How do you fill your ink desires

[southpaw52]

For those like myself that are confessed inkaholics how do you feed your ink obsession? Do you buy samples or full bottles? Do you buy multiple brands of inks or just a select few? Do you have a particular color theme or do you pick colors at random?

[LeFreak]

I wish I could be satisfied with samples, but I always end up getting bottles.

I've bought a lot of disappointing inks, so you'd think I'd have learned by now, but my impatience always gets the better of me. I bought a full bottle of De Atramentis Fuchsia document ink, hated the way it stained one pen, and ended up with Iroshizuku yama budo as my standard magenta - ish ink.

Currently I'm waiting on a bottle of Sailor Shigure (didn't sample first) and Diamine Bilberry (did sample)

I tend to decide I need an ink in a specific color family, then go on a binge of sample buying or looking at swabs online. Eventually I buy one or two bottles and give away the bottles of inks that don't work out.

[Chrissy]

For those like myself that are confessed inkaholics how do you feed your ink obsession? Do you buy samples or full bottles? Do you buy multiple brands of inks or just a select few? Do you have a particular color theme or do you pick colors at random?
I'm a confessed inkaholic, and I buy my inks in bottles. I also buy several brands and I pick colours at random. I suppose I have more blue and more red inks than any other colours. I do frequently try samples, but doing that only makes me buy more ink bottles. :)

I also sometimes like to buy vintage bottles of ink. :)

[migo984]

Bottles, never samples. All colour groups. Mistakes (infrequent) are gifted to friends. Only no-go inks are any with glittery additives.

After accruing many hundreds by most (all?) of the usual mass-produced big brands I've become a bit bored with the generic nature of the standard manufacturers & have moved on to new pastures. I now seek out the more esoteric small batch, hand-made inks by artisan producers, or new makers who appear on the ink scene occasionally. These are inks that are often made once and not repeated. I like that they are different & rather quirky.

I'm also lucky to have been part of development trials of some Japanese inks & so got my sticky mitts on some beauties that way. :-)

I still buy Japanese inks, of course, especially non-standard Sailor-made. In another league, in my opinion.

[inklord]

Bottles, rarely samples (the bottles are sometimes half the fun). For inks that come in ugly plastic bottles I buy nice glass ones and decant. I sort by color groups rather than brands, with a strong preference for off-colors (brown-ish, grey-ish, red-ish...). There are few brands that I avoid completely, usually not because all their inks are bad, but because their politics stink. And I love underdog inks (the inks that are gems but nobody talks about them much) such as Lamy blue-black, Abraxas "Koenigsblau", De Atramantis "Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin", R&K "Morinda", De Atramentis "Silver Grey", Franklin-Christoph "Loden" and "Terra Firma"... to name just a few.
And I really like Iron Gall inks, both types (for fountain pens and the traditional ones for quills).
If I notice myself not using a particular ink, I usually give it away.

[migo984]

Bottles, rarely samples (the bottles are sometimes half the fun). For inks that come in ugly plastic bottles I buy nice glass ones and decant. I sort by color groups rather than brands, with a strong preference for off-colors (brown-ish, grey-ish, red-ish...). There are few brands that I avoid completely, usually not because all their inks are bad, but because their politics stink. And I love underdog inks (the inks that are gems but nobody talks about them much) such as Lamy blue-black, Abraxas "Koenigsblau", De Atramantis "Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin", R&K "Morinda", De Atramentis "Silver Grey", Franklin-Christoph "Loden" and "Terra Firma"... to name just a few.
And I really like Iron Gall inks, both types (for fountain pens and the traditional ones for quills).
If I notice myself not using a particular ink, I usually give it away.

R & K Morinda is one of my favourite "under-the-radar" inks too :-)

[KKay]

I guess I've become an inkaholic now, so I will chime in. I usually buy samples now. That isn't 100% of the time, but close to it. I buy multiple brands of ink. I do have 3 brands that seem to be front runners. I pick colors at random. First it was to fill a need, now it is just to fill whatever I think I need....lol. I store my bottles by brand, not by color. I am a serial ink switcher with all of my pens. I rarely refill with the same color. I go to my journal and see what ink I might want to put in the pen. (I have a list of all of my inks.) I could use another red. I have only one bottle of red, and that is Diamine-Wild Strawberry in a 30ml bottle. I have more green ink that anything else. I also like blue-green and burgundy, brown/sepia, plus turquoise. I have ink from most offered color ranges though. Lately I have a big thing for green-browns. I have 7 inks on my wish list. 2 of those will be hard to come by though.


For those like myself that are confessed inkaholics how do you feed your ink obsession? Do you buy samples or full bottles? Do you buy multiple brands of inks or just a select few? Do you have a particular color theme or do you pick colors at random?

[blopplop]

How do I fill them? Easy! Buy more ink! :dance3::dance3::dance3:

Oh... you mean specifics. :)

I buy bottles not samples. Though I favor blues/burgundy's/reds, I like variety. So I buy most every color I like. Admittedly, I haven't warmed up too well to light oranges.

Dave

[radellaf]

There are few brands that I avoid completely, usually not because all their inks are bad, but because their politics stink.

