J Herbin - Bleu Calanque

[yazeh]

J Herbin Bleu Calanque

 

Ink Review # 194

 

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 🧾 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.

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 🧪 Chroma

 

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 ✍️ Writing Samples (scan)

Rhodia  / Iroful

 

Midori  /Tomoe River 68gsm

 

 

 

Hammermill 20lb  

 

 

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 📸 Photo

Rhodia, Iroful, Hammermill

 

Midori / Tomoe River 68 gsm

 

 

Close-up (Iroful – Rhodia) 

 

 

🔍 Comparison

 

 

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 💧 Water Test

 

 

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 🎨 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. 

 

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- 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

 

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 🛒 Availability

 

- [ ] Available in 10/30 ml bottles and cartridges in most stationary stores and online. 

 

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 💬 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.  

 

 

[lapis]

Great! I especially love its wetness, practically "in tune" with all 5 of the "newer" Herb standards (as you pointed out all issued years later after they last had all 30 of their "standards" out). I bought all 5 (Corail des Tropiques, Rouge Grenat, Bleu des Profondeurs, Bleu Calanque and Vert de Gris) when they first came out in 2018 in the taller, 10-ml bottles without a pen-trough ledge and without a box.

I also treasure your dropping out the history about Saint-Exupéry’s plane. I did know that he crashed there "somewhere in the vicinity" but never knew that they found the plane in 2000.

[yazeh]

2 hours ago, lapis said:

Great! I especially love its wetness, practically "in tune" with all 5 of the "newer" Herb standards (as you pointed out all issued years later after they last had all 30 of their "standards" out). I bought all 5 (Corail des Tropiques, Rouge Grenat, Bleu des Profondeurs, Bleu Calanque and Vert de Gris) when they first came out in 2018 in the taller, 10-ml bottles without a pen-trough ledge and without a box.

I have all of them too. The one left to review is Corail des Tropiques.  

2 hours ago, lapis said:

I also treasure your dropping out the history about Saint-Exupéry’s plane. I did know that he crashed there "somewhere in the vicinity" but never knew that they found the plane in 2000.

They found his silver bracelet first in 1998.

In 2000 a diver found the wreckage. 

And in 2003, they brought up some engine parts, etc, and it was confirmed that it was indeed his plane. Fascinating story. Now if they could find Amelia Earhart's plane.  

 

[LizEF]

Thanks, @yazeh, for another happy review!

 

Ghosting and bleeding seem to be an issue for some turquoise inks.  But then, life's too short for bad paper.   Good lubrication always gets my attention.

 

Thanks for the history lesson.  I still remember when I first saw the Mediterranean - from Turkey (near Antalya) - it was so wonderfully clear (clean & transparent) and blue.  Shockingly beautiful.  The area you describe sounds gorgeous.   (Google image search confirms.)

 

Interesting chroma. I like one of the colors in there.   Very nice on paper.  A little too green on Midori.  Hmm. Much bluer in the photos.  I think I like the scan color better.

 

In the swatches, that Devil's Mentholatum is ridiculously cold in comparison. It's like ice whereas Bleu Calanque is just cool and refreshing. (Maybe hell froze over? )  (Though the sketch on Diabolo Menthe is really very fun.)

 

Love the drawings, especially the singing sardine!

 

Hope you enjoyed making this review as much as I enjoyed reading it (even if I am late getting here)!

[inkstainedruth]

@yazeh This one appears to lean a little too green for my taste.  And of course the lack of water resistance would be problematic.  But thanks as usual for the great review and fun artwork (my wallet thanks you as well, since our school tax bill came recently (and it's higher than our town and county property taxes COMBINED).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the review, @yazeh!  Some interesting elements in the chroma.

 

I like this,  but have soooo many similar colors from Skrip to Monteverde and Montblanc and Waterman and even JH.

 

No water resistance, I see...

 

Appreciate the quotes and the sketches. This is indeed a happy summer color.  The sardine's song from that thread made me laugh.  Thanks again!

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Thanks, @yazeh, for another happy review!

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

 

Ghosting and bleeding seem to be an issue for some turquoise inks.  But then, life's too short for bad paper.   Good lubrication always gets my attention.

This was very, very pleasant writer. Monteverde Caribbean blue is another good one, though I don't remember how it behaves on copy paper.  

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

 

Thanks for the history lesson.  I still remember when I first saw the Mediterranean - from Turkey (near Antalya) - it was so wonderfully clear (clean & transparent) and blue.  Shockingly beautiful.  The area you describe sounds gorgeous.   (Google image search confirms.)

Yes, it is a lovely area. The entire region, in my mind, has a mythical quality, thanks to Marcel Pagnol, a prolific French author and filmmaker from Marseille. Though his love was for the region of Provence. What I retain most from the Mediterranean was at night. The silence between each cry of separation of the sand and sea.   

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Interesting chroma. I like one of the colors in there.   Very nice on paper.  A little too green on Midori.  Hmm. Much bluer in the photos.  I think I like the scan color better.

Here is comparison scan of this and Diabolo on Iroful: 

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

In the swatches, that Devil's Mentholatum is ridiculously cold in comparison. It's like ice whereas Bleu Calanque is just cool and refreshing. (Maybe hell froze over? )  (Though the sketch on Diabolo Menthe is really very fun.)

