Scabiosa
Purplish. Works well with dip pens.
Purplish. Works well with dip pens.
The two Rohrer & Klingner "Iron Gall" inks (Salix and Scabiosa) are lovely inks, and the swabs accurately match their colour. They also both have a fascinating hue which is hard to describe but makes them "different" somehow, to my eye. They're a modern form of Iron Gall inks, which are apparently perfectly safe for modern fountain pens, dry quickly and are then waterproof. They have a dry flow, and would be best in a pen with a wet nib. These are not ones I use all the time, but I do love them, and regularly return to them. I, personally, have found both these inks to be excellent for use with italic nibs. I suspect that this is because they flow slowly and dry quickly. In my own particular experience this seems to enhance the italic qualities of the nibs, in a way that can't be measured simply by quickly drawing the usual criss-cross line variation grid.