kaweco bottle tip, like the waterman?
For the Caran d’Ache bottle, if you still have the box you could put it in the box so it’s much easier to fill when you’re almost finished. Not too sure how much more you would get out of it though
Vintage Sheaffer's Skrip "Tip-Well" bottles have a huge neck and a very clever internal section that lets you fill your pen, right down to the last tablespoon of ink in the bottle. Unfortunately, this style of bottle was phased out in the 1990s, after about 50 years of service, because it was too expensive to make. But the vintage bottles are easy to find, and they're pretty cheap.
I remember these. They were very practical, and had a large opening.
I’ve learned so much from your channel! Thanks for the awesome vids!
May I add that if you Google "industrial syringes" on the Net, you can obtain really simple and cheap syringes (I think 5ml would be a good volume, or for transferring from one bottle to another, 10 ml size). With these you can easily and cleanly fill pen cartridges and pen reservoirs easily and you can empty the ink bottle down to the last virtual drop of ink. Of course flush all vessels directly after use. So this is my little additional bit of experience I think helps when working with fountain pens. Thanks!
I use the syringes from Goulet Pens. Inexpensive and work well.
Simple solution
I use it too
Great explanation, Carrie. Thank you very much for making the video. I have a question: I am about to buy my first bottle of ink, ever, and I am down to either Pilot Iroshizuku or Diamine (in similar colors). Which of the two brands would you recommend more based out of the ink itself? I know the Pilot's bottle is way better (and nicer). Thanks much, Rafael
Thanks for the thorough review. The TWSBI ink well you showed is sold for $25 at Goulet. I was wondering what your experience is with this ink well, and is it worth the price.
Hey! Always enjoyed your videos! Have you ever checked out inks from Sailor Original Series? If you didn't, you should! They have some of the prettiest inks, and the triangular ink bottle is great.
Comprehensive review of a fun and important subject -- well done.
i remember my grandpa used to use a medical injector to pump the fountain pen ink into a uniball roller pen. Im personally no fan of roller pen but it was always a pleasure to see how he wrote with it.
I think another consideration is the color of the.glass/plastic. The darker ones provide protection against light degradation.
You can turn kaweco bottles on their side like the waterman's bottles when they run low, not sure how much that helps though.
awesome video. thanks so much for making this. You should do an update with more inks!
This was a very helpful video. You might want to try out the Levenger Bottled inks. I really enjoy using all of their inks. My two favorites are Cobalt Blue and Shiraz. The bottles have a plastic insert similar to the TWSBI bottles and the Pilot/Namiki bottles. There's also a David's Tea in town. I'll stop out there and try some of your recommendations
+Isaac Fox I'll be on the lookout for those!
Davids tea has so many teas to choose from👍🏻 let me know what you get☺️
Goodness gracious, how many styles of bottles are there in the market!?
Love this review, thank you. An eye-opener! :D
I love that you did a bottled ink video 😍 I've become obsessed with ink lately
+urbanmiss26 It's a dangerous habit :p
I’ve been using J.Herbin. and Diamine inks for years, and never had a real problem. Even my Pelikan pens fill okay.
Have any travel inkwells that are smaller/not so bulky like the twsbi and made of glass?
I have some victorian era inkwells that I like to use but not take with me.
I'm a fan of dip pens but I'd like to know if you have ideas for travelling with inks and how you'd store them.
I quite like the Monteverde bottle myself. Heavy with a wide base and hard to knock over.
fyi. Some of the faceted bottles like the kwaeko are designed to also be used in the tilted facet to get to the lower end of the ink reserve
+IAT1964 you definitely can, I just doesn't work super well in practice to get all the ink out without some sort of syringe.
I would like to see your solutions when you are not able to draw ink from bottle. I just ordered ink from Goulet Pens including their sample bottles. Those are small & narrow & would work, I think to refill with ink from difficult bottles.
