J. Herbin Rouge Hematite (With Sparkles)

[musicman123]

This ink is from J. Herbin as part of their 1670's line of inks. There are three colors (Stormy Grey, Ocean Blue, and Rouge Hematite) which all include gold sparkles in the ink to add shimmer and sheen. A fellow FPNer, ScienceChick, was generous enough to send a hefty sample of this for me to play with.

 

This review will follow my normal standard format for reviews, with pictures following a small blurb. The pictures were taken with an iPhone 6, back camera, in artificial lighting. Effort has been made to show the true color, but your milage may vary depending on your monitor. If you would like to see all my ink images, you are free to go to http://inkyreviews.tk/

 

Here is a preview of the ink. It is a red ink, with an obvious gold/green sheen due to the sparkles.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Ink.jpg

 

The review was written with my favorite, the Nemosine Singularity Demonstrator, in a TWSBI B nib. The TWSBI B is slightly finer than the Nemosine B, but not by much. It's only a hairline difference.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Nib.jpg

 

The review was written on HP 32lb Premium Laser Paper, which can be found at Staples for the whooping price of $19.99, or on Amazon for $15.39. This is my new "standard" paper I will be using for all my reviews, writing, and comparisons. I still have a bit of HP 28lb, which is now discontinued, but I am going to be moving to this one now, as it is much better, IMO.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Paper.jpg

 

Here is the swab of the ink. It was pulled from my latest project, a crowd-sourced ink swab database found here http://inkymadness.tk/. This is my own swab that I am using here, but many other people's swabs of lots of inks can be found there! You are free to contribute your swabs as well by emailing them to me at admin@inkymadness.tk.

 

http://inkymadness.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite%20(1670)%202.jpg

 

This is a red ink, with an obvious gold/green sheen due to the sparkles. The ink is quite wet and provides a medium amount of lubrication on this nib. There is a little bit of noise coming from the nib, even on this smooth paper. There is some shading from a light to a medium hue, ignoring the sparkles. So far, there has been no spread, feathering, show through, or bleed through on this paper. Like stated, this ink has gold sparkles floating around. I invert the pen around a couple of times every 3 lines to get a good mix of the sparkles in the ink. Even with the sparkles, the ink cleans out easily under running water with no sparkles left after 15 seconds. No problems so far.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Characteristics.jpg

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Characteristics%202.jpg

 

The ink takes longer than other inks, averaging at 22 seconds.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Dry%20Time.jpg

 

Here is a poorly drawn ghost to show how the ink looks with sketching, and coloring.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Ghost.jpg

 

I left the comparison section blank on the review form, but I will be showing swabs of similar inks here. This is a my new format that I am trying out for the comparisons. Tell me what you think. The swabs used here are from my latest project, a crowd-sourced ink swab database found here [http://inkymadness.tk/]. This is my own swab that I am using here, but many other people's swabs of lots of inks can be found there! You are free to contribute your swabs as well by emailing them to me at admin@inkymadness.tk.

Left to right. The images were stretched to fit in one row. Color was not altered.

1. J. Herbin Rouge Hematite (This ink)

2. Montblanc Corn Poppy Red

3. Diamine Oxblood

4. Diamine Red Dragon

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Comparison.jpg

 

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled review for a special section! Here are a couple pictures of the sheen to show off what it look like up close.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Sheen.jpg

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Sheen%202.jpg

 

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!

 

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Here is a water test. The top grid had drops of water placed for 10 seconds, then vigorously wiped downwards. The bottom text did not receive any drops of water and was only wiped with in the same motion as the grid. The ink was a complete disaster here! There was a LOT of lifting and a crazy amount of wet smear. I will never use this to address envelopes as it is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Water.jpg

 

http://www.inkyreviews.tk/J.%20Herbin/Rouge%20Hematite/Water%20After.jpg

 

No scan this time as I completely forgot to do it! Oops! If you guys really want one, I'll post it down the thread later!

