The Spoke Pen Kickstarter Campaign wraps up 24 hours from now, so consider this your last call to get in on the campaign. Brian and I have been thrilled with the response, and have the manufacturing ball rolling already. We can’t wait to get these pens in your hands.
Whether you are interested in this project or not, it is worth checking out Brian’s latest project update and the decisions surrounding what refill to design for, and the challenges within. Top-tier stuff!
(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
This week I’m doing an overview of five J. Herbin inks. I won’t review each ink in as much detail as I usually do, but I wanted to introduce each ink with a few comments about color, saturation, and wetness.
These five inks come in adorable 10ml bottles (though you can purchase larger 30ml bottles). The 10ml bottles aren’t very practical, however. Since they are so small, the opening won’t accommodate bigger nibs, such as the MB 149. Still, they are a nice size for travel or for an office stash of ink.
The colors range from a very light coral to a deep purple blue.
The first ink is Vert de Gris.
This, in my opinion, is the most unique color of the five inks. “Vert de Gris” means “Green-Gray” and this color has both deep turquoise and gray hues. It is gorgeous in fine and broad nibs, and it exhibits good shading but no sheen.
The second ink is Bleu de Profondeurs, which means “deep blue.” This ink is a purple blue. It’s nicely saturated and looks good in both fine and broad nibs. In broad nibs it offers a little bit of shading, but no sheen.
The third ink is Rouge Grenat, which is a lush garnet red.
The ink works well in both fine and broad nibs, and is highly saturated. Although it doesn’t have any observable sheen, it does exhibit a little bit of shading in broad nibs.
The fourth ink is Corail des Tropiques.
Of the five inks, this one is my least favorite, mainly because it’s watery and too light for use in finer nibs. It might work well as a wash. In broad nibs it has enough saturation to be usable and even has a tiny bit of shading. In my testing it exhibited no sheen.
Last is Bleu Calanque or “Blue Cove.”
This is a bright turquoise color that is saturated enough to work well in fine nibs. It also exhibits a bit of shading in broad nibs.
I like all of these J. Herbin inks--in fact, they surprised me. They are far more saturated than I expected. I’ve found J. Herbin inks can be too light and very dry (I’m thinking of you, Rouille d’Ancre). These five inks flow quite well, though Corail des Tropiques was too watery for my taste.
The 10ml bottles are a good size for sampling an ink. Unlike typical 4 or 5ml ink samples, you have enough ink for several fills so you can decide if you want to buy a regular sized bottle. You can purchase J. Herbin 10ml inks from Vanness Pens for $6.00 a piece (30ml bottles are $12.95).
(Vanness Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)
These sweet little Kokuyo Buncobon Dot Cover Notebook is designed to resemble Japanese paperback novels--a charming paper cover, the perfect A6 palm-of-your-hand size--with an additional eye for usability.
The notebook measures 4.1" by 5.8" and will fit in your favorite A6 notebook case or cover. It does come with a paper cover over the plain cream cardstock, and then another plastic cover over that. I found the plastic cover to be crinkly and irritating, so I set it aside fairly quickly. The paper cover has a pretty dot pattern, and it stays on with a folding flap that also serves as the notebook's index. The paper cover isn't terribly durable, though. And considering the generous page count and the fact that the book will probably be in use a while, an additional cover might not be a bad idea.
The cover itself is softcover cardstock with blue tape binding. The binding is glue, and it claims to lie flat, but I found mine needed a lot of training to even come close, and then I worried about whether the binding would hold together after such abuse. I prefer sewn bindings, but this one is working well so far.
Inside the notebook you'll find 70 sheets of 5mm grid 70gsm ivory paper. The paper has a bit of texture and tooth to it, but in a crisp, pleasant way. It's surprisingly good paper for a notebook with a large number of sheets and a price tag under $5. It held up well with most pens. Not Sharpie, of course, but everything else did very well. There's a touch of show-through with a very wet, dark rollerball, but the fountain pen did great.
A nice feature of this book is its searchable function--there are spaces along the side edge that are designed for color coding that will be visible from the fore-edge, so you can flip to the section you need with ease. Combined with the index, it's a powerful little organizational tool. And it's got a sweet wee ribbon bookmark, too.
These are fantastic little notebooks. Not perfect, no, but the compromises are fair and worth it for what you do get. I love that there are enough pages to see me through a larger project, and that I can use my fountain pens, all without making my wallet weep. I think these would make great bullet journals or planners. They'd be wonderful for class notes. Perfect for novel research! I may use mine as a travel journal for an upcoming trip. Needless to say, it's a versatile book and very impressive for the price. Kokuyo knocks it out of the park again.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
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