Storage solution for lots o' nibs

[AAAndrew]

I'm now up to almost 600 different types of nibs in my collection. I keep growing out of my storage solutions.  The problem I kept running into with the bead box type solutions is when I would get in a new number and have to shuffle all kinds of nibs to fit the new ones into the right space. I also need it to be easily labeled and CHEAP. (Not something you normally say about most bead boxes)

#shiela247 pointed me to some wonderful bead boxes with individual boxes in a larger tray. It's very luxurious. Elizabeth Ward bead storage trays on Amazon. This satisfies my needs for many of my nibs, but if I was to get enough to store all of my nibs, it would add up rather quickly.

I think I've ended up with a solution that hardens back to old school steel pen storage: small cardboard boxes. You can get a 100 #11 paper jewelry boxes for under $20. They hold an astounding amount of nibs. I can fit almost 100 large nibs, like a M. Myers and Son Post Office pen in one box. I can fit almost a whole Gross of medium nibs, and a Gross of small ones. The box is easily labeled, and with the nibs stored separately, easy to rearrange.

I also found a plastic three-drawer storage unit that can perfectly hold 86 boxes per drawer.

This system is compact, easily shuffled around, easy to find and access specific nibs, and cheap. I figure for those nibs that only need one box, the total cost for storage is less than 23-cents, including box, drawer and super-fine markers for labeling.

I've attached some pics to show what it looks like. Just bought I'd share in case others are in the same boat and looking for another option.

The nibs in the boxes are just a random set of nibs I had waiting in zip lock bags waiting to be filed and stored, that's why it's such an odd collection.

[InkyFingers]

Now I know who to hick up for a nib or two..

Do you do samplers of 600 nibs for sale?

[AnasaziWrites]

I've attached some pics to show what it looks like. Just bought I'd share in case others are in the same boat and looking for another option.

@AAAndrew
Good system.
A tweak to allow for more easily shuffling the boxes around as you accumulate new types is to keep one or two spaces open in each column, so you're not having to move a box out from a bin to a new bin (and each subsequent bin down the line) each time you get a new type of nib.
I'm willing to help out here. Send along that box of Gillott 604 ef's to me and it will open up a slot in that column. There are a few other columns I'm willing to open up as well. Let me know. Always willing to help.
You're welcome.

[AAAndrew]

Thanks so much! I appreciate the unselfish willingness to help out by taking some of these unloved things off my hands. 

I've already planned on having about two drawers worth of empty spots scattered around. I packed that drawer full just to see maximum capacity. I'm still not sure if I'm going to leave actual blank spots, or put in empty boxes to minimize boxes shifting around while opening and closing drawers.

I figure I'll need about three of these three-drawer cabinets (for now). 

Last night I used up the rest of the first hundred boxes I had ordered. I found that a full gross of Falcon pens takes up the most space, 2 1/2 boxes. I can easily fit a full gross of even longer "post office" style pens into two boxes.

I also went a little crazy last night the more I thought about and started to use this system.  I had the idea of recording a bit more information on the lid of the box. I initially thought of stickers that included labels and space for "Maker," "No.," "Name" and "Other" to help capture the different factors that separate the nibs into types. I ended up instead saving a ton of money and ordered a custom stamp and an ink pad with which I will stamp the top of the box and then record this info. Sometimes I have some pretty subtle differences between nibs (like "England" vs "Made in England" vs "Mnf. in England") and having this on the lid saves me from having to open up the box and read the actual nibs. This was one of the problems with the bead box type of storage. I'd either have to make little tiny pieces of paper with this info or I'd just have to look at every nib in the "Esterbrook 300's" or "Wm Mitchell" box.

Transferring all of my nibs will become my Saturday Theater Class project for a while. Every Saturday my son takes a theater class and I can go sit in a great university coffee shop and do something like this. All I need is a small table, a few trays of pens and a small stack of my little boxes. (made of ticky-tacky)  Yeah! 

[sheila247]

Gee - now I have that song stuck in my head.  Thanks!      

My family thinks I have a nib problem and I have less than 200 different nibs and no more than 200 of any one nib.  I will say - now when I get as many nibs as @AAAndrew , then I'll have a problem.  So, you need to keep collecting nibs, and that way I will never catch up and hence will never have a nib hoarding problem.  See how that works.   LOLOLOL

[AAAndrew]

Happy to be of service. I'll gladly step up and bravely shoulder this responsibility.

You're welcome. 

[InkyFingers]

Aaandrew.