Golly gee, what brand could that be... but then, I have no idea the politics of any other ink company. What causes does Diamine support? The Illuminati? That part is all under the radar... What bugs me most is brands like CdA & FaberC that charge so much that the cause I'm supporting is their brand image. R. Oster and Akkerman are pricey, too, but that seems to be import cost since I've seen the native prices. I'd love to visit Australia and the Netherlands and some ink would be a lovely souvenir. Or, I can save up and get 30 bottles, pay shipping, and cheer about my lower per-bottle cost as my shelves collapse. As it is, I just got 15 Oster samples and will be happy with that. I mean, I'm not, I want to drown in ink bottles, but this'll do for now...


R & K Morinda is one of my favourite "under-the-radar" inks too :-)

I'm OK with it on its own, but mixed with Helianthus I love it. Lots of ratios work. Next Seitz order will be Magenta, Blue Mare, and Smaradgrun; all shall be tested in mixes.

I just got 250 vials for $22 - is that an ink desire, or a 1.75L empty ink vacuum that must be filled... I'll have to bring some to the local pen club.

[Paddler]

My ink cellar is full of inks in bottles that I bought at flea markets and yard sales. The only time I buy ink from a stationer is when I need more blue / black Quink. That won't happen for quite a while now, as I am quite afloat in ink.

[inklord]

Golly gee, what brand could that be... but then, I have no idea the politics of any other ink company. What causes does Diamine support? The Illuminati? That part is all under the radar... What bugs me most is brands like CdA & FaberC that charge so much that the cause I'm supporting is their brand image. R. Oster and Akkerman are pricey, too, but that seems to be import cost since I've seen the native prices. I'd love to visit Australia and the Netherlands and some ink would be a lovely souvenir. Or, I can save up and get 30 bottles, pay shipping, and cheer about my lower per-bottle cost as my shelves collapse. As it is, I just got 15 Oster samples and will be happy with that. I mean, I'm not, I want to drown in ink bottles, but this'll do for now...


R & K Morinda is one of my favourite "under-the-radar" inks too :-)

I'm OK with it on its own, but mixed with Helianthus I love it. Lots of ratios work. Next Seitz order will be Magenta, Blue Mare, and Smaradgrun; all shall be tested in mixes.

I just got 250 vials for $22 - is that an ink desire, or a 1.75L empty ink vacuum that must be filled... I'll have to bring some to the local pen club.
That's the beauty of R&K (along with quite a few other brands): guaranteed mixability (with the exception of "Sepia" which is alkaline and clods in the presence of neutral buffers). I agree that "Morinda" with "Helianthus" is striking! And "Koenigsblau" with some 10% "Cassia" is dead-on with Aurora "Blu" and Sailor "Nioi-sumire".
Faber-Castell is exactly one of those price-gouging policy brands I avoid, as is Pelikans ridiculous "Edelstein" brand (really, you call it German "Edelstein", add the English "Ink Collection" and name the inks, once again, in English?!? Imagine Parker releasing a Gemstone Tintenkollektion including "Schreiberling Saphir". The bottles look like they belong in a Disney princess movie with their sparkling little Gemstone i-dot...) [btw. I'm German]
Still, I could not resist their "Smoky Quartz"!

[da vinci]

I rarely buy bottles, always samples. I just don't use my pens enough!

[VertOlive]

Samples almost exclusively at first, then the winners go on the "Buy a Bottle" list.

Once in a while, if an ink is a "Must Have", I go for the bottle straight off. Lamy Dark Lilac and Pelikan Smoky Quartz are two examples.


At the moment, I have 10-ish black ink samples vying for "Go To" status and a bottle of the winner will come on board eventually.

[inklord]

At the moment, I have 10-ish black ink samples vying for "Go To" status and a bottle of the winner will come on board eventually.
... can hardly wait for the announcement of the winner ;)

[Spideysgirl]

I buy samples first then bottles of the colors I like from the samples. It works best for me.

[naimitsu]

I started out with samples, though that was usually in the form of "let's get a sample of every ink of X tone".
This was partially because I was new to the whole thing, so I was unsure of the brands and what I wanted/liked in an ink.

Now that I know what I like, how the brands fare, and the potential rarity of the bottle, I tend to buy bottles.

Based on my EDC case, I use blues the most, though probably because there are so many different tones of blue that I like that I can organize my notes based on tone rather than color.

As for brands, I seem to lean heavily towards the Sailor camp, with Montblanc LE as a close second, with Pelikan Edelstein not far behind.

There are a few brands that I will never buy bottles of, but that's because I simply do not like writing with them. It feels like plastic forks dragging across styrofoam sounds (I cringe just thinking about it!).
And there are a few specific ink colors that will never touch another one of my pens.

Though now I try to keep an eye out for anything new and/or unique.
The only specific color I'm still on the hunt for is a replacement for Montblanc Violet. I have one bottle that I use sparingly because to me, that is the perfect tone of purple, and I have yet to find anything that comes close. There are other purple inks that I do like and do own, but nothing that can touch MB Violet.