Pour-Out Bottle

[Charles Skinner]

Like many of you, I believe, I have a "pour out" bottle. When I find an ink that I just can not stand after a couple weeks use, I often just empty it into my large "pour out" bottle. Recently, I noticed that it is almost full, so I through:--- "I need to use some of this ink before the bottle overflows!

 

Well, well, I am really disappointed with the color. Don't know how to describe it. Seems to have shades of "black," and "grey," and who knows what else! It is a dreary, sad, uninteresting, dull, ink that could make a person "throw up!"

 

So, I am faced with a problem.---- Pour out THE pour out ink, and waste a large amount of ink, or keep adding other colors to the mixture and hope something comes along that is interesting and worth "writing with."

 

Have you ever faced this "end of the world" problem? How did you move forward and start thinking about more constructive ideas?

 

Looking forward to hearing from you. By the way, send me postage money, and I will mail my Pour Out Ink to you, but, BUT it could melt the bottle before reaching you!

 

I wish all of problems were this simple!

 

"Write on into that beautiful sunset."

 

C. Skinner------ excuse mistakes, if any.

[lapis]

I don't have any problem here at all because I don't have and don't use a "pour-out bottle". (Sorry, never even heard of it.)

If I have an ink which I don't like, I do one or more of the following three things (in any order):

1. I pour it down the sink and forget it (whether or not I save and clean the empty bottle itself is an entirely different story).
2. I give it (or portions thereof) to friends.
3. I keep the bottle (still filled) as a reference when comparing inks with a presumably similar look (e.g. for scans in a post).

[bass1193]

As a shameful ink hoarder, I'm scandalized that anyone would throw the stuff away! 😄 Really, though, maybe consider donating it to Good Will or similar charity shop to sell on. I frequent those places and I always get super excited when they get stationery stuff!

[Corona688]

Like many of you, I believe, I have a "pour out" bottle. When I find an ink that I just can not stand after a couple weeks use, I often just empty it into my large "pour out" bottle. Recently, I noticed that it is almost full, so I through:--- "I need to use some of this ink before the bottle overflows!

 

Well, well, I am really disappointed with the color. Don't know how to describe it. Seems to have shades of "black," and "grey," and who knows what else! It is a dreary, sad, uninteresting, dull, ink that could make a person "throw up!"

 

So, I am faced with a problem.---- Pour out THE pour out ink, and waste a large amount of ink, or keep adding other colors to the mixture and hope something comes along that is interesting and worth "writing with."

Looking for a prussian blue formula I could write with, I ended up with a lot of "trash blue" that was no good for writing but still worked in folded ruling pen. I'd doodle and sketch with it instead of wasting better ink. I ended up running out of trash blue first.

[putteringpenman]

I don't use a pour out bottle. I usually take inks I don't like to my local pen meetup and give them away to anyone who likes the colors available.

[Tas]

Get a bigger bottle and keep on adding.

[BaronWulfraed]

Unless all the inks were from similar shades, the result of any mixing of multiple inks will veer towards a muddy black. Just standard (reflective, not light) color mixing theory. Take a color circle (where black is the dead center). Connect any two points on the rim by a straight line -- the further they were apart, to closer the mix comes to black. Now take that mix and connect to another color by a straight line...

[Tas]

Unless all the inks were from similar shades, the result of any mixing of multiple inks will veer towards a muddy black. Just standard (reflective, not light) color mixing theory. Take a color circle (where black is the dead center). Connect any two points on the rim by a straight line -- the further they were apart, to closer the mix comes to black. Now take that mix and connect to another color by a straight line...

 

 

Ahem . . .

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/338947-ink-mix-rambling-not-for-the-feint-of-heart/?p=4095672

[mhguda]

Get a bigger bottle and keep on adding.

That would be my advice. In fact, that is my modus operandi. My bottles are called Dregs, and while they tend to be similar, there are enough subtle differences that I use different names (e.g. Dregs 2017, Dregs 16/18, etc.). There comes a moment that I find I like a previously unliked Dregs. My tastes change, too...

I wish I could do the give-away thing, too, but mailing out ink samples from Curaçao is too much of a hassle, and I have not found anyone (yet) here who shares my interest in fp ink. Everyone else's approach is kind of "if it writes, it's good".

[Lloyd]

You and a friend can put on old clothing, pour the ink into two water pistols, and have duel.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Lloyd

[PAKMAN]

Some Noodlers inks recommend you don't mix them with other inks because they will goop up if mixed together. Many inks can safely be mixed or blended to make new colors. I'm not sure if I did pour inks of all different brands and colors together that I would put them in a pen! The expected result would to me be an ugly gray sort of ink, which is what you seem to have ended up with. If a don't care for an ink it goes to pen meetings for swap or pen shows to sell usually. But most likely it will just quietly sit way back on my ink shelf and fade off into obscurity...

[Lomi]

So, I am faced with a problem.---- Pour out THE pour out ink, and waste a large amount of ink, or keep adding other colors to the mixture and hope something comes along that is interesting and worth "writing with."

