Keeping Track Of Which Ink In Which Pen

[praxim]

Notebook (of course). Use the pen to enter pen name and ink, then the same pen to cross out the entry of the pen last emptied. I need to track only 3-4 pens at a time.

 

I also have the habit of writing in the margin the pen and ink used in any journal entry of half a page or more. A separate index page also lists the first page on which a given pen was used, again using the pen in question for the entry, so you can easily track down records by pen.

 

These habits allow me to find how any pen works with an ink over time. There is also an Ink Book, where newly inked pens self-record their appearance and behaviour indexed by ink rather than by pen.

 

edit:add

Edited October 21, 2020 by praxim

[N1003U]

I am (now, after lengthy experimentation) also a notebook user. I keep a running list of pen name and ink, and dates filled and emptied, written with the pen and ink listed, for many of the reasons already stated. It is for me the simplest and easiest-to-maintain method I have yet discovered.

 

I tried everything I could think of electronically, from a full-up relational database, with custom interfaces to make the data input and maintenance "easier", to spreadsheets (in the process I discovered there are some pen fans who are extremely creative and have exceptional Excel skills), to a text file, but at the end of the day, the electronic solutions were not as easy and simple for me as writing a few words and a date on a piece of paper, with the actual pens and inks in question.

 

I could accept an electronic version as better if I had hundreds or more pens to keep track of, especially if I wanted to analyze usage and maintain, say, a balanced rotation, but with my set of about 40-50 pens, I find the manual method is at least as quick, just as informative, and, in the sense of using my pens as part of the task of managing them, more fun.

 

I do keep a spreadsheet that records pen make and model, date/place of purchase, price paid, warranty expiration, etc. It is a historical record that needs very little management (typically the insertion of a new purchase record, and these days even that is not so often anymore).

[brokenclay]

A table in OneNote (synced to OneDrive, so available to me on any device). One line per pen. As an ink is used, I cross it out and add any notes about it. I will also frequently note pen/ink in journal entries.

[Mangrove Jack]

I am the OP. Enjoyed reading your replies, thanks.

I only have a max of 8 pens inked at any one time and note down on a scrap of paper which ink is in which pen; and I keep that note with my FP's in my desk drawer.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Mangrove Jack

[N1003U]

I am the OP. Enjoyed reading your replies, thanks.

I only have a max of 8 pens inked at any one time and note down on a scrap of paper which ink is in which pen; and I keep that note with my FP's in my desk drawer.

Thanks for prompting the discussion. I am working to get down to 4 or 5 inked pens, which should be much easier to keep track.

 

A scrap of paper in a desk drawer sounds like a great system if I can manage to quit inking so many pens.

[Estycollector]

Its really easy when you only use Serenity Blue.....lol!!

[N1003U]

Its really easy when you only use Serenity Blue.....lol!!

Respect!

 

There was a day when I only used one ink ink (Waterman black), but that day is long gone...

[Estycollector]

Respect!

 

There was a day when I only used one ink ink (Waterman black), but that day is long gone...

I have to use black for medical forms and blue for personal. However, I do get it that there are other wonderful colors and hues .👍👍 Edited October 21, 2020 by Estycollector

[Mangrove Jack]

Thanks for prompting the discussion. I am working to get down to 4 or 5 inked pens, which should be much easier to keep track.

 

A scrap of paper in a desk drawer sounds like a great system if I can manage to quit inking so many pens.

Keep them all inked - use a bigger scrap of paper 😄

[A Smug Dill]

Keep them all inked - use a bigger scrap of paper

 

 

Which then, for the sake of containment and organisation, gives way pages in a notebook.

[N1003U]

Keep them all inked - use a bigger scrap of paper 😄

Unfortunately, I don't think I could possibly keep all of my pens inked without a major maintenance effort. Some models are more airtight than others, and while most of my pens will keep an ink charge reliably without drying out for well over a year or more, some struggle after 6-9 months with dry-outs (typically cheaper pens with snap caps, but also surprisingly some fairly expensive ones with an extra sealing mechanism in the (threaded) cap. It also doesn't help that I commute between two places that are 6000km apart, and pens can sit for up to a year with zero use or attention.

 

I tend to agree with A Smug Dill on the point that if a pen dries out under normal storage and use conditions in less than, say, 6 months or so (threshold varies with the patience of the owner, mine is about 6 months), it should probably be considered defective. I have a couple of pens that are defective in this sense, which are on death row, pending an evaluation as to whether they can be fixed (say, with a new cap and/or cap insert, or perhaps a replacement converter).

