Large Ink Bottles

[welch]

Sheaffer used to make Skrip in 32-ounce "master" bottles. Parker did, too, but the Sheaffer bottles show up more often on EBay. I've also seen 16-ound or 32-ounce bottles of Carter's Midnight Blue.

 

I think they were made for the inserts in school desks. I sat at one such desk in kindergarten, 1953-54, a brand new desk in "the new wing" of my DC public school. Never again saw one like it.

[Kalessin]

In primary school in the 1970s, we still had many desks with the hole to hold the inkwells, but all of the glass inserts were gone.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

In primary school in the 1970s, we still had many desks with the hole to hold the inkwells, but all of the glass inserts were gone.

Where I grew up those desks were still in use in the 80s

[Thymen]

We used to sit at desks like this, in the early sixties. Note the inkwell on the right.

 

 

And every morning one of the teacher's pets would fill these with ink from a large bottle

 

 

I remember that one day a new bottle had to be opened. The teacher did not fix the nozzle properly, it came loose when the bottle was tilted and a large amount of ink was spilled over desk, notebook ánd pupil...

[kazoolaw]

Return of a Big Bottle:

https://www.stiloestile.it/en/inks/bottled-inks/herbin-perle-noire-inchiostro-500-ml-350-anniversario-edizione-limitata

 

I think other colors are available.

Edited May 13, 2020 by gary

[tinta]

Though not a Litre, but for me this large Akkerman #10 bottle was just too much ink.

By the time I got to the bottom of it, the ink had turned rather skunky & had to be dumped. Now it has been repurposed as my "Pen Flush" dispenser.

 

 

[markofp]

500ml bottles of J. Herbin's first five colors, for their 350th anniversary.

[eharriett]

I has seen those. I was considering. But aside from Violette Pensee, I just do not use their inks that much. And I have a lifetime supply of the Violette already. It would be nice if this was not a limited edition though. Plenty of people find those inks to be the cat's whisker.

[eharriett]

Return of a Big Bottle:

https://www.stiloestile.it/en/inks/bottled-inks/herbin-perle-noire-inchiostro-500-ml-350-anniversario-edizione-limitata

 

I think other colors are available.

Just wanted to tell you, that is one of the best pen retailer websites I think I've ever seen. If that was a U.S. site I'd probably be giving them a lot of my future business just because of how easy it is to shop for ink.

[Freddy]

Another quart bites the dust......Skrip Blue-Black.....

 

Fred

[Phormula]

I am regularly using the Pelikan 1 liter Royal Blue and Brillant Black at the office.

I bought them online, I refill a couple of TWSBI inkwels, and my office colleagues do the same, mailnly with recycled Lamy inkwells.

I just buy another bottle when the current ends.

[Black Spot]

so how do you keep the ink from going bad or growing mold ?

[Karmachanic]

so how do you keep the ink from going bad or growing mold ?

 

Put it on paper?

[Black Spot]

Thank you karmachnic. I was wondering how one kept one liter of ink form going bad. Even for a prolific writer It would take some time to use that much ink.

[inkstainedruth]

I had an 8 oz. bottle of Quink Permanent Violet, which had a cork stopper and a (presumably) cotton wick down into the ink (but without the nozzle to attach when you removed the cap); and a 3/4 full pint bottle of vintage Skrip Peacock. For both bottles, I ended up buying a bunch of amber glass 4 oz. and 2 oz. Boston Rounds with eyedropper caps, and my husband helped me decant the ink into the smaller bottles. Ended up giving the big bottles away, because they didn't fit in the boxes I use to store ink bottles in -- they were too tall for the boxes to be able to put the lids back on.

While I'm amused by the concept of a pint of Heart of Darkness, I don't use it enough to have gone even halfway through a standard 4-1/2 oz. Noodler's bottle of the stuff. And I'm not particular worried about it going "bad" (the way I do a bit with my 60 ml bottle of Akkerman IJzer-galnoten (because of it being an iron gall ink). It's just that I don't do THAT much writing. I just took a look at the list of Noodler's inks I own, and I really can't see going through even a 2 oz. bottle of some of them....

