Empty Bottles

[FoolishMortal]

My wife and I have several fountain pens between us. Okay, she has her two because I bought them for her, but still...

Anyway, we don't go through a ton of ink, but I've found myself in possession of two empty bottles. What do you gents do with the empties? Do you repurpose them in some way, decant your gallon drums of Pelikan into them, display them, or simply recycle them?

 

[Doc4]

decant your gallon drums of Pelikan into them

I decant my larger containers of ink into spare Pelikan gallon drums.

 

[rockviper]

It depends on the bottle. P.W. Akkerman bottles just scream to be reused.

 

[FoolishMortal]

It depends on the bottle. P.W. Akkerman bottles just scream to be reused.

Those are very cool. What do you reuse them for?

 

[rockviper]

Inks from more mundane bottles would be my guess. My Akkermans are still new, less than 1/2 a fill gone.

 

[Jut]

I have 2 of the older 100ml+ Ackerman bottles. I refilled mine with pilot blue black.

 

[Tomo]

I use my empty Iroshizuku sample bottles to take a bit of decanted ink to the office.

 

[Lefonque]

Iroshizuku is great ink and their the older bottles are great.

 

[Slivovitz]

It depends on the bottle. P.W. Akkerman bottles just scream to be reused.

My favorite bottle design, although there's a Montblanc bottle that's close.

My Akkerman's #5 Shocking Blue is the most attractive blue ink I have, but gets used very seldom because it's not in the least water resistant. Reading this thread, it occurs to me that I could decant its contents into something else, and fill the Akkerman bottle with, say, De Atramentis Document Blue, Namiki Blue or Blue-Black, or something else from my favorites.

I have emptied a few ink bottles, recycling some, saving others for some undetermined future use. Emptying doesn't necessarily I've used up the last of the ink; I occasionally decant it into something else.

 

[Snargle]

I've got several old Sheaffer Skrip bottles that I've picked up at flea markets and antique shops. The built-in inkwell is a great feature, particularly when the ink level gets too low for a normal filling. I've transferred several inks into them and, as long as I label them correctly, they're great!

 

[Runnin_Ute]

Mostly repurpose. Right now I have Levenger, Waterman, Diamine, Lamy, Pelikan, vintage Skrip, Edelstein, Blackstone and KWZI empties.

The Diamine is an 80 ml, Pelikan 62.5 ml. Three Levenger bottles.

I am currently using a previously emptied Levenger, and two Pelikan 62.5 bottles for other inks if my count is accurate.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[Doc4]

Iroshizuku is great ink and their the older bottles are great.

Did they change their bottles?

 

[tankerjohn]

Iroshizuku is great ink and their the older bottles are great.

Dude, their new bottles are great! I'm only halfway down my bottle of Asa Gao, so I haven't had a chance to see how the divot works for filling when the level gets low. But I appreciate that Pilot at least thought about it.

As an aside, I'm endlessly fascinatedly by all the different ways that pen/ink companies have designed bottles to get the last little bit of ink out - Montblanc's "shoe" shape, Visconti's "vase" shape, Waterman's polygonal shape that lets you filled from bottle tipped to the side, Sheaffer's and Platinum's inserted ink well, Akkerman's on-top ink well, Pilot's divot"... I'm sure I'm missing some cool ones.

 

[FoolishMortal]

Well...dang. My vintage Parker bottle was washed and set out to dry. Somehow, SWMBO knocked the cap onto the floor while moving the mixer (she makes amazing sourdough) and one of the dogs got to it. RIP, dear cap.

Thankfully, the same style of cap, with the same threads, comes on the kombucha bottles that she buys, so at least I can have a cap on it. Heck, the new one will probably seal better, too...

 

[Vacumatic]

I save them all, especially the better designs. Some ink bottles are badly designed, such as the 80ml Diamine bottle with a narrow neck and a broad square base, having spare bottles such as MB shoe is useful for swapping over the ink.

There are also some very needy friends who blend ink, a spare bottle is often useful to them.

 

[Doc4]

"Empty ink bottles" are like "leftover bacon" ...

... I understand these things can happen in theory. Buuuut ... I don't recall seeing them actually happen more than once in my life.

 

[Eutychus]

It depends on the bottle. P.W. Akkerman bottles just scream to be reused.

Oh my, they look fantastic! I must get one, if only for the bottle!

 

[ChefJohnBoy-ardee]

I've kept a few as trophies. Vintage Scrip etc just get a less than ideal refillable bottle a few more refills.

 

[Shutterbug57]

It depends on the bottle. Some bottles, like the Skrip inkwell bottle and Waterman bottles just beg to be used as they are easy to fill from, but they don't adorn your desk that well. Others, like the older Pelikan bottle with the built in pen rest or the older round Parker bottles with its stand with the pen hooks look great on the desk, but are more finnicky to fill from. I use them all. I may refill the desk adornment bottles with a more pedestrian ink or ink from a newer bottle of the same make, but for my volume inks, I keep them in the utility bottles in my drawer.