Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa Ink is a muted purple or plumb color by renowed German ink company, Rohrer & Klingner. Scabiosa, which is the true name of the Pincushion flower, is a beautiful purple shade, with no pink hues. Although no a bright true purple color, this muted color is very appealing. It is very similar to Noodler’s Mata Hari’s Cordial ink, which is one of the newest Noodler’s Ink colors to hit the market.

Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa Ink

Below are various traits of this German manufacutured ink, which may be helpful to you:

Testing Factors

We used Rhodia Block N. 18 paper and a J. Herbin Glass “dip” pen for this ink review. The glass dip pen has an equivalent extra fine nib.

Bottle Sizes

Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa Ink, is in stock at Pen Chalet and comes in large round 50 ml. glass ink bottle. Although functional and inexpensive to produce (rather than a faceted glass bottle) the round bottle keeps the cost down, but makes it harder to use up those last few drops of ink.

Cost

For a German made imported ink, the Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa Ink is a good value at $11.95 retail for a large 50 ml. bottle. Since it is imported, if Pen Chalet is out of stock, it may take a week or so to restock, depending on availability at Rohrer & Klingner at the time of order.

Dry Time

Using the glass dip pen with an extra fine type writing tip, the dry time was a respectable 5-6 seconds. Not a super quick dry time, but functional for sure.

Bleed Through

No bleeding was perceptible on the entire ink review test. Even the 3 swabs with lots of ink, didn’t produce bleeding, using the Rhodia Block N. 18 paper.

Feathering

Even under magnifying glass, there was no feathering using this ink and the J. Herbin glass pen and Rhodia paper under normal conditions. However, there was some slight feathering under the water test.

Water Test

Although this ink is not considered waterproof and there was a slight ink run and slight feathering when a wet cotton swab was run over the ink after a 3 minute dry time, it was very close to being waterproof. I would probably categorize this ink as water “resistant” but not completely waterproof like the Noodler’s Mata Hari’s Cordial ink, which is a similar shade.

Shading

This ink does produce some shading, which would be more apparent with a larger sized nib (medium, broad, stub, music, etc.) the swabbed lines clearly show shading characteristics.

Conclusion about the Rohrer & Klingner Scabiosa Fountain Pen Ink

I like this ink, the shade of purple is soothing and appealing and it is a great purple fountain pen ink. I think that it would be a good for journal entry writings, letters and other uses where a semi water resistant ink may be desired and is cheaper than the Noodler’s ink with a similar shade.