INK: J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor 1670 - (Part 1)

Brand: J. Herbin

Type: Emerald of Chivor 1670

Cost: $26.00 give or take

Colors: Mostly Blue/Green with some Red and yellows sparkles .

It finally arrived! I ordered my bottle from GouletPens the day they came in stock. Supposedly it went out as fast as it came in, so that must mean that this ink was heavily desired. Therefore, as I have been writing with this ink now for the last 4 or 5 days, I figured it was time to do a review on it.

Pen used: Conklin Duragraph Amber w/ a stub nib 

Paper: Tomoe River and plain copy paper

I have a new favorite ink on my list! J. Herbin Emerald Chivor. Like it says on the bottle, this is a heavily saturated ink.The sheen on this ink, the saturation, the....wow. This ink does impress me!

So let's get down to the nitty gritty...

First off and foremost: it is important to note that this ink should be shaken before being used in a pen, as the gold specs do tend to settle at the bottom of the bottle. I should have taken a picture of this when I started to take pictures for my blog. I looked at the bottom of the bottle, and sure enough, the bottom of the bottle was covered in gold specs. Shake it up, and problem solved!

It is recommended by many that this ink be used in wider nibbed pens (Broads, italics, stubs, etc). I have not tried this ink in a Fine or Medium nib yet, however I hope to do so very soon and will update this post accordingly. I have read/heard, however, that if it is used in a a pen with anything less than a Broad size nib, you will not get as much of the glitter and appeal/shading as you would with a larger nib.

As you can see from above, the photo clearly displays the sheen, glitter, shading, and ... there is red! Yes indeed. This ink reminds me of an oil slick - ya know, right after a nice rain storm, you walk across the parking lot and see all those oil spots with the red, yellow, and greens swirling around in a dark black puddle of oil... Yea, that is what this reminds me of. However, this ink is much more gorgeous and beautiful than the puddle of oil (and you won't smell like oil if you accidentally get some on you).  I think it is amazing the variety of colors that this ink has in it.

How well does it write after not being used for a few days?

This ink performs well in my Conklin Duragraph (stub nib). It starts right up with no fuss. I have not tried cleaning the pen yet, so I cannot say how easy it is to clean this ink from a pen, but that will be happening in the near future.

I am hoping to experiment some more with this ink in the coming week, thus leading to Part 2 of this post. I will test how this ink performs in a more narrow nibbed pen and see how easy (or difficult?) this ink is to clean from pens. Until then, have a wonderful day my fellow pen and journal friends....