 

I don't like leaving inked pens lying around where it is possible they won't get used for many months, and I also don't mind the ritual of periodic flushing and re-filling pens (though I am not enamo(u)red with the effort required once a pen completely dries out), so while my preference is for rather more simultaneously inked pens, the practical pressure is for rather fewer.

 

I am still searching for a stable equilibrium. I posit, based on observation of my pen maintenance habits and pen usage habits that some meta-stable equilibrium exists for me in the 5-10 inked pen range, however, I am still fairly new to larger-scale pen ownership, so more research is still necessary to validate my hypothesis.

 

I write a fair bit, but not enough currently to regularly empty even 15-20 simultaneously-inked pens, let alone 40-50.

 

That said, I will do my best to use the biggest scraps of paper possible to track my inked pens, with as many inked pens as possible--maybe binding them into a notebook if necessary... I am now down to 7 inked pens here in Germany, which will reduce to 3 by next week when I leave for the Land of the Free, with those 3 pens as carry tools. Fortunately, I have several new impulsively-purchased pens waiting for me in the USA, all of which have apparently arrived in good condition and duty-free, so my number inked pens will almost assuredly increase again.

 

I am indeed a lucky person, to have such trivial first-world problems.

 

 

 

Which then, for the sake of containment and organisation, gives way pages in a notebook.

 

A true statement, which is, in fact, where I am currently--using pages in a (~B5 Clairefontaine school) notebook...

[mallymal1]

Write it down...

[tinta]

An mage to support post #16. The last page of my APICA CD11 notebook.

 

[ParramattaPaul]

An mage to support post #16. The last page of my APICA CD11 notebook.

in1-1.jpg

 

That is far too sophisticated for me.

[dms525]

I have a note in EverNote with a "Inked Pens" table. The columns are: Date, Pen, Ink, Comments. The date is when I inked the pen. The Pens are listed by make, alphabetically. The ink is the ink, with a "+/++" rating. Comments might be such as, "Needs dry ink." "Next time try ___ " and inks previously used with their rating.

 

I like this method for many reasons. It is especially useful when I am inking a pen for the first time in many months. I can check on what I used previously and how it worked out.

 

David

[mhguda]

I have a note in EverNote with a "Inked Pens" table. The columns are: Date, Pen, Ink, Comments. The date is when I inked the pen. The Pens are listed by make, alphabetically. The ink is the ink, with a "+/++" rating. Comments might be such as, "Needs dry ink." "Next time try ___ " and inks previously used with their rating.

 

I like this method for many reasons. It is especially useful when I am inking a pen for the first time in many months. I can check on what I used previously and how it worked out.

 

David

Great minds do tend to think alike. Your table is almost identical to my (Libreoffice) spreadsheet.

[Antenociticus]

I just use a small Fabriano notebook, write in the name of the pen and the ink and the date on which it was filled, cross it out when I empty and clean the pen. Simple.

[Marcwithac]

About two years ago, I got frustrated because I had too many pens inked and couldn't recall which inks were in which pens. So I took a small notebook that I received as as a gift from Fountain Pen Hospital with "Pen Jottings" on the cover and started to record the information. Each time I fill a pen, I use that pen (obviously with the ink I just filled it with) to jot down the pen, the ink and the date. When the ink runs out or I flush the pen I just cross out the entry. I have been quite satisfied with this method and was thinking myself quite clever until I read this thread. I guess what I do is fairly common among those of us who keep multiple pens inked.

[Charles Rice]

I don't have a clue what's in each pen until I write with it. Even then I'm not sure as most are a mix of a bunch of different inks.

[Mysterious Mose]

About two years ago, I got frustrated because I had too many pens inked and couldn't recall which inks were in which pens. So I took a small notebook that I received as as a gift from Fountain Pen Hospital with "Pen Jottings" on the cover and started to record the information. Each time I fill a pen, I use that pen (obviously with the ink I just filled it with) to jot down the pen, the ink and the date. When the ink runs out or I flush the pen I just cross out the entry. I have been quite satisfied with this method and was thinking myself quite clever until I read this thread. I guess what I do is fairly common among those of us who keep multiple pens inked.

Yes, indeed, the Pen Jottings notebook from FPH is small.4"x 6" x 1/2". How do you fit all that information on the tiny page? I find it hard to use with a fountain pen.

 

I, too, received a Pen Jottings notebook from FPH. I got mine in December, 2019, when I paid FPH an in-person visit and came away with a Waterman Expert fountain pen and a few bottles of ink.

 

My understanding of this Pen Jottings notebook gift is that it was a replacement for wall calendars. FPH stopped giving out wall calendars, starting with 2020, because of cost.