Ink Bottle With Reservoir

Years ago, I used and ink bottle from Scheaffer (Skrip) that had a reservoir in it. It made filling a pen a breeze - and you didn't waste ink. Recently, I came to the end of a Waterman ink bottle and to get some of the remaining ink I had to tilt the bottle to fill the pen. I then bought a bottle of Private Reserve ink. I noticed it has no provision to capture the remaining ink when the nib can't access it.

First, how do you handle filling a pen under such circumstances? I have twist converters on four different pens.

Second, are there any ink bottles out there that have reservoirs in them that actually work?

Those Skrip bottles are still the best, imo. The current Sheaffer bottle does not have any provision for getting the last bit of ink, as the former design that we are talking about was discontinued back in '98 or '99 or thereabouts. Montblanc shoe bottles do have a kind of reservoir as well, but it is still flat bottomed and needs tipping (and holding) to really be effective. The best bottle on the market for this purpose, by far, is the cod-stopper Akkerman bottle. But it isn't cheap, as just getting one will be north of $40 usually, depending on if they are even in stock at any given time.

I'm actually selling several old bottles of Skrip (some just discontinued colors, like Burgundy or Jet Black; some actual Vintage ink) and have at least 1 "empty" bottle as well for sale. They are very popular for decanting ink from other subpar bottles into, so one can get all of the ink. The sale is not listed on BnB (it's on the Pen Swap forum at reddit) so I won't link to it or cross post or anything, but if you want any info, just pm me and I'll link you directly. It sounds like decanting int an actual Skrip bottle would be exactly what you want to do.

Lamy has one.

Sailor (below). Make sure to inhale.


Of course, the super Akkerman stopper bottle

TWSBI makes a clever little inkwell called the Diamond 50, available from Goulet that works like the Sailor imaged above, but with an added feature. It has the same little conical plastic insert into which you can put ink when you just have a little. Stick your pen in and suck it up. Or you can use the red metal cap you see below, which has a straw attachment that fits TWSBI pens and international converters. Stick your pen or converter onto the top of the straw and suck up the ink.

What's cool about the little conical insert Sailor and TWSBI use is that you can put ink in the glass portion of the inkwell with the insert installed, recap the inkwell, then turn it upside down and back a couple times. There are holes in the conical insert that will capture ink from the glass inkwell and keep it in the conical insert. Pretty clever.

It's a great device for dip pen use too: Fill the insert to the correct level, then just dip the pen all the way in. No need to keep peering into the bottle to make sure you are dipping to the correct level.

ackvil said:

Years ago, I used and ink bottle from Scheaffer (Skrip) that had a reservoir in it. It made filling a pen a breeze - and you didn't waste ink. Recently, I came to the end of a Waterman ink bottle and to get some of the remaining ink I had to tilt the bottle to fill the pen. I then bought a bottle of Private Reserve ink. I noticed it has no provision to capture the remaining ink when the nib can't access it.

First, how do you handle filling a pen under such circumstances? I have twist converters on four different pens.

Second, are there any ink bottles out there that have reservoirs in them that actually work?

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Namiki inks have a filler cone insert.

You could always take the converter off of the pen to fill it up. Then just dip the nib and feed in the ink for a few seconds to get some ink flowing in the feed.

Post #2 may be of some interest:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/347348-Video-Reference-and-Tutorial-Guides

My recent acquisitions of Sailor Jentle Four Season inks have ink reservoirs and my vintage Parker Penman inks has ink reservoirs too. Personally I don't like them and I prefer not to use the ink reservoir. What I do for the last remaining ink in the near empty ink bottle is to unscrew my Pelikan nib and carefully pour the last of the ink into my pen like an eye dropper pen.

Radium said:

My recent acquisitions of Sailor Jentle Four Season inks have ink reservoirs and my vintage Parker Penman inks has ink reservoirs too. Personally I don't like them and I prefer not to use the ink reservoir. What I do for the last remaining ink in the near empty ink bottle is to unscrew my Pelikan nib and carefully pour the last of the ink into my pen like an eye dropper pen.

