Rohrer & Klingner - Scabiosa

[Mercian]

This post is my attempt to restore the pictures to Sandy1’s review of this ink, Rohrer & Klingner ‘Scabiosa’.

 

I have ‘restored’ the pictures as links to Sandy1’s photos in her photobucket account.
In order to view the photos without ‘watermarks’, you will need to click on each one, then double-click on it to open it on photobucket, and perhaps then double-click on it again.

All credit for the review, and for the photos, is owed to Sandy1.

 

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Kindly adjust the brightness & contrast of your monitor to accurately depict this Gray Scale.

As the patches are neutral gray, the colour on your monitor should also be neutral.

Calibrate Mac https://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-Your-Monitor

Figure 1.

Gray Scale.

 

Figure 2.

Paper: HPJ1124 Laser Copy.

Swabs: Waterman Florida Blue. R&K Scabiosa. 

 

NIB-ism LINK

Depicts relative nib width and wetness.

 

WRITTEN SAMPLES: Moby Dick

 

Note - Narrow Nibs: 

First two rows are 5mm wide; the last two rows are 8mm wide.

 

Figure 3.

Paper: HPJ1124 Laser Copy.

 

Figure 4.

Paper: Clairefontaine Triomphe.

 

Figure 5.

Paper: G Lalo, Verge de France, White.

 

Figure 6.

Grocery List 

Paper: Pulp - from a one-a-day cartoon calendar.

 

Figure 7.

Out of curiosity.

Paper: QuoVadis journal with ivory paper (Clairefontaine?)

 

OTHER SAMPLES:

 

Figure 8.

HAPPY !  On glossy card stock.

Smear / Dry Time. 

Wet samples.

Paper: HPJ1124 Laser Copy.

 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

 

Type:

• Iron-gall fountain pen ink.

 

Daily writer?

• Afraid not - for me anyway. (This is Ms Blue-Black speaking; I am not channelling Walter Cronkite, OK?)
• Will do very well for those who seek a very unique ink: shading and colour are without peer.

 

Other:

• The visual weight and presence are a bit odd: having a warm tint, the colour wants to come forward, but somehow is bound to the plane of the page.
• This might be a 'Must Have' for someone who has an itch they can't scratch.

 

USES:

 

Business:

• While this is the least 'red' of all warm colours I can recall, it is still not quite a colour that might find its way into the conference room.
• The grey-rose may well seem conflicted or indecisive. (?)
• And with it being so unique, it may actually be distracting. (??)
• Signatures. (It's yours!)
• Not snappy enough and too dark for mark-up, editing, revision.
• For correction / grading, it does not have enough zip & zap to stand out.

 

Illustrations / Graphics:

• Absolutely.
• Can be paired with either warm, cool or neutral colours and would complement them all. (Throw away the Colour Wheel for this one!)
• Lack of feathering and the i-g tight clean lines supports its use for extremely narrow lines/labels in drawings/diagrams; and the colour should provide eye-relief even when saturated, (no edge-effect).
• Due to the shading, it is not a candidate when even tone is required. e.g. Large areas to be blocked-out, though cross-hatching will compensate.

 

Personal:

• This is the arena for this ink.
• It is a unique ink, so I suggest exploiting that by using a somewhat wet, but not saturating writer. As this ink seems to run at the 'true' width of a nib, I'd think a M-B nib would to it - not just a plump M.

 

Students: 

• While I think it certainly wonderful for notes, (good on poor paper, robust, etc.), it may not be acceptable for assignments.

 

PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE & CHARACTERISTICS:

 

Flow: 

• Widely considered to be dry / dusty, which it is - in spades.
• Problems were encountered while preparing the Written Samples on the G Lalo. *expletive*
• LINK
• Other than the hard textured G *expletive* Lalo, Scabiosa did well.

 

Nib Dry-out:

• Not noticed.

 

Start-up: 

• Good.

 

Lubrication: 

• Lean, barely adequate. (Seek a smooth nib & paper.)
• Typical of an i-g ink.

 

Nib Creep:

• None.

 

Staining: 

• Not noticed in the short term.

 

Clogging: 

• Unlikely.

 

Bleed Through: 

• Not on any of the papers.

