Pelikan Edelstein 2017 Ink of the Year – Smoky Quartz

My dudes, there has been an update to the WordPress app and now I can’t find the add caption button. Had to drag out my laptop to add this. If only I had some way of searching to access a world of knowledge that might tell me…..

Time to lay down some quick thoughts on Smoky Quartz before the dawn of spooktober, as this is a perfect ink color for the pumpkin spiced season.

Pumpkin spice scented ink, make it happen. Somebody. J Herbin, I’m looking at you

I wasn’t excited about this color when Pelikan first announced it, I will admit, but was willing to give it a shot if it came up at, say, the year’s Pelikan Hubs meetup. Well lo and behold:

I kicked Ina-ho out of one of my fall pens and replaced it with Smoky Quartz. A wise choice. I keep typing “smoky quarts” which is something entirely different, like artisinally woodsmoked small batch quantities of milk.  Perhaps not a wise choice

It’s got just enough shading when writing regularly to keep me delighted while still remaining a nice, professional, time-to-stomp-on-some-leaves-and-chug-spiced-wine brown. No real sheen to speak of, but I’m content to have nice shading. You got me, Pelikan.

Jacques Herbin 1798 Amethyste de l’Oural

Another year, another deliciously sparkletastic J. Herbin anniversary ink. I like the J. Herbin strategy of releasing one ink at a time—there’s no agonizing decision-making to undertake, simply: here’s this year’s choice. Take it or leave it.

I’ll take it! As if there were ever any question…

This year’s release inaugurates a new J. Herbin ink category, the Jacques Herbin 1798 Ink Collection. Welcome improvements over the 1670 Anniversary ink series include: a wider bottle mouth that you can actually fit pens into, clear color-coded labels on the bottle and the box (as opposed to the 1670 series, whose boxes were labeled with mermaids and french hieroglyphics), and the decorative improvements of using a satiny cord around the bottle (silver grey to indicate the sparkle type??), and the J. Herbin ship logo on the bottom of the bottle (which will handily identify all my enemies when I inevitably have to smack them in the forehead with my ink bottle..?).

Like a jewel! A deadly jewel…

Whether anything has changed about the ink itself, I can’t say, but in my experience no improvements were needed. Though I have heard tell of others who have had pens get clogged, I have committed the most heinous and egregious of pen hygiene practices with the shimmery Herbin inks and experienced nary a consequence (but I do not recommend doing as I do; don’t hold me responsible if you screw up your pens). I’ve had Amethyste de l’Oural loaded in a Pelikan M205 with broad italic nib since July 5th, and the pen has started up without fail every time I take the cap off.

I had a caption here, which I’m sure was most clever and perfect, but the internet ate it and now it is lost forever, much to the detriment of society

Amethyste de l’Oural is a rich, vibrant purple, brightly saturated, leaning a hint of a bit more toward blue than red as far as purples go. Shading is good, but no sheen. I’ve piled this ink on the page to try and get it, but sheen is not there. Compare it to some of its sheeny 1670 brethren:

Note the unquestionable sheen on Rouge Hematite, Emerald of Chivor, and Caroube de Chypre

But shimmer and sparkle we’ve got in ready abundance. As with other shimmer inks, make sure you shake the bottle thoroughly (I shake until there’s no more shimmer particles on the bottom) before filling up your pen to get maximally even sparkle distribution. In a break from the 1670 inks, 1798 Amethyste de l’Oural features silver shimmer rather than gold. What I love about these sparkles in particular is that if you look closely you can see hints of other colors, pale pinks and blues among the silver.

LOOK CLOSELY! GAZE WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!!!!

This ink is another winner. It doesn’t have perhaps quite as much going on as Emerald of Chivor, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful ink in its own right. Load up your favorite broad, stub, italic, and other such vast juicy nibs with this ink and enjoy.

When ink looks like the cosmos, it’s a good thing

While you’re here, have another lovely review of this ink from the Desk of Lori

(Exaclair provided this ink at no charge for reviewing purposes — opinions entirely my own)

Ink Flight Box #4

I’m SORT OF trying to be SOMEWHAT more responsible this year in terms of gratuitous purchases, and focusing instead on enjoying the pens, papers, and inks I already have. So I don’t know what exactly Tom wrote in the Ink Flight announcement for May that made me overcome my sense of responsibility and decide that I had to have whatever extra mystery item was, but good job. The wheels of capitalism thank you.

