EFNIR: Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa

[ENewton]

2 hours ago, bluemagister said:

I have both Salix and 2 bottles of Scabiosa and find them to be fairly dry inks that perform well in an M nib with a decent flow.  They're pretty solid performers for the price point and I do like that the colors darken over time; this is a treasured feature of IG inks.   They are also very waterproof after setting and I never had cleaning troubles if I remembered to use the pen daily and flush after 10 days or so. 

 

 

This is an interesting report.  In my experience, Scabiosa has not darkened over time.  In fact, it has faded to a unique, coppery lilac. 

 

As for cleaning, when I use Scabiosa, I write with the pen daily and flush once the pen is empty, as I would with any other ink.  I have no ink easier to flush from a pen.

[InesF]

Thank you, LizEF, for your nice review!

I'm close to nailbiting in awaiting your next review - Quin is at the crossroads, isn't he?

 

To my experience, R&K Scabiosa is more of a wet ink (low surface tension) and has a high tendency to feathering, spreading and bleeding*. So I was a bit surprised about bluemagister's report. Scabiosa contains ethanol (you can smell it). Is it possible that a part of the alcohol has evaporated from your bottle? In such a case I would expect it to become more dry and, maybe, become a bit turbid (or with precipitate at the bottom).

 

Thanks bluemagister, I will definitely try Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black!

 

* remark: as I use many of my inks for both, fountain pen writing and for dip nib calligraphy, I always add Gum Arabic to them if they do not behave well - Scabiosa didn't behave and needed to be tamed instantly. With 20% increased viscosity it is still a wet ink but feathers much less.

[Tas]

👏🏼👏🏼

[LizEF]

4 hours ago, InesF said:

Thank you, LizEF, for your nice review!

You're most welcome! Thank you.

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

I'm close to nailbiting in awaiting your next review - Quin is at the crossroads, isn't he?

This story line wraps up with review #120, though you could say the suspense ends in 118 (or maybe 119, depending - hard for me to be sure since I know everything).  Am still waiting for inspiration to strike for their next adventure.

 

BTW: I did just post another episode this morning.

 

4 hours ago, InesF said:

To my experience, R&K Scabiosa is more of a wet ink (low surface tension) and has a high tendency to feathering, spreading and bleeding*. So I was a bit surprised about bluemagister's report. Scabiosa contains ethanol (you can smell it). Is it possible that a part of the alcohol has evaporated from your bottle? In such a case I would expect it to become more dry and, maybe, become a bit turbid (or with precipitate at the bottom).

Interesting!  I only have a sample, so I have no idea how old the bottle may be, and we'd have to ask @A Smug Dill whether the ethanol may have evaporated.  Please hold while I go attempt a sniff of the sample vial....  Results are inconclusive - there's a slight smell that might be ethanol, or just some chemical. (I cracked my head open on Halloween of 1990, and ever since, my sense of smell has not been trustworthy.)  There was a bit of stuff at the bottom of the vial, which dispersed on shaking...

 

Thank you for adding a bit more insight into this ink's behavior!

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, Tas said:

👏🏼👏🏼

 

[A Smug Dill]

24 minutes ago, LizEF said:

I only have a sample, so I have no idea how old the bottle may be, and we'd have to ask @A Smug Dill whether the ethanol may have evaporated.

 

I ordered my bottle of R&K Scabiosa late in June last year and received it mid-July but, if I recall correctly, didn't open it until earlier this year.

[Sailor Kenshin]

For a poiple ink with an off-putting name, it's a nice color.   Thanks for the review!

 

....oily magic indeed....😜

[LizEF]

3 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

For a poiple ink with an off-putting name, it's a nice color.   Thanks for the review!

 

....oily magic indeed....😜

  You're most welcome.

[gyasko]

I don’t smell ethanol in Scabiosa.  It smells a lot like other iron gall inks.  

[ENewton]

1 hour ago, gyasko said:

I don’t smell ethanol in Scabiosa.  It smells a lot like other iron gall inks.  

 

Mine has a strong iron smell, maybe because the bottle is a few years old.

[yazeh]

5 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

For a poiple ink with an off-putting name, it's a nice color.   Thanks for the review!

 

....oily magic indeed....😜

For gardeners... Scabiosas are truly lovely.... 

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Nice pic! ...pretty flower, odd-sounding name.

[yazeh]

5 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Nice pic! ...pretty flower, odd-sounding name.

Scabiosa, commonly called pincushion flower, is a genus of about 80 species of annuals, biennials and perennials primarily from the Mediterranean region but also from other parts of Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, Asia and Japan.

The genus name Scabiosa comes from the Latin scabies meaning the itch in reference to the plant's rough leaves which could supposedly cure scurvy.

[gyasko]

4 hours ago, ENewton said:

 

Mine has a strong iron smell, maybe because the bottle is a few years old.

 

Same here. 

[pgcauk]

I love Scabiosa!
I especially love the color when fresh, but heigh-ho, beauty fading is a natural process!!
It is not always an easy ink, but I think it's worth taking the time to experiment with.
I have had this in my CP1, the first pen of my "penaissance" (more honestly, ink addiction stage!), permanently since I first bought both in 2016. As the pen is a Lamy, I have a full suite of nibs to switch between. For a long time I tended to favor either the EF or the 1.1 italic, but since I invested in a gold broad nib, I haven't switched anymore!

I have bought quite a few other violet inks, but none have the rich complexity of Scabiosa at it's best.
(Poussiere De Lune is too red for me.)

[txomsy]

Me too! I love both, Salix and Scabiosa.

[1nkulus]

Thank you for the review. 

 

I have been using Scabby and Salix for a few years and although they are dry, they don't skip. Used with 'EF/F' nibs.

 

Being IG, they haven't proved problematic even though they have been used infrequently on a few instances (twice a week over a period of 2 months).

[LizEF]

5 minutes ago, 1nkulus said:

Thank you for the review. 

You're very welcome!   Thanks for adding your experience.

[1nkulus]

3 minutes ago, LizEF said:

You're very welcome!   Thanks for adding your experience.

HTH... 

[RJS]

Thank you for another good review!

 

I like the look of your Scabiosa here- as opposed to how it looks when I use the ink from my bottle 😅