I mentioned, when sharing my ink collection, that I had 58 pens and this will be a tour, of sorts, of all 58. It's an eclectic array of pens; from a cheap Noodler's Creeper to the now rather pricy OMAS Paragon Brown Arco Celluloid, my pens are hardly unified. I haven't really got a focus with the collection (though I haven't had, in the past, much of a focus with inks either!). I am, however, keeping an eye out for Sailor Store Exclusive or LE pens that catch my eye but in general I'm merely acquiring pens that I like a certain feature of (such as a nib or material) or a set of features. The closest I am to any form of organised collection is to complete my Visconti Wall Street set (I just need Blue) and I am, more generally, a fan of stacked celluloid.
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Ikea shelving unit
637 Bottles and 33.47 litres of Ink
It took a while but I finally cleaned the space around my ink shelf and and arranged the bottles somewhat to take a photo of the entire collection. The title is a bit untrue because as of these photos, 619 bottles of ink were on the shelf (well, one I forgot was on my desk) but I have 18 bottles of ink that are on the way as well making for a total of 637 bottles (593 if you discount the 44 duplicated). That's around 33.47 litres (8.84 gallons) of ink. I have an additional 99 samples and swatches of 165 inks that I have neither bottles nor samples of. In total I have 858 swatches of unique inks.
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Ink Comparison: Parker Penman Sapphire
Parker ceased production of Penman Sapphire in 2000 meaning that the bottle I have is at least 16 years old and probably older; that's more than half my age! I bought my bottle from a seller on eBay (and as of this writing he has another bottle up for sale). The ink is very well regarded and sort-after and the price certainly reflects that with prices upwards of $125 USD common. The price also dissuades many from getting the ink so alternatives are sought, and some, like Bungubox Sapphire, specifically mention that Parker Penman Sapphire was an inspiration for the ink. Brad Dowdy mentioned that Noodler's Baystate Blue, Private Reserve American Blue, and Diamine Majestic Blue come up as suitable substitutes but I've found in my testing that there are much better alternatives to Parker Penman Sapphire than these.
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