Rohrer & KlingnerWriting Ink - 50 ml Bottle - Morinda (Morinda Red) by Rohrer & Klingner

This Golden Green ink has shades of olive. If you have bought this ink it’s because , let’s face it, you are a connoisseur of color. I have about forty different inks for my pens and it never gets old. Fountain pen ink is art in itself. Maybe if we were all buying ink there would be more happiness . This color is stately, majestic, unique, and does not wash out against the back round of plain white writing paper. It manages to hold its own in a slightly subdued but elegant way. Highly recommended. Great for notes or letters. Tell someone you love them or appreciate what they do with a color that doesn’t grow on trees but oddly enough should.

I love this ink. It's such a neat color. I use it to color grass and foliage and dragons. It's not waterproof but I notice it smears less than other inks when I try to blend it out with a water brush. If you mix it with organics studio nitrogen you get a really pretty teal color. (I've dubbed it Nitrogrun) so it has multiple uses!

I have a lot of inks and a lot of pens but this quickly became my everyday favorite. I have a pen with a medium stub italic nib (a nib from an heirloom pen that I salvaged after it broke) and this ink works fantastic for that pen. The reason I like it so much is that of all the inks I own (21 different inks at the moment) this is the ONE ink I can use on cheap paper. It is the only ink that doesn't bleed through and there is never any feathering on any paper so I can use it on cheap legal pads, mini legal pads, various note pads, standard spiral bound/ring filler paper, Moleskine notebooks, TOPS Business Notebooks (neither the Moleskine nor TOPS products are at all "fountain pen friendly"), any paper at all. It behaves as well on cheap paper as it does on Rhodia or Clairfontaine.(NOTE!!!! When I say "use this ink on cheap paper", remember that if your pen writes excessively wet any ink will soak through any paper. This is why a lot of people prefer fine nibs, they do not lay down as much ink and tend not to feather and bleed through nearly so much as a medium or broad nib. I LIKE medium, italic, flex and stub nibs -- with a properly functioning pen and this ink I can write on cheap paper without it bleeding through. YMMV)It goes down nicely wet but dries very quickly. I never need to blot this ink no matter what paper I'm putting it on. By the time I could reach for and bring a blotter to bear on the page the ink is dry anyway. Though the drying time is in the single digits second-wise the ink doesn't seem to dry out in the nib as long as I remember to cap the pen when I stop writing. Years ago I trained myself to uncap when I pick up a pen and cap it right before I put it down, having forgotten to do that or after setting an uncapped pen down, getting distracted and then having to clean a pen out so it'll write again ...The color is nice, it goes down a deep and vivid blue but being iron gall ink it dries and oxidizes to a shade of blue-gray. The line characteristic when dried is what pen enthusiasts call "very dusty". With the right nib I get very nice shading and line variation but it's not glaringly obvious. The shade is perfect for formal writing - it's not going to give the wrong impression. It is a very tasteful shade when dried, It's not frivolous, flaky, fruity or flighty. It's great for just writing too so I don't save it for only formal purposes. From the right nib this ink most definitely says "I'm fountain pen ink and I was put here by a fountain pen!"This ink is as or more waterproof than any other ink I have owned. I use a couple of Noodler's Bullet-Proof inks that are as water-fast as this Salix ink is but those inks also penetrate paper like crazy (by design, they're supposed to do that) so I only use them for signatures and applications where their "bullet-proof" aspects are an asset.I have had no problems with this Salix ink staining pens or clogging them. I have seen no sign of corrosion on any pen this ink has been in. I am using this ink through both precious metal (gold) nibs that would be resistant to clogging and corrosion by nature anyway, really cheap steel nibs and everything in between -- but I have seen no evidence under high magnification that this ink is in any way damaging to my pens.A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE IRON GALL BUGABOO -- Iron gall is a very, very old style of ink, it's been around a long time. There are a lot of urban myths, legends and old wives tales that haunt iron gall ink. If you want to you can make your own iron gall ink from the insect galls in tree branches. This is where the "gall" in "iron gall" comes from btw. That traditional method is how ancient scribes made their iron gall ink. The method for doing that requires a strong alkali (EDIT: sorry, I should have said acid not alkali), which is where the "cautions" and "conventional wisdom" about nib and pen component rust comes from. Rohrer & Klingner's Salix and Scabiosa are modern formulations, they are no more and no less harmful to your pen than any other ink. (EDIT: see my discussion with "Jesse" below regarding corrosiveness vs. pH.) I have left these inks in pens that I didn't use and when I came back to those pens a full load in the converter had dried up. I flushed the pens properly and examined them with a jewelers loupe. There was no sign of rust, reaction, or any other kind of damage. The dried pigment was no harder to deal with than any other dried ink pigment. I do not advise allowing a full ink load to dry in a pen and that's abuse of the pen. For this ink to corrode a pen to the point of damage would probably take decades if at all. A year or few does not discernibly damage a modern pen in any way I can detect.The cost is very reasonable, it's cheaper than most inks I own. At around nine bucks and shipped free this is a very good price for a very good ink. The price fluctuates and I haven't been desperate for a bottle when the price was on the higher end of its range. Frankly, if it gets to where it costs the same on Amazon as it does at Gouletpens dot com, I'll buy it from the Goulets who are wonderful people.The only drawbacks to this ink that I have found to date are that it takes a while to get from Germany to my desk. I can live with that, when a bottle gets to about half empty I order another one. Also being iron gall ink it's in a deeply tinted bottle presumably to protect the ink from light. That does make it harder to see how much is left in the bottle but of course you can see the ink level when you fill a pen. These are by my lights very minor things that I mention just to be thorough.This ink cleans up very well too. I often manage to get ink where I don't want ink when I'm filling up a pen. On my fingers, on my desk, etc. This ink cleans up as well as any other ink I own and it doesn't stain the converter barrel in the pens that have been filled with it. I have had no more problem flushing this ink out of a pen to prepare the pen for a different ink than I have had with any other good quality ink. Even thought it's quite waterproof on paper it scrubs off skin with a little soap, water and a vigorous brush.This is my everyday, go-to, favorite ink for all-purpose use. I have and I use other inks, this didn't replace those inks by any means. What this ink does for me is to give me a very nice, tastefully mature looking ink that I can use anywhere on any paper at any time under any conditions and it does that at a very reasonable price. As far as inks go, that's a lot of checks in the "plus" column.

