Rohrer & Klingnersince 1892, Royal Blue fountain pen ink, 50ml.

The purchase of a different Rohrer & Klingner 'red' ink ended with a minor disappointment with its colour - it was not performance which is otherwise to expectations. Published swatches suggested that it to be quite light in tone, sometimes almost transparent and which an initial test appeared to confirm. However, once used for real with a second pen it proved to be much darker and not unlike other 'wine' inks owned which are considered to have few applications that they suit well. The tonal differences previously obtained are not easily explained unless possibly from dilution by retained moisture within a recently flushed pen. "Rohrer & Klingner Fountain Pen Ink - Morinda - 50ml" is a true red but not unduly bright and its intended replacement.Red is often used in moderation to underline or highlight something as is current intention, when marking student papers, if editing a manuscript and similar situations where it cannot overwhelm; used extensively, it can lose purpose. As with italic letterforms and texts in elaborate typefaces, large amounts of red text can be stressful for the reader and read more slowly. Darker reds, primarily those tending towards brown or purple but also Morinda, may be kinder to the reader although still with limited practical applications. For the greater part, red inks are least well-suited to business needs unless to highlight overdraft or debt situations.As with others of the brand's inks, Morinda is well-behaved, not likely to feather or suffer from extensive bleed-through when used with quality papers although lesser quality papers may behave less well with this and most other inks. R&K inks tend to be moderately wet and a good match especially for 'dry' nibs. Lighter colours tend to be more amenable and usable with a wider range of nibs, fine or not and wet or dry; darker colours appear to work best with fine or medium nibs - Morinda is of a depth of tone that could be used across the common nib grades.Compared with other brands, R&K is less familiar as a name but its history was within the old Iron Curtain DDR and their products only more recently exported worldwide. Quality is comparable with market leaders and the inks have several on-line sellers, Amazon included, and several more specialist high street dealers. Their pricing is also comparable to typical brands. It should be noted that the range is ultimately supplied directly from Germany and can require an additional 2-5 days shipment time.

"Rohrer & Klingner *since 1862* Fountain Pen Ink - Cassia - 50ml" uses an oblique reference to blackcurrant as its individual name and is a deep violet-blue, a personally attractive colour that will feature in the rotation of some pens. It is sufficiently dark to be a very useful colour.It may better suit personal use, could have limited use for business, but there are other colours in the range that would serve that role perfectly well. It could work for individual correspondence, event invitations and such, possibly for note-taking although it could prove useful for notations in margins as an addition to red or green. By reputation it is regarded as a 'neutral' ink, neither classified as wet or dry, and could therefore work very well in any fountain pen. A reviewer on one specialist site had tried several brands of pen fitted with different nib grades and on several brands and types of paper from cheap copy to very expensive fountain-pen specific materials and found the ink to be perfectly happy with any combination used. It did not flood the paper, allow excessive feathering (it did slightly feather on the poorest paper) or to ever show bleed-through. It was therefore rated very highly.The range of colours offered by R&K is not extensive but wider than most of the pen manufacturers' ranges and includes tones of most of the normally offered colours. Blues, black, brown, red and green comprise the majority. Some iron-gall formulations, not normally recommended for steel-nib pens, are offered and can be used in any pen with due diligence and a good cleaning regime if it is not to be used for extended periods (days or weeks).Supplied in moderately tall, wide-necked, round brown glass bottles that will allow most of the ink to be used with minimal possible wastage. Pricing is comparable to most brands and the colours available are, for the most part, individual and distinctive allowing them to extend the numbers or brands you may wish to use.Definitely worth trying as it is not fussy and is an uncommon colour.