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You must have some steady hands. I couldn't imagine doing that myself without a blunt-tipped syringe.

Claudel Xerxes said:

You must have some steady hands. I couldn't imagine doing that myself without a blunt-tipped syringe.

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The trick is to do it in one quick precise swoop down the hatch and yes my hands are usually pretty steady.

Claudel Xerxes said:

You could always take the converter off of the pen to fill it up.

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Really? You've got some dainty little fingers. How you gonna turn that?

nemo said:

Really? You've got some dainty little fingers. How you gonna turn that?

View attachment 708154

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I have magic hands, my friend. I guess I wasn't thinking it through. I was thinking about transferring the remaining ink to an ink vial, then filling the feed and converter with the remaining in in the vial.

Get a Sheaffer Snorkel

+1 on the Ackerman! I see empty Skrip bottles for sale in antique stores all the time.

The Montblanc Shoe is also a great design for filling when the levels get low.

nemo said:

Really? You've got some dainty little fingers. How you gonna turn that?

View attachment 708154

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Just attach a blunt needle to the tip of the converter.

Lamy bottles have a useful dimple on the bottle that allows you to fill large nibbed pens, the Montblanc shoe design is also quite good.

Diamine are hopeless, the 80 ml bottle has a very narrow neck and a square base making tipping of the bottle very tricky.

The Waterman bottle has champhered corners to allow some stability as you tip the bottle.

The Sheaffer reservoir bottle can still be found on ebay allow the cap suffers from rusting, I havent found a suitable replacement,

You could always buy an ink well and do some decanting!

Lamy's bottles are good as are Montblancs. The Waterman bottle's ability to tip on it's side is also a boon, but getting every last drippy-drop of ink out of any bottle will be challengeing.

I've saved Waterman, Lamy, and Montblanc bottles just for the purpose of reuising them for inks that come in utterly worthless bottles. (Aurora, I'm looking in your direction.)

You could also use an old ink sample vial. I've saved a couple of those too.

Komboloi said:

TWSBI makes a clever little inkwell called the Diamond 50, available from Goulet that works like the Sailor imaged above, but with an added feature. It has the same little conical plastic insert into which you can put ink when you just have a little. Stick your pen in and suck it up. Or you can use the red metal cap you see below, which has a straw attachment that fits TWSBI pens and international converters. Stick your pen or converter onto the top of the straw and suck up the ink.

What's cool about the little conical insert Sailor and TWSBI use is that you can put ink in the glass portion of the inkwell with the insert installed, recap the inkwell, then turn it upside down and back a couple times. There are holes in the conical insert that will capture ink from the glass inkwell and keep it in the conical insert. Pretty clever.

It's a great device for dip pen use too: Fill the insert to the correct level, then just dip the pen all the way in. No need to keep peering into the bottle to make sure you are dipping to the correct level.
View attachment 708128

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+ 1000, use mine all the time. Stick converter on "nipple" in bottle, fill, no mess! Replace filled converter in pen.

Foyle said:

Lamy's bottles are good as are Montblancs. The Waterman bottle's ability to tip on it's side is also a boon, but getting every last drippy-drop of ink out of any bottle will be challenging.

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Doesn't a blunt needle syringe solve this problem of getting an ink bottle fully emptied? Or at least make the bottle type an inconsequential variable?

But I guess some pens can't be filled by a syringe at all, is that it?

Komboloi said:

Doesn't a blunt needle syringe solve this problem of getting an ink bottle fully emptied? Or at least make the bottle type an inconsequential variable?

But I guess some pens can't be filled by a syringe at all, is that it?

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Yes, the syringe can help get every last drop of ink. It's not always practical though. You can fill a converter very easily from an ink syringe. Filling a piston filler like a Pelikan can be done as well, but that requires unscrewing the nib unit, and not every one may feel comfortable doing that. Vintage pens with rubber sacs, or pens where the nib unit can't be filled with an ink syringe.

The Levenger ink bottle is great. http://www.levenger.com/catalog/PenRefill.aspxit has a well also.