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J Herbin Bleu Calanque Ink Review # 194 --- 🧾 Description Ink is a happy turquoise, great for summertime, when one’s soul yearns for the sea. It is wet, well lubricated, and a pleasure to use. There’s some shading and a faint sheen on Iroful. It’s not suitable for copy paper. It ghosts and bleeds through like a bad horror movie. 😱 This ink, along with Bleu des Profondeurs, is one of the more recent additions to J. Herbin’s classic fountain pen ink lineup. It’s a gorgeous, well-behaved turquoise with excellent flow and generous lubrication — wetter and smoother than most Herbin inks. The ink is named after the Calanques, a series of steep-walled, limestone inlets along the southern coast of France, between Marseille and Cassis. This protected seascape is known for its dazzling turquoise waters and rugged cliffs. Fun fact: the wreckage of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s plane — the author of The Little Prince — was discovered off the coast of Marseille in the Calanques region in 2000, solving one of France’s most famous literary mysteries. --- 🧪 Chroma --- ✍️ Writing Samples (scan) Rhodia / Iroful Midori /Tomoe River 68gsm Hammermill 20lb s--- 📸 Photo Rhodia, Iroful, Hammermill Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm Close-up (Iroful – Rhodia) 🔍 Comparison --- 💧 Water Test --- 🎨 Artwork A Dragon is Born I used a Kara's Customs Vertex with FPNibs full flex nib with an extra wet ebonite feed. Fountain inks used: Kala Nostalgia Abstraction Moonlight Tide, KWZ Orange, J Herbin Bleu Calanque. If I were a sardine.... Inktober yearlong challenge: 2025 Sardine J Herbin Bleu Calanque, Bouton d'or, Kaweco Stormy Grey, Tintenlabor Gold Black for outlines, and Silver marker. Strathmore paper. Note a bit of stormy grey was mixed in the deeper part of the blue. I imagined a story about a sardine and a tuna, influenced by a lost fiddle in the sea, imagining different storylines (think 'If I Were a Rich Man...'), before being caught by a trawler and transformed into cans of fish. A bit dark, but such is life. 😛 Mask De Atramentis Document Brown and J Herbin Bleu Calanque. --- - Pens Used: Pilot F3A EF, Lamy (EF/F/M/B/ Stub 1.1) , Osmiroid Copperplate - What I Liked: Fresh, happy turquoise, which takes me on a trip to Southern France. - What I Did Not Like: Lack of water resistance. - What Some Might Not Like: Longish dry times on Japanese paper. - Writing Experience: Gorgeous. - Pros: Lovely vacation ink, easy to clean. - Cons: Not waterproof. Doesn’t like copy paper. 🧷 Ink Characteristics - Shading: Yes - Ghosting: Yes on copy paper. - Bleed Through: Same as above. - Flow Rate: Wet - Lubrication: Excellent. - Nib Dry-out: Did not notice. - Start-up: Great. - Saturation: Nope. - Sheen: Very faint. - Spread / Feathering / Woolly Line: Yes, on copy paper. - Nib Creep / Crud: Did not notice. - Staining (Pen): No - Clogging: No. - Cleaning: Easy - Water Resistance: None --- 🛒 Availability - [ ] Available in 10/30 ml bottles and cartridges in most stationary stores and online. --- 💬 Closing There are too many turquoises. This is a good bet for journaling on good paper. However, its lack of water resistance could be problematic. No fountain pens were hurt in preparing this review. Please don’t hesitate to share your experience, writing samples, or any other comments — the more the merrier.