Ink Shoot-Out : Rohrer&Klingner Verdigris vs Callifolio Equinoxe(6)

[namrehsnoom]

Ink Shoot-Out : Rohrer & Klingner Verdigris vs L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Equinoxe(6)

 

A couple of months ago, I did a review of R&K Verdigris, and was pleasantly surprised by the ink’s colour and performance – it’s truly a classic. When looking at related inks, I noticed that L’Artisan Pastellier Callifolio Equinoxe(6) showed a similar vibe. Both are fabulous inks with great aesthetics and a solid presence on the page. This deserves a more in-depth comparion: I wonder if one of them outshines the other.

 

The morning sun rises above the desert, its first golden rays illuminating the central square of Bartertown. Despite the ungodly hour a large crowd has gathered, and bookmakers are already taking bets. A big fight is on its way. Today, fate and fighting skills will determine who gets to be the new sheriff in town. Two candidates remain: on the left side the giant from Leipzig – Hans “The Crusher” with his ball chain flail. On the right side, the muscleman from France – Jean-Paul “Bone Breaker” carrying his 2m steel pipe. Silence descends when Aunty Entity appears: “Today we choose our new champion, and the Thunderdome will decide. Two men enter, one man leaves!” 

 

Enter... the Ink Shoot-Out. A brutal fight spanning five rounds, where two inks engage in fierce battle to determine who is the winner. Today’s fight is a gladiator spectacle: a brutal fight within the confines of the metal cage of the Thunderdome. A huge crowd clings to the dome’s bars… expectations are high for what promises to be a brutal and bone-breaking event. Aunty Entity drops her handkerchief, signaling the start of the first round. May the best ink win…

 

Round 1 – First Impressions

 

This first round is all about peacocking. The champions strut across the ring, impressing the public with their strength and showcasing their weapon mastery. Attacks are meant to explore weaknesses, and to express dominance over the opponent. It’s a wonderful display of battle skills!

 

Both inks show wonderful qualities. Their dark blue colours are simply amazing, with a solid presence on the page and showing lots of depth and character. Both are muted dark blues with good saturation and some lovely shading that is never overdone and always aesthetically pleasing. The force is strong in these two!

 

In this first round, both champions showcase their ability, and both throw serious punches, trying to impress their opponent and explore weaknesses. These champions are on fairly equal footing, but there are obvious differences: 

• Verdigris is what I would call a teal dark-blue – it’s a blue-black by nature, that has strong teal influences. The resulting colour is simply beautiful and great-looking on paper. 
• Equinoxe(6) is more of a dark-blue teal – first and foremost a teal colour, with strong dark-blue leaning undertones. A bit more heavy in the shading, and with a similarly strong presence on the paper.
• Verdigris is serious and business-like, while Equinoxe(6) expresses more emotion and playfulness.  It’s Mr Spock vs Mc Coy … both equally valuable to Kirk, but having totally different characters.

This is a great first round, and both inks effortlessly impress the crowd. But neither one manages to outshine its opponent. Starting from wildly different backgrounds, both inks lean towards the dark-blue, showcasing mastery of the paper – saturation, wetness, shading, colour … all combine to make these great inks to use.  But in the end, neither ink dominates. As such, this first round ends in a draw.

 

Round 2 – Writing Sample

 

The writing sample was done on a Rhodia N°16 Notepad with 80 gsm paper. Both inks behaved flawlessly, with no feathering and no show-through nor bleed-through. With the EF nib, Verdigris feels a bit wetter-writing, and looks just a little bit more solid on the page. With broad nibs, Verdigris tends to over-saturate – it’s a bit too wet-writing, and leaves a bit too wide a line. Equinoxe(6) is more consistent and shows a same level of wetness and saturation across the nib range. This is especially noticeable in broader nibs. 

 

With the EF-nib, Hans The Crusher strikes a glancing blow on his opponent's shoulder. The French champion stumbles a bit, but quickly recovers. With the broad nib, Equinoxe(6) swings his steel pipe at Verdigris’ legs, causing the German giant to fall. But Verdigris turns the fall into a roll, quickly regaining its footing before the French champion can press for an advantage.  The crowd is going wild… the fight is getting serious. Hard blows are exchanged. A good thing these fighters are wearing armour, or bones would have been crushed. 

 

Both inks work wonders with the paper, writing really well without any technical difficulties. Wetness, saturation, shading … all these are present and work nicely together to enhance your writing. I noticed no feathering, nor any hints of show-through or bleed-through on the Rhodia paper. As such, these inks really measure up to one another. 
This was a satisfying round, where both champions clearly show what they can do. Either one would make an excellent sheriff, that single-handedly could control a crowd. And the public agrees… they roar their approval, with equal enthousiasm for both inks. Again, no clear winner emerges, and this round also ends in a draw.