I only use one pen and one ink
I have a Pilot Pearly white Decimo and only use Pilot Iroshizuku inks.
I believe in buying the best of everything in my life.
The Pilot ink bottles are a delight to look at and wonderfully practical with its V well at the bottom to get the last of the ink.
At the moment I am using a lilac colour Pilot ink. murasaki-shikibu.
The Pilot Decimo is a Pearly white and has a medium 14k Rhodium plated (silver looking) nib.
I wish I had found these two beautiful things years ago.
Still when I was poor I bought a Jinhao X750 Shimmering Sands and fitted a Jowo 1.1 nib. The ink I used was Diamine Havasu Turquoise. The Diamine 80ml bottles have nice wide necks but the 30ml ones have very narrow necks.
Waterman's Serenity blue is an ink I liked and waterman have the best bottles of the cheaper inks.
The tilting ability is great.
Have you considered making a inkwell for some of your crappy bottles by cutting down a 10ml centrifuge tube? The tubes have a cone shaped bottom so you can fit the nib into it. If you don't want to adapt a tube to the bottle you can still decant into a tube (you can make a holder with cardboard and tape or glue), and they come with their own caps.
The 10ml tube size is 10ml Depth: Approx. 10.5cm / 4.13inch, Inner Diameter: Approx. 13mm / 0.51inch. You can get 5 tubes for about $2.50 us.
While a bit long they could be cut down to fit into a bottle. You could even buy a larger tube (they also come in 15 and 50 ml sizes) and use the tube instead of the bottle.
I also like Lamy ink bottles because they have a well in them to collect the ink around the nib.
I have had no trouble with Lamy blue ink but found that Lamy black ink was clogging my black Lamy Safari pen.
Therefore I flushed the pen and the bottle ,and filled the Lamy bottle with Parker black Quink.
Now I have good quality black ink in a well designed bottle and the pen no longer gets clogged.
Bob Major
Adelaide
South Australia.
Hello from the Dominican Republic. Great idea. Thanks for sharing!
+Joel De León hello! Thanks for watching 👍🏻
In Case of bottles my favorite are waterman ideal ink ( same with gimborn and akkerman bottle), the Classic pelikan bottles ( the best ever), in Case of the inks I like permanent inks like pelikan fountain India, hero carbon, yamura ink, and pilot ( all colors), no need to worry of rain, water, but just be disipline to flush and rinse out the pens once in a day
I really enjoy Your videos, New to the hobby and I have learned from them.
Welcome to the family!
I have 3 bottles, all are in your "best" range.
They're Montblanc, Lamy, and Iroshizuku. (We have the same ink color in the Iro and the MB!)
I cant believe my luck! :D
You can take the converter out of the pen and dip that into the ink bottle to use up more of the ink
How can you get the converter that deep? I've used that trick, but, for me, it works on about one bottle in twenty.
With a flat-based bottle, e.g., Parker Quink, you can easily dip down to the bottom corner dregs if you push a "golf ball" of BluTack onto your desktop, then press the bottle securely into it to hold it at a jaunty angle. You also eliminate the risk of knocking over the bottle.
I just found your posting site, I enjoyed your channel and subscribed and look to seeing your nexts. Great!
Nicely done! Very valuable info for people getting into the hobby, these things most people learn the hard way.
I mostly use eyedropper filled pens so I seldom look at the utility of a bottle and so tend to indulge my design sense. I seldom buy any ink if I don't like the bottle.
That being said I agree with your choices but would mention OMAS bottle which both looks cool and functions well.
Enjoyed the vid!
Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to watch it! I haven't had experience with a bottle from Omas yet (I've only ever used samples of the ink) but they do look very cool, like a fancy waterman bottle!
Pens & Tea
Fancy Waterman bottle sums it up pretty well. Beware of their blue though (if you haven't tried it yet), beautiful hue but bleeds through nearly everything.
