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One thing you may have noticed from my posts and reviews is a near lack of inks. I do not collect them, yet like many in our hobby I have amassed quite a collection. In addition I do enjoy swabbing and will soon need my fourth Col-o-ring (available in the UK through Cult Pens).
So here is the thing, aside from my post from December 2020 on my 10 main inks, the only mention they get is a note on my writing samples. This is despite using Fountain Pen Companion and a spreadsheet to keep track of what I have. Apparently to FPC there are 90 inks in my collection, though there are samples and small bottles amongst those, and I also have archived off a further 64 inks. So 154 inks in total, though there were others before I started keeping track.
Occasionally the United Inkdom get a batch of inks to sample and since joining the group I have normally stepped aside of those reviews, but now …. I’ve decided to join in. So my question is how to do these. I feel like a complete noob. I do actually have some ideas, but I want to try and be at least partially original rather than copying what others do. Presently I have decided I will review all the inks from the brand as a group, and if that works, look to extend that to inks I already own (Lamy, Kyo-Iro/Noto, Pelikan Edelstein, etc), but I am also thinking about individually reviewing some of them.
I welcome any thoughts 🙂
I like your idea of reviewing several inks from a particular manufacturer. I sometimes purchase another ink from a maker but then find that the second ink behaves differently from the first. My experience with the fountain pen hobby during the past year resulted in about 60 bottles of ink, which I am attempting to put into a rotation, similar to how some rotate through their collection of pens. However, I imagine that what I will in fact end up doing is preferentially using some inks, neglecting others, and purchasing ink samples before buying full bottles in the future. Thanks for your post!
I also like the idea to review all the inks from a manufacturer as a group, but I wonder how practical this is. Maybe going with ink characteristics as a grouping might be a more workable idea?
Another idea might be to distinguish more between writing and other applications/art. A lot of times ink reviews are only of limited usefulness to me as a writer since they tend to focus on ink splashes and the best way to provoke sheen and shading. Great for Instagram, but quite often nothing like the ink looks like when used for regular daily writing.
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