Bottom of the Ink Bottle

[Bipedallou]

I am sure someone has the answer to this question: what do you do with the ink in your bottle that is at too low a level to fill your fountain pen? Of course one could save it until there is sufficient room to pour it into a replacement bottle of the same ink, but what about inks that are not ones that you want to buy another whole bottle of?

 

Perhaps this question has been asked and answered before, and, if so, please overlook my laziness in not thoroughly searching through the postings to find it. But I would appreciate you more experienced users of fountain pens offering your own methods of using up residual ink at the bottom of ink bottles.

 

Lou

[jlepens]

I am sure someone has the answer to this question: what do you do with the ink in your bottle that is at too low a level to fill your fountain pen? Of course one could save it until there is sufficient room to pour it into a replacement bottle of the same ink, but what about inks that are not ones that you want to buy another whole bottle of?

 

Perhaps this question has been asked and answered before, and, if so, please overlook my laziness in not thoroughly searching through the postings to find it. But I would appreciate you more experienced users of fountain pens offering your own methods of using up residual ink at the bottom of ink bottles.

 

Lou

 

Use a syringe to lap it up and refill the converter or an empty cartridge. Or use it with a paint brush to practice sumi-e painting.

[Inka]

I use a 3ml syringe I got from Tractor Supply Company to drawl out the last few drops.

Before getting the small syringes, I used a 10ml syringe and long, blunt needle that came with a Universal InkJet cartridge Refill kit.

The smaller 3ml/3cc syringes only cost about $.28 USD each, but needles they have come sharpened & [iMO] should be ground blunt at the tip if you can't find blunt ones.

While I haven't looked, I have heard some hobby shops carry blunt needles for adhesive applications, I'm sure they can be had somewhere.

[dizzypen]

1. transfer to a small vial so that the level is high enough to fill your pen/pens

2. get a syringe and suck the ink up and manually fill your pen with the ink

3. if you have a converter, remove the converter from the pen and use it to suck ink up directly from the bottle

4. invest in a snorkel

 

I think that about sums it up.

[penspouse]

Save it in an "add to" bottle for experimental mixing as other bottles run low.

Edited August 19, 2009 by penspouse

[tnmike1]

throw it away?? That's my vote, especially considering how cheap ink is and how long it lasts. Seems you spend more on syringes, bottles, etc. than is worth the effort

[dogpoet]

throw it away?? That's my vote, especially considering how cheap ink is and how long it lasts. Seems you spend more on syringes, bottles, etc. than is worth the effort

http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/craveonline.com/legacy/article_imgs/Image/invasion.jpg

[PenTieRun]

throw it away?? That's my vote, especially considering how cheap ink is and how long it lasts. Seems you spend more on syringes, bottles, etc. than is worth the effort

http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/craveonline.com/legacy/article_imgs/Image/invasion.jpg

 

+1 Blasphemy!!!

[jd50ae]

Save it in an "add to" bottle for experimental mixing as other bottles run low.

 

 

...And it is called "GLUB".

Right now it is a rather interesting reddish brown cherry black dark light mind of its own.

[HenryLouis]

add it to the next bottle... if you didn't like the ink enough to get a new bottle, dump it in the sink.

[Paddler]

add it to the next bottle... if you didn't like the ink enough to get a new bottle, dump it in the sink.

 

"Dump it in the sink," he said with an interrobang?! Depending on the shape of the bottle and the size of the nib, that could be a whole half-ounce (15 ml) of ink. For most pens, that is 10 to 15 refills. Some people on this forum are young enough to write their entire memoirs with that much ink.

 

Something that hasn't been mentioned yet: Get an inkwell of Victorian design - the kind with the thimble-sized glass or porcelain insert. Use the ink with a dip pen. A fine pointed nib can easily stretch 15 ml for 200 pages or more. And think of the fun!!!

 

Paddler

[tnmike1]

gosh, sorry gang. Didn't mean to offend. And didn't think you could stretch the bottom of the bottle that far==200 pages is indeed alot. SO learned something new!!

 

Love the idea of the Victorian inkwell. Gotta hunt for something like that.

[islandlife]

This gadget works well. I used epoxy to attach a plastic container slightly larger than the pen to a larger plastic container for stability.

[lapis]

Now don't get me wrong, but this is a silly question which has already been asked a dozen times and I still see only 2 answers:

 

1. If you happen to like the ink, then buy another bottle and pour the rest of the old bottle into the new one, or, even better, use a pipette or syringe or eydropper for the transfer.

2. If you don't like the ink enough to ever use it again, then just chuck the whole bottle. Or, of course, wash it out and keep it for any new mix.

 

Mike

[Bipedallou]

Well thank you all for your helpful insights on how to make use of the ink in the bottom of the bottle.

 

The suggestion to just "throw it away" is not exactly the option I wanted to entertain, though of

course it is something that could be done to solve the problem.

 

The syringe idea, being the most common comment, does seem like the way to go. I will have to find out where I can obtain one suitable to the purpose...not only to extract the ink but be able to inject it into converters, or in the cases of my Esterbrooks, into the sacs. I can see where the same method used on the Esterbrooks will work on my Pelikan M400, removing the nib to gain entrance directly into the ink chamber. But I would expect much care needs to be taken so as not to, for the sake of using 10 or 15 cents worth of ink to refill the pen, damage to the mechanisms of converter, or piston filler, or putting holes into rubber sacs, is not done. Perhaps the constructed narrow plastic tube is a safer way to go, thank you for the picture.

 

My wife has a Scheaffer Snorkel, and yes it does empty a bottle more fully than my pens which fill through the nib, but she insists on using only Waterman's Florida Blue and so even the little the leftover from one bottle can be transferred to the replacement.

 

Again, thank you all for the quick, helpful , and some quite innovative ideas :clap1: , as well as some very amusing responses :ltcapd: . As you can probably glean from the very question asked, I must (as one has noted about the economic times in which we are passing through), turn my eye to using up and wasting not. In the not too distant past I would have certainly weigh the work-to-value quotient somewhat differently .

 

Lou

[ihopgod]

Spin around in a circle with the cap off; you'll add a unique design to any room of the house.

[HDoug]

I usually just add it to the next bottle of the same ink. But recently, I had a number of bottles of inks with a tiny bit at the bottom, and half a bottle of an ink I didn't like at all. Rather than waste any ink, I just threw them all together just so I wouldn't be dumping it down the sink. What resulted was the most wonderful and dignified blue-black one could imagine. Completely water resistant to (all component inks were Noodler's bulletproofs). But I'll never be able to replicate the ink again. Oh well. I'll just enjoy the 20 ml or so that I have and then have fond memories and journal entries of the mix, which I call "August Midnight (2009)."

 

Doug

[ajcoleman]

If you use a syringe and an eyedropper pen, there is no such thing as a bottle that is too low to refill you pen!!

[ismellarat]

Fill a cartridge with it and a syringe. Simple:) I actually have never needed to fill from the bottom of an ink bottle, only because the only ink that had gotten close to finished (waterman purple) I used the rest of to make a custom mix that I really like (other 2 components, waterman havana brown and water).

[CraigR]

So far I have just used the remaining ink to feed a dip pen. Sometimes I need to transfer to a different cup or cap. /Craig