Also one more exceptional bottle I enjoy is Akkermann but I don't think you have those over there in Canada. That one is the best I have ever used as far as utility goes. And it looks particularly cool.
good to know about the blue!
I know about the Akkermann but you're right, it's very difficult to come by here, it is definitely intriguing!
Nicely done, Kerry. Good descriptions along with your reasoning. I definitely agree with your comments about both the J. Herbin Ink (esp: Lie de Thé) and their bottles (horrible)! Fortunately, Goulet Pens also sold me a pair of ink syringes that solve that issue. Iroshizuku inks are marvelous with great colors and superb performance; I just wish their inks were a little less pricey. On the other hand, both their inks and their bottles are works of art and worth the price.
+Randy R I use ink syringes pretty regularly, anyone who doesn't know me probably will think I have a drug problem because of all the syringes I have lying around my house hahaha
+Pens & Tea -- :D Yep. Me too. But then I show them its very blunt tip and ask them if they really think I'm brave enough to stick that "needle" into my arm. Once they see my ink bottle collection, they understand. Thanks for uploading your video!
+Randy R hahahahaha I should start doing that :p
You're very welcome, thank you for watching it!
I think the short squat bottles take their design cues from dip pens and bottles designed for dip pens where dipping in too far will get ink on the handle so a short bottle works well. But that is not at all helpful for filling fountain pens.
I just received my first ever J. Herbin ink; Eclat de saphir. I LOVE this ink, although I can foresee the issues that you mentioned. I especially love the completely superfluous ink rest...
Is there an expiration date for ink when it gets old? Like for instance, you have a brand new bottle of ink and kept in a dark, cool place without opening it. Will it get old after a short amount of time or will it last a long time?
if it is stored in a glass bottle, pretty much any ink will last longer than the person that bought it. There are only 2 things you really need to be aware of.
First of all: keep the ink out of UV light. UV breaks up the dyes, meaning it will 'destroy' the colour.
Second: keep your bottles closed when not using them. The greatest enemy of ink is mold. Ink can resist a certain amount of mold, but if it goes over that it will turn bad.
so why glass? The problem plastic cartridges / bottles have is that the water will over time evaporate, leaving you with a higher concentration of ink that might clogg your pen and darken the colour. Best not to leave plastic cartridges lying around for more than a year or so.
Really enjoyed this especially after having more inks
The best bottle out there is by Akkerman ink. They also sell empty bottles. Also Lamy Mango is such gorgeous shading ink and very wet. I know you like wet ink. 😉
I don't know if I'm just weird but I really like the large(100 or 150 can't remember, its the hexagon one) private reserve and noodler's bottles.
Excellent video. Wish I had seen it 2 years ago.
Another "good" ink bottle design (and ink) is the Pelikan 2fl.oz (62.5 ml) bottle; has a reasonably large mouth (I fill me MB 149 from it) and can be placed on its side when low on ink. Thanks from an informative video.
Similar to the Kaweco
Thank you for some VERY useful insight!
Ever combine the two? Writting with tea !
This is why I keep a couple of eye dropper pens available.
Kerry, just curious, what kind of job do you have?
I'm new to the community, thanks for the vid I got a lot of good info from it!
i'm watching this a little late. the lamy dark lilac is another amazing lamy ink! there's also a gorgeous sheen in it!
you know, i've never seen the nubbin in the lamy bottle. boy was i surprised!!
🤣
HAH! I'm a first timer with fountain pens, and it seems that out of absolutely blind luck I picked one of the best and cheapest ink bottles (the Lamy one). It's on regular blue though, I think the turquoise one isn't available in my country yet (they only had plain blue, plain red, and plain black) I'm curious about green and brown inks though... I kinda picked blue out of workplace necesity rather than personal preference.
I think J. Herbin designe might be thinked for dipping pens because it has a pen sit. Maybe you could try a glass pen with that. Any way, great video.
P.S. Private Reserve's bottles look like a jar of balm, I don't know if I'd fill my pen or rub it over my knee.
