Remember Rotring's bottle ink?

[Gliau]

It's a great pleasure to meet you. I signed up today and this is the first post. I look forward to your kind cooperation.

 

Do you remember Rotring's bottle ink? It came with a hexagonal, lathe-processed aluminum stand. It was labeled "Rotring Brillant Ultramarine."

 

I bought this ink at a stationery store near my school when I was a teenager. I was using pilot's drafting ink before that, and I fell in love with Rotring's Ultramarine at first sight. It was the perfect blue for me.

 

After exhausting the whole bottle, I visited again the stationery where I bought the ink, but the shopkeeper said it was the last stock. I went to many stores to find the ink, but it was in vain. I found out after a long time that the ink was already discontinued in the 90s. It was in the 2000s when I bought it, and it was already NOS then.

 

Fifteen years have passed. I'm still looking for the Rotring's Brillant Ultramarine ink, but there's no hope. Instead, I'm trying to find the ink as similar as possible. From what I found, the Ultramarine from the Birmingham Pen Company seems to be similar, but I'm not sure. Because I lost all my notes I wrote in Rotring ink.

 

So I'd like to ask you.

 

1.If you've ever used a bottle of "Rotring Brillant Ultramarine" ink here, which ink is the most similar color?

 

2. Cartridge ink from Rotring seems relatively easy to find. Is the cartridge version of Brillant Ultramarine exactly the same as the bottled Brillant Ultramarine?

 

I need your help. I miss the ink so much...
Thank you.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Gliau
There was a typo in the title!

[Sailor Kenshin]

Rötring inks were among my first ever: a red, a green, and the Ultramarine.  They did not, however, come in a stand.  I recall the Ultramarine as being very close to purple, as in your picture.

 

You might try looking at (and buying) ink samples categorized as 'blurple.'  A few years ago, I did see some Rötring Ultramarine on sale from eBay.

 

Mountain of Ink's a good place to look at reviews, and ink reviews here on FPN.  Hope this helps!

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Yes, Brilliant Ultramarine, in the box. One of those dis-remembered when or how much buys that I knew as soon as I did, that I was lucky to have found such an unopened bottle of ink. 

Used once, a dusty dryish color from my memory. I've only used it once....not that I didn't like it. It was rare; the only bottle of it I'd ever seen... but then I wasn't into purple/blues and it had fallen to one of my many ...one day ... inks.

 

What nib width is recommended?

 

I never got into Rötring fountain pens, when I could have, in I understood them to be nails....

[XYZZY]

Hi @Gliau, and welcome to FPN!  That's a gorgeous looking ink.  Not what I think of as "ultramarine", but that's a great purple.  Is it really that purple, or is that an artifact of the lighting or angle of your photo?  Unfortunately I don't have a good answer for you, I'm just a spectator looking to see what people suggest.  

 

In the meantime, a great resource on FPN are some of @amberleadavis's "TOD" threads for different colors.  So maybe you'll find an answer in 

or  

 

[Gliau]

@Sailor Kenshin

That's right. As you said, it was deep blue, close to purple. So I searched not only for blue ink from "Pelican 4001", "Parker Quink", but also for purple ink like "Pussiere de lune" from J. Herbin.

 

I just realized that there is a category called 'blurple'. Thank you for the good information! I should visit Mountain of Ink, too.

I should keep an eye on eBay, too. If it has been seen once, it may reappear!

 

@Bo Bo Olson

It was the perfect color for me, but it wasn't for you. I've been trying to find ink that's similar to this, and I've seen a lot of different colors, and I've actually found quite a few colors that are that nice. You may have found another ink you like.

 

The ink in the picture is one such thing: "Ultramarine" by the Birmingham Pen Company. That is written with B nib of the vintage Faber Castell Osmia 883.

 

@XYZZY

Thank you for your warm welcome!

 

The text in the picture is not written in Rotring ink. It's "Ultramarine" from the Birmingham Pen Company with the vintage Faber Castell Osmia 883 B nib. It's just bright blue when there is no sheen. The fountain pen I use is mainly EF or F nib, and it's hard to see the sheen with that thin line. But it's still good ink! If I don't find Rotring Ultramarine, I'll probably keep writing that.

 

Thank you for providing resources with a variety of ink information! I'll look for the answer there.

 

 

 

Thank you to those who answered. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

[yazeh]

I would recommend you getting multiple samples of blues corresponding to your Rötring Ultramarine...  Good hunting!

[Bo Bo Olson]

9 hours ago, Gliau said:

It's just bright blue when there is no sheen.

 

That Rotering is a very old ink. It was years ago when I got my bottle.

 

Sheen is something new to ink...new in the last 5-6 years.

I do have Parker Penmann Sapphire in cartridges, and it never sheened for me. It was supposed to, and I have tried it on good to better papers; four times. One cartridge to go. 

 

 Most of my inks are from before the companies added sheen to their inks....in outside an Indian ink I really don't recall having sheen in any of my main company inks.............of course they are mostly older, outside of Edelstein and I never noticed any sheen in my every other year buys.

[JulieParadise]

As a German I find it quite funny how in some of the comments above an -ö- has managed to sneak in. 😉 

 

(Rötring instead of Rotring, coming from rot = red + Ring = ring, the signature red ring on the brand's writing instruments.)

[Sailor Kenshin]

Many inks will sheen without having sheen 'put in.'  Just look at the rim of your bottle; that's where it appears.

 

(Also, I couldn't find the giant red bull's eye on my magic keyboard.) 😜

[Penguincollector]

I don’t know how it measures up to Rotring, but a nice blurple is 2 parts Parker Quink Blue to 1 part Pelikan 4001 Violet. Also, it might be worth looking for Rotring purple and blue to mix, as well as the ultramarine in cartridges if they are still available to you.

