Hi all. I am looking for Pilot blue ink in bottle form. Specifically, I would like the ink to be in the same style of bottle as the one that comes with the Pilot Custom 823. Unfortunately, nobody I have contacted seems to sell blue in this bottle. Any thoughts or hints? Thanks.

Inkdesigner

I don't know if anyone here sells it, but Ujuku carries it. Price of the ink is reasonable, but shipping would probably cost at least $12 to the U.S. It might not be bad if you buy it when you buy a pen with it

Disclaimer: I consider Yamada san, the owner of Ujuku as a friend but I have no financial interest.
http://ujuku.jpn.ph/KAIMONO/pen/pilot_ink_frame.htm

I imagine you have to go to a Japanese store that orders from Japan directly.

San Francisco Japantown has a stationery store that carries the small square bottles. I know the Custom 823, but I didn't look for a picture of which size bottle it has. Is it the bigger round bottle you want?

But if you find a Japanese store with fountain pens, they most likely carry Pilot. The place I know only carries Pilot in a selection of pens, and for Platinum and Sailor they just have ink cartridges in small packs so they can overcharge people who need them and can't get them anywhere else in person.

Have any friends in New York?

Have you tried contacting the US division of Pilot/Namiki in Connecticut? When they made a small repair mistake on my VP, the apologized with a bottle of their blue. I find it to be a very water-resistant peacock blue.

They have it at http://www.pendemonium.com/
10$ for a bottle of Namiki blue, Namiki or Pilot, same difference.

I have never bought from Pendemonium, but it's cheaper than getting it from Japan!

Probably ink inside is the same but the Pilot inkabottle Inkdesigner is looking for is different from the Namiki bottle. Namiki one is flatter than Pilot's. It also contains 60 mL of ink instead of pilot's 70 mL.

Pendomonium is a great and reliable dealer, though.

I have bought a bottle of Pilot ink from Yamada san of Ujuku. I combined it with other stuff, so didn't pay too much for shipping. Both the bottle and ink are great, and it is always a pleasure doing business with Yamada san.

Desirider.

I love the cart of Pilot blue that came with a recent trade, but from this thread it sounds like it is hard to get in the states.

What is the closest easily available ink?

Like a previous poster said, it is available from Pendemonium. I buy quite a bit of paper and ink from Pendemonium and I'm a very happy customer. I am always pleased with how quickly my packages arrive.

Many American dealers carry Namiki ink, which is exactly the same as Pilot ink. They just come in a different container. I think Inkdesigner wanted the particular size/design of Pilot ink bottle. So if you don't care the difference of the packaging you can easily get Pilot blue and black ink. The only Pilot ink that's difficult to get in the U.S. is Blueblack in bottle. In addition some pastel color carts are available only in Japan, but I don't think those are very popular in Japan, either.

Thank you all for your respones. I was indeed looking for that particular ink/bottle combination. I ordered a bottle of blue from Yamada san. Total with shipping was just shy of $30.00.

Inkdesigner