This iron gall ink is absolutely fantastic. It changes color as it dries to a darker blue-black or a midnight blue and is water resistant. the texture, richness and smoothness are amazing. Being an iron gall ink, however, should be handled with care and avoiding spillage on clothing and fountain pens, should be cleaned regularly as this ink can jam the nib and is slightly corrosive. But is not a severe issue. Drying time is an issue especially with thicker or with 3rd pass line. Overall, this is a great ink and is priced well below other iron gall inks that are not as good.

I love the color and shading in this ink. It's a medium-dry ink that works great in my Noodler Ahab, Waterman Stalwart, and Monteverde's, as well as most others, but not so well in any of my Pilots which seem to want a slightly wetter ink. Other than the Pilots, the ink behaves well and has a high degree of shade. On cheaper paper it shows up as a lighter color but on Japanese and European papers (Rhodia, Tomoe River) it displays rich and varied shading and a range of intensities, from deep olive to light yellow-green. There is no sheen and no shimmer; with thicker nibs it has a rich matte quality. Little to no water resistance. It cleans easily from the nibs as well.

One of the coolest inks out there, these R&K iron galls are very well mannered and a great deal.Good shading, does down a very slate blue and darkens over the course of about 30 seconds to a real blue-black and over a day or two to a very dark blue black (never quite black like diamine registrar's)It's not a super high ferro-gallic iron gall, meaning that it won't eat your fountain pen seals or steel nib. Similarly, it's not quite as amazing as platinum classic inks or Diamine Registrar's on bad paper, it does bleed a bit (negligible feathering) So you give up a little performance for a little ease of use. Still, you should clean any pen inked with this regularly, once a month ideally, every other month at the most. And NEVER leave a pen to sit more than a week with iron gall ink unless it's spectacularly well sealed (platinum 3776 being one of the exceptions)Overall, this is a great ink to dip your toe into iron gall with. The fact that it changes color as you write is just so cool, and this stuff is super waterproof.Color is immensely professional and blue-black lovers will adore it. It's definitely more blue than diamine registrar's blue black, but still very much in the BB category.I've been using it in steel nibbed pens for a while now with zero issue. I'm not really going to try putting it into an EXPENSIVE steel nib like a visconti or pelikan, but I use it in my gold nib pens all the time, such as my lamy 2000, platinum 3776 and visconti homosapiens. You should also have no problem using it in a vintage pen that has an easily replaced ink sac. Maybe be careful using it in a rare vintage pen that's almost impossible to repair the seals on, but the iron gall in this might knock a year or two off of the twenty year lifespan of an ink sac, so who cares, really.

"Rohrer & Klingner *since 1892* Fountain Pen Ink - Leipsician Black - 50ml", otherwise Leipzig Black, is the deepest of two blue-black inks from within this brand. Because of its depth of tone, it is probably best reserved for narrower grades of nib, possibly up to and including Medium but may over-power if used with Broad or Italic nibs and take longer to fully dry due to the wider lines. It may be best described as 'Midnight Blue' as it is almost black in tone; its blue elements are mostly subdued.Most of R&K's inks are dye-based and moderately wet-writing. Their easy-flowing character will work well with any dry-writing pen but this and most others can also be used with some that are considered wet although not exceptionally wet. Correctly used, it will photocopy extremely well. It could easily be an alternative to a true black ink as it has sufficient tonal depth.Used in a pen with a Fine nib, it was an ideal companion and should also work well with most Medium nibs. Although the specific brand of pen is regarded as generically 'wet', that mostly applies to its Medium and wider nibs; the Fine and Extra Fine versions will definitely benefit from the ink's easy-flowing properties as it provides extra lubrication and prevents them from becoming too dry or scratchy. That should also apply with most pen brands.For use with broader nibs, and possibly Mediums that are generously-tipped, R&K's Verdigris may be a better choice of blue-black; it is considerably lighter, has a stronger blue content and a hint of green, but is still fairly photocopier-friendly. In other respects of their usability, both inks perform similarly and personal preference may help decide between them.With several of their inks purchased and used, R&K's inks have proven very easy to use with no issues discovered to date. Best-known in the old Iron Curtain countries, R&K inks are now widely distributed worldwide with several UK sources including Amazon. Alternatively, there are several on-line suppliers and specialist high street dealers.