Answer, get used to an ink syringe, and clear miser/decant samplers to protect your pen nibs, and further prevent of possible contamination of the bottle ink. Contact of pen to glass will wear down nibs, plus impact with the glass might introduce a microscopic crack, and break the bottle.
I take my converter out of the pen fill put it in the bottle of ink, fill it then return it to the pen. I like this way because I can get more ink in the converter more easily.
Very interesting. Thank you
Very useful information. Thank you.
Very nice video, thank you!
I gravitate toward filling most of my pens with a syringe for the sake of tidiness. Good points though. :)
Really appreciate this video. Thank you.
Thank You, this is very useful information.
great video, thank you
Iroshizuku for 40 dollars？ Here in Japan, list price is 1620yen（approx 15dollars）but we can buy lower via amazon.
The Lie de Thé ink bottle is made to where you can tilt it all to that corner I’m pretty sure.
Excellent review! I use Mont Blanc ink.
+Accord Centre Thanks! I love MB inks
I have a Namiki ink bottle which has an arrangement like the Sailor. Not sure what it actually looks like yet, as I haven't finished it. I've long wondered why ink bottle design had been so awful, with the ubiquitous Quink (almost the only ink available most places in the UK) being frustratingly bad.
Is there a blue ink that you recommend for my new Conway Stewart 15?
i love akkerman ink bottles
It's a shame that you weren't around when the classic Sheaffer Skrip bottles, with the glass inner well, was the best selling in this nation. Cap was same width as the bottle, a dream to use. Of course, that was before the chi-chi practice of using fp's and ink as playthings...
WOW! Had NO CLUE that the Lamy bottle had a fake bottom. When seeing photos online, I thought they were tiny. I've only seen them in person once and was surprised by how much bigger they were than I expected. Seems like a false promise to have a bottle that big without it being filled with ink and instead stuffing the bottom with paper.
Can I use Parker quink ink?
I use FOOD COLORING as substitute for ink. Works well, has nice colour, texture and flow,
but be sure to get the food coloring without OIL and SUGAR in it (!)
And I use a siringe and needle to fill my pens,
preferably when I am NOT drunk ... (hic!)
P. W. Akkerman bottles ;)
One solution and good investment would be the ink-shot inkwell of the ink miser range, made by Luxury Brands of American. It is a simple device that can be used with any pen filling system - piston filler or converter. With this device you can just about use every drop of ink regardless of the bottle shape because you transfer/decant from your ink bottle into this device. This is especially excellent when you look at the prices of some of the inks you mentioned. Check out their website: www.luxurybrandsusa.com and see if you can purchase one in your country Canada. Good luck.
Would love to know how long it takes on average to go through an ink bottle that's roughly between 30-50ml
+urbanmiss26 A LONG time lol, I had to work hard to go through a entire bottle of ink. If you only used one bottle of ink exclusively in all your pens and never used anything else (It also depends on how ofter you write, what you use to write, and write on...) then I would guess it would take you a year to go through a standard 50ml bottle
A good evaluation from Kerry. I use just one bottle of Parker quink (--- boring I know! though I've devised a fiendish plan to convert the bottle when empty into a parrafin lamp!) with mostly just two pens, a modern vac filler and a 1920s Onoto de la rue ; and I do snail mail about once per week , plus my note books and shopping lists, and at my present rate, looks like I'll get my quink bottle empty for repurposing after about 14 months or so. 😳
great vid
What about the tea?
you missed the best ink bottle design - Akkerman
I said that I was only giving a general idea of what I thought made a good bottle because these are only ones I personally own. I don't own any akkerman bottles unfortunately, they are extraordinarily difficult to get in Canada
@@PensandTea Hey is there a reason why inks can't be in plastic bottles? Super caustic industrial chemicals are also transported hundreds if not thousands of miles in huge blue colored plastic barrels, so IDK what the issue could be. I have a topical medicine that has this straw mechanism in it, where you squeeze the bottle and about 1.5ml of the solution comes up to a reservoir at the top and stays there until you use it. The bottle can be used till the last drop. I bet that will save the cost of the glass, shipping will be easier as well unlike glass...