I’d like to make a wheelie clever pun here but I’m too tired

My particular Ink Flight box decided to take some extra layovers through the US Postal Service for whatever reason, but Tom was super helpful in making sure my Ink Flight got to me (also super helpful in getting me sorted out when I somehow managed to accidentally place my order twice when trying to use ApplePay while half asleep). Prompt A+ customer service.

In spite of unforeseen flight delays, none of the surprise was spoiled for me online. A+ nice pen and ink community. The Ink Flight Box #4 came with 7 samples of J. Herbin ink —  4 regular colors, 2 special edition sparkly 1670 colors, and 1 scented color. All in all I think as good a representation of the brand as one can be expected to fit within 7 samples. Also included in the box: a Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book and a Neptune watercolor brush. The mystery items did not disappoint. I made squealy noises of excitement.

Please note if you want it to look like this, some effort will be required. But it’s worth it

My feelings toward J. Herbin inks have been all over the place throughout the years. I bought three bottles early on (Gris Nuage, Diabolo Menthe, and Vert Reseda) and some cartridges (Poussiere de Lune, Ambre de Birmanie), liked them well enough, then decided that they didn’t have enough shading or saturation for my tastes at the time and didn’t use them for a few years, got hooked on the 1670 anniversary editions (starting with Stormy Grey, the reformulated Bleu Ocean, and so forth), and have since gone back to my original bottles (plus a holiday gift of a bottle of Rouge Caroubier) and am loving them again. It’s a good time for more J. Herbin to come back into my life, even if only 3 of the samples are new colors to me.

Brief thoughts on the colors (asterisk for the ones new to me):

Emerald of Chivor — still haven’t reviewed it, though I have mentioned it in other reviews. It is magical and using it feels like I’m staring into the cosmos. It fills me with joy and I have no complaints against it.

Stormy Grey — love the shading, love the sparkle. I even have Stormy Grey in my bamboo brush pen right now. It’s like me: seems professional, but then the light hits it just right and you can see the mad gleam of insanity glinting in my eyes charming sparkle.

Rouge Caroubier — a very lovely slightly-pinkish-coral sort of red. Nice for spring and summer especially. Not a lot of very noticeable shading though.

Poussiere de Lune — a nice dusky purple. Writing with the paintbrush, it seems to have more shading than I remember when I last used a cartridge of it.

Eclat de Saphir* — what a vibrant blue! Much like Lamy Blue, but a bit more vibrant at its most saturated. Writing with the paintbrush has significant shading from a very vibrant blue to a slightly more muted one. I am intrigued to see how it will behave once I get it in a pen.

Bleu Pervenche* — it’s like a sky blue turquoise! The closest color I already have to it is Monteverde Turquoise, but not a lot of shading when writing with the paintbrush. I prefer turquoise and similar blues with more shading. But the color is so lovely, I’ll give it a chance in some pen on my next go-round of inking.

Cacao Brown* — it smells…kind of like vanilla extract?? But not quite. I like it. I don’t know that I really like this particular brown color. Can I add this scent to some 1670 Caroube de Chypre? That would be perfect.

Quick thoughts on the mystery items:

Neptune #2 Round Watercolor Brush — found it quite easy to use and write with. Could never seem to get it fully clean though. I’d think it was clean, and it would be clean on most of it except if I put a paper towel to where the bristles go into the metal ferrule (or whatever you call it), I’d always draw out a bit of ink. There’s probably ink stashed away up in there forever now. But using it didn’t seem contaminated with other colors so I’m just hoping for the best.

Col-o-ring Ink Testing Book — heckafreaking amazing. I am so excited to have one. I’ve already done swatches of every bottle of ink I own, Leigh Reyes-style, and am happy to report I own less than 100 bottles of ink and therefore have room to grow. More about the Col-o-ring by The Well-Appointed Desk here.

Here’s my calling card.

All in all a very satisfying purchase. I got to experience new colors, I gave away the two 1670 anniversary ink samples to a friend and spread the love, and I have a Col-o-ring now! The Ink Flight isn’t a subscription, so if I decide to go back to being responsible there’s nothing else I need to do. And if I decide I gotta have it, I can hop back on. The differently priced options for an Ink Flight are 1. just the 6 samples; 2. the Starter set including the 6 samples, a bonus sample, an InkJournal Black notebook, and a random piece of InkJournal swag; or 3. the 6 samples, bonus sample, and surprise mystery item(s) for fountain pen and ink lovers. The next Ink Flight is available to order now and ships out this Friday, June 2nd!

