Rohrer & Klingner *since 1892* Fountain Pen Ink - Blu Mare, Sea Blue - 50ml

Described as Alt Bordeaux and is a pleasing dark red wine colour. The flow is good but the ink feels like it has a watery content and will bleed or feather if the nib rests on the page for a couple of seconds. If you lift when resting it's not an issue.Value for money compared to many other colourful fountain pen inks.Repackaged in Jersey for GB, posted by Jersey Post which avoided the problems I've been having with lost packages. Safe looking small box used, shame the pack chips were single use plastic.

I have and use the following inks....Diamine, MontBlanc, Herbin, Private Reserve, Pelikan, Monteverde, Waterman, Visconti and Sailor... but no Rohrer and Klingner.I know they are well thought of in the two most important fountain pen forums, and voted head and shoulders above all their offerings are their two nut gall inks Salix and Scabiosa.With Scabiosa appearing to be a beautiful dark purple colour in all the swatches I'd seen, I decided to throw my hat in the ring and send for a bottle. It was delivered, perfectely packed, from the German seller within five days of ordering, which I thought was exceptional service.The ink itself doesn't disappoint in any way. It comes in a 50ml glass bottle and is an Iron Gall ink (the original type of ink that was made for nearly 1000 years from tree and plant products, before the more modern water and dye based inks of today) and has been specially formulated to work well in fountain pens.It is a beautiful dusky purple in colour, not as deep as Diamine Damson, but deeper than Herbins Poussiere de Lune. I predominantly use fine nibbed pens, with the occasional medium and Scabiosa shades very nicely with my F nibs, and really rather beautifully with my wetter M nibs.I am currently using it through a Monteverde Intima with an F nib, and a lovely big beast of a Jinhao 159 with the wettest M nib out there. Neither pen shows any nib creep or bleed through on the papers I have used so far. It dries quickly and, being iron gall, is extremely water resistant.The colour is simply perfect and even lends itself to business use.Pens dipped but not inked were a Muji M nib, a Pilot Traveller F nib, and a Nemosine Singularity clear demonstrator f nib - all of these pens showed the ink off exceptionally well.Paper used? Nu 120gsm cream notebooks, a Leuchturm 1917 journal and Viking Direct 100gsm copier paper.As you can probably tell, I am very happy with this inks colour and properties - and I recommend it to everyone.My only regret? Not ordering more R&K from this Amazon seller and filling the box up...but I'll be back!

I thought I'd try this as part of my quest to find a waterproof [or even waterproofish] drawing ink that I can use in my fountain pen, without it clogging up. This stuff is the closest I've found yet.* I doesn't clog the pen at all. I've left it in for weeks and my pen has worked straight away.* It also seems to be completely waterproof. I've used various washes over the top and it's not smudged at all.My only slight disappointment is that it doesn't darken after drying as much as I was lead to believe when reading about Iron Gall inks. It just gets a wee bit darker, but is still very obviously a fairly light purple. However, that last negative is more than made up for by the previous two positives. So I think this will become my ink of choice from now on.

Some would undoubtedly argue that 'Sepia' is a poor naming choice for this unusual colour. Sepia, as used in relation to Victorian and Edwardian-era photographs is usually accepted as a yellow-brown or red-brown tone. "Rohrer & Klingner *since 1892* Fountain Pen Ink - Sepia - 50ml" is neither of those but a fairly dark grey-brown. Its colour could allow it to be used in lieu of black, dark brown or even a neutral grey alternative but it has a unique colour and nature that is not well matched by any other brand. It should photocopy quite well. Others reviewing the ink elsewhere say that it also works on newspaper, not that it is recommended, as well as any 'normal' writing paper. It is also unlikely to show any bleed-through from one side of the paper to the other.As with other R&K ink formulations, it is a very user-friendly, neutral formulation and not fussed or fazed by any nib or pen. It appears not to matter whether a pen is otherwise considered wet or dry, this ink will work with just about anything. The usual recommendation to use a dry, slow-flowing ink with a wet pen, or their reverse, can be ignored. It has worked extremely well with a Lamy 2000 and a couple of other pens all considered to 'generously wet'.The colour range is moderate and also includes reds, greens, blues and black. Some iron-gall formulations, not normally recommended for steel-nibbed 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).Bottles are tall and of brown glass and have wide necks, minimising possible wastage as the bottle empties. Pricing is broadly comparable with most alternatives and there are some unique colours available, this being one. This could quite easily be the ink for everyday use, personal and business purposes alike. Excellent performer!

One of my favourite inks! I use it in a Pilot Custom 74 and it's the perfect wetness. There is no feathering or bleed through on Clairefontaine ivory paper and it's never caused me any trouble. In general, it's a very saturated ink with not much shading. Not water resistant, so stains are easy to clean. Highly recommended!