How to swatch fountain pen ink: 3 easy methods

[@thewetpen]

I started off using a Col O Ring for swatching, but eventually decided that it made more sense to swatch inks on papers that I actually use to write on, so I made swatch-rings out of Rhodia, Tomoe River, Midori, Yu-Sari, and my other favorite papers. It's a bit of work to start with, but enjoyable, and then you have a good record of how inks will react with different papers... which turns out to be much more important than many people would expect. I have quite a few inks that are, for example, blue on Tomoe River and Green on Yu Sari, or Purple on TR and Brown on Rhodia, etc. And using swatch cards rather than notebooks allows me to arrange them by color (or pull them out for comparison) even as I add new inks to my collection, as you said. I think it's worth mentioning that ink swatches take some practice to be useful; we need to learn how to "read" them, just like a photographer has to learn how to "read" a negative. Once you know how, you can get a lot of great information from a swatch, but it can be misleading to just take a swatch at face value. I also used to do the grid for testing water resistance, but I find that of the 600 or so bottles of ink that I own, only a couple of them are water-proof enough for it to matter, and it just takes up too much time and space for me. I really love the effects that you get with your syringe spatter! Great video 🙂

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Thanks for watching!

[@highnoon9333]

I use a cheap old t-shirt underneath my cards when i swatch and when I refill pens. I just like seeing the cotton get saturated with the ink and seeing it spread out. It also gets all the different colors on it and it's just fun. No, I don't plan to ever wear the shirt.

[@queenbuzybee4074]

Do it, wear it! Haha. Great idea with the old t-shirt, thanks for that! My wife may even be excited by me “getting rid of an old t-shirt”! Thanks for the idea!

[@storge306]

Thank you for sharing, mate. Using the back end of the glass dip pen is a brilliant idea! I too was keeping a list of inks in the back of what-ever-journal I was using at the time. Indeed, this is not a good idea. This is a timely video as I just bought myself a dedicated Rhodia Spiral Notebook to swatch all of my inks in (with a dedicated ink swatch stamp).

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Nice! A Rhodia notebook is a great idea. I love their paper.

[@fountainpeninsanity3344]

I’m glad to see you are having fun with the inks! Sorry about any spills in the mail. I wish I could keep that from happening. I enjoyed this video because I have been reconsidering how I do my swatching. I have always swatched several different inks in the same color family on one sheet of paper. This makes the swatches hard to reorganize. I have a new idea for organizing swatches and I am looking for a good time to try it out.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

No trouble at all, Sara. I've had brand new inks leak in the mail too. You packed everything amazingly well. The only real trouble is that one of the labels you added to a Robert Oster ink bottle has been inked over, so I don't know what the ink is. haha If you happen to remember what you put in there, let me know. It's the one that was in with the Troublemakers bottle.

[@fountainpeninsanity3344]

That might have been Leonardo Officina Italiana Black.

[@fountainpeninsanity3344]

I hope the ink didn’t get on everything in the box.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Nope! Not to worry. It was just a leak in one small bag. Everything else was fantastic.

[@fountainpeninsanity3344]

@@DowntheBreatherHole Oh, good!

[@fbales]

I use 3x5 index cards cut in half with Q-Tips. Work great. Cheap. I use a dip pen to write.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Good idea! I used to use Q-Tips all the time with ink. I still do from time to time.

[@phototristan]

I do something similar but with a keyring to attach them all. So I have them all together in a swatch ring.

[@elainenabors9832]

Welcome to the inky goodness of swatching!!!!! I am in love with your syringe tip!! Thanks!! I’m totally trying that!! I make watercolors with my leftover ink from the syringe.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Nice! I'm glad you liked that tip. It's a lot of fun, and I like how the results look.

[@mixeddrinks8100]

I have the same cards, I color the whole bottle once including the cap, go over the bottom of the bottle again to get the medium saturation, and go over it a few times on the cap. So 3 different variants, heavy ink on the cap, medium near the bottom of the bottle and light on the top of the bottle. I write the name of the ink and brand on the top of the card along with the size of the bottle with a sailor dip pen, lastly the rest of the space I write the name of the pen and nib I use it in from that pen/nib. So you could write a few pen/nib in case you intend to use it multiple time.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Those are good ideas!