[Lithium466]

Rotring brilliant black was my first ink love story. I never got to try the Ultramarine version, a shame.

Maybe Diamine Sapphire would suit you? 
 

I always wondered if Rotring was just repackaging some ink made by say, Lamy or Pelikan, or if they really produced their own ink (apart from their India ink). 

[Bo Bo Olson]

2 hours ago, JulieParadise said:

how in some of the comments above an -ö- has managed to sneak in.

Copy and paste....and with umlauts if so, then even more so....in spite of having open before me the number pad umlaut cheat sheet.....and in English I'm a horrible speller, in German I'm like a demented second grader.

I speak fluent Ami-deutch. That's where you take a perfectly good English sentence and sledge hammer the German words into it. Was=war from Ami-deutch, really throws the Germans in they want something ist (xxx a sentence) gewesen and saying it was, is so wrong mostly in German.

In English I can on the second word said, take a deep breath to say no, in we know where the sentence is going.

The Germans are the worlds greatest order takers, in they have split infinitives so don't know where the sentence is going. By the time they take a deep breath to say no, the speaker is well into the second sentence and they don't get to say no at the right time. (My own theory...foreigners often see things different from landsmen.)

 

Oh, Germans have a big shrink wrap machine and will shrinkwrap 4 to 6 words together. Any old time they want to save space bar space. I read six times slower in German having to stop and untangle such words.

Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften - meaning insurance companies that provide legal protection.

Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwe (Danube steamship company captain's widow) They have more and perhaps longer Danube Steamship words.

.......................

So I guessed wrong with the unlauts; libel to do that at any time, in I don't hear the umlaut. You have seen my kugal/kugle for ball on top of a nib? Spelling until spell check, my most read book was the 'Bad Speller's Dictionary'.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

What a great bottle!  @Gliau welcome to FPN!

 

[tim77]

I assume from the picture you have at least a little of the Rotring ink left, so it shouldn't be difficult to get a match by mixing a pair of suitable inks.  Diamine Imperial Blue and Diamine Imperial Purple would be my choices -- Diamine inks are very inexpensive and I've never had any unexpected reactions from mixing them together.  Get a dropper and some vials and do some tests.  Then tell us your results so we can reproduce the recipe.

 

[amper]

On 2/6/2023 at 2:04 PM, Lithium466 said:

I always wondered if Rotring was just repackaging some ink made by say, Lamy or Pelikan, or if they really produced their own ink (apart from their India ink). 

Almost certainly, and probably Pelikan, but don't quote me on that, because it might have been made by Hardtmuth, too. Back in the early 1990s, when Rotring released the 600 series, their products were virtually identical to the Koh-I-Noor products of the same era. I was under the impression that Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth owned Rotring at the time, but my memory is very hazy at this point. Rotring was originally a DE company, and Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth was originally a CZ company, but their products in the Rapidograph lines in the 1990s (both companies used the same name, even) used identical pen bodies, save for color. The Rotring 600 series was clearly a copy of the Koh-I-Noor Rapidomatic/Selectomatic line, but in metal instead of plastic.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Amper, I'm glad you can recall the real old days....back then I was a Ball Point Barbarian. A One Man, One unused Fountain Pen guy.............The silver P-75 FP and BP/MP were locked up in my wife's Jewelry prison.

[amper]

18 minutes ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Amper, I'm glad you can recall the real old days....back then I was a Ball Point Barbarian. A One Man, One unused Fountain Pen guy.............The silver P-75 FP and BP/MP were locked up in my wife's Jewelry prison.

From 1991-1995, I worked at an art supply store that sold Rotring and Koh-I-Noor as the purchaser for the store.

[yazeh]

Here is the blue Koh - in noir one: They are very cheap:

https://eshop.koh-i-noor.eu/catalogue_c628126082161245/colours-and-clays_c591421291626551/inks_c591421291630136/fountain-pen-ink-50g-blue_p18449

 

or  

ebay:

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/334417114042?hash=item4ddcd033ba:g:uIYAAOSwSIVjjME-&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8Jmh%2B3hP5JPMK6kMmKewd1uVo4o5qpVtRven8DoBAOoDooh6I%2F15tTVhCHMRJmX3EaOKEntBf%2BRSylUgWm7NZ6HW5714qc%2FSDqoOanc6rbL2gh1KVuX5vfDttVmWmTcIgvs7ruMdG5MEqfMpEAfdDU%2BaHUg%2FefNBiitsUHBchiKOKUFXitBZkohX3e4Zp5q8xmNoe7yZVGqrf3NN%2BHafKhlRl%2FoZc01QfJwAaKzSJhwpFLygZL0zAwaOkShiDsa4L4IKGSrWV8AqBZFrCxat4TUuekcrthXsn%2BcuHNR0O6CTbz82XvA1PtmIhI%2FbwxvtGA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6bQpuvGYQ

[Bo Bo Olson]

How is it in shading?

What a great price.

[SamCapote]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:28 AM, Bo Bo Olson said:

 

That Rotering is a very old ink. It was years ago when I got my bottle.

 

Sheen is something new to ink...new in the last 5-6 years.

I do have Parker Penmann Sapphire in cartridges, and it never sheened for me. It was supposed to, and I have tried it on good to better papers; four times. One cartridge to go. 

 

 Most of my inks are from before the companies added sheen to their inks....in outside an Indian ink I really don't recall having sheen in any of my main company inks.............of course they are mostly older, outside of Edelstein and I never noticed any sheen in my every other year buys.

Bo Bo, I most definitely get a sheen with PPS, but only on papers like Tomoe.  
 

I have 4 bottles of ultramarine in my extensive collection.  It is definitely more of a violet color than blue or marine (green).