 

That's all folks! I would give this ink a 7.5/10. If you liked this review, stay tuned for more to come!

 

 

[jasonchickerson]

Thanks for the thorough review!

 

I have a bottle of Rouge Hematite and it's one of my favorites for Holiday cards. It's a great calligraphy ink, but I never use it in my regular pens because it's red, it sparkles, and it's a pain to clean.

 

Rouge Hematite looks very much like MB Corn Poppy Red if you fail to shake the bottle before use.

[musicman123]

Thanks for the thorough review!

 

I have a bottle of Rouge Hematite and it's one of my favorites for Holiday cards. It's a great calligraphy ink, but I never use it in my regular pens because it's red, it sparkles, and it's a pain to clean.

 

Rouge Hematite looks very much like MB Corn Poppy Red if you fail to shake the bottle before use.

I agree. They are alike in lots of ways, even water resistance.

[Frank C]

Thanks for the review. I like these 1670 inks; I am just careful about what pens I put them in.

[RMH]

For my setup- Noodlers Ahab and Apica/Rhodia paper- this is one well behaved ink. Some other J. Herbin shimmering inks (Bleau Ocean & Stormy Grey) gave me the impression of a glitter pen & a bit too much feathering. I greatly admire the orange> green shading- what a pleasure. I don't see gold flecks- might be because I wanted to try it out first, so bought a 2ml vial from Goulet's. I don't see flecks in the remaining vial either. Regardless, have a bottle on the way.

[amberleadavis]

You did a great job with this review, and I'm so glad ScienceChick enables you.

[Charles Skinner]

I do not see the "gold flakes" that some see in this ink. C. S.

[inkstainedruth]

I do not see the "gold flakes" that some see in this ink. C. S.

 

The original version (the version I have) had bigger gold flakes. Then apparently there was a version without anything in it (like the original version of Bleu Ocean), and now the current version with the dust.

The problem with all of these types of inks is that the particles go out of solution very quickly. That means you have to shake the heck out of the bottles before opening them (if you were to look at a bottle that had been sitting around, you'd see all of the particles collecting at the bottom). It also means that every now and then, while you're writing, you have to agitate the pen to get the particles in the ink in the pen back into solution again.

That being said, I really like the look of some of the inks -- it depends on both the underlying color and what color the particles are. So, for instance, I really liked the bottle of Rouge Hematite I got (even though I don't use it much) -- and that surprised me because I didn't think I'd like that orangey brick red at all. I absolutely love Stormy Grey -- to the point that I bought a full bottle without sampling it first, just on the basis of a written exemplar I saw at DCSS when the ink was first coming out. But Emerald of Chivor left me completely cold. And Bleu Ocean and Caroube de Chypre? Meh. If I were given them I'd maybe use them, but otherwise I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy a full bottle of either.

I'm the same way with some of the Diamine Shimmer inks. Some I really like, and some I likely wouldn't cross the street to get a free bottle of -- strictly because of what they look like.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Charles Skinner]

This ink tends to clog up my pen! C. S.

[Astronymus]

It's easy to use and clean in Al-Stars and Safaris.

[musicman123]

It's easy to use and clean in Al-Stars and Safaris.

I tend to use these only on converter or piston pens I can easily take the "ink holding" portion out. That way, I can blast it directly with a syringe. Also, one of those medicine droppers or bulb syringe really helps to flush out the nib/feed unit.

 

These definitely aren't going into something with a deep cavity like a vacuum filler.

[Astronymus]

Right, pen should be easy to clean and flushable.

[NicolausPiscator]

Wow! Thank you for this gorgeous ink review of my favourite and standard red! Although I have to admit that the colours seem to differ from my tests. But I can agree with your results. And, yes, it tends to clog pens when they are not regularly used and it also appears to produce sometimes nib creep. Then you have to clean your pen. And it has evil effects on white and transparent plastic as it colours it and you will have difficulties to get rid of it... However, for me it is a wonderful everyday red!