Rohrer & Klingner Inks, Part 3

This is part 3, the next 3 inks in the Rohrer & Klingner series. In this part, I introduce Helianthus, Königsblau, and Leipziger Schwarz.

Before that, let me just talk a little bit about the ink bottle design. I do rather like the Rohrer & Klinger ink bottle design as it is very simple, easy to grip in the hand, does not topple over easily, is weighted enough but not so much that it gets heavy. At the base of the bottle there are serrated marks to give it a little more grip when you set it on a surface. On the top, the aluminium cap screws firmly around the bottle enough to seal it, preventing leakages, but does not make it so tight to be difficult to open.

Helianthus • Sunflower • Tournesol • Girasole

The Helianthus is the sunflower, but it isn’t the German name of it. The German name for sunflower is “Sonnenblume”. I suppose this shade of yellow is as sunflowery as it can get, reflecting pretty well the actual colour of the petals of a Helianthus. I seldom explore bright colours, but I actually like this one very much. The yellow is bold and strong, and while it is vibrant and bright, it is not so pale to render the writing illegible. It may still be too bright for some of you, though.

I would not use this as an everyday ink for sure, but it would be nice to paint with this. Would I use this as an ink for highlighting? I am not so sure about that because I don’t feel that the yellow would provide enough contrast with the printed letters on a page. I prefer using a paler yellow for highlighting, if any.

I seldom find sheen in bright colours, and didn’t find any in this ink. The flow of ink is generous, but water resistance is really bad. Water turns the ink into an illegible yellow cloud.

Königsblau • Royal Blue • Bleu Royale • Blu Reale

Königsblau translates from German literally into “King’s blue”, which suggests that this ink would give a royal blue colour. My impression of royal blue is that it would be deep and strong, but this is not what Königsblau showed to me. Königsblau is more of a standard blue, although it differs from Blau Permanent, which I talked about a couple of days ago. With Königsblau, the blue contains an element of indigo and grey, being a little deeper overall than Blau Permanent. Compared to Königsblau, Blau Permanent has this bit of cyan to it.

Königsblau is not marked as a waterproof ink, and you can see that the ink fades away when it touched water. Interestingly though, the ink flows away quite cleanly, leaving a faint blue-grey mark on the paper with minimal “cloud” around it. With Blau Permanent, which was supposed to be a permanent blue, a cloud of ink could be seen around the ink spot when water is smeared on it.

Other than that, Königsblau is a nice blue which flows well, albeit slightly drier than the other R&K inks that I talked about so far. There is even the slightest hint of sheen in saturated parts of the ink swab.

Leipziger Schwarz • Leipsician Black • Noire Leipscicien • Nero di Lipsia

Almost every ink series has their own version of black, and Rohrer & Klingner is not going to miss out on that. Schwarz means black in German, and I was not sure why the reference to Leipzig, a city in Germany, was made. The very first time I heard of Leipzig was when I was learning music, as Mozart was described to have travelled to that city.

Leipziger Schwarz is a very saturated black, although probably not the most saturated I have ever seen. It lays down a saturated, wet line while writing, so the words come out as black as black can be. The swab, though, shows a little less saturation, and you can see in some areas that there might be a very slight bluish tone to the ink. As we all know, blacks are never pure colours, but more like a mixture of colours, and I daresay there is some blue in this ink.

The water resistance, as you can see from the test, is not great. After contact with water, the saturated black ink smears almost fully away, leaving a messy cloud behind.

I hope you liked this part 3 of the Rohrer & Klingner ink series, and are ready for the giveaway! Out of the 3 inks, the Helianthus may not be a very practical ink to use everyday, but at least there are two other inks that are practical enough to be used for writing and making notes.

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below. Like Part 2, all I ask for is to leave a comment, and notify me by using the Rafflecopter widget and following its instructions. I have reinstated the optional entries for those who would like additional chances to win, especially if you haven’t won the last 2 times! This giveaway ends at midnight on 22 December, 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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