I did some late summer cleaning of my room last week, which involved clearing off my entire desk of all fountain pens, inks and notebooks. :O I took the chance to count up all my inks I’ve bought over the last three years of my obsession/hobby.
The final count: 64 bottles! I’ve made a list of all the brands I have, sorted by amount.
- Robert Oster: 8 bottles
- Monteverde: 7 bottles
- Pilot Iroshizuko: 6 bottles
- Sailor: 6 bottles
- J. Herbin: 5 bottles
- Kobe: 3 bottles
- Kingdom Note: 3 bottles
- Kyo No Oto: 3 bottles
- PenBBS: 3 bottles
- Lamy: 3 bottles
- Diamine: 3 bottles
- Taccia: 2 bottles
- Bungubox: 2 bottles
- Krishna Inks: 2 bottles
- Callifolio: 1 bottle
- Papier Plume: 1 bottle
- Organics Studio: 1 bottle
- Colorverse: 1 bottle
- Noodler’s: 1 bottle
- Nemosine: 1 bottle
- Akkerman: 1 bottle
- Vinta: 1 bottle
Robert Oster and Monteverde top the list in terms of amount of bottles. Not only are they wet, shading inks but they also are much cheaper than Japanese inks. I buy them because they’re inexpensive and come in many colors. J. Herbin is also nice and only felt watery in Perle Noire, which I promptly gave away. Iroshizuko and Sailor are my absolute favorite brands but because of cost I don’t have as many. They exhibit the best shading and sheen!
My favorite inks overall are Iroshizuko Ku Jaku, Iroshizuko Yamabudo, Sailor Sky High, Sailor Apricot, Monteverde Ocean Noir, Lamy Dark Lilac, Kobe #48, Robert Oster Cherry Blossom, Bungubox June Bride, J. Herbin Rouge Grenat, all my Kingdom Note inks, and Taccia Uguisu. I love teal, blue and red inks most of all. I’m most proud of getting a bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac and several boxes of cartridges! It was a lucky find at the D.C. Pen Show in 2016. I missed all the hype about it before because I was just getting into the hobby then.
Here are some individual pictures of my collection. I put them in a slide show so you can see them.
Most of the inks I disliked I got rid of, but there are still some in my collection I’m meh about. I enjoyed Robert Oster Frankley Blue until dried ink crystals from the bottle cap exploded all over my desk. Nemosine Coalsack Nebula is a beautiful shimmer ink but clogs so much. J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor was the most hyped ink of 2016 but didn’t live up to my expectations.
My emptiest bottle is Ku Jaku, because it’s a beautiful teal but mostly because its cap is cracked and there was a leak at some point. I only have 1/3 left. Yamabudo is close, with 2/3 left. Robert Oster Frankley Blue and Sailor Okuyama also have a good amount used up, also because of leaks. The rest aren’t even close! The problem with having so many inks is that I use different colors each time I write. It never gets boring but I also go through inks slowly.
I hope you enjoyed looking at my ink collection!
Notebook Joy 