[@PenLobster]

I have some of those Wearingeul cards on order to do my first swatching, so this is a timely video for me. :) Love the ink syringe technique - I think that gives a really cool effect.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Nice! Yeah, I like the effect of spraying the ink too.

[@fossilimprint2954]

You taught me a lot of methods here, thank you.

[@karenholden4740]

Love the back of the pen. Great idea!

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Thanks! Yeah, I think I got it from a reel on Instagram. Haha

[@lulugolde3702]

Great tips, love the Jackson Pollock look with the syringe method! What kind of book do you use? Do you know the references? Thanks!

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

I use Wearingeul ink swatching cards, and the plastic book they go in is also from Wearingeul. I got them from Goulet Pens.

[@GcOGc01981]

You really need a Kakimori Brass nib (they make a steel nib which has a sharper tip. I prefer the brass and I've heard you can get the brass in a distressed look rather than doing it yourself, this nib is soooo cool u can do EVERYTHING with this nib. Goulet pens is a good place to get one you will also need a holder. BTW I've 60s. We would take a sheaffer and cut the tip and end up with a calligraphy nib sort of. I am also a calligrapher. Did many many menus, signs, etc. I so love messing with the pens. Just ordered Monteverde's new Innova penand another Monteverde. Can't wait to get them. Cool think is at Goulet I got to choose a bottle of ink with each pen, got the new Innova love this pen and the newest one that has a different fill (don't remember what it's called.) so now I have to wait. Good vids thx.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Those Kakimori nibs are so cool! They are kind of expensive though, at least for my budget. But I would love to try one someday.

[@queenbuzybee4074]

Hey Brian! I love the splatter idea! Now just to make a plan to not have my office look like Jackson Pollock painted it, although that could be cool as well. Thanks for sharing!

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

Haha it's not too bad. If you do it on a wide table or counter it's pretty easy to wipe up any splatters afterwards.

[@sherrycohen1824]

Helen Wang of The Coffee Monsterz KZbin channel just posted her ink swatches in a notebook, but she cut up strips of paper from notebooks she typically uses. This way she can see how the ink colors contrast on different papers.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

I looked it up! That's a really creative take on ink Swatching!

[@mayneric]

You can also use a fountain pen as a dip pen. No need to fill it up if you are doing multiple inks. You’ll need to rinse it off but won’t need to fully clean.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

That's a good idea, though even just dipping the nib in ink might draw a slight amount of ink up inside the feed, so before you do a true fill with that pen, you might want to do a good flush, just in case.

[@herrsteppenwolf]

Unless you're using your inks for artwork, I find swatching inks give you a false impression of the ink on paper written with your fountain pen. For instance, while an ink swatch my show sheening properties, these properties may not appear when written on a page. Yes perhaps with broad or double broad nib but not medium and fine and certainly not extra fine nibs. Swatching can be fun, but look at how many of inks you wrote with with the glass dip pen looked so much different compared to the swatch.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

I don't mind the difference, actually. I find it helpful to have the larger ink swatch, which I can compare to the writing next to it if I need to. The look of a fountain pen ink varies widely depending on the pen and paper you are using, so I'm okay with some variation between what I'm seeing on the swatch and what the ink looks like in a fountain pen.

[@rgcainmd]

Still using Noodler’s?!?!? 🤢🤮

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

I actually don't use them much anymore. Are your problems with Noodler's political/social or related to the quality of the ink itself?

[@rgcainmd]

@@DowntheBreatherHole Both, but primarily Nathan Tardiff's antisemitism.

[@DowntheBreatherHole]

I definitely get that. It was a weird situation. I definitely don't see the world the same way Nathan Tardiff does. But I'm willing to believe that his apology and changes to his company were sincere. That's just me though. I don't blame anyone for not wanting to give him their business.

[@potandpens]

A store near me stopped carrying Noodlers I didn’t realize it was drama with the brand. Idk if that’s why but interesting to know it’s a possibility

[@400cabal]

If I've already paid for it, I might as well use it.