Ink Review - Rohrer & Klingner SketchINK Lilly

Hello, Chrissy here again. Rohrer & Klingner Leipzig-Co. makes many excellent quality inks, and has been making inks and more in Germany since 1892. A renowned ink maker that doesn’t seem to be mentioned as much as some others.

Today I’m reviewing one of Rohrer & Klingner’s Sketch Inks: Lilly. These sketch inks are nano-pigmented inks, so the usual warnings about not leaving them in your unused pens for long periods, and exercising good pen hygiene should be followed.

That having been said, Lilly is an interesting colour that’s uncommon in inks. It’s like a mud brown colour that you might see in the garden. I liked it right away. I really enjoyed writing and trying to sketch with it. It wrote with very tight, crisp lines, as is common with pigmented inks, and it dried quickly. It’s also completely waterproof when dry, but while wet can be mixed with water to make a really good wash onto the paper. For sketching those are excellent features.

There were a couple of times when the nib tip dried out before restarting - when I put the uncapped pen down to do swab tests and other ink comparisons. However, I never had to dip the nib into water. It always started writing by itself, even after an initial short stutter.

• Start-up: Usually immediate.
• Flow Rate: Excellent - neither wet nor dry.
• Lubrication: Excellent - felt really smooth across the page.
• Saturation: Quite a saturated ink.
• Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Not seen on any paper I used.
• Show-Through/Bleed-through: A little seen on two of the cheaper papers I used but I could easily write on the reverse of all of them.
• Nib Dry-out: Start-up was occasionally slightly delayed when the pen was left uncapped for a short time.
• Clogging: Not seen.
• Nib Creep / “Crud”: Not seen, even after several days in the pen.
• Staining (pen): Didn’t stain my sections or converters.
• Staining (hands): Washed off easily.
• Water resistance: A completely waterproof ink.