Ink Sampler

[TinyTim]

Do any of you remember the days of yore when Greg Clark published his Ink Sampler book every year? Of course, the number of inks were considerably fewer than nowadays (Goulet Pens offers about 800 different inks for sale. I have posted a picture below of a page from the Ink Sampler

 

[nemo]

I remember those days, never bought one, though. @TinyTim
Communicating, buying, selling on Pentrace Message Board and the Zoss List.

 

[tankerjohn]

Before my time. Interesting idea. Seems to be that the vast increase in numbers of inks on the market and the better availability of ink samples obviates the feasibility or demand for such a book today. I have also found that ink swabs often don’t accurately show the color it will be when it comes out of a pen. For that matter, the same ink looks different on the page from different nibs depending on width, flow, etc. But the book is still a cool idea and nice little side hustle.

 

[Borderboss]

I remember those days, never bought one, though. @TinyTim
Communicating, buying, selling on Pentrace Message Board and the Zoss List.

Wow, those are blasts from the past. I don't know if any of the forums are still going. They seem to have been supplanted with FaceBook groups, which is much less useful and not at all searchable. This forum is a decent replacement but would benefit by sub-topics. There probably aren't enough people using it to make that worthwhile however.

Zoss was an email list as I recall. That went away a long time ago.

 

[TinyTim]

Before my time. Interesting idea. Seems to be that the vast increase in numbers of inks on the market and the better availability of ink samples obviates the feasibility or demand for such a book today. I have also found that ink swabs often don’t accurately show the color it will be when it comes out of a pen. For that matter, the same ink looks different on the page from different nibs depending on width, flow, etc. But the book is still a cool idea and nice little side hustle.

John--I agree that there are so many variables that affect ink colors and a swab doesn't do it justice. I like ordering samples from Goulet Pens and trying them out with different pens and papers. Fountain pens have been a fun hobby for me and cheaper than other hobbies. I've been a piano player my whole life--'Keep Calm and Play the Piano'--and got a "used" German Schimmel upright piano (it sat in someone's home as a decoration for 15 years) that plays like a dream after my piano tuner works his magic.

 

[Filudo]

Cool, when I grew up there were only 2 brands and colors: Parker black (or maybe dark blue) and Pelikan blue (both in plastic tubes and glass (light blue). We preferred PeliKan as you could use the Tintenkiller to correct mistakes (school times) and the Parker was permanent. My father used Parker.
Now as a grown up, I discovered (20yrs ago) Pelikan in different colors....., which I use now (to make sure people don't sign papers on my behalf....). Yes I do use strange colors in a professional environment.....