Robert Oster inks, generally

[KKay]

I store my ink in an old stereo cabinet with glass doors on the front. The sun never comes in far enough to reach that cabinet. Most of my ink is also kept in the box as well. If you are going to use plastic, the darker bottles are a better choice, I agree. I found the Oster bottle easy enough to draw ink from. Sadly the 30ml bottles of Diamine have a narrow opening. So some of my pens won't fit through. The ink is what matters the most of course. I am sure Deep Sea will not be my only ink from Oster. I will probably try more in the future.

[Jon Szanto]

I store my ink in an old stereo cabinet with glass doors on the front.

Do you have two bottles of each ink, one for the left and one for the right?

[sgtstretch]

I do not know the kind of plastic Oster uses of course.

I believe it is PET plastic (Polyethylene terephthalate), the same plastic as you'd find from a soda bottle.

[KKay]

How did you know?

I store my ink in an old stereo cabinet with glass doors on the front.

Do you have two bottles of each ink, one for the left and one for the right?

Thanks sgtstretch. :-)

[Woody]

Thanks for posting Stub. I plan to order some Oster ink and I won't think twice about the bottle. I decant anyway. I think in the future youll see more plastic bottles with players thinking about transport costs and not the glass bottles. Noodlers used plastic for a short time, Blackstone from Australia are using plastic. Glass bottles are available if one wants to use them. Empty Iroshizuku bottles are available for a nominal fee, I've got a couple of those that I use, and there's always Diamine bottles for a dime a dozen. From a movie somewhere, "plastics are the future".

[stub]

I have really disliked a lot of the teal leaning blues (like half his line up, Fire & lice, School Blue, Denim, Lake o' Fire) He really can't seem to manage (or doesn't want) to make a medium blue that has no green in it. Holy lord does he like teal. Literally half the inks I got in my 14 pack that were "blue" are really dry teals. Bone Dry, Tons of shading and sheen but I hate teal. H A T E. I thnk he is up to 92771910028189 inks now. 92771910028181 of them are Teals. </hyperbole> Also this is down to taste so not a slam on some fine inks that I also notice, clean out pretty darned easily.


But the Greens .... oh the greens... Jade is a huge winner for me color-wise. A bit dry on the nib but a great color and I also have been really taken with the Verde De Rio, which is fantastic.

Blue Night has also been a winner for me a nice useful conservative work appropriate ink with a little bit of a pastel-y vibe like Kyonooto Aonibi. But a good one.

I actually still have inks I haven't gotten to yet. A couple funky ones like Grün-Schwarz which looks a little like green tinted motor oil.

Blue-black was a disappointment. It is really just purple. But RO joins a long list of ink makers who can't get Blue-black right. (Platinum's is blue, Diamine is teal, etc.)

[stub]

But please Bobby Oyster. SLOW DOWN. 18 new inks a week is too much.

[stub]

Oh and Caffe Crema is great too. Really does give off a coffee & milk vibe, a kind of creamy sepia. But the edges get dark, almost black. A really rich and complex brown.

[AzJon]

These are just my thoughts. You asked, and I answered.

Indeed, and it was curiosity, not an admonishment. Plastic is not one thing, and the porosity of the various formulas varies widely, so the fact that carts evaporate - and this is over many, many years - doesn't mean the bottles will. Likewise, I don't think it would (necessarily) have any degrading effect. Of course, the "I" answers are truly personal, and everyone can have those kind of responses.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that Oster is a small operation, and the choice of bottles most likely keeps down the cost, not to mention that, except for the small-ish AU market, everything is shipped out of the country. Just for grins, I might ask him how much deliberation went into the bottle choice.

Two things. First, I now use glass bottles for a number of concoctions that are intended for medicinal use. My patients feel better about it and I don't mind the added cost. That said, I don't have to ship the little bastards, either.

Second thing: I used to work in a warehouse that moved lots of glass bottles (wine and beer bottles, as well as glass carboys) and they are an absolute pain in the butt. Fragile and heavy, they require extra care while packing and more insurance when shipping. We had at least one shattered carboy or handful of bottles a month. Nevermind filling them with liquid and handing them off to UPS/USPS/FedEx/DHL. To top all that off: the glass bottles themselves aren't cheap. Well, the glass is inexpensive, but the price of lids can add up fast.

The glass will be chemically more stable, I suppose, but there is a good chance those chemicals came to the manufacturer (Robert Oster, in this case) in plastic containers, so.

[VertOlive]

I see some ink names here I hadn't heard of yet, and now have to try. So far I love the Eucalyptus Leaf and the Bronze, and my samples of Purple Soul and Blue Night.

I do prefer glass bottles for aesthetic reasons and don't mind the extra cost.

[KKay]

I don't mind the cost either. Drop the cost if they want to use plastic. I have two Noodler's bottles that are plastic, and I absolutely HATE the bottles. They are a good size, and they have a wide mouth. But they are cheap looking. I am keeping all of my glass bottles. If they go to plastic, I will pour the new plastic bottles into glass ones. I have poured two Diamine 30ml bottles into a glass bottle. You can peel the sticker off of them, and it will stick to your glass bottle. The Noodler's stickers are paper, and if it peels wrong you've lost it. The artwork is part of the appeal for me. I think having a signature glass bottle is fantastic, especially if they make it easy to draw from.

[jmccarty3]

No one has mentioned the oranges. I like Orange Zest.

[jodylud]

I really like Robert Oster's "Ng Special 2016". It's shading is very close to Noodler's "Apache Sunset", only much better behaved.