Rohrer & Klingner Inks, Part 4

Wow, Parts 1 to 3 of my Rohrer & Klingner inks seem to be going pretty well especially with the giveaway! Here is to continue the series, and of course, another 3 inks will be given away at the end of it. This has been made possible thanks to Fook Hing Trading Co., so do drop by their website and Facebook page to say hi if you have a minute. All opinions of the inks are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor.

Yesterday we talked a bit about the bottle design, and I’ll go into a little more detail today. Around the bottle is a simple white label which describes the ink. In four languages – German, English, French and Italian, the label describes the name and use of the ink. It claims to be “for fountain pens, steel nibbed pens, dip pens and individual writing utensils for calligraphy”.

With the pretty colours I would be tempted to use it for brush lettering for sure, but calligraphy with a dip nib might not fare so well because a number of the Rohrer & Klingner inks (as with many other fountain pen inks) do not cling well to a nib. It would do well to use a stub with an ink reservoir that can feed the ink to the tip, instead of a normal dip nib. When the contact angle between the ink droplet and the surface of the nib becomes too high, the ink does not wet the nib properly, and does not follow the capillary action needed to flow to the paper. Also, if the ink is close enough to touch the paper despite beading up on the nib, there is a tendency for it to all just go onto the paper, causing a blob. A number of R&K inks are very wet, and they tend to blob, too. A good nib and preferably a reservoir or feed would help the R&K ink fare better in calligraphy.

Magenta • Magenta • Magenta • Magenta

Rohrer & Klingner names its inks sometimes fancifully, and sometimes simply. With this ink, a simple name has been chosen – Magenta. I love magentas and this is not an exception. Magenta could fall in a varied spectrum, but generally, a purplish-red combination could be considered as a magenta.

For R&K, the magenta is definitely purple-red, but there is a huge element of pink in this one. When doing the swab, a lighter shade tends to come up, making it look more pinkish. I felt that if I took away just a little blue from this colour, I would end up with hot pink. When writing with the ink, the colour comes out more saturated, making the ink colour look darker and definitely more magenta-like.

Water resistance, as with many other R&K inks, is very poor with this Magenta. All is left is a pinkish-reddish cloud after water spreads the ink.

Morinda • Morinda • Morinda • Morinda

As with many ink brands, Rohrer & Klingner also has a red ink. When I think of red ink for writing, I get reminded of the bright, offensive red colour of teachers’ pens. I didn’t do THAT badly in school, so it did not give me bad memories, but I just don’t like the shade of red that ink pens of those school years gave. Morinda is very different.

R&K has decided to make their red a little more earthy, so the red has some very light tease of brown in it. I like this red much better than “regular” red ink colours. However, I have no clue why Morinda is associated with the red colour. After checking with Google, I saw that Morinda is a tree from the coffee family, gives white flowers, and green fruits. I could not really find anything associated with red.

Morinda is an ink that flows generously too, nice and wet, and gives a rather saturated colour while writing. Even in the ink swab, I bet it’s not easy to spot the area where I had made a second pass of the swab with the ink. Water resistance of this ink is low, and you can see rather easily that the ink separates quickly into its component colours such as pink and orange.

Salix • Salix • Salix • Salix

R&K Salix seems to have been one of the most popular inks in the R&K range. And this doesn’t come as a surprise, as I can see why it is so popular. Firstly, it is a very nice blue-black that is quiet enough to be used in formal and daily writing at work. Salix reminds me a little of Pilot Iroshizuku Shin Kai, where it gives a very grounded blue-black and a pinch of grey. The Salix refers to the willow, where once again I find no relation to the chosen colour that the ink portrays.

Salix is an iron gall ink, which means that it is made from iron compounds and tannic acids from plants. The plant part of the formula is usually obtained from the gall of oak trees or other trees, so from this angle, it might be possible that Salix is obtained from the willow tree (but who knows). Also, being iron gall, it’s supposed to last long on paper, and iron gall inks were frequently used in the old days in Europe, when writing was still the main form of “printing”. As such, iron gall inks should be very water resistant, in order to withstand “injury” from contact with water. R&K salix shows some degree of water resistance, as one can see that hardly any ink spread out from the original spot. However, you may or may not see it well in the picture, but the area around the ink spot is slightly fuzzy, indicating to some degree that the ink has yielded a little bit to the test of water. In any case, it performs much much better than other inks in the R&K range so far, and it’s nice that R&K has decided to add in some inks like this which have good water resistance.

In terms of appearance, my personal favourite from the 3 inks in today’s post is really difficult to choose, but I do like the Morinda and Salix better for sure. I suppose I would rate the Salix higher because of the practical colour and the water resistance, both of which can become important when choosing a good ink to write with.

Share your thoughts about today’s inks in the comments below, and you stand a chance to win all 3 inks! Also, don’t forget to enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below, so that I can have your email address to contact you, should you win. This giveaway ends at midnight, 23 December 2015, Singapore time (GMT+8).

Maybelline

I am the founder of this website.
Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time.
I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty.

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