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Here's a little game! Only one is the named color but which one is it? Choose from (in alphabetical order!): Chu Shu - Sailor Jentle Keshimurasaki - Kyo no Oto Sakuranezumi - Kyo No Oto Scabiosa - Rohrer & Klingner Summer Storm - Robert Oster Sydney Lavender - Robert Oster Challenge question: Which is your favorite?!

So in my head under the banner "violet" you have those tending blue and those tending red (plus a lot of strange words such as mauve and purple whose meaning seems hard to pin down exactly?). Rohrer & Klingner's Scabiosa was and is my first love. I have always been fascinated by how the fresh ink goes down blue-violet then dries to red-violet, which echoes so many flower aging processes besides its namesake, but also a little disapointed that the original color is, to me, more attractive than the end result. In my first go through an inky color wheel I had Blue Myotosis and Diamine Tyrian Purple in the blue and red violet slots. With more experience, I have started to distinguish paint colors (which can be pure and bright for mixing) from ink colors (which I prefer darker and more subdued for general writing). Time to look at those violets again? On my first go at seeing what I had I was surprised to find that I seem to be buying inks in the "mid-violet" range over and over, even though in my head blue-violet is preferred. I had full size bottles of Scabiosa (including one in reserve!), Sailor Chu Shu and Birmingham Lilac Wind, all of which were really quite similar. I enjoy Robert Oster's Summer Storm (which I have renamed "Soft Snow of Australia", as for me it is a Winter ink), but either side of this central band was really rather weak. Back to the ink stores I go! After a rather nerve-wracking choice of Robert Oster's Sydney Lavender and Claret to fill the slots. Heres what the first splodgy page looked like (the left edge being Summer Storm, Sydney Lavender & Claret.): OK - so these scans are horribly inaccurate compared to my eyes, but hopefully they do show the relative differences. A simple initial arrangement of a sequence of five: Which, once my sample of Violet Starling arrived, is expanded as follows: . . . . with a finer nib: . . . so the blue and the red ends seem clear, it's those middle four that are subtle: . . . which is a particularly ghastly scan, presumably through its lack of contrast, to my eyes everything is much pinker, but the relative values are correct. Back to my original thesis then, here's a final three: Obviously this is not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive, just my own personal choices in digging at a general theme. I would love to hear (and see examples!) of other inks in each of these three adjacent color areas (or other systems for dividing them up).

Rohrer & Klingner is an old German company, established in Leipzig in 1907, reputed to be one of the best ink manufacturers in the world(yet at the same time keeping a low profile....or at least seems so IMO). Most of their inks are well-behaved, relatively cheap, and with steady quality. Among their 18 regular colors, two are iron-gall inks, and Scabiosa is one of them. The word "Scabiosa" refers to a genus in the honeysuckle family of flowering plants. FIY, here are some beautiful Scabiosa flowers( picture credits: google search) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_02_zpsvpuxdlmx.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_01_zpssjt0kwrh.jpg http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_03_zpspniucpuj.jpg Botanically/Academically, "Scabiosa" in Chinese should be translated as 山蘿蔔, literally meaning "Mountain Radish." However, because "Mountain Radish" sounds so NOT commercially appealing, when R&K's Taiwanese agent first introduced this ink, they renamed it 埃及玫瑰---"Egyptian Rose." Many FP users(yes, including me) fell for this exotic name, and purchased a bottle before learning more about the ink itself. Well, salute this ingenious marketing strategy! lol Now back to the theme.... First, let's take a look at the bottle (Scabiosa on the right): http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_00_zpspgsmbuca.jpg R&K's trademark is their uniform bottle design: dark brown glass bottle (in order to protect the ink from light exposure) and metal cap. We often joke about it resembling cough syrup, or any other thing that you'd more likely find in a pharmacy instead of a FP shop. Here are some writing samples: http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_04_zps8q1p4sdi.jpg It's dark purple with tints of gray and blue. Close-up 1 (sorry for fuzzy picture) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_05_zps7rfwp8bn.jpg The purple color is lighter and more visible in a finer nib (in this example: LAMY Safari EF). You can see that even in a rather dry pen, on some random cheap paper, this ink still shows a rich shading. Close-up 2 http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_07_zpsh1gk062y.jpg If you use a broader/wetter pen(in this example: Brause no.361 dip pen), it gets darker and can almost pass for black. Close-up 3 http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_06_zpsoxg21um6.jpg If you apply water to the writing while the ink is still wet, the purple/pink dye would be washed away, leaving a light gray trace. And since iron-gall inks feature being permanent/waterproof/light fast, here is a water-resistance test done after the ink is fully dry: http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_08_zpshqfgs90x.jpg I dripped some water on the paper and left it for hours. Outcome: http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_09_zpseaj0fub3.jpg Pink dye dissolved after a few minutes, but the lines remain as clear and dark as before. Thus, if you quickly dab away the water while it's still wet, there will hardly leave any trace(shown below ). Here are some other writing sample I did with other pen/paper combination: 1. LAMY Safari EF on yellow ROSSI paper (English subtitle edited on Photoshop) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_10_zpsesiucz0s.jpg 2. Dip pen on yellow ROSSI paper http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_11_zpsnqs3nvug.jpg When I did the smearing(bottom right), the ink wasn't fully dry yet, and some black particle dissolved... This doesn't happen all the time, though. 3. LAMY Safari EF on MUJI white grid paper http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_12_zpsauwa479x.jpg Usually the color of iron-gall inks fades and becomes darker and darker over time, but sometimes there will be exceptions, due to the paper and humidity( I guess....) This is a doodle I did with Scabiosa, dip pen, on some cheap scratch paper, in June 2013: (wet) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_13_zpscsimvun9.jpg (dry) http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_14_zpsoe9yozdt.jpg And then I re-discovered it lately when tidying up my room: http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu239/chingdamosaic/Scabiosa_15_zpsvwfwc7up.jpg It's not purple anymore! More like a lighter wine-color, or rusty red(because of the iron in it?). .......I kind of like this surprise : ) Conclusion Saturation: high, but low chroma( they don't contradict, right?) Shading: rich Sheen: not observed so far. It's a rather "matte" ink. Flow: relatively dry, but still writes smoothly even in extra fine nib. Feathering: none (performs nicely even on cheap paper) Bleed-through: none (performs nicely even on cheap paper) Show-through: very little (performs nicely even on cheap paper) Cleaning: if you always clean the pen right after using, some soaking and flushing with water will easily do the job. None of my pens has been stained or damaged after two years of constant usage. Waterproof: yes Other features: light fast; pH neutral. Other notes: the pink that shows after water application is lovely. Overall, I not only like this ink/color, I feel like I can TRUST it like an old loyal friend. This is my all-time favorite for secret diary, especially when I'm writing something really personal/emotional/confessional. I am ambitious to try as many different inks as possible in my limited life, but R&K Scabiosa is, so far, the only one I would empty a whole bottle and get a second one.