 

Round 3 – Pen on Paper

 

This round allows the battling inks to show how they behave on a range of fine writing papers. From top to bottom, we have: Midori notebook paper, Tomoe River 52 gsm, Original Crown Mill cotton paper, Clairefontaine Triomphe 90 gsm and Paperblanks 120 gsm journal paper. All scribbling and writing was done with a Lamy Safari B-nib.
Both champions did well, with no show-through nor bleed-through. But this round is not about technicalities, it is about aesthetics and beauty. Are the fighters able to make the paper shine?

 

One thing is immediately apparent: these inks work well with both white and creamy paper. A slight advantage goes to Verdigris: on creamy paper, it just looks a bit more solid. The Callifolio ink feels a bit more playful, more suited for personal journaling. When seriousness is needed, Verdigris seems the obvious choice to me.  

 

 

I also tested the inks on crappy Moleskine paper. Both inks handle that paper really well, with only a tiny amount of feathering.  But there is quite some bleed-through – for both inks. I would say that they handle lousy paper equally well: really good behaviour in the writing department, but you will not be able to use the backside of the paper.

 

With that creamy paper, the Rohrer & Klinger ink manages to swing its flail under Equinoxe(6)’s defenses, delivering a bone-crushing blow to the left leg. That clearly hurts! The public groans in empathy. But the French fighter ignores the pain, and continues to nimbly dance around his opponent, using blindingly fast strikes with its steel pipe to explore for weaknesses, which Verdigris masterfully evades. When the bell sounds the end of this round, it’s still clear that both champions have some fight left in them. But in this round, there was that slight breakthrough for Verdigris on the creamy paper. Not a huge thing, but enough for Aunty Entity to grant this round to Verdigris on points.

 

Round 4 – Ink Properties

 

Both inks have fairly long drying times, but for the first time we see a real difference: 20 seconds for the Callifolio ink, but a really long 30 seconds for Verdigris (with M-nib on Rhodia N°16 80 gsm paper).  That difference is significant!

 

From the chroma, it’s also obvious that Verdigris has less water resistance. To test this, I dripped water on the grid and let it sit there for 15 minutes, after which I removed the water with a paper towel. In reality, the difference turns out to be less prominent than the chroma suggests. Equinoxe(6) is definitely NOT a water-resistant ink, but there remains a faint grey residue that allows you to reconstruct your writing. With Verdigris, all dyes are flushed away with the water, leaving nothing readable on the page.

 

During this round, the French fighter is in the lead, with solid strikes from his steel pipe that Verdigris can barely avoid. Drying times… bang! The steel pipe connects with Verdigris’ shoulder armour. That hurts! Water resistance… klaboom! The German barely manages to parry a solid steel pipe blow with his flail.  He’s clearly on the defensive, and Callifolio Equinoxe(6) totally has the initiative. When the bell sounds, both inks remain standing. But this round is without any doubt a clear win for the French fighter. No bone-breaking hits, but Verdigris has certainly felt the pain. The crowd is going wild… at last the fight is becoming serious. Which ink will remain standing in the end?

 

Round 5 – The Fun Factor

 

Welcome to the final round. Here I give you a purely personal impression of both inks, where I judge which of them I like most when doing some fun stuff like doodling and drawing. And for this round, both inks are simply amazing. I did the drawing on HP Permium Plus Photo paper. The background uses heavily water-diluted ink, applied with a Q-tip. I then painted in the trees, adding more and more ink for the trees in the foreground. For the details in the first row of trees, I used pure ink in a B-nib Safari. 

 

The photo paper tends to enhance the ink’s characteristics, and this shows. Verdigris displays a more strongly present blue-black vibe. With Equinoxe(6), the green influence come to the surface and the ink looks definitely more like a teal. Both inks are lovely to draw with, but the Verdigris side of the painting simply looks more beautiful and balanced. At the end of this fifth round, Verdigris’ steel-ball flail extends with tremendous force, hitting the Frenchman squarely on the breastplate. Equinoxe(6) staggers to his knees, clearly suffering from this tremendous blow. The bell sounds, saving the Frenchman from certain defeat. This round is a solid win for Verdigris, and Aunty Entity agrees.

 

The Verdict
Both inks are great-looking dark blues, which work well with any type of paper: saturated, wet-writing, lovely shading, beautiful looks. Totally different characters, but true champions each. You can’t go wrong with either of these. But that final round really sealed the deal … Verdigris will be the new sheriff in town and is the winner of this exciting shoot-out. And Equinoxe(6) … well, Aunty Entity decides to be merciful. The Frenchmen can live: you should never waste a good ink!
 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Fantastic review.  Love it!  Both inks are tempting.  👌🏻

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks as usual for the comprehensive side-by-side review.  

I'm actually a bit surprised by the name of the R&K ink (I just looked up a definition for the word "verdigris" and would have expected a color much closer to the Califolio ink).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[LizEF]

Fabulous shootout, @namrehsnoom!  Was on the edge of my seat. I'm glad my good buddy Verdigris won, but Equinoxe (6) is lovely, too.  Thanks for the entertainment and the info!

