(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
The other day, I was listening to the AskTPA portion of Episode 549 when a listener asked how Brad and Myke store and keep track of the various converters, cartridges, etc. and I got all excited because I could share my own crazy solution - IKEA Alex drawers! Well, not all of the drawers, just one in particular (Drawer #2), is where all the little bits and pieces go. Sounds like a junk drawer to me, Kimberly. I swear, it’s not!! Unlike the usual stuff you’d find in the other drawers like staplers, tape, and Post-It notes, Drawer #2 keeps almost all of my pen-related accessories corralled within arm’s reach. Converters, cartridges, clips, tools, you name it and it’s probably in there.
Ok, it does look a little like a junk drawer, but it’s actually full of useful pen stuff!
I won’t go through everything that’s in the drawer cuz I’m trying to keep this short (yeah, right), but you can see there are cartridges, converters, little bottles of ink (mostly J Herbin 10 ml), clips and other items. Let’s take a closer look at some of the stuff inside the drawer.
I keep proprietary or branded cartridges in their own little baggie. Pro tip: write on the sticky side of a Post-It so that you can see what it says when you stick it to the inside of the bag.
Way more standard international converters than a normal person should have, along with a few threaded ones, a spare Parker converter, and some Lamy converters.
I clean and store empty cartridges after I’m done with them; they are particularly useful with proprietary cartridges so I can use any ink I want.
The left one houses a variety of standard international cartridges, the top has Montblanc carts which are standard international-ish. And the bottom bag has a variety of Pilot, Platinum and Lamy and other carts.
The 3 major Japanese brands have proprietary cartridges and converters so I have separate bins for Pilot, Platinum and Sailor. Bins of various sizes help organize different products/brands, at least until they are overflowing.
The Pilot bin overfloweth.
Aside from cartridges, I also have a bunch of different Pilot converters (Con-40, Con-20, Con-70, the discontinued Con-50), as well as metal cartridge caps for the Vanishing Point/Decimo, and blue squeeze pipettes for cleaning Pilot Parallels.
Drawer #2 also houses miscellaneous accessories and tools such as cotton swabs (useful for cleaning small inky messes, Parafilm (for sealing up ink samples), colorful standard international converters, piston tools, TWSBI Pipe, adapters, o-rings, clips, rollerball attachments, small syringes, you get the picture.
Some of the stuff you should probably keep but don’t know where to put them. Ok, maybe this sounds a little like a junk drawer.
The cartridges, converters and other tools pretty much take over Drawer #2, so I need another drawer to store nibs. I have a lot of pens that use removable nib/nib units like Jowo, Bock, Schmidt, etc. So I generally remove the nib units from those pens and store them separately; this way I don’t have to uncap a bunch of pens to look for a particular nib.
One of the test tube racks that house my Franklin-Christoph nibs - these are for Jowo #6 nibs.
I use Avery round labels on top to note the brand, size (5, 6, 8, etc.), nib size (F, M, B, etc.), grinds like SIG, CI, etc. There are rectangular labels that have the same info on the body of the vial.
I have a few nib racks filled with other sizes like Jowo 5, or other types like Bock, TWSBI, Lamy, Retro 51, etc. When I need to pick a nib for a certain pen, I will enter it into the Fountain Pen Companion (FPC). As I mentioned in the FPC article, I use FPC to track my currently inked as well as pen/ink usage. This allows me to enter a pen with a particular nib and grind, which is how I know what nib is in what pen. Then I store the empty vial on the side of one of the racks (along with the other empty vials), until I have cleaned the nib and am ready to put it back inside the vial in its proper spot in the rack.
Pro tip: when cleaning nibs/nib units, keep them next to the pen barrel so you know what nib went with which pen. Pro tip, part 2, don’t put pens with similar nib sizes next to each other so they don’t get mixed up. I will often clean a Jowo 6 nib and then a Jowo 5 nib or a non-Jowo nib before cleaning another Jowo 6. Pro tip, part 3, don’t let your cleaning pile get out of hand so you can avoid nib mixups in the first place (note to self, pay attention to this tip, lol).
All of these little tips and tricks, along with bins and baggies, help me stay organized and able to find accessories and nibs easily. Hope you found some of these tips helpful!
(Disclaimer: All products shown are my own, purchased and accumulated over the past 5+ years in this rabbit hole.)
