Rosendahls ink - Scrivil series - Cadet Blue

[Daneaxe]

 

This is a review of the now-defunct Swedish ink manufacturer Rosendahls, their Cadet Blue fountain pen ink, of the Scrivil series, which appears to have a military theme. Since the ink is no longer in production, it can only be found vintage, although several FPN'ers have found several here & there, it is probably a challenge to acquire. Now, with that said, let's see how it looks..! The bottle looks a lot like the normal Pelikan ink bottle, and can be sat slightly on its side to allow for easy emptying when the ink level starts to get low, plus the opening is of a good size.

 

The first writing test is with a no-name "Iridium Point Germany" pen with an EF nib, see discussions elsewhere about these pens. The ink flows very nicely, with good lubrication, and makes a potentially scratchy pen nice & smooth to write with. Color is a pale blue, I'd even call it a baby blue, which is too pale in my eyes for everyday writing. However, there is no feathering, the letters have clear definition and no shading is seen here.

 

Second writing test is with a Jinhao X450 with the factory M nib, which is infamous for writing wet. Also here, good ink flow, nice lubrication and it just writes very well. Like the previous test, we see no feathering and each letter is clearly defined. But look at the color! This is now a medium blue instead, which is a nice surprise. It indicates a dynamic blue which will probably shade well. More on that later. If you look *very* closely, you can see shading in the letters here, but only by zooming in on a hi-res pic.

 

Third writing test is just a quick experiment with a dip pen, which did not go super well, but still showed that the color deepens as you lay down more ink, and a little border shading is seen, but otherwise it is an example of how little I know about dip pens.

 

Next comes the ink swab, where you clearly see color difference according to amount of ink, and border shading both in the triple layer, near bottom, plus in the circles, left. We see several shades of blue, from baby blue to navy, which is very nice to see in what you might think is just a simple, almost boring, light blue, and so it appears at first glance, but this li'l fella has more layers than an onion!

😃

 

The water resistance test shows that 90% of the ink goes away from having water dropped on it, making it quite the opposite of water resistant.

🤔

My conclusion is that this is an extremely well-behaved ink, fully functional despite being at least 30 years old, possibly 50, very dynamic in coloring and with great potential for shading. It dries quite quickly when writing normally, 5+ seconds, even on Rhodia paper, and in all the tests I made there was not a single bleed-thru. I had no hard starts or drying ink in the pens used. Since it's not waterproof, I wouldn't call it archival, although it might be UV-resistant, I have no data on that. What I *do* know is that this is an ink which is very easy and pleasant to use, with properties which we might wish were in more modern inks.

 

I will finish with a writing sample inspired by Matt of The Pen Habit, showing a quote from one of my favorite authors.

 

Stay safe,

Daneaxe

[mizgeorge]

I'm not seeing any pictures?

[Daneaxe]

You were too quick for me, mizgeorge, I was uploading pics from another device... Try again, pls.

😃

[yazeh]

Thanks for the review. That's truly a lovely and refreshing colour.....

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting.  Some of the photos make it look like vintage Skrip Peacock (and the closest modern substitute I've found, Diamine Turquoise) -- while others make it look more like Edelstein Topaz and Diamine Havasu Blue.

Thanks for posting the pics.  Wondering now about some of the other Rosendahl ink colors.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lapis]

Looks a bit like Pelikan's Turquoise or Waterman's South Sea Blue (which has a different bottle, of course).

In regard to your first two hand-written lines of "The quick red fox...". Is that also the ink you're reviewing or another ink as a comparison and/or "reference?

[Daneaxe]

  On 6/27/2021 at 6:52 PM, lapis said:

Looks a bit like Pelikan's Turquoise or Waterman's South Sea Blue (which has a different bottle, of course).

In regard to your first two hand-written lines of "The quick red fox...". Is that also the ink you're reviewing or another ink as a comparison and/or "reference?

Expand  

Lapis, this is, as I alluded to in the review, all the same ink, in different pens/nibs, to show that this is a truly dynamic blue. Goes from baby blue to mid blue by using a bigger nib, and with my flex dip pen, I almost made it write navy blue..!

😃 

[lapis]

Okay, thanks. Looks like two very different inks.

[LizEF]

Thanks for the review!  It's fun seeing these old inks and their packaging.

[inkstainedruth]

+1 on that.

Yesterday I was in antiques shop I had never been to before (just spotted the sign as I was driving along).  There was a box with what I think had been a quart (!) bottle of Sanford Pen-It Blue Black, but sadly no ink left in it -- just dried up stuff caked on the inside of the bottle.  Great if you're a glass collector -- but for me, not worth asking the price....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Daneaxe]

Thanks for the nice comments everybody, it's my first review here.

Ruth, I also have their ink no. 2, royal blue, from their standard series, which is a bit darker. I might post something about it later...

😃

A little addition to my review: I did not say very clearly that all test was on Rhodia dot grid paper, 80 g/m2. 

I did a quick test on some cheap absorbent paper where there was much feathering, but still no bleed-thru.

[Daneaxe]

  On 6/27/2021 at 7:01 PM, lapis said:

Looks like two very different inks.

Expand  

Yes, it does, doesn't it? Exactly my point here - I actually believe that many inks change color depending on which pen/nib you are using - with this one, you could get dramatic shading using a true flex pen, like I tried to show. Sadly, I'm a rank amateur when it comes to flex & dip pens, but I'm learning..!

[inkstainedruth]

It also can depend very much on the paper, Daneaxe,  A couple of years ago I had people convinced that I had in a pen was green -- and I was going "Nope.  It's Waterman Mysterious Blue!"; which seems to be VERY aptly named because I've seen it look teal, dark blue black and (that time) a slightly blue-leaning green -- all depending on the pen and paper.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Daneaxe]

  On 6/27/2021 at 7:16 PM, inkstainedruth said:

but sadly no ink left in it -- just dried up stuff caked on the inside of the bottle.

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Funny you should mention that - I am right now experimenting with reconstituting a vintage Pelikan royal blue, where there was just some powder at the bottom. I bought it for 10 SEK (1 $) just for the bottle, but when I got home, I thought "hey, let's see what happens!" and added ca 10 ml water to it. Shake a bit, leave it overnight and perhaps gain some *very* vintage ink!

😎

PS: Notice the bottom of the box - it says Günther Wagner - the creator of Pelikan. A hint about the age of this  

[mizgeorge]

It's lovely  I had a feeling it might be a turquoise-y ink.

 

Do the navel cadets still wear the bright blue kragor? I can only guess that's where the name came from.

 

I'd love to find some of these inks!

[LizEF]

@Daneaxe, if you decide to share, I would enjoy seeing the Royal Blue and the reconstituted Pelikan ink.   Whether you share or not, hope you enjoy them!

[inkstainedruth]

I'd also like to see that.  Some inks take well to being reconstituted while others don't.  (The guy who runs the mailing list for my local pen club said that vintage Sheaffer ink does well, but that vintage Parker ink does not.). I don't know about other vintage ink brands, particular for ones from outside the US.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

Thanks for this, great pics

 

awesome looking ink! But then again, I have a thing for turquoise