Originally Posted by
FredRydr
IMHO, good ink bottle design includes simple access to the bottom of the bottle. I selected three bottles where the manufacturer included a facet enabling improved access to remaining ink. From the left are a 60ml Pelikan, a 50ml Waterman, and a 60ml Omas. When full and placed in this fashion, the ink level is at the edge of the neck.
For stability, the Waterman and Pelikan have greater surface area against the table top and lower center of gravity than the Omas, so they're less likely to spill when bumped. And I always bump my ink bottles during a fill.
The Waterman's and Pelikan's necks have a larger inside diameter than the Omas (don't let the photo fool you) offering a lower angle for inserting the pen, a definite advantage when accessing the lowest level of ink in a tipped bottle. When it comes to very lowest a feed could be immersed, the Waterman has the advantage over the Pelikan, though slight.
I know there are other bottles that have this simple feature that deserve comparison, but I don't own them. My Akkerman bottle is not "simple," and my other 35 bottles (including 50ml & 60ml Montblanc bottles) lack any design feature for a stable "tip."
Finally, this was just for fun. The Waterman and Pelikan bottles were designed at a time when ink wasn't a collectable, and was basic stuff. Ironically, the fancy high-priced inks these days have the worse bottle designs! Anyway, I don't move ink into different bottles as much as I used to. When ink is low in a bottle, I tend to decant into a 5ml vial or two.