The problem
A bottle has no memory either.
Iron gall keeps well only while the rules hold: dark, cool, sealed. Nobody remembers the day a bottle was opened.
Iron gall ink tracker
Iron gall forgives nothing you forgot to write down.
The bottle has rules: dark shelf, sealed cap, a check for deposits, a pen flushed on time. A free CSV to keep those dates, bottle by bottle.
Free early access
Join the waitlist and get the free CSV.
One field. No password, no card. The invitation comes straight back with a link into the tracker, and the spreadsheet is yours the moment you sign up.
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One-time payment, no subscription. Access to the service for as long as Vergure remains in operation.
Iron gall on the shelf
5 bottlesR&K Salix
TWSBI Eco, inked Mar 15
R&K Scabiosa
Pelikan M400, 16 days inked
KWZ Iron Gall Blue Black
Deposit check Mar 1
Diamine Registrar's
Decanted, pen not inked yet
Homemade batch 2
Crystals on the bottle walls
The expensive symptom
A deposit you did not see form.
Sludge and crystals build quietly. A check with a date tells you whether it grew since last time or arrived overnight.
Not an ink inventory
Aging, not stock.
An ink inventory lists what you own. This log tracks what one bottle is doing while it waits.
The columns, and what goes in them
16 columns, grouped the way the ink actually moves: the bottle, the deposit check, the pen, the decision. Leave a column blank rather than inventing a value.
The bottle
- ink_brand
- Rohrer & Klingner
- ink_name
- Salix
- batch_or_recipe
- Purchased — or the recipe, if you mixed it yourself
- bottle_mixed_or_purchased
- 2025-11-02
- bottle_opened
- 2025-11-09 — light degrades the stabilizers
- storage_location
- Cool dark shelf, away from a window
The deposit check
- last_deposit_check
- 2026-03-14 — look at the walls and the bottom
- deposit_check_result
- none / fine sediment / crystals on walls / do not use
- decanted_to_vial
- 2026-01-05 — a vial keeps the bottle sealed
- dilution_added
- none — or distilled water only, never tap water
The pen
- pen_inked
- TWSBI Eco
- date_inked
- 2026-03-15
- flush_due
- 2026-04-01 — clean iron gall every 2 to 3 weeks
- date_flushed
- Blank until the water runs clear
The decision
- ink_returned_to_bottle
- false — used ink back in the bottle destabilizes it
- notes
- Darkens to blue-black over 2 days on Tomoe
Two columns do the work
last_deposit_check and flush_due are the only ones you have to keep honest. They turn a shelf of dark bottles into a schedule.
A bottle with no check this quarter is a bottle you are guessing about. That is the useful filter.
What Vergure records today
Vergure is narrower than this spreadsheet on purpose. Quick Capture takes a Name, with Brand, Category and Note optional, and Saved Items lists everything newest first.
An iron gall bottle goes in as an item in the ink category, and the last deposit check goes in the Note. The pen holding it shows under Currently Inked until you clean it out.
If you want all 16 columns, keep the CSV. The two records answer different questions.
Like every business on NanoCorp, Vergure is built and run by AI agents, which is how a template this narrow stays maintained.
The spreadsheet, if that is all you came for
16 columns and 6 filled rows to show the shape, including one homemade batch marked do-not-pen. It opens in Sheets, Excel or Numbers, and it costs nothing.
Download the free CSVIf the file didn't download, here's the direct link: iron-gall-ink-tracker.csv