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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