J. Herbin Shogun Fountain Pen Ink Review

Jacques Herbin 1670 Shogun

Products used in this video:

J. Herbin Stormy Grey Fountain Pen Ink Review

J. Herbin Stormy Grey Fountain Pen Ink -2

Shimmering inks have become very popular in the last year and it’s largely thanks to Stormy Grey.  Stormy Grey is part of J. Herbin’s “1670” line of fountain pen inks.  1670 inks are highly saturated and the original formulation of Rouge Hematite (the first ink in the line) was infamous for clogging pens.  All four inks in the 1670 line now come with this warning label:

J. Herbin 1670 warning

I only use these inks in my cheaper pens and ones that are easy to disassemble and clean.

J. Herbin Stormy Grey Fountain Pen Ink -1

Stormy Grey contains flecks of gold that tend to settle at the bottom of the bottle and in order to draw them up the bottle must be shaken, otherwise you are left with a much more plain dark grey ink.

Gold flecks settled at the bottom of the bottle
Gold flecks settled at the bottom of the bottle

Stormy Grey is a very wet ink (perhaps to compensate for the gold flecks?) and this translates to bleeding and feathering on more absorbent papers.  The ink worked well on Rhodia but for more porous papers, a thin nib or dry pen is going to be a better match.

I have been using this ink for several weeks now and it performed trouble free in a number of pens until I put some in my TWSBI 580 with a 1.5mm stub nib.  In the TWSBI I got spotty performance; sometimes it would write just fine and other times it would choke and skip.

J. Herbin Stormy Grey Fountain Pen Ink -4

Apart from some gold flecks left behind, Stormy Grey cleaned out of the pens I tested nicely; this was a nice surprise for a highly saturated ink.

Objectively, Stormy Grey is not a good ink but it is attractive and interesting.  I can only recommend this ink as a curiosity; it is not a serious every day ink and but putting this stuff in your pen you are risking a clog.

J. Herbin Perle Noire Fountain Pen Ink Review

J. Herbin Perle Noir
Left the “e” off of Noire…just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

 

J. Herbin Perle Noire has been my go to black ink for the last few years.  Perle Noire is a dark black ink that is very well behaved.  There is not much in the way of shading and I have had no issues with feathering.   The flow is average.  Dry time is faster than normal and ink is not waterproof but I have read that is is water resistant.  The ink did fade with drops of water but it did not completely disappear like other inks.  The only ink that comes close is Aurora Black which may even be a slight bit darker, however, in my experience Perle Noir is better behaved.

If you know of a better black ink please let me know.

Here is a great review of J. Herbin Perle Noire:

(I have no affiliation with the site linked below)

Wonder Pens – J. Herbin Perle Noire Ink Review