J. Herbin Rouge Hematite 1670
+ Noodler’s Acrylic Konrad Flex
Blogs upon blogs have been devoted to singing the praises of this ink, so I’ll keep my notes short and my photos of flex practice plentiful.
1. Developed as a special edition release for J. Herbin’s 340th anniversary. You read that right. This company is way, way older than the United States of America. (How’s that saying go? Europeans think 100 miles is a long way and Americans think 100 years is a long time.) J. Herbin turns 344 this year, by the way.
2. Shading, sheen, and saturation: OH, MY. Shake the bottle well — otherwise, the pigment settles out and you don’t get nearly as much in your pen. This ink has character.
3.Goes down crimson. Dries… GOLD?!
3.b. Harry Potter probably uses this ink.
4. Dry time is long and it can still smudge a bit once dry, at least on glassy Clairefontaine.
5. Way too fancy to use for routine tasks, unless one of your routine tasks is hand- lettering correspondence for the King of France.
6. My only regret in buying this sample (Goulet Pen Co link) is that now I feel compelled to order a full bottle, but can’t justify spending $26 on 50ml of ink I’ll only use at Christmas.