 

Show Through:

• Both sides of paper may be used without a problem.

 

Smell: 

• Very faint.
• Reminiscent of blanched almonds.

 

Hand oil sensitivity: 

• Not noticed.

 

Archival: 

• Very likely.

 

Water Resistance: (Figure 😎

• Excellent.

 

Smear Results: (Figure 😎

• Dry within 25 seconds.

 

Bulletproof: 

• N/A.

 

Clean Up: 

• Quick & thorough with plain water.
• *One should cleanse pens completely, including the innards of the cap.
• As with other inks, I flush and cleanse a pen after use. I-G inks are not of the sort to let dry-out in a neglected pen. However, other practitioners have reported that pens inked with i-g ink start right up after not being used for months on end. Not I; use 'em then clean 'em.

 

Mixing:

• No stated prohibitions / limitations, but from personal experience  do not mix with Sailor nano inks: the likelihood of a precipitate / sludge forming is very real.
• I have used this ink to warm my sole brown, and to add even more dimension to the Herbin 'Larmes de Cassis'.

 

THE LOOK:

• As mentioned above, i-g inks have a different look to them than purely dye-based inks.
• The i-g inks seem to reside slightly behind the plane of the writing surface; but as Scabiosa is warm, it wants to come forward. I believe this is one reason that Scabiosa can be seen as indecisive : it creates visual tension.

 

Saturation:

• Struggles to achieve solid density.
• A wet-ish writer and compliant paper are required.
• And I wonder if saturation is contrary to the character of the ink; so no acts against Nature, OK?
• LINK

 

Shading: 

• Extraordinary & unique.
  • Shading LINK
  • Shading LINK

   

Feathering: 

• None noticed

 

 

Variance depending on pen+nib combos used: 

• More than I though I'd see! especially with the wider nibs!!

 

FIDELITY:

 

Is colour name appropriate / accurate? 

• No idea.
• Name has something to do with flowers - not a persistent nasty skin condition of reptiles.

 

PAPERS:

 

Lovely papers: 

• This ink should look good on all white papers.
• Could overcome paper with optical brighteners with a bit of a tussle.

 

Trip-wire papers: 

• Any that are hard, dry or textured.

 

Tinted Papers: 

• After choking on the G Lalo VdF, I tried a sheet from the Quo Vadis Habana journal with the plain/blank ivory paper. Very nice indeed; no feathering or bleed-through either. Some show-through, but for a personal journal, no big deal.

 

Is high-end paper 'worth it'?

• Within the limits of the Trip Wire papers mentioned above, it's a matter of preference over performance, especially as Scabiosa does well with lesser papers.

 

OTHER THAN INK:

 

Presentation : 

• 50 ml. bottle.

 

Country of origin: 

• Germany.

 

Container: 

• A very simple cylindrical brown-tinted glass bottle, 40 mm diameter and 78 mm tall.
• The centred round opening is an adequate 22 mm.
• The text on the label is in four European languages.
• The hard white plastic screw cap has adequate grippy nodes, and is easy to grasp. Note: I heard the plastic lid was replaced by a metal cap.
• The cap is not child-proof.
• The cap seal is 'foam' plastic.
• Single tank, no filling aids, no sediment collector. Another Tsk!
• Label wraps around, so ink level cannot be determined - no good for Snorkels! (Bah!)

 

Box: 

• Pleasantly absent.

 

Eco-Green: 

• Bonus Points for not using a box

 

Availability: 

• Various on-line outlets

 

 

ETC:

 

Majik:

• Possible, but not sure if it'll be worth the sweat.
• Its pretty impressive from the bottle, so you might just try it with pens & papers at hand, then go from there.

 

Personal Pen & Paper Pick:

• The Carene on Clairefontaine, but I'd go for a slightly wider nib. (Time for that stub for the Carene perhaps.)

 

Yickity Yackity:

• An elusive ink, which is part of its cachet.
• Goes down more Red than it appears when dry and cured.
• Ah kushbaby, not your colour, ...

 

I=+o+=I=+-+=I=+o+=I=+-+=I=+O+=I=+-+=I=+o+=I=+-+=I=+o+=I

 

MATERIEL USED:

 

These pen+nib combos:

(Same as used for the Salix Ink Review.)

