(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
I am notoriously bad at keeping track of what pens I have inked and what inks are in those pens. For example, I inked my TWSBI mini AL blue with a simply wonderful blue ink, and now I’m not sure what it is. I think it’s Bookbinders Blue Racer Snake Ink, but it could be one of many other samples I’ve tried out in the past month. Ugh. So frustrating.
Many people keep their “Currently Inked List” in one of their regular notebooks or journals. I know one super-organized man on Twitter who actually created a database that automatically tells him when it’s time to ink up a particular pen and then it chooses a random ink from his collection. This forces him to try each pen with a different ink. That’s genius, but I don’t know how to build such a database, and I’m ridiculously obsessive about inks matching the pen color, so I probably would not use a random ink generator. Still, very cool.
Image from PenHabit.com
The Pen Habit offers a nice analog solution for keeping track of your inked pens. It’s called the Inky Fingers Currently Inked Notebook.
Currently Inked notebooks come in both pocket and Travelers Notebook sizes. I chose the Travelers Notebook size so that I can use one of my many TN covers to carry the notebooks.
The paper in these notebooks is 80 gsm wheat straw paper. It is fountain pen friendly and environmentally sustainable. It’s pure white, so it won’t throw off the color of your inks.
For each entry, there’s space to list the pen, nib, ink color, date inked, date cleaned, and room for a small swab. There’s also a little triangle to the right of the pen field that you can use to hashtag reinkings of the same pen and ink or for any other purpose you can think of.
The paper is high quality. There’s a bit of show through with the swabs but no bleed through.
Each notebook has 44 pages with enough room for 176 entries. You can purchase these notebooks from The Pen Habit website for $6.00 a piece.
(I purchased my Currently Inked notebooks with my own funds.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, which I am very grateful for.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