 

you need to understand that color mixing isn't random "magical" thing

like BaronWulfraed staited - it's doesn't matter how much of ink you add to this bottle, it's gonna stay the muddy shade of black, because the ratio at which you add probably too low, to change color significantly you need to add atleast x2-x3 amount of ink that you already have in this bottle, and shade of color that you add should always be the same!

for example "1 part of your mixture" + "2-3 parts any red shade mixture" = dark shade of red

"1 part of your mixture" + "0.2 part of blue + 0.2 part of red + 0.2 part of purple" = same dark muddy color

 

my suggestion would be to find 6 smaller bottles, shake your pour-out bottle and evenly fill each of them with mix that you have in it, then label each bottle with "Red" "Green" "Blue" "Yellow" "Magenta/Purple" "Black" and pour only color of suitable shade to the bottles, in the end you gonna have 6 bottles all with darker color of shade listed before, ofc you can make any extra colors is for you want, like Cyan, Orange

And i suggest to read about basic color mixing and color theory, because if you gonna continue to mix 5-6 colors of different shades/hue together or with mixture in the bottle - you always gonna have muddy black in the end, yes it gonna be different each time and sometimes in slightly different shade, but unpleasant anyway. Mixing more than 3 colors together if you doesn't know what you are doing isn't gonna get you anywhere.

[Freddy]

Never heard of the following phrases... "pour-out bottle".."flexi-ink" or "end - of - world-problem" re: ink.

Nada..zip..naught..nothin'......If I have any ink that I don't use and or like.....I give 'em away....If not

they sit in file cabinet....Eventually..they will go to new homes..teacher who will use with students..

friends..family..et al....One can always fill balloons and have at it...A poor man's paint ball thing....

Fred

[inkstainedruth]

I don't use a pour out bottle. I usually take inks I don't like to my local pen meetup and give them away to anyone who likes the colors available.

 

That's what I try to do as well. Only in some cases I haven't been successful in getting rid of the inks I dislike (although fortunately they are more likely to be samples than full bottles).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Arkanabar]

Some Noodlers inks recommend you don't mix them with other inks because they will goop up if mixed together. Many inks can safely be mixed or blended to make new colors. I'm not sure if I did pour inks of all different brands and colors together that I would put them in a pen! The expected result would to me be an ugly gray sort of ink, which is what you seem to have ended up with. If a don't care for an ink it goes to pen meetings for swap or pen shows to sell usually. But most likely it will just quietly sit way back on my ink shelf and fade off into obscurity...

 

This is especially true of the Baystate line of inks, tho' IIRC, Year of the Golden Pig behaved badly in many pens as well.

 

my suggestion would be to find 6 smaller bottles, shake your pour-out bottle and evenly fill each of them with mix that you have in it, then label each bottle with "Red" "Green" "Blue" "Yellow" "Magenta/Purple" "Black" and pour only color of suitable shade to the bottles, in the end you gonna have 6 bottles all with darker color of shade listed before, ofc you can make any extra colors is for you want, like Cyan, Orange

And i suggest to read about basic color mixing and color theory, because if you gonna continue to mix 5-6 colors of different shades/hue together or with mixture in the bottle - you always gonna have muddy black in the end, yes it gonna be different each time and sometimes in slightly different shade, but unpleasant anyway. Mixing more than 3 colors together if you doesn't know what you are doing isn't gonna get you anywhere.

 

I'm going to add one more recommendation to this that could possibly help you fix your issue:

 

Dilute!! A lot of inks have a much higher dye load than need be, and dilution can help bring out hidden tones in otherwise overly-saturated inks

 

Additionally, you may want to make your current pour-out bottle for blacks and greys only, and start new ones for red, green, purple, brown, and blue (should you actually have that many empty bottles).

 

And hey, EUREKA!!! Thanks to Tas's Teeling Mix, I now know how to fill the void created by my indecision regarding the Essential Blue-Black! The first rinse from every pen I clean (and every pipette I use) shall become the base of it, along with the last dregs of every sample as I decide "it's too low to fill anything from that."

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, some inks just don't play well together. Which is why I have a cheap pen dedicated to Bay State Blue. Much as I'm pretty OCD about flushing, I don't think I could be THAT OCD.... Plus, my bottle of BSB has pretty bad feathering issues, so I put it in a Noodler's Charlie, where it's pretty easy to top off with distilled water to dilute it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Karmachanic]

I buy samples before deciding to purchase a botttle. I had 2/3rds of a Diamine Teal that I no longer cared to use and dumped several blueish leaning greenish samples into it along with 2ml of Jalur Gemilang.

Turned into a lovely dark, blueish teal that I use for notetaking.

So I'm with Tas. Get a bigger bottle! Check it from time to time. You can always "influence" it if you wish.

Edited November 15, 2018 by Karmachanic

[white_lotus]

Like some others, I don't have a "pour out bottle". In fact I've never poured out a bottle of ink, though I've given away a few. Even samples, I never pour them out unless they've gone bad in some way. Otherwise I give them away.

[lapis]

As said, I don't have such a bottle either but I have sometimes raised the thought that if I find an ink disgusting enough, I could always send it back to the manufacturer (yes, happily paying the postage myself) and tell them to please get rid of it.

[Tas]

As said, I don't have such a bottle either but I have sometimes raised the thought that if I find an ink disgusting enough, I could always send it back to the manufacturer (yes, happily paying the postage myself) and tell them to please get rid of it.

 

Love this !