@@Swanicorn One huge reason is that people LOVE glass bottles. If they didn't companies wouldn't put so much money into designing them. The number of people who buy an ink just for the bottle is staggering.
Too, nearly all plastics allow water to very slowly evaporate right through the plastic This takes years, and even decades, to be noticeable with large containers, but with something as small as a bottle of ink, it can happen relatively fast. I've come across a number of unopened bottles of ink from the thirties, forties, and even fifties that were bone dry. These were glass bottles, but with plastic caps.
No one will lose this much water due to evaporation, but they can lose enough over a few years to change the consistency and color of the ink.
Even the plastic ink cartridges are made from allows pretty rapid evaporation. There isn't much ink in a cartridge, and they can dry out remarkably fast. You can usually reconstitute the ink with distilled water, but who wants to do that?
If you line plastic, as companies do with many chemicals, then it gets more expensive, and you can't see the ink. People want to see the ink, and I'm no exception. I won't buy any ink that comes in a bottle I can't see through. I don't have to see the color of the ink, but I do need to see the ink level without opening the bottle.
You may not think people woul;d have a bottle of ink long enough for evaporation to be a problem, but I know people who use their fountain pens every day, but who have never once emptied a bottle of ink, even after twenty years. This is because they may have sixty or seventy bottles, plus a couple of hundred sample vials, and buy more ink every month.
One fellow in my fountain pen group has well over two hundred full size bottles of ink. He doesn't even know how many fifteen ml bottles he has, let alone how many sample vials. But he keeps right on buying new inks.
I use a lot more ink than most fountain pen users because writing has been my business. All sorts of writing. I usually go through four or five large bottles of ink every year And I use a lot of inks just for pleasure, but don't empty all the bottles. I have twenty-seven pens inked up right now, each with a different ink.
But it really comes down to the fact that the vast majority of ink users love glass, and hate plastic. I'm the same way, and I'm not even an ink person. I love the way fountain pens write, and ink is a distant second. But even I hate plastic, and even I have close to a hundred bottles of ink.
@@jamesaritchie1 I think there are 2 kinds of people in this scenario. There are some who are just collectors and seldom write. Maybe a page once a week kind of writer or use the pen only for signatures and what you are saying makes sense for those kind of people. I am one who writes A LOT and so I go through my inks fast. I came across a company that sells ink in 1 litre plastic bottles and now I have 2 of those. One of them is half empty already. I transfer it from the big plastic bottle into a nice glass bottle that I have from the past. The problem is, that ink is not that great and so I keep wishing that the rest of the companies also sold ink in retail-size bulk. Like 1 liter bottles is enough. That saves so much money and overseas shipping issues.
You can love glass bottles but once you have like 50 of those, EMPTY, sitting in your cabinet in all sorts of shapes sizes and mechanisms, you'll maybe see my point then. I am not a collector, I am a user. Say you like the Akkerman bottle, when you have 6 of those bottles empty, will you still fancy buying another one in a fancy bottle or would you wish you just got the ink minus the cost of the glass and the shipping involved with it being glass. I am not speaking any fancy shimmering or limited edition ink, I am speaking everyday use practical ink. Simple things like Royal Blue or Permanent Black or Advocate's ink. If you use like 1-2 bottles every 2-3 months, chances are your cabinet will be full of empty ink bottles.
I think this problem arises from people not using fountain pens as daily writers or maybe they type on a gadget, hence no requirement for bulk. That is sad cuz my entire family uses fountain pens cuz they are super economical to use. That has been the case since 6 years.
Very helpful, thanks!
Great video, thanks!:) And your voice is beautiful