[mizgeorge]

What a great contest - thank you @namrehsnoom for a terrific battle and some very fair judgements!

 

I love Equinoxe (6) - I'm a big fan of the L'AP inks in general - but I think the Verdigris was a worthy winner. 

 

Love these!

[yazeh]

Really appreciated your punk/western shoot out! Way to go

[AceNinja]

4 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

 

 

This drawings looks very very nice!  It makes me think of the forest Beyond The Wall (as in Game of Throne).  I was thinking maybe I should use it as a screen wallpaper. 

But then the blurry figuring standing in the forest makes the overall feel a little bit too creepy!

[InesF]

Thank you, @namrehsnoom, for this exciting ink shootout! I know and love Verdigris, therefore it was of nail-biting tension to read through the whole shootout story. I had bet all my money on Verdigris and, thanks to the Universe: I won (whatever). Now Im relaxed again and can continue with breakfast.   

 

Aside from saturation and the bit more greenish hue of the Equinoxe, the biggest difference seems to be on photo paper. Surprisingly the Equinoxe shows some outline effect that makes me wonder (die-hard scientist here 👩‍🔬) what the cause may be.

 

(Talking to myself: should I buy the L’Artisan Pastellier ink to find out? No, that's too nerdy! But what if there is some new information to gather? No, do not waste money! But ... <pressing the buy button> ... ach! 🙄)

PS: it was in my basket, but I didn't complete the order.

PS2: at least for now.  

[XYZZY]

On 1/21/2024 at 1:54 AM, InesF said:

Aside from saturation and the bit more greenish hue of the Equinoxe, the biggest difference seems to be on photo paper. Surprisingly the Equinoxe shows some outline effect that makes me wonder (die-hard scientist here 👩‍🔬) what the cause may be.

 

 

There are a couple of threads around discussing inks that have a halo (aka outline) effect, but nobody has looked into it.  If only there was a fountain pen fan with a curious scientific mind, a lab, and some time.  Hmmm... 🙂

 

The effect is my favorite.  When it is subtle it might not even be noticed, instead being perceived as writing with unusually crisp edges, the halo only noticed on close examination.  With an ink that also tends to sheen, then you can get a sheening halo, which probably is more deserving of the term "halo".  I have noticed it helps to have a lightly sheening ink for this: if it's a heavy sheener then you wont notice anything special around the edges.  Iroshizuku Yama-budo works well for this.

 

I learned that "halo" is the term for the effect, and I tend to prefer it, but I confess that is only because it's what I learned an am used to.  "Outline" may be better, reserving "halo" for what we see when the outline is combined with sheen.

 

I have always assumed that the mechanism for the outline is related to coffee rings.  In a coffee ring the suspended coffee particles migrate to the outside of drop and accumulate at the edges: more at the outside, less inside, hence a ring.  My guess is that when inks do this the colorant is moving to the edges as the fluid either evaporates or is absorbed into the paper.  It's been a while since I've read about coffee rings, but some Googling takes me to an article (which references the published paper) that even mentions that the researchers were able to impact the rings by modifying surface tension with the addition of some surfactants.  https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2016/new-coffee-ring-effect-model#:~:text=When a droplet dries on,fluid flow inside the drop.  

 

If you're going to look into this effect you should probably enquire of some inks that do a good job of showing the effect.  You might do better than Equinoxe.

[InesF]

2 hours ago, XYZZY said:

There are a couple of threads around discussing inks that have a halo (aka outline) effect, but nobody has looked into it.  If only there was a fountain pen fan with a curious scientific mind, a lab, and some time.  Hmmm... 🙂

 Those are desperately searched for people ...  

 

2 hours ago, XYZZY said:

The effect is my favorite.  When it is subtle it might not even be noticed, instead being perceived as writing with unusually crisp edges, the halo only noticed on close examination.  With an ink that also tends to sheen, then you can get a sheening halo, which probably is more deserving of the term "halo".  I have noticed it helps to have a lightly sheening ink for this: if it's a heavy sheener then you wont notice anything special around the edges.  Iroshizuku Yama-budo works well for this.

 

I learned that "halo" is the term for the effect, and I tend to prefer it, but I confess that is only because it's what I learned an am used to.  "Outline" may be better, reserving "halo" for what we see when the outline is combined with sheen.

Without doing a specific test, that all reads much like a usual chromatography effect when solvent mixtures were used.

I know about some "outline" marker with intended halo effect. Those are composed of two barely or not mixable solvents, each of them having a certain dye dissolved or, more often, the aqueous phase has some pigments suspended. During writing, the two solvents migrate with different speed and especially the faster is carrying its dye to the edge of the line.

I guess, the inks showing outline or halo effect may contain either a lubricant or a detergent that migrates a bit faster (or due to lower partial vapor pressure a bit longer) and takes some of the ink dyes with it. Maybe. 🤷‍♀️

 

PS: my home-lab is not too bad, but such specific analysis are out of my reach, unfortunately.