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This started because I like fineliners, I had a dim memory of experimenting with technical pens way back, and I like the many of the colours in Rohrer & Klingner's Antiktusche line. So, a few weeks ago, I got really interested in the possibility of using acrylic inks, which is what they are, in technical pens. (I like self contained pens instead of dip pens. Personal taste.) By the way, technical pens or dip pens or whatever, go and have a look at those Antiktusche colours. I higly recommend not only Rohrer & Klingner's website, but the swabs at http://www.kalligraphie.ch/store/index.php/cat/c113_Rohrer-s-Antiktusche.html. If you live in Europe, you might then want to buy your ink there as well, to support them for putting up these helpful swabs. Anyway... First, I searched this forum for useful information. Unfortunately, you mostly get people who do not really read the question and then give you advice they have heard somewhere. In other words: You ask, can acrylic inks be used in technical pens, and people will give you categorical advice like, only fountain pen ink should bne used in fountain pens! Ah. Quite. The technical pen is not a fountain pen. Also: As I have since learned, even fountain pens can take acrylic inks, provided you are prepared for extra work and care. If you use old and / or expensive pens, it makes sense to take no rists. If you are open to trying some weirder things, mess around! Second, I mailed both Rotring and Rohrer & Klingner. Rotring, unsurprisingly, will tell you that only inks made by Rotring are safe for their pens. If you used anything else, you void the warranty. Rohrer & Klingner will tell you that, in principle, their Inks are fine for the Isograph, the Rapidograph, even the Rotring Art Pen. The important bit is the "in principle". Those pens are designed with highly pigmented ink in mind, so that is not going to be your problem. The acrylic bit is going to make things risky. If acrylic ink dries, it stops being water solluble. So, if you let a pen dry out, you could end up with a solid mass which cannot be cleaned from your pen. Third, I have begun buying technical pens from various manufacturers, and not all of them have arived, yet. I have also begun experimenting with a few of those Antiktusche inks. What I have not yet done is let a pen dry out completely and see what can be done with the cleaner fluids from either Rotring or Rohrer & Klingner. Once all the pens I ordered have arrived, I will write something about how they compare. And sooner or later, of course one will dry up. So I will then post about the experience of cleaning it. Bottom line so far: You can get some techical pens for under € 10. There is no reason not to play around with acrylic ink in a technical pen, even if you fear it will kill the pen eventually. You can do a lot worse with € 10, I am sure. Also: Acrylic ink, unlike fountain pen ink, turns out to be amazing for writing postcards, which these days are often very bad at handling fountain pen ink. I kave some cards which turn into an absolute nightmare at the first drop of even my best behaved inks. Acrylic ink works like a charm! * Thanks to Rohrer & Klingner, as well as RoyalBlueNotebooks and fiberdrunk for help / advice.

Rohrer & Klingner has recently released a "2018 limited edition" ink called Aubergine. As a big fan of their inks, I think they deserve more recognition for their wonderful inks. Solferino remains my top purple/magenta/violet ink with its retina-searing brightness and vibrancy. I've bought a bottle of this new Aubergine and I like it very much. Aubergine comes in a cardboard tube packaging and their regular understated bottle. I like their bottles because they are functional. The ink itself is a low-key yet gorgeous purple that leans to the blue side but never so much as to become a blurple. It shows quite a lot of shading. A slight golden-red sheen could sometimes be observed but is really subtle. The inks writes very wet, and the lubrication is medium to good. It's not water resistant but it leaves a visible dark trace. Packaging Splash Sample (Rhodia) (Tomoe River) Comparison (Maruman loose leaf. I think it could be quite close to the non-accessible Sailor Pen & Message Sanyasou but with less sheen. However I don't have that one (sample) anymore for a comparison.) Miscellaneous (For my November "Clash of the colours" ink combo I matched up Aubergine and KWZI Menthol Green. I think a purple and a cyan-turquoise colour combo is quite ugly LOL. What do you think?)