I have always (13 years) used moleskine diary's but although they suite my needs the paper is shockingly thin and rubbish .Fine for a biro or gel pen. However I like fountain pens so using one was nigh on impossible with collosal bleed thru and spidering (bleed across the paper). In a review elsewhere I heard of this ink . Initially the cost was a bit of a issue as 'what if its no better ' Well its excellent . I can write on the moleskine toilet paper and there is NO bleedthrough at all and no spidering . I have four fountain pens and even the wide nibbed one which puts a lot of ink out is fine so for all intents and purposes this ink is perfect for my needs Also its a bit of a novelty as it starts light blue and after about a minute it darkens to a royal blue as it has iron in it which reacts with the air and the paper apparently.

Typically, Verdigris is the bright green colour that copper assumes once exposed to air and moisture. In Germany where this ink is produced, it may have another meaning as this is a fairly standard blue-black ink with a dark green tint when wet but which is short-lived. When first considering this, several external reviews and colour samples appeared to show this as a true blue-black with no hint of green. It is when dry!Thus far only used in one pen, it worked well and is sufficiently deep in tone to photocopy well. R&K have another blue-black, Leipzig Black, which is far darker and probably more accurately described as Midnight Blue. "Rohrer & Klingner *since 1892* Fountain Pen Ink - Verdigrease - 50ml" otherwise written as 'Verdigris', is probably better-suited to Medium-nibbed pens and broader whereas the darker ink will often overwhelm when used with broad and italic nibs and is therefore best reserved for Fine and Extra Fine nibs. If you only want a single blue-black, Verdigris is the more useful.Rohrer & Klingner have been producing fountain pen ink in Leipzig since the 1950s but, then behind the Iron Curtain, their products were only available eastwards but are now more widely distributed. The majority of their inks are dye-based, fairly wet and usually best matched to dry-writing pens which is where this ink fits within their range. They are however well-behaved and mostly usable even with moderately wet pens although probably not one that is excessively wet, otherwise a gusher.The bottles are tall and fairly narrow but not too likely to over-balance. The ink range is of good quality and the range includes several very usable and popular colours, some of which were previously purchased and often used.

Having yellow as a favourite colour is a little awkward when it comes to inks. It's probably no surprise that Rohrer & Klingner are one of the few companies to make it, and I'm really glad they did! This ink is a beautiful colour and I've loved writing with it. While vivid it's slightly darker than a bright yellow, and the bottle gives a good example of the golden tones you can expect to get from the product. It's perfect for writing on paper, especially paper which doesn't let the ink bleed, and less good on greetings cards than darker inks would be. That's fine by me though as fountain pens in general doesn't take all that well to slightly glossy card.I'm very happy with my purchase and added a second one to my wishlist for the future.

"Rohrer & Klingner *since 1862* Fountain Pen Ink - Cassia - 50ml" uses an oblique reference to blackcurrant as its individual name and is a deep violet-blue, a personally attractive colour that will feature in the rotation of some pens. It is sufficiently dark to be a very useful colour.It may better suit personal use, could have limited use for business, but there are other colours in the range that would serve that role perfectly well. It could work for individual correspondence, event invitations and such, possibly for note-taking although it could prove useful for notations in margins as an addition to red or green. By reputation it is regarded as a 'neutral' ink, neither classified as wet or dry, and could therefore work very well in any fountain pen. A reviewer on one specialist site had tried several brands of pen fitted with different nib grades and on several brands and types of paper from cheap copy to very expensive fountain-pen specific materials and found the ink to be perfectly happy with any combination used. It did not flood the paper, allow excessive feathering (it did slightly feather on the poorest paper) or to ever show bleed-through. It was therefore rated very highly.The range of colours offered by R&K is not extensive but wider than most of the pen manufacturers' ranges and includes tones of most of the normally offered colours. Blues, black, brown, red and green comprise the majority. Some iron-gall formulations, not normally recommended for steel-nib pens, are offered and can be used in any pen with due diligence and a good cleaning regime if it is not to be used for extended periods (days or weeks).Supplied in moderately tall, wide-necked, round brown glass bottles that will allow most of the ink to be used with minimal possible wastage. Pricing is comparable to most brands and the colours available are, for the most part, individual and distinctive allowing them to extend the numbers or brands you may wish to use.Definitely worth trying as it is not fussy and is an uncommon colour.