I dont see the problem of having one two many.  I have a problem of not having one two many.  That said, i like to share my findings.  I can't possible use all the nibs I have now, nor will i ever be able to use it.  I find myself only using what I have on the pen right now and yet, I am still buying.

I need a remedy for not using the nibs in my care.  Or should I do what you do, take care of then now.  Providr a safe storage for them.  Future generations will wonder how we use these things when the iPad or xPad is used with a small gesture of the hand is used to create and move objects etc..

[Elizher Luz]

Of my time on FF so far, this has to be one of my most favourite pictures!! All those Nibs!

[AAAndrew]

Just wait until I finally get them all boxed up! This is not even 1/6 of the whole. I'm very excited to finally have them all visible and accessible. Right now they're tucked away in a drawer here, a stack there, and my Esterbrook s are even sitting in a backpack on my study floor. This will be so much better!

[AAAndrew]

Follow up at the 2/3 mark.

I think I'm going to really, really like this system. I didn't really realize how limiting it was having nibs in recesses in one larger tray. I keep running into so many that are out of order because I got them later and didn't have room to shuffle all of the other pens around. With each one in a separate box it's so easy to add a new one.

The challenges I'm encountering are two fold. One, I realize I have more different types than I thought which I shoved together because there wasn't room and it was easier to put them together rather than shift everything around. And that's not including the realization that I had thrown the Hunt, C.H.Hunt and C.Howard.Hunt nibs all together. If I'm going to sort them, then I might as well sort them. This led to the discovery of the differences between Spencerian nibs with "England" or "Made in England" on them vs. those which have nothing. It's the same as with the Spencerian #1's.

The other challenge is that I hadn't realized how many pens I had just sorted into bags waiting for more room in my current system. I now have purchased 800 small boxes so that I should have a fair number left over for new acquisitions (and some nibs take up two are even three boxes if I have a lot of the big ones), and I had to get another set of drawers, which makes four three-drawer sets.

This leads to an actual third challenge. My pen collection is going to be a lot more visible.    Up 'till now I had them scattered in boxes here, and boxes there. Now with a growing stack of drawers it's much harder to hide just how many I have. I don't know how many my wife thinks I have, but I'm pretty sure it isn't this many. 

As soon as I finish transferring them all into boxes, then I'm going to sort them into final order (leaving gaps in each drawer) and then I'm going to go through and compare and count them against my spreadsheet inventory. That should be interesting, and quite a job.

And speaking of the gaps in each drawer left for growth, I've found a good way of dealing with those. The boxes I bought each comes with a small square of polyester "jeweler's cotton" on the inside. I wasn't sure what to do with all of this fluff (thoughts of pillows came to mind) but then I had the ideal of filling these open spots in each drawer with this padding. It works well as the whole purpose is just to keep the other boxes from falling over, and as I add a box here and there the padding compresses so I don't actually need to adjust it unless I add more than a couple of boxes.

So, that's my impression to this point. After I get it finally organized I'll take pictures. This is probably overkill if you have a few dozen types, but once you're getting close to 100 I'd recommend something like what I'm doing.

[Erica McPhee]

Nib envy is real. 

[AAAndrew]

I'm now finished filling and filing through the "I"'s which is just past half-way because I've finished Esterbrook, Eagle, Gillott and Hunt. But I still have Turner & Harrison and my Railroad and business pens (filed under Unknown). I've filled six drawers. I'm thinking I might need the wider drawers if I'm not to have a (very obvious) tower.  .

Now that I've put this much together,  I am all the more happy with this system.

[melanie jane]

It looks a good system, but I'm curious as to what you do with the original boxes, assuming that you had them in the first place?  I have a large amount of nibs in their original boxes, and I like to keep them in the boxes, where possible. 

I might try something similar to what you are doing, but using the original boxes where I have them, and little card boxes where I don't.  Having said that, I've no idea of the sort of quantity of boxes I'd need....I've never sorted out all of my 'loose' nibs. 

[AAAndrew]

All of my nibs are vintage. I take the nibs out of the boxes and keep the boxes. I'm looking at options for displaying the best boxes. Many of these boxes were not full, most nibs didn't have boxes so I needed a standard system.

I do have some of the boxes displayed at work. (See below)

The first step is to understand what you have. So sort away!

[chisato]

Wow @AAAndrew! Your collection of nib boxes is also impressive! I am obsessed with old packaging, and nib boxes had such great designs.

These would be beautiful floated inside of shadow box frames!