ROHRER AND KLINGNER – CASSIA Bottled ink. Bought from Pen’s Avenue. Indian online site. 50 ml- 695 Rs. BOTTLE Pharmaceutical bottle. Rather uninspiring. Narrower base and more height . Aluminum cap. Can’t see any sense in this design. Agreed, it’s rather cheap, but there are cheaper things with more thought inputs. Amber colored glass is a nice feature which provides photo protection on longer storage. INK COLOR Bright pleasing Purple color. Not too bright to make reading uncomfortable. Written with a broad calligraphy nib. We are analyzing this color. As expected , the color is Purple in the spectrum. More blue, least Green and Red in between. There is no dark tinge involved. A simple chromatography shows a Purple and a dark Blue dyes as components. Diluted in bottles, shows increasing concentrations from Left to Right. See the bottle mouth for a golden tinge of dried ink. This phenomenon is not seen on papers. No ink. This is Methyl Violet dye showing the same properties. COLOR ON PAPER Fine nib. ( JK Excel bond paper ) Medium nib. ( JK Excel bond paper ) Broad stub nib. ( JK Excel bond paper ). Cheap quality paper. Note that the color varies with the type of paper. With low quality papers when ink is absorbed quickly, the intensity of color reduces. PROPERTIES IN PEN With Camlin Fine nib. With Lamy Safari Medium Nib. With Calligraphy Nib. Line 1 shows color on keeping pen open for 10 mts. Line 2 shows normal color. The color can vary when pen is exposed to air. Also with pens having more flow, the ink shows deep blue color instead of purple. INFERANCE - The ink is having a property of showing up subtle changes in its color itself according to the properties of pen and paper. The color can be purplish to deep blue. FLOW PROPERTIES The ink is having good flow. Compared with two well flowing inks. Chelpark Crimson Violet and Bril Turqoise blue, the latter having greater flow. All samples written on same paper with the same pen. See that the line width obtained with Bril ink was thicker than that of other two inks while that of Cassia and Crimson Violet are comparable. INFERANCE - Cassia is having good flow properties in pens. DRYING IN PEN After seeing the golden tinged dried on bottle mouth and changes in color on exposure to atmosphere. I decided for drying test inside a pen. A piston filling pen, an eye dropper and a catridge pen were filled ( Partially filled) with the ink and allowed to dry with in them by keeping the pens open and examined after one week. The following were observed. The ink was drying to a film, there were no crusts or deposits formed. These were completely removed by plain water wash with a little rubbing with hands where ever possible. The pens performed without any flow problems after that. OTHER PROPERTIES Ink is having good lubrication properties, compatible with a variety of pens. Ink staining was also not observed, though I haven’t tested on any transparent pens. No nib creeps were seen. PROPERTIES ON PAPER As observed there can be a slight color variation according to the paper. SHADING Practically no shading. FEATHERING On normal to good quality papers there is no feathering, but may come out as you begin to save some money on cheaper papers, or problem can occur when your job allows you to choose your pen and ink, but not papers. BLEEDING Yes, It may also be a problem when you are in the same situation as above especially with good flow pens. Use a pen with low flow and still enough lubrication left in the ink to make a comfortable writing. DRYING Reasonably fast drying. There are no problems to complaint here. WATER RESISTANCE Sample shown in water for 10 seconds with in one hour after writing. Sample just wetted with water. Thanks Sree

Here's one of my favorite obscure inks. It's such an odd color. I'm pretty sure my parents have a can opener from the 1970s that is this color… http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/Yocqgu.jpg

I've corrected the scans, because the white balance was off! I think it is more accurate like this! SORRY The older scan: here http://www.kephost.com/images4/2013/5/31/a1_2013_5_31_87esyj0f6u.jpg http://www.kephost.com/images4/2013/5/31/a1_2013_5_31_0g5ss75vn7.jpg http://www.kephost.com/images4/2013/5/31/a1_2013_5_31_8igohvbae5.jpg http://www.kephost.com/images4/2013/5/31/a1_2013_5_31_kn75x0n5xy.jpg