Rohrer & Klingner 2021 LE Isatis Tinctoria

[lgsoltek]

R&K's 2021 limited edition is Isatis tinctoria. The bottle shows a rather rich medium blue with a slight green tint.

 

Bottle

(photo from FountainFeder, no affiliation, I just happened to have bought from them.)

 

Sadly the actual colour is nowhere near this at all. Isatis tinctoria turns out to be an insipid greyish blurple. It was a major letdown for me. I wouldn't have bought it all the way from Germany had I known the colour was this and not anything close to the bottle. It's kind of like a diluted Pilot Blue Black.

 

The ink itself have good flow and rather smooth. There's a slight halo-ing (darker edges). It's not water resistant.

 

All images are scans except close-up photos.

 

Splash

 

Sample

(Pens: Lamy 2000 Broad and Pelikan M400 nib grounded to flex by Richard Binder.)

 

(Maruman looseleaf)

 

 

(Tomoe River)

 

 

 

(Rhodia)

 

 

 

Comparison

 

 

 

 

[yazeh]

Thanks for the review. 

I won't buy it, but I actually like the faded/ muted colour. It says, I won't distract you with sparkles or sheen, enjoy the writing

 

[MHBru]

damn, that's a pretty ink.  Love the shading and altho I don't see any green shading I wouldn't want any.  I'm good with a "greyish blurple" and I'll have to keep an eye on this one and it seems similar to Soft Snow of Ohara (maybe a bit bluer that SSO).

[A Smug Dill]

Thanks for the review. Your beautiful handwriting and colour comparison smears are always delightful to see.

 

Even though this ink doesn't exhibit show-through or bleed-through on Rhodia Dotpad 80g/m² paper, now that I've used the ink a little bit more, I find it quite apt to exhibit some show-through and bleed-through on Paperblanks journal papers (of various weight), and that's yet another disadvantage and argument against using this ink.

[Tas]

Lovely and "soft" and "chalky".
Mmmm. That's a real letter writing ink for me . . .

Thank you.😊

 

[LizEF]

Your handwriting and photos are so lovely it's easy to overlook the ink.   Photo #5 (close-up of text with shading and some much darker spots) is especially nice, even though I seriously can't imagine liking this ink for myself...

[mizgeorge]

I've actually ended up with this in a basket. It's definitely grown on me.

[txomsy]

Reminds me of Noodler's Polar Blue. I prefer inks with more "personality", but it looks nice all the same.

[TitoThePencilPimp]

Really like the images in the ink review. Will be placing an order soon.

[lapis]

I love it and use it all the time, now. Especially in wet pens with very wide nibs. Chalky? Sure, what's wrong with that? It has style and there aren't a lot of look-alikes already out there....

[ENewton]

6 hours ago, MHBru said:

damn, that's a pretty ink.  Love the shading and altho I don't see any green shading I wouldn't want any.  I'm good with a "greyish blurple" and I'll have to keep an eye on this one and it seems similar to Soft Snow of Ohara (maybe a bit bluer that SSO).

 

Yes, it looks quite a bit bluer than Soft Snow of Ohara.  Other interesting comparisons would be J Herbin Bleu Myosotis and Pilot Iroshizuku Shinkai.

 

 

[lgsoltek]

7 hours ago, Tas said:

Lovely and "soft" and "chalky".
Mmmm. That's a real letter writing ink for me . . .

Thank you.😊

 

I knew you’d like it! I don’t hate it myself, but the packaging is misleading!

 

Incidentally I just found out the isatis root is a kind of medicine we often drink here.

[PithyProlix]

Thanks again for the great review with your beautiful handwriting. It's great that you include the photos - for me the photos look much more natural than the scans. 

 

I like this elegant blue color a lot. 

[PithyProlix]

20 hours ago, txomsy said:

Reminds me of Noodler's Polar Blue. I prefer inks with more "personality", but it looks nice all the same.

 

Thanks for mentioning Polar Blue. I blindly bought it in a bookstore many years ago and soon shelved it because I really didn't like the color. I really like the color of this ink so it got me curious - I just gave my bottle of Polar Blue a go and, you're right, it is similar in a dry pen. The Polar inks seem to appear pretty desaturated - pretty anomalous for Noodler's. 

 

Parenthetically, it's interesting how my tastes have changed so much... 

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, PithyProlix said:

 

Thanks for mentioning Polar Blue. I blindly bought it in a bookstore many years ago and soon shelved it because I really didn't like the color. I really like the color of this ink so it got me curious - I just gave my bottle of Polar Blue a go and, you're right, it is similar in a dry pen. The Polar inks seem to appear pretty desaturated - pretty anomalous for Noodler's. 

 

Parenthetically, it's interesting how my tastes have changed so much... 

Yeah. They are quite an unusual batch. The green is the quite saturated and the black reminds me of Sumi ink... texture and colour wise..

Brown is quite faded. Purple, I don't know...

[amberleadavis]

Thank you for the review.

[DrDebG]

Thank you for the great review!  I like the softness in the color and the shading.  I may have to consider this further.  I do like R&K inks. 

[ThePenHolder]

Thank You lgsoltek for the review and for comparing the inks, very useful !

[ThePenHolder]

Thank You lgsoltek for the review and for comparing the inks, very useful !

[mizgeorge]

It's interesting to see this thread again - I've used it pretty much constantly for the last six weeks or so, and have come to like it a great deal - so much so that need to get more while it's still available. Not only do I love the colour, but I find its performance completely in keeping with it - soft, gentle and a real pleasure to use. It's taken up permanent residence in my Leonardo dark Hawaii, which has a nice fat stub, but I've also enjoyed it in an EF and particularly with a dip pen. 

 

I'm also very happy with the idea that I'm writing in woad with all the historical connotations attached to it.