(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
At the 2026 CA Pen Show, I bought a couple of Herbin Refillable Markers from Lemur Ink. I’ve been eager to try them so let’s see how they did!
Herbin Refillable Markers in 3 mm and 8 mm. They are also available in 5 mm and 10 mm.
The instructions are printed on the back of the insert and in French, English, and German. Neither my French nor German are good enough, so let’s stick with English. 😂
Plastic pipette (left) is included with the snap cap refillable marker.
Aside from the cap (not pictured), the marker is composed of the barrel (right), the tip & cone/grip, a spring piece that sits inside a plastic “cup and a metal agitator.
It didn’t take much effort to pick an ink that I had a lot of, Pilot Blue Black.
Hard to tell, but it’s only partially filled up - less than half full, which turns out to be about 6 ml.
This will be the last time this tip is white. It takes a bit for the ink to flow, so you have to press down on the tip a few times to get the ink to saturate it.
Hey! We’ve got writing! Also, tell me you learned programming in the stone ages without telling me as much, lol.
First writing sample with the 3 mm marker and Pilot Blue Black.
I tried the marker on the Nikitana paper that I reviewed recently. I even pressed a bit too hard and the ink was noticeably darker, albeit for a couple words.
Considering the ink is fountain pen ink and the paper is fountain pen friendly, it didn’t ghost or bleed through on the back.
I wanted to see how easy the marker would be to clean - definitely use a mesh strainer over your drain because there are lots of small parts!
The “cone (left) houses the reversible tip (the far right end is the regular tip, the left end is the chisel tip), and a small foam piece to hold the tip in the cone.
The parts were easy to clean in the sense that they just rinse out, but given that the ink was barely in the pen for more than 15 minutes, I was surprised that it already had a slight bluish tinge to the parts and the tip didn’t rinse fully clean. I even put it in the ultrasonic for 15-20 seconds to no avail.
The barely used marker and parts are “clean, but already slightly stained. Compare that to the pristine 8 mm marker.
I put the Pilot BB ink back into the pen after cleaning it and resumed writing.
Yes, this is barely legible because the tip or “wick is still saturated with water. The text reads “Hello world. It takes a bit for the ink to flow in this very wet ‘feed’.
I am going to keep writing and occasionally pressing down on the tip to get the ink going in here.
The ink is flowing just fine. It just takes a bit because I did not dry it at all, which makes sense.
That it is still lighter than it was at the start. As you saw in the other picture, the “wick wasn’t totally white.
After I rinsed it, which made me leery of trying pigment or calligraphy inks in here. I couldn’t find anything on.
The J. Herbin website about these refillable markers, but I think it’s pretty cool! Just don’t mistake this for a Sharpie! (because I’m not using permanent ink in it.)
The 3 mm (and I believe the 5 mm as well) has a reversible chisel tip, in addition to the regular tip. I changed to the chisel tip to see how it would behave.
This is the chisel end of the marker tip. Yes, it looks frayed, but it came this way. In fact, I initially didn’t think it had a chisel tip because it looked like this.
I just rinsed and flipped the tip to the chisel tip (I spared you the diluted writing.) The chisel tip is roughly cut.
But you can see the line variation. Cursive minimum neat! (Fun fact: “minimum is one of my favorite words to write.)
Can I write (like) it’s a cursive italic/stub? Sorta? The angled tip make me hold the pen (Jeebus, what kind of grammar is going on here? It’s the sideways chiseled tip’s fault!)
More sideways which is not very comfortable.
After another cleaning, I decided to try another ink. I didn’t want to try pigmented or calligraphy ink given that I couldn’t get the marker tip fully clean, so I also didn’t want to try shimmer inks either. So let’s try sheen. What’s another sheener that I had a lot of?
Changed the ink to Akkerman #5 Shocking Blue, which is usually a red-sheening ink, but it’s not sheening on ...
... this Endless Regalia paper. Really saturated the tip and still no sheen with writing.
You can just barely make out some subtle edge sheen on those dots. Definitely not typical of this ink.
Let’s see if it will sheen on the Nikitana paper. It’s darker but I think the tip soaks up the sheen and doesn’t release it onto the paper.
Again, you can see some very subtle sheen on the dots - a wee bit more than the Regalia but not super sheener levels like one would expect from Shocking Blue.
A few thoughts:
- Replaceable tips exist but not readily available - The few websites that I found which sell the replacement tips are based in Australia, which is a bit of a bummer because I could see them getting beaten up pretty quickly, especially if you weren’t careful when recapping the marker and scraped the tip. Not that I did that or anything.
- Clean after use? - According to the directions, “after use (and when changing colour) rinse the marker and tip thoroughly. Does that mean I can’t keep it inked up until I write it dry?
- Tip not fully clean - As with any sort of wick-type of pen (like the Pilot Petit1, for example), it’s difficult to get the tip completely pristine again. Hard to tell if this will impact future inkings, especially if you’re using a completely different color, or a lighter ink after a dark one.
- Agitator thoughts
- Agitator isn’t really needed for regular dye-based fountain pen inks. A couple of gentle tips up/down is sufficient.
- The agitator is more useful for pigmented, calligraphy, and shimmer inks - though, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not comfortable using any of those in this marker, until I’m willing to risk ruining it since replacement tips aren’t available.
- Maybe not iron gall? - Since there is a metal agitator in the barrel, I wouldn’t recommend keeping iron gall ink long term in the marker, though you could remove the agitator, or use it for a short time before cleaning it out.
- It’s not a Sharpie - Even though it gives Sharpie-like lines, it’s easy to think it’s a Sharpie, but unless you’re using permanent ink, it isn’t water resistant.
- Writes like a marker - This is a bit of a “no $h*t, Sherlock kind of statement, but I mean this not just in the tactile sensation of a marker, but in the way the ink flows from the felt tip. Because of this, the properties of sheen, and likely chromashading, are greatly diminished. The tip just doesn’t deposit ink the same way that a nib does, which is fine, it’s just something to keep in mind.
- Couldn’t test the 8 mm because the grip was screwed on too tight (even hubs couldn’t unscrew it), and yes, I tried soaking it in hot water and nada. Will try a few more times before resorting to harsher and possibly more damaging methods.
The Herbin Refillable Markers sell for around $12 each. While I wish replacement tips were more readily available, it’s not too bad for a product that helps you use your fountain pen inks when you need that really broad line! Now to find some boxes or paper signs to write on!!
Disclaimer: The Herbin Refillable Markers were purchased from me at regular price from Lemur Ink at the CA Pen Show. The Nikitana paper was provided for review.
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