Fifty Noodler's inks sitting in a box

[JustDaveyB]

My Fifty bottles of Noodler's ink sitting happily in their A3 storage box and still have heaps of space for more...

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[KrazyIvan]

Very nice. :) Let's hope Bogon does not raid your stash. :p

[Bogon07]

Very nice. :) Let's hope Bogon does not raid your stash. :p

I'm secretly training the team of black stealth bunnies that live near Beecroft train station to hop up north for that very purpose.

JustDaveyB that is a very, very impressive collection. Some eternal inks too I notice and Ganges Blue & Rome Burning as well.

Were you able to purchase many in Australia ?

Your numbered labels on the lids don't seem to match the Noodler's codes.....are they for your own counting records ?

[JustDaveyB]

No the code numbers relate to my fountain pen database where I keep track of all things.

I have purchased quite a few locally. (breakdown below)

Pen Shoppe, Brisbane 17
Art Brown,NY USA 4
Notemaker, Australia 2
Pens & Paper, Brisbane 4
The Goulet Pen Company,USA 17
Fountain Pen Hospital,NY,USA 4
West Coast Shaving,LA,USA 2

Pen Shoppe and Pens & Paper are both Brisbane pen shops and do have quite a selection. Price, normally AUD$24.95 a bottle.

Art Brown, FPH and West Coast Shaving had exclusive Noodler's inks so that is why they got a run.

The lovely people at Goulet's have become my main vendor of late as it is cheaper to buy from them (including freight) than buy locally.

I think I am only missing one of the 1oz eternal inks.

I am pretty much chasing label art Noodler's at the moment.

[writingrav]

Lovely!

[Bogon07]

All of my 23 Noodler's have come from either the Sydney City Stationery Office(ex-Penfolds) or QVB Pen-Ultimate aka the PenShoppe in roughly equal numbers. The CSO are slightly cheaper at $22.95AUD compared to $24.95AUD at Pen-Ultimate.

That bottle between RomeBurning and Bad Green Gator has a nice looking label ?

[Truppi327]

:shocked: That's just so beautiful. I want to go to there.

[JustDaveyB]

All of my 23 Noodler's have come from either the Sydney City Stationery Office(ex-Penfolds) or QVB Pen-Ultimate aka the PenShoppe in roughly equal numbers. The CSO are slightly cheaper at $22.95AUD compared to $24.95AUD at Pen-Ultimate.

That bottle between RomeBurning and Bad Green Gator has a nice looking label ?

That is The Blue Nose Bear - it is probably my next ink into use.

A better image of it
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[Bogon07]

Thanks JustDaveyB.
Oh oh The BlueNose Bear could be another Noodler's I get partially due to the label.
I got this mixed up with Polar Blue until I checked out Brian Goulet's video of it. Brian says it can look similar to Iroshizuku Syo-ro if not used in a flex nib.

[JustDaveyB]

Thanks JustDaveyB.
Oh oh The BlueNose Bear could be another Noodler's I get partially due to the label.
I got this mixed up with Polar Blue until I checked out Brian Goulet's video of it. Brian says it can look similar to Iroshizuku Syo-ro if not used in a flex nib.

It will probably get a run in my Pilot Custom 742 Black/Gold with the FA (falcon semi-flex nib)

[Jon Szanto]

This is an opinion different from the rest, but I offer it up not in spite but curiosity...

What strikes me about this storage is that you've traded off the obvious intelligent use of space for... something else. I note that each bottle has, in the middle of it's plain black cap, a label to identify the ink. Black cap, white lable, plain text. Completely hidden from view is the label on each bottle, each one different and colorful and artfully done, each clearly identifying in words and illustration just what is inside. All totally invisible at this point.

Curious. This manner of storage might have been my first thought, but not my last.

[JustDaveyB]

This is an opinion different from the rest, but I offer it up not in spite but curiosity...

What strikes me about this storage is that you've traded off the obvious intelligent use of space for... something else. I note that each bottle has, in the middle of it's plain black cap, a label to identify the ink. Black cap, white lable, plain text. Completely hidden from view is the label on each bottle, each one different and colorful and artfully done, each clearly identifying in words and illustration just what is inside. All totally invisible at this point.

Curious. This manner of storage might have been my first thought, but not my last.

