Anyone tried keeping their fountain pens by ink type?

[Skip]

I say 'standing' instead of 'storing' because my fountain pens are never really stored, only kept standing in cups or jars, ready for immediate use. ~About 30 of 'em, and I try to give each at least a little action several times a week...
And I've been noticing that the brown, red, and green inked FP's are more liable (although not always?) to give a little trouble restarting, while the wetter black and various shades of blue inked pens will usually restart right up w/o problems... So I am now standing my drier-inked pens with their caps and nibs down in their jars, while the wetter blue/black ones are generally kept in the recommended cap and nip up position. And so far it's been working out better, with more evenly spaced trouble free restarts! ~And I've not experienced any leakage problems (yet?) with the nib-down ones, although I am definitely aware of the possibility...

But my thinking is even if I do experience some (hopefully slight?) leakage this way, it's not that much of a problem with capped pens stored in jars or cups. And it's worth it to me if this continues to facilitate easy restarts with fountain pens that are probably not used as much as they should be. I would never however recommend that FP's be carried in the nib-down position in anyone's pocket or briefcase...

Rating pens in general for restarts:
I would rate my always kept nib-up Pilot Granch (gold-nibbed FM), the Hong Dian N12 (F), and my Asvine P20 (F) as my most dependable and easiest restarting FP's. (And these are also my smoothest writers...)
~My two TWSBI pens are also amazingly good restarting pens! -Always kept nib-up, they'll easily restart even after a month's disuse! However I don't particularly care for the sloppy, overly wet way they both write, ~one is a Stub, the other a B.
My very inexpensive Sailor Profit Jr is a favorite that's kept standard nib-up and never fails to restart with a smooth and fine black line that's excellent for check book recording.
And all of the above pens have either black, blue, or purple ink in them!

But two types of pens that are also favorites, the good writing Pilot Prera and Cosmopolitan (with their CM and Italic nibs) are not the most consistent of restarters, and I'm beginning to keep them standing nib-down in the jars. And these mostly have brown, sepia, red or green ink installed!

And methinks I'm definitely seeing a pattern defined by ink color here... ~"'

[FredRydr]

I typically maintain about 15 vintage and modern pens filled and upright in my rotating desk rack, plus a filled vintage desk pen. I keep a list of which ink is in each, but I generally know anyway. For example:

IMG_0565.JPG

[Skip]

Nice! -And yes, I also keep records of ink types and nib types, although it's rarely up to date.. ~"'
But now I'm also thinking of starting a color-coding system where I put a different colored tiny sticky-paper dot somewhere on top of each pen so I can immediately know what type of nib is installed when I pick it up! (~Like, yellow for B, red for F, pink for EF, blue for flex, etc...)

[Chrissy]

I try to not have too many pens inked at any one time and depending on what case they may be in on my desk almost all are kept nib up. Keeping them nib up helps to ensure that the ink inside the piston or the converter doesn't evaporate quickly. They can evaporate ink in the feed but at least all of the ink doesn't evaporate from the piston or converter.

For example I have a Waterman Phileas Mississippi red that is always filled with red ink. Until I started storing it nib up it would lose all of it's converter full of ink within a week and none of it would be in the cap. Now it is stored in my ceramic Pelican it always has ink left inside the converter and it still starts straight away because there is plenty of ink in the converter that flows down as soon as it is nib down.

You will waste more ink in the pens that you keep nib down and it isn't due to it leaking out into the cap, although some will do that. It will just keep refilling the ink that it evaporates from the feed until there is none left to flow down into it.

Some pen caps make pens that are less airtight than others and I've worked out that keeping them nib up helps to keep the ink fill for longer. This is the way filled pens should be stored on a plane. Full of ink and nib up.

If I have more than 10 pens inked I empty some because I don't use more than 10 pens/ink colours on a regular basis.

[Skip]

Strikes me that air will get into a pen whether it's kept nib up or down? ~Having it nib up will not prevent air from entering a convertor or a cartridge... ~Having a good air-tight cap should definitely help eliminate some evaporation, but then that should be true which way, nib up or down, a pen is kept?
Anyway I'll keep an eye on things to see if my ink evaporates faster from my downnib pens than from my upnib ones...

[Chrissy]

Strikes me that air will get into a pen whether it's kept nib up or down? ~Having it nib up will not prevent air from entering a convertor or a cartridge... ~Having a good air-tight cap should definitely help eliminate some evaporation, but then that should be true which way, nib up or down, a pen is kept?
Anyway I'll keep an eye on things to see if my ink evaporates faster from my downnib pens than from my upnib ones...

I listened to a talk from the expert who designed Parker Penman inks for Parker Pens and following all of his advice about exactly how inks work in pens I made the choice to keep all of my pens nib up. I hope your way works well for you.

[FredRydr]

If you discover a method to prevent ink from dissipating from latex-sac lever-fillers, please share.

[Chrissy]

If you discover a method to prevent ink from dissipating from latex-sac lever-fillers, please share.

He talked about ink drying out of the internal collector and storing the pen nib up so that it didn't keep sucking up ink again. On a plane the pen has to be either completely full or completely empty so that ink doesn't come out of the collector. If the pen is full of ink it must be standing nib up on a plane too.

[Lloyd]

I'd imagine that having the air chamber next to the feed when a pen is nib up would allow the air to expand and contract without pushing too much ink out of the nib while the air pressure varies. If the pen is pointed nib down and the air expands, the ink will be driven straight out of the nib.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

[Chrissy]

I'd imagine that having the air chamber next to the feed when a pen is nib up would allow the air to expand and contract without pushing too much ink out of the nib while the air pressure varies. If the pen is pointed nib down and the air expands, the ink will be driven straight out of the nib.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

Yes that's what was explained to us at the meeting where he spoke. No air to expand and nib up = no ink leaking out of the collector.

[calamus]

The only Platinum pen I've ever owned was a Preppy, but even that one had the little inner cap that keeps the ink from evaporating from the feed. I left that pen inked and unused for months a couple of times, and it always started right up. Then I lost it. (Wah!)

[calamus]

I typically maintain about 15 vintage and modern pens filled and upright in my rotating desk rack, plus a filled vintage desk pen. I keep a list of which ink is in each, but I generally know anyway. For example:

IMG_0565.JPG

Your pen holder looks a lot like a pipe holder I used to have (before I quit smoking 'em).

[Skip]

Well so far my keeping some of my cup-standing pens in the down-nib position seems to be working out OK for me. The only pens that I get some hard starting with now are those I still kept nib up, and if that happens too often they join the down-nib ranks and become steadily ready again.
It's sort of hard to tell, but it doesn't appear like there's much of a problem with ink evaporation occurring either? ~However if there is some it's still worth it to me just to be able to pick up one of the 30 (or so) inked pens I have and immediately begin using it!

[Natalia98]

Organizing fountain pens by ink type sounds like an efficient way to manage both pens and ink collections. It ensures you have the right nib and ink combo at hand while reducing the risk of mixing incompatible ink properties.
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[Skip]

Hmmmmmm... ~If this idiot bot spammer agrees with anything then perhaps it really isn't the wisest thing to do...