 

For Written Samples:

A. Esterbrook J + 9550 steel Posting XF. LINK

B. *Eversharp Skyline + 14K firm F. LINK

C. Pilot Custom 74 + SFM. LINK

D. Waterman Carene + 18K M nib. LINK

E. The Notorious Pink Safari + steel B nib + body stocking. LINK

F. Sailor Demonstrator + 14K MS nib. LINK

 

* The Skyline is considered a Dealers' Choice as it has a firm nib - many in the market are or claim to be flex-ish. 

 

 

For lines & labels: 

• Pilot Plumix + steel XF nib; inked with Visconti Green.

 

On these papers:

• HPJ1124 24 lb. Laser Copy.
• Clairefontaine Triomphe.
• G Lalo 'Verge de France', White
• Pulp - One-a-day cartoon calendar page: Esterbrook J + XF.
• Quo Vadis Habana Journal ivory
• Glossy card stock: Sailor + MS.

 

NOTES: 

 

To be relevant to the most members, I make an effort to use papers, pens & nibs that are readily available, for which I paid $100 or less, and are 'factory stock' - not customised. 

If I use something outside of my guidelines, it will be ID-ed with an asterix to denote a *Dealer's Choice.

 

Scans were made on an Epson V600 scanner; factory defaults were accepted. 

Figures shown were scanned at 150 dpi & 24 bit colour. 

Images linked were scanned at 300 dpi & 24 bit colour. 

Scans were not adjusted other than cropping and straightening using iPhoto on a MacBook, but most went straight to the file sharing thingy.

 

 

-30-

 

————————————————————————————————————————————

 

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

———

 

This is another of Sandy1’s reviews that persuaded me to buy the ink in question.

Thorough. Detailed. Humorous. Very informative.
Like all her review work.

As for my own opinions of R&K ‘Scabiosa’:

I agree with Sandy1’s remarks about it.
E.g. I found it to be such a ‘dry’ writing experience in my aerometric Parker “51” that I actually dumped the ink out of the pen. This though I find R&K’s other iron-gall ink - the blue-black ‘Salix’ - to be delightfully well-suited to my “51”s.
My ‘Scabiosa’ has worked well for me in various other Parker pens (vintage and modern), and in my Pelikans and my Lamy 2000.

 

And, just like Sandy1 said, this ink’s sui generis colour, its tight lines, its good water-resistance, and above all its beautiful shading, make it (IMO) an excellent choice for writing personal letters. Dark enough to be easily legible. Pretty enough to be ‘personal’.
But why are you reading my opinions? Go back up, and read what Sandy1 wrote! 😉

 

Slàinte,
M.

[Mercian]

And now, here is my ‘restoration’ of Sandy1’s post in this thread of 16th October 2011, in which she re-visited her review and added some more scans:

———

 

Hi,

 

To support ad hoc comparison of inks of similar colour, I have revisited Scabiosa to add more samples. These samples use much the same layout, papers, pens and imaging method as the current reviews. 

 

As always, should one feel that a separate Post or Topic is required to depict a certain aspect of an ink, your PM will be welcomed. While new scans can be accommodated in due course, creation of even more new written material is unlikely.

 

-=-

 

NIB-ism 

 

L → R: r⦿tring 600 + steel F nib; Waterman ? + steel M nib; Pilot Custom 74 + 14K 3-tine MS nib.

 

OTHER STUFF

 

Smear/Dry Times

Wet Tests

 

 

Written Samples - Moby Dick

Ruling: 8mm.

 

Paper: HPJ1124.

 

Paper: Rhodia.

 

Paper: Staples 20lb.

 

Comments:

• Results are consistent with prior samples.
• Staples 20lb. was not used in the initial review. Scabiosa does not show any feathering, or bleed- show-through with that paper. 

======

 

Edited October 16, 2011 by Sandy1

 

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

 

———————

 

As before, all credit belongs to Sandy1.

 

Slàinte,
M.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you very much for reviving the Sandy1 ink review......When looking at an ink review, Sandy's our Ink Guru, was the most important, and she was a Grand Lady, taking time to answer any and all.

I told noobies to check out Sandy for over a decade, to see what width of nib and different papers would do to make the ink seem so very different.