Jump to content

J. Herbin Glass Pen Review


GouletPens

Recommended Posts

Check out my latest review on my vlog Ink Nouveau: the J. Herbin Glass Pens: http://inknouveau.com/2010/03/episode-17-j-herbin-glass-pens/

 

Glass pens? You got it, these things are made entirely out of glass. Handmade in France, each one is unique and a piece of art. They were all the rage in the mid-17th century, back when J. Herbin first started making fountain pen ink (circa 1670). Sure, they’re not the most practical pens in the world, but they are novel, beautiful, and have a very functional purpose for the fountain pen enthusiast.

 

The J. Herbin glass pen has a spiral, fluted nib that holds onto the ink in its grooves when you dip it into your ink of choice. A small tap on the mouth of the ink bottle, and you’re set to write! It writes thicker than a fountain pen, and takes a little bit of practice to get a consistent line. It tends to write very wet, so it makes inks appear to be much more saturated than they are in a fountain pen. You’ll need a paper that will hold up to it, something that will repel ink very well like G. Lalo Vergé de France, Rhodia, or Clairefontaine (to name a few of my biased favorites). If you have paper that tends to soak and bleed, then this pen will be like D-Day on Normandy beach…

 

There are two different sizes of the J. Herbin glass pens. The smaller size has the fluted nib, a small ball, and a thin, straight body that is about 5.5″ long. It comes in 6 different colors: black, amber, violet, blue striped, red striped, and green striped. They have a list price of $16.50. The longer one is a little fancier, with a tapered spiral handle that is 7.5″ long and comes in 3 colors: light blue, royal blue, and violet. They have a list price of $22.00. The nibs on both size pens are identical in size and performance, it’s really just the body that is different.

 

Aside from the aesthetics, the biggest advantage of these pens is that you can dip and test less often used inks you have lying around (or new inks you’ve just acquired) without going through the whole routine of flushing and filling a fountain pen. If you’re try to get a certain look, such as a vintage early-American writing look, you can grab your paper of choice and test many different inks on it quickly with the glass pen before inking up your pen of choice. You just need to be aware that since the dip pen writes heavy to start, you need pay closer attention to the way it writes for the last few words before the pen needs to be redipped…that will give you the most accurate depiction of what the color will be in a fountain pen.

Brian Goulet</br><a href='http://www.gouletpens.com' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>www.GouletPens.com</a></br><a href='http://twitter.com/GouletPens' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>GouletPens on Twitter</a></br><a href='http://blog.gouletpens.com' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>Goulet Pens blog</a>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 6
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • GouletPens

    2

  • Con

    1

  • Ed Ronax

    1

  • significantpass

    1

Interesting pen, thanks for the review Brian.

And how can this be, because he is the Kwisatz Haderach.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice review. Thanks for taking

the time to do it, Brian.

Current daily users: Pilot VP with Diamine Teal, Waterman Phileas M Cursive Italic with Arabian Rose, and a black Reform M CI with Copper Burst

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice review. They're quite expensive where I am, but I'm still tempted.

Edited by shaqin93
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one Brian.

I love your vlog!

________________________________________________________________________________

 

Love and work... work and love, that's all there is.

Sigmund Freud

 

(there was a man who obviously never knew fountain pens!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice one Brian.

I love your vlog!

Why thank you! I'm working on getting ink reviews done. I've done about 8 of them, I just have to write up the copy and record the video....it's hard to do with a baby in the house now :blink:

Brian Goulet</br><a href='http://www.gouletpens.com' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>www.GouletPens.com</a></br><a href='http://twitter.com/GouletPens' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>GouletPens on Twitter</a></br><a href='http://blog.gouletpens.com' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>Goulet Pens blog</a>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33501
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26627
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...