Although the concept of owning a 16 oz. bottle of Kung-Te-Cheng *is* a bit amusing... (but in my case not necessary, because I've got a backup bottle of it, and I don't know if it ever came in the smaller 2 oz. bottles).

I could see the larger bottles maybe being purchased as a group buy and then decanted into smaller bottles to be passed around to the people who chipped in on the cost (although after having done that with the two bottles of vintage inks, decanting isn't as easy as it sounds). But for a single person? Worth it (and that's not considering price, just capacity) only if that's the ONLY ink you're using. And truthfully, Yesterday alone I used four different inks in four different pens.... And they weren't all Noodler's inks at that.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Phormula]

so how do you keep the ink from going bad or growing mold ?

 

Using it. It is our workhorse ink at the office, a bottle lasts no more than four - six months.

The mold issue is less critical, because the main reason for molds is pen filling. Each time you dip a pen into the inkwell, you are contaminating the ink with whatever lies on the nib and the first millimiters of the section. This is the reason why I usually rinse the nib under warm water before filling.

In this case, contamination is not critical, as pens are not dipped into this bottle. It is used to refill inkwells. I use TWSBI ones and my colleagues use recycled Lamy ones or Montblanc ones because of the design. So, it is opened, used to refill another inkwell and closed I regularly wash my TWSBI inkwells with dishwashing soap when they get empty and need refilling. So far I did not experience a mold issue with any of my inks.

[Black Spot]

Do they have Bernd in Italy ?

I had a ink bottle that was designed to be filled form and that was the bottle that got moldy. That explains why, I had my dirty pen in there all the time.

I will try washing out my smaller in wells and then filling them. Thank you phormula.

You just cant stick any thing any where now with out it causing a problem.

 

that J. Herbin's bottle up there looks nice.

[Phormula]

Yes, whenever you dip your pen into the inkwell, you add contamination, and it can be a lot of contamination if the nib and section are dirty, the latter with hands grease.

I bough the whole range of TWSBI Diamond 50 inkells (I mean all the different cap colors) and they sit in a box in my desk.

Then I have my inks in the basement, in their original inkwell.

I transfer some ink from the original inkwell into the TWSBI when I need.

Before filling a pen, I rinse the nib under warm flowing water for 20-30 seconds.

 

 

The design of the TWSBI inkwell, with the plastic insert, allows it to be used even when the ink level is low, so I do not have to fill it completely.

From time to time I clean the TWSBI inkwell thoroughly before refilling. First, wash with water and soap detergent, then rinse and then use some alcohol to remove the last traces of water and leave it dry.

I have some inkwells that have been sitting half used for 15 years now, because they contain inks that I use only from time to time (I have my workorses and then inks that I use according to my mood), but since they have been opened only 2-3 times to pour some ink, they are still good.

It also allows me to use big ink bottles, like Pelikan and Octopus, but also the Stipula is quite big.

 

Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, was known to write using violet ink in his fountain pens.

Every year he gor a one liter glass bottle of violet ink from a stationery store in Modena, which he used to refill the inkwell on his desk.

[Flaxmoore]

Do they have Bernd in Italy ?

I had a ink bottle that was designed to be filled form and that was the bottle that got moldy. That explains why, I had my dirty pen in there all the time.

I will try washing out my smaller in wells and then filling them. Thank you phormula.

You just cant stick any thing any where now with out it causing a problem.

 

that J. Herbin's bottle up there looks nice.

I've a 375ml bottle of dregs that's one of my favorite working inks, and decanting to smaller bottles is the only real hope of keeping it good long enough to use it up. My usual procedure, since I usually take a sample vial to work with me, is to pour a tiny amount (5ml, or so) into the cap then transfer it into a sample vial with a syringe.

 

Every month or so it gets a few sprays of phenol and a shake. It smells heavily of phenol at this point, but is nice and clean.

 

I'll be sad when this stuff is gone. It's a blue-black I simply can't replicate.