Firstly, It saves me the time searching around the study to find the required ink - before I apply a coded sticker to the lid I had to lift each up to view the label.
Secondly, they are also not as obvious to my darling wife who thinks one FP and one ink is all you need.
Thirdly, in boxes they are easier to move to a cooler part of the house during the summer months

I however do admire the labels in part via a digital medium. I have images of ever ink bottle that I own both stored within my Filemaker database and in a higher resolution version that is included in my backgrounds folder for my study Mac so when I have my 27" monitor is on I get this random selection of pens, nibs and ink bottle images scrolling by.

I agree it would be much better to have them all on display behind glass or as some people do have them on a purposely made wall shelf. But this is how I roll... :)

[peterpen53]

Whether it is an intelligent way of storage or not may depend on the amount and the kind of storage you have available. Most of my ink sits in a desk drawer (of necessity) and that offers more or less the same view as Davey's box. Thankfully, I use ink from several brands (not including Noodler's for a variety of reasons) and in most cases the top of the box or the bottle are sufficient indication of its contents, with the exception of Diamine that provides a label itself.

[JustDaveyB]

Whether it is an intelligent way of storage or not may depend on the amount and the kind of storage you have available. Most of my ink sits in a desk drawer (of necessity) and that offers more or less the same view as Davey's box. Thankfully, I use ink from several brands (not including Noodler's for a variety of reasons) and in most cases the top of the box or the bottle are sufficient indication of its contents, with the exception of Diamine that provides a label itself.

Yes true most of my other 79 inks from 17 different manufacturers can be distinguished from above. Montblanc bottles in the main are designed that way. Diamine are just lazy, same label just a different sticker on the top with the ink name.

[Jon Szanto]

I agree it would be much better to have them all on display behind glass or as some people do have them on a purposely made wall shelf. But this is how I roll... :)
Completely understand, space and all that. TBH, I have about 90% of mine stored that way, with just a few up on a shelf because, well, they are interesting to look at. It would be fun to have a house with a temp- and light-controlled room to store them all in the open...

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[KrazyIvan]

No posting of store shelves please. :jaw:

[Bogon07]

Jon Szanto, ye gads that looks like a pharmacy !

JustDaveyB, IIRC you use your fountain pen database to randomly select which pens and ink to use next.

[JustDaveyB]

Jon Szanto, ye gads that looks like a pharmacy !

JustDaveyB, IIRC you use your fountain pen database to randomly select which pens and ink to use next.

I will say that I build reporting dashboards and databases for a living...

Well not random, but subject to a series of algorithms.

My current selection process is like this.

For pens I score those not inked on the basis of sum of days since last inked and days owned divided by times used. I have some additional logic to handle the case of a pen never used and in the case of me taking a pen out of use. These pens are then ranked by sorting descending of the score.

For those pens I have multiple nibs available (Aurora Talentums, Waterman Preface & Hemisphere, All the Pelikans) I use the similar algorithm of days owned divided by time used for both in this particular pen and for all pens it could be used in, also Days since last used for both this pen and for all pens it could be used in. As for the pens I have some additional logic to handle the case of a nib never used and in the case of me taking a nib out of use. The nib with the highest score for that pen is the next nib to be used in that pen.

Are you still with me? :)

For inks I pretty do the same calculations as for the nib but it is ink vs pen so days since last used in this pen, days since last used total, days owned vers times used, fudge factors also for never used and out of use etc. I also have a rating of 1-5 for both my pens and inks, where for pens, a one is a very valuable pen and one for an ink is a very safe ink - eg. Waterman Blue-Black on the other hand Noodler's Baystate Blue has an ink rating of 5 (dangerous). So as part of my next ink to use in the next pen I compare the pen rating and the ink rating, if the ink rating is greater that ink is banned from that pen so I include a negative score that makes it impossible to be used.

So the highest score is the next ink to be used.

I had a version that was more complex that this but one table grew to over 40000 lines and the compile time ran to minutes so I had to simplify it or buy a more powerful computer...

[peterpen53]

I will say that I build reporting dashboards and databases for a living...

Well not random, but subject to a series of algorithms.

My current selection process is like this.

For pens I score those not inked on the basis of sum of days since last inked and days owned divided by times used. I have some additional logic to handle the case of a pen never used and in the case of me taking a pen out of use. These pens are then ranked by sorting descending of the score.