 

Noodler’s Berning Red

I don’t mix politics and pens (pens are for everyone, regardless of whether our worldviews agree), nor did I have the attention span to watch the 35 minute opus YouTube video related to this ink (I’ve tried 3 times and only made it a total of 4 minutes in, but I’ve heard that “it’s a trip” – interpret that as you will), so I can’t comment thoughtfully on the political aspects of this ink. But it’s quite a memorable label, and I don’t think any other ink company has labels as fantastically strange and detailed as Noodler’s labels.

 

What does it all mean? Maybe if I could pay attention for over half an hour I would know

The big draws for me on this ink are the quick drying potential, and the red color (I still haven’t found a perfect fall red). Noodler’s Bernanke Blue is the current gold standard in my life for quick drying ink. I haven’t given it a formal review, but I can tell you when I need an ink I can count on, Bernanke Blue is what I load up. The trade-off with Bernanke Blue is that it has no shading, tends to bleed through all kinds of paper (some more than others), and is given to some fuzz and feathering. It doesn’t come out sharp. But it hits the paper dry, yet has no problems starting up even after I haven’t used it in a pen for weeks. How does Berning Red compare?

 

Well for starters Bernanke Blue is probably around 475 nm wavelength and Berning Red around 650 nm as far as visible light goes

Just as Bernanke is a strong, rich blue, Berning is a strong, vibrant red. It’s not quite firetruck red, more of a warm autumn leaf color. It also has no trouble starting up in my pens after time spent unused, and has given me no dry-outs or hard starts. Good ink flow. Most excitingly, Berning Red exhibits some shading…on Tomoe River paper. Better than nothing!

This picture is the tl;dr summary image of this post

On every other paper besides Tomoe River, Berning Red has the same less desirable characteristics as Bernanke Blue: a tendency to fuzz and feather, to bleed through the page, and just generally fail to deliver a crisp writing line. It’s not the worst, but I’m picky, and generally willing to sacrifice a few seconds drying time advantage if it means ink that will look crisp on the page. I could just use this ink on Tomoe River paper, but on that paper Berning Red loses all dry time advantage; whereas Bernanke Blue dried in about 5 seconds on TR (most paper it takes 1 second, at most 2), Berning Red took 15 seconds to dry, no better than most any other ink. On other papers, dry time for Berning Red varied from 1 second to 5 seconds, maxing out at 25 seconds on the InkJournal paper. It’s mostly a fast drying ink, except when it’s not, and definitely not as quick drying as its close relative, Bernanke Blue.

 

Shade-wise it clocks in somewhere near fall maple leaf

Your mileage will definitely vary based on what pen and paper combos you bring to this ink. If you’re looking to use it as a quick drying ink, stick to cheaper and conventional papers and probably lean toward a finer nib for a better looking line. If you want the best look out of this vigorous red, then abandon all hope of a quick dry time, and pair a broad and/or stub nib with Tomoe River paper. Ideal for lefties? Eh, it can be, with a thoughtful choice of pen and paper.

 

(Pen Boutique provided this product at no charge for review purposes)

Mini Review: INK SAMPLE – J. Herbin Rouge Hematite (1670 Anniversary Ink)

I was expecting more gold, less crusty ink pile

This color is supposed to be a pretty striking inky embodiment of red hematite (there’s a perfect picture over on the Fountain Pen Network review/thread by mhphoto; google results in several pictures that look like some kind of ground hamburger stone). I promise you I shook my ink sample before filling up my pen, but I never got any gold sheen; from what I’ve read around online this may be a function of this sample coming from newer, less golden-infused stock. The base color of the Rouge Hematite is beautiful and saturated (unlike most J. Herbin inks I’ve bought, which all tend to look a bit washed out), but all that pigment comes at a price.

This happens. All over. The underside of the nib is completely covered in a layer of pink ink crust. This will be a project cleaning this pen back up again. Until I can get my hands on a sample that exhibits the lovely sheen of gold I don’t think I’ll be springing for a bottle of this stuff. But samples are always fun to try.

J. Herbin 1670 Rouge Hematite Ink Sample at the Goulet Pen Company