on saleRohrer & Klingner Scabiosa (iron gall) - 50ml Bottled Ink

I already had R&K Salix, which is a great ink, and was curious about Scabiosa because of the rave reviews everywhere. I bought one bottle (through Amazon; unfortunately, Goulet doesn't send anything to Brazil anymore) and the result was... disappointment. I tried this ink in a variety of pens but I didn't get anything like the performance people seem to love so much. Scabiosa is so dry that even the smoothest of nibs will write with a pencil-like feedback. But for me the worst thing is the very low saturation of the ink after only a few lines of writing. Even after I leave the pen standing nib down for some time, the first few words come out well, vibrant and well saturated, but already in the second line the words look watered down as if the pen was running out of ink. In wet, broad nibs the flow is very inconsistent, allowing for a lot of shading. In a very wet, F nib the ink behaves much better, although still disappointing since I must write with some pressure if I want the ink to come out. Therefore, not a good ink for extended writing sessions.

I like this ink a lot. It generally produces a light purple line, not too dark. The ink does not dry super rapidly, so there is a window of time when you can use a wet sable brush to develop some purple shading from the lines without actually erasing the water-resistant lines. This is versatile drawing ink.

A good violet/black. Smaller nibs tend to lean on the lighter side.

I waited a bit to write this review as I wanted to report on the condition of my pen after leaving it for a few weeks without use. So far it has not caused any issues in my Lamy Safari like clogging. It's a very subdued but pleasant purple that starts light and dries much darker. I am not sure if this is the ideal ink for very expensive pens, but it is plenty agreeable for everyday use in my collection.

Depending on the pen and especially the nib the color can range from a desk purple to almost black in an extra fine, to a powder/suede purple in a 1.1, if using flex some shading can be pulled out of it too which I'm a big fan of. The archival quality of the iron gall formulation is also really cool to me. If you like purple inks this one is pretty well behaved in my experience, and I highly recommend checking it out.Bear in mind the iron gall warnings, I don't use this ink in my most expensive pens, but I have used it in my $100+ pens with no issues as far as the feed and nib.