Alt-Goldgrün comes from Germany and is one of those colors that I should think I wouldn't like...it looks a lot like pea soup. But something about it is kind of appealing, and for whatever reason it's been one of the most popular R&K inks since we started carrying the brand. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it's pretty unique in color from most other inks.
The dry time is a tad on the long side, expect that it'll be shorter on more absorbent paper. The level of saturation of the ink is pretty low, which gives it some pretty good shading, no doubt a great appeal for the ink. It essentially has no water resistance though, after putting the drips on the page for 30 seconds or so, the ink all but disappeared. The upside of that though is that it's one of the easiest inks to clean out of a pen that I've ever used. That goes for almost all of the R&K inks, by the way.
There really isn't a color exactly like Alt-Goldgrün, but below are the closest ones I've found.
Alt-Goldgrün comes in a 50ml bottle, and is available at GouletPens.com in both bottle and sample form. I do sell this ink, so read my whole review with that in mind and use your own research and judgment to determine which inks are best for you.
Check out the other Rohrer and Klingner reviews I've done:
If you've used Alt-Goldgrün, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!
I should have bought this instead of Vert Olive.
ReplyDeleteI'm on a toss up with this ink. I can't make up my mind on if I like this or not. I believe the best results of this ink is in a broader nib or calligraphy pen.
ReplyDeleteI like the Vert Olive, its a nice color with plenty of potential.
ReplyDeleteBeing new to fountain pens and inks, I really appreciate all the time and effort you and your wife put into showing others how to use the pens, and how the different inks look and respond for your customers. My friend was correct when he said that you are the best and i would be addicted.
ReplyDeleteI just can't decide about this ink. At first glance, I didn't think I'd like it at all. But the more I see of it, the more it grows on me. If nothing else, it's a very unique colour.
ReplyDeleteIt looks a lot like Noodler's Burma Road to me.
ReplyDeleteVert Olive is a nice color too, but not as saturated as Alt-Goldgrün. I've enjoyed using both of them, but I have to say that Alt-Goldgrün is the more popular color.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of how I felt too! When I first swabbed up all the R&K inks for the Swab Shop, Alt-Goldgrün definitely stood out from the rest, just because it's so different. I looked at a lot of the other olive greens we had and nothing is quite like it. As it turned out, once we started to sell it, it was one of the fastest selling colors (right there with Salix and Scabiosa)...I still don't entirely know why, buy my guess would have to be because of it's unique color and shading.
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you so much! We really love doing it, and it's my pleasure to do these reviews. It had really been a while since I'd done an ink review, and it feels really good to finally be back into doing them. I feel like I'm finally hitting on a method for doing reviews that has a healthy balance of 'data', my own opinion, and a reasonable amount of time involved in producing them so that I am able to sustain them. I tend to 'overproduce' simple things sometimes, to the point where I am not able to keep it up. But if I'm able to do these reviews with two kinds under two and a total lack of sleep going on, then I feel confident I'll be able to keep doing them with success :)
ReplyDeleteI think that's the thing about this ink, it doesn't seem like a color that a lot of people might use, but it has been quite popular for reasons I only kind of understand! I can say that seeing the ink on paper is different even than a computer screen, it looks more appealing in real life. I always do the best job I can to get the color accurate to real life, but there are subtleties to this ink that can only be seen in person. If nothing else, I'd recommend a sample of it just to see 'what the fuss is about'.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I would say these two are that similar. BRB is much more muted, and is a darker brown/yellow with little if any green to it. Here are the two for comparison...
ReplyDeleteI love my Alt Goldgrun (sans umlaut for now, windows is a headache) for a couple reasons. The shading is amazing, no matter how fast or slow, the color will shade, even if it is only by a little bit. I have a Safari, so from what I read it is rather dry, but when I put a bit more pressure or write slower, the darker green that comes out is amazing, a bunch of shading differences, generally old looking. Cursive doesn't do it justice. The range is from a boring yellowish light green to almost black.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input! You're right, I think the shading and variation in color is the appeal for this ink.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Vert Olive is practically yellow next to Alt Goldgrun...this is my green ink of choice---once I saw it, all the other greens faded into non-importance. To me, it straddles a perfect balance between pea soup and corn chowder...delicious!
ReplyDeleteIt does ten to write dry in fine/EF nibs though, so save it for the wetter writers. I'm lookin forward to writing with Alt Goldgrun and Apache Sunset side by side, just to go wild with the shading effects. :D
I really like this one ! It was also part of my January Ink Drop, and it's my favorite one in the set. Wonderful shading, beautiful saturated colors, I love it !
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's a unique color. I've been test-driving it over the weekend (thanks for the sample, Brian), and I can't say it's my favorite shade; makes me think I'm writing with guacamole. Color-wise, anyway. Looking forward to the Alt-Bordeaux.
ReplyDeleteHaha, well it kind of is like writing with guacamole! But if you want a guacamole color, then this one does the trick ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear! Yeah, this is definitely a shader, I think that's its best feature :)
ReplyDelete