For those pens I have multiple nibs available (Aurora Talentums, Waterman Preface & Hemisphere, All the Pelikans) I use the similar algorithm of days owned divided by time used for both in this particular pen and for all pens it could be used in, also Days since last used for both this pen and for all pens it could be used in. As for the pens I have some additional logic to handle the case of a nib never used and in the case of me taking a nib out of use. The nib with the highest score for that pen is the next nib to be used in that pen.

Are you still with me? :)

No. I thought this was supposed to be fun? :confused:


For inks I pretty do the same calculations as for the nib but it is ink vs pen so days since last used in this pen, days since last used total, days owned vers times used, fudge factors also for never used and out of use etc. I also have a rating of 1-5 for both my pens and inks, where for pens, a one is a very valuable pen and one for an ink is a very safe ink - eg. Waterman Blue-Black on the other hand Noodler's Baystate Blue has an ink rating of 5 (dangerous). So as part of my next ink to use in the next pen I compare the pen rating and the ink rating, if the ink rating is greater that ink is banned from that pen so I include a negative score that makes it impossible to be used.

So the highest score is the next ink to be used.

I had a version that was more complex that this but one table grew to over 40000 lines and the compile time ran to minutes so I had to simplify it or buy a more powerful computer...

And being the nerd you are you bought the more powerful computer, right?:)
You know, some time ago I also tried to set up a system but I seemed to end up with the pen/ink combos I liked the most at the moment. So out the system went.

[JustDaveyB]

No. I thought this was supposed to be fun? :confused:



And being the nerd you are you bought the more powerful computer, right?:)
You know, some time ago I also tried to set up a system but I seemed to end up with the pen/ink combos I liked the most at the moment. So out the system went.

No, I wanted to but wasn't allowed so I had to simplify the selections. I do override the database at times when I want one of my favourite combos for a purpose.

[Bogon07]

Sorry about the use of the word 'randomly'.
It was very interesting to hear about some of the logic behind your database.
I didn't realise you also did a selection criteria with nibs too.

Is there a weighting for different ink colour ?




When I first saw Aurora Talentums I read it as Aurora Tantrums :blink:

[JustDaveyB]

Very geeky logic I know but I can't resist.

I have to do a selection criteria with my Pelikan nibs especially because I can fit any one of 22 nibs in a M6XX pen as M6XX pens can take M600, M400 and M2XX nibs. I do keep a record of what nib originally belonged to what pen. I own more pelikan nibs than pens as I bought 5 custom ground M250 nibs from Richard Binder last year.

No I don't preference by colour but that would not be hard to do - something to think about. I do want to preference by ink to nib size as certain inks are just boring in fine nibs.

I do store certain information about the ink such as whether it is suitable for the office, whether it shades or not, whether it is for flex pens (Black Swan in Aust Roses et al) whether it is Bulletproof, water resistant etc. I also make comments about how an ink and nib work together whether the flow is wet or dry, skips, hard starting etc.

To cut out one variable I almost exclusively use Rhodia or Clairfontaine paper stock.

My Pilot Custom 742 Falcon nib is notoriously fussy about what ink it likes...

[Bogon07]

"To cut out one variable I almost exclusively use Rhodia or Clairfontaine paper stock." that forshadowed my next query.

But the one after is: do you have an ink book with samples of the inks and do you scan them into your database ?

[JustDaveyB]

"To cut out one variable I almost exclusively use Rhodia or Clairfontaine paper stock." that forshadowed my next query.

But the one after is: do you have an ink book with samples of the inks and do you scan them into your database ?

I have ink swab samples for each ink which are scanned and used in my database

I use a Writing Sample card made from No16 Rhodia blank pad paper to write a few lines about the current pen, nib and ink. I then scan it to use in my database and a reduced size version is used in my blog.

http://justdaveyb.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ws155170150_20120723_tn1.jpg

Here is one I did last month.

It has date, Pen Code, Nib code and ink code from my database

Then my scrawl of pen name, nib name and ink name, a few squiggles and then the first thing that springs to mind...

I am probably on the extreme of how people track their pen use. I do know quite a few people that just have a book where they write what combinations pen and ink they have used.

[manoeuver]

Davey, you are my hero. I will not be emulating your system but I love it all the same.