I have a question or two concerning Rohrer and Klinger's iron gall inks. The R&K website states that their iron galls (Salix and Scabiosa) are "archivally safe." They have to be...they're iron galls, right? Then how on earth do they fare so badly in lightfastness tests? Do they contain only a minuscule amount of iron gall? It seems they should perform pretty well. I'm just curious about an ink I'm falling in love with and must have a bottle of.

Disclaimer: I don't swear by my scanner's quality, so I've tweaked the colors a bit. They look ok on my monitor, but mileage may vary, so I apologize in advance. I've actually used 2 pens for this review. Most of it is written with a Lamy Safari (f), but for the comparison with Scabiosa (in the water test part) I used a Jinhao x750 (m). The paper is finocam, a spanish brand that you may or may not have experience with. It's fairly good for fp use; line widths run true to size and there isn't any feathering or bleedthrough, although you can see some minor showthrough, which has been exacerbated out of proportion by my scanner. It's actually not bad at all. The paper has some texture, which results in some feedback from nibs ranging from medium to anything narrower. The color is creamy, almost yellowish. http://i.imgur.com/mg562CY.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/87smCVD.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/gpNLvpg.jpg?1 I performed this test under running warm tap water for 10 seconds. As you can see, there is some saturation loss going on in the salix sample, but it does not impact legibility at all. That's why I rated the ink's water resistance as "very good". http://i.imgur.com/P5evCCK.jpg?1

Howdy friends! So I'm delving into the alluring world of iron gall inks, and I was just curious how ya'll like to use your IG's. Do you keep them in just one pen or share the love? Do you use a certain type of nib exclusively, etc. Personally, I like to keep at least one Pelikan M200 with a springy F nib inked up with R&K Scabiosa as my EDC What is your favourite pen to ink up with IG's?

Here's a quick review of what has become my favorite ink! The paper used in the first image is clairefontaine 90g, and the text is written with a jinhao x750 (goulet f nib). In the second image, I used a pelikan m200 (m) for the bold lettering, and the jinhao turned upside down for the rest of the text. The paper comes from a twsbi notebook. Color reproduction of the scans isn't exceptional, but I tried my best to make them look similar to what the ink looks on paper. http://i.imgur.com/Eeb7pZK.jpg?1 Keep in mind that the ink darkens as it oxidizes, so in a couple of days the color looks darker than above (Almost black, as I said, when using a wet pen). Some additional thoughts: http://i.imgur.com/JWPHLt1.jpg?1

Not so long ago I ordered Rohrer&Klingner's Scabiosa and fell in love with the permanentness of it but not so much with the color (too ashy). By accident I mixed some Waterman Tender Violet with it and it became my favorite ink-mix. Has anyone ever tried to mix Rohrer&Klingner's Solferino and Scabiosa in equal parts? or Alt-Bordeaux and Scabiosa? I suspect the latter would be pretty much the result I expected when ordering Scabiosa in the first place.

I've been digging through the 'Ink Review' threads and forums and I have not been able to find a comparison of the Rohrer and Klingner purples. Would preferrably like to see the difference between Scabiosa and Alt-Bordeux but figured it wouldn't hurt to include the Solferino and Magenta. If anyone has writing or swab samples for these inks, would you mind posting a photo? Thanks.

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