Maron - De Atramentis

[visvamitra]

De Atramentis is a German manufacturer of calligraphy and writing ink. The inks are hand made (the entire production process is done manually in their manufacturing center) by its founder - Dr. Franz-Josef Jansen. I believe he uses high quality dyes from well established European companies like BASF and Bayer.

Maron is interesting ink. I enjoy the color because of it's complexity. On the other hand the writing properties of this ink haven't met my expectations. That's good. It means I can still look for my grail ink .

What I find disappointing is medium saturation and average flow and lubrication. The ink feels dry especially in finer nibs. It looks cool in my amazing but ugly Kaweco Sport Classic (Seriously this broad nib is amazing) but once used in pen with finer nib . worse flow the ink looks less interesting.

Drops of ink on kitchen towel

Software ID

Leuchtturm 1917, Kaweco Classic Sport, B

Lamy Al-Star, Oxford notebook, fine nib

Lamy Al-Star, Oxford notebook, medium nib

[swanjun]

I really like Maron but you're right, it does look awful in that fine nib.

[proton007]

The color is unique, but loses its saturation in a fine nib.

 

Reminds me of the Lamy blue-black.

 

Does anyone know why is that so? Why do some inks lose saturation in finer nibs?

[Glenn-SC]

No thanks,

 

Reminds me of mud.

[amberleadavis]

Great review. This one didn't motivate me at all.

[Tas]

[amberleadavis]

Tas, does that mean that you loved it?

[Tas]

Tas, does that mean that you loved it?

 

Ooo, yes.

[pgcauk]

This is in my top three at least, if not right up on top!

Caveat: I have four bottles of this under two different labels, and they are two different colors, not aligned with the labelling!

Bottle #1 = Maron: I was expecting an ashy grey brown as reviewed here but found instead a stealth green. Some mistake surely? Dirty rinse water or . . . . my holy grail!

After quite a bit of research I found that Anderson Pens (I think, unless it was VanNess) had a De Atramentis "Masters of Writing" ink Jean Jaques Rouseau that was cross referenced to Standard Range ink Maron and described as green (the description and swatch have subsequently been changed!) - so I snapped that up too and it was indeed the same, glorious, greenish dirty rinse water! So Bottle #2 = Jean Jaques Rousseau.

I remembered reading Visvamitra's review of the ink "Paris" (= Sepia Brown?), which did not appeal to me at all, in which there was mention of two of the De Atramentis inks being renamed so what was Sepia Brown would now be Maron (which makes some sense, as I always considered Maroon a kind of reddish brown), and what was Maron would now be labelled as Sepia Brown! This was confusing enough to lead me to write to Dr. Janssen himself, who I have always found to be both courteous and helpful. He responded by sending me three bottles of ink (Wow! That's customer service!); one of Maron = Bottle #3 = the color reviewed here, one of Jean Jaques Rousseau = Bottle #4 = the color reviewed here, and one of Sepia Brown = the Russet Brown reviewed by Visvamitra as "Paris".

Phew!

I like the ink reviewed here very much, an ambiguous neutral, certainly not black, but neither grey not brown, warm nor cool (I consider the similarish R&K Sepia to be cool, Herbin's Cacao du Bresil to be warm - and I love them both!), but the green tinged version is my treasure! I am trying to limit my use of it as I doubt it's replaceable. I have found Kobe #49 and Birmingham Pens Arugula to be in the same general range (greens that are so neutral that you read them as grey, but not cool grey, so maybe its brown?), but of those three Maron is the most ambiguous of all!

I have referenced this ink quite a lot on here so good to set forth (I couldn't say "clear up"!) the confusion.

Will post a couple of swatches later if I get a chance.

Update - more intriguing than ever!

Different batches? Rotting? Maybe maturing like a fine wine or cheese?!:

(The Kobe is way off - by eye it's not too dissimilar, just slightly more green - but the rest are somewhat close.)

Edited May 30, 2019 by pgcauk

[pgcauk]

"Drab" is an interesting word?

[pgcauk]

Things that make me happy:

 

I was just looking up Guri = Kuri (as in Yama Guri) in the old Kanji Etymology book (it's a sealed, decorated bag in/and a tree) and was delighted to find that a synonym for Kuri is . . . . .

 

(I'm going to pause here to download a Japanese keyboard!)

 

栗　＝　くり　＝　クリ　＝　(synonym)　マロン

 

Phew!

 

. . . . . or for Anglo only . . . Kuri = Maron

[pgcauk]

Three chestnuts in a pod!

(Please excuse my lack of skill at everything I am attempting here - at least the old dog is trying!)