Tracking your Fountain Pens and Inks: Currently Inked? What's the Best Way? 

As you were talking about this, it became clear to me that I have no good way to track when I like a pen/ink combo so much I re-ink it immediately. If i go through my trackers, it just looks like I took a long time to use it up... and eventually I even stopped tracking the emptied-dates. I think I need to think of a solution! Great video.

Thanks so much for your insight! Since starting in this hobby in January, I have been searching for a way to document and find what I like/don't like about specific inks and pens. Its still ongoing... This does help me figure out how I want to gather this data for myself so thank you! ❤ I Love seeing all the different colors in your weeks so I might just try that out next! I have a couple half used weeks that I can Frankenstein together maybe ignore the dates and just redate it for 2025! LOL

The evolution of your set ups is so into see!! I've also been really trying desperately to find the Krishna Chennai ink too! Do you have any suggestions on where I may inquire to find a sample? Or do you suggest any groups I may reach out to in the ink/journaling community?

My question with any project like this that requires a lot of time and materials is - what do I want to get out of it? Seeing your swatching videos over the years, it seems to me this "data" you are talking about doesn't really get collated anywhere. Have you considered putting your data into a spreadsheet so you can compare the pen, ink, and paper combinations over time? For me, any testing is about how well the ink performs in a pen. I don't bother with swatching because swatches are much more saturated than when writing with an ink. I do keep a notebook for testing new inks. I use a dip pen with a fountain pen nib (not a glass pen or a calligraphy nib because they put down more ink than an fountain pen) or just ink up a pen and go for it. I do some scribbling to see how the ink flows, and write a bit about how I'm liking the writing experience. The questions I try to answer are: Is the ink color close to the shade I thought it would be? Does it flow well without clogging or drying out on the nib? Is it saturated and dark enough to be legible? If the answer is yes then I I'll keep the ink, or if it's a sample I might get a full bottle. If not, then I get rid of it. I'm also not looking for the "perfect shade of _________" which could be some people's motivation for swatching and keeping detailed notes. But for me, if I like a color I keep it, if I don't like a color I gift it along. For pens, I evaluate over time whether they are ok with most inks or whether they only do well with a certain type of ink. If a pen doesn't work with most of the inks that I like then I would swap or tune the nib, or get rid of it altogether. I have a small pen collection (less than 10) so I don't want to have a lot of "special case" pens (i.e. "this one can only take really wet inks; this one doesn't perform with sheening inks" etc). If a pen isn't versatile then it's not staying in my collection. I do track a "currently inked" in my journal, just in case I ever wanted to remember what ink was used on a certain page. I do this by writing the pen and ink combo in a monthly section when I ink it up.

I have tried all of these methods as a fellow nerd. But as my mental health goes up and down, I can't keep up with them all. And then I start to get annoyed that without all the "data" the comparisons are not exactly "scientific" enough. Especially as the variety of papers available expanded so much and TRP stopped being consistent. I owe you a package from a million years ago before my brain went bad. I would love to make it up to you somehow but now your collection is vastly different so I am not sure what you might like to try! More papers? Maybe Birmingham inks? They are one of the few brands we can't get as samples and they come in such generously sized bottles, I have always wanted to set up an exchange, but don't have the organizational skills and energy to get it going!

Very interesting video, seeing all the different methods you have tried. I feel that the way Chris Saenz does her Currently Inked gives me almost all the information I need. Writing the pens and inks on the right side, my feelings about how I liked the pen and ink combo on the left. Its visually very clear, and also beautiful to look at, intersting to look back, to see what did and didn’t work. I am using an A5 Hobonichi Cousin. The only thing I have been "struggling" with is documenting individual pens, like you do in you kokuyo. I think being able to change around the pages by using this type of binder could be really helpful. The most important information for me is though, and that happens in the moment, to have fun with inks and pens. Nothing is excessive if it brings you joy 😸✒️🪶🖋📖📚😃