The joys of scanning. Diabolo is a fluorescent turquoise, whereas Calanque is a darker, richer shade. 

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Love the drawings, especially the singing sardine!

Thanks! 

1 hour ago, LizEF said:

Hope you enjoyed making this review as much as I enjoyed reading it (even if I am late getting here)!

This was a fun and easy one. No complaints. The next one, oh boy, drove me nuts. Made reviewing IG inks like a party.  

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

@yazeh This one appears to lean a little too green for my taste.  And of course the lack of water resistance would be problematic.  But thanks as usual for the great review and fun artwork (my wallet thanks you as well, since our school tax bill came recently (and it's higher than our town and county property taxes COMBINED).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I'm sorry to hear that about the tax bills. It's the same here. Sometimes, I wish Robin Hood were back.  

This is rich turquoise ink, but I'm sure you have more than enough in your stash.  

 

[yazeh]

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Thanks for the review, @yazeh!  Some interesting elements in the chroma.

 

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

I like this,  but have soooo many similar colors from Skrip to Monteverde and Montblanc and Waterman and even JH.

This is colour that I'm sure many of us have several shades of.

 

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

No water resistance, I see...

I'm sure that would be a plus.  

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

Appreciate the quotes and the sketches. This is indeed a happy summer color.  

 

41 minutes ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

 

The sardine's song from that thread made me laugh.  Thanks again!

Glad, I managed to convey something funny.  

[LizEF]

26 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The silence between each cry of separation of the sand and sea.   

 

26 minutes ago, yazeh said:

Here is comparison scan of this and Diabolo on Iroful: 

Bleu Calanque for the win!  Lucifer can keep his lozenges!

 

27 minutes ago, yazeh said:

The next one, oh boy, drove me nuts. Made reviewing IG inks like a party.  

Well that sounds exciting!  Can't wait to see it.

[inkstainedruth]

39 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I'm sorry to hear that about the tax bills. It's the same here. Sometimes, I wish Robin Hood were back.  

This is rich turquoise ink, but I'm sure you have more than enough in your stash.  

 

Thanks.

Unfortunately we live in a small school district -- just our town and the next one over (which is I think about half to two thirds the population of mine).  So, one elementary school in each town, and then one middle school and one high school, sort of on the border between the towns (but also on the border between a much larger township). 

Normally, we would have just transferred money from the line of credit into the checking account.  But between the cost of the new driveway DOUBLING (we were originally told that they could just run the concrete up the side of the slope on one side, but THEN told we would need to have a retaining wall put in) and the fact that my husband's sideline business lost money this past spring (first time EVER) because with bad weather rolling in the people running the event let the merchants pack up early -- and on the last day that is a normally a good percentage of the till: people grabbing food while packing up).  And I'm pretty sure that the school taxes jumped a bit from last year's -- even with the early-bird discount (which is due by the end of August).  Plus the somewhat emergency trip to NYC after my sister-in-law's husband died, and then, last weekend out to the western side of Chicago for the service and funeral (and I think there's another memorial sometime in September for him as well -- also in NYC).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[yazeh]

@inkstainedruth Sorry to hear about your woes.  

@LizEF you've already reviewed it (#76) I had a lot of problem with the cartidge. 

[Black16]

Seems like the first Herbin ink I might like I've no idea if it'll work with the papers I use (cheap but fp-friendly ones) but I guess EF and F nibs might help. Gonna take a risk and get at least 10ml of it for the tests.

[yazeh]

12 minutes ago, Black16 said:

Seems like the first Herbin ink I might like I've no idea if it'll work with the papers I use (cheap but fp-friendly ones) but I guess EF and F nibs might help. Gonna take a risk and get at least 10ml of it for the tests.

If your paper is thin absorbent paper forget it. If it's coated, like Rhodia, you'll be fine.

 

[Black16]

13 minutes ago, yazeh said:

If your paper is thin absorbent paper forget it. If it's coated, like Rhodia, you'll be fine.

 

Seems to be actually coated and not absorbent, at least feels a lot different from copy papers (feels literally coated), no bleeding with most of inks even in stub and huge long knife nibs. Well you saw it in my reviews, the dotted sheets.

[LizEF]

2 hours ago, yazeh said:

@LizEF you've already reviewed it (#76) I had a lot of problem with the cartidge. 

Interesting.  Cartridges are a pain if you want to use the ink inside without using the cartridge.  

[yazeh]

1 hour ago, Black16 said:

Seems to be actually coated and not absorbent, at least feels a lot different from copy papers (feels literally coated), no bleeding with most of inks even in stub and huge long knife nibs. Well you saw it in my reviews, the dotted sheets.

Then that must be quite a good paper.

 

[yazeh]

28 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Interesting.  Cartridges are a pain if you want to use the ink inside without using the cartridge.  

I was inspired by your grey episode series to review a batch of grey inks. This was the first of the kist, but when the cartridge refused to cooperate, I had to forget the pens, until the ink decided to flow.  I went the whole pack ( two of them through evaporation) and one syringed to acertain if it was the ink or the cartridge. 😞😂

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I was inspired by your grey episode series to review a batch of grey inks.

 

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

his was the first of the kist, but when the cartridge refused to cooperate, I had to forget the pens, until the ink decided to flow.  I went the whole pack ( two of them through evaporation) and one syringed to acertain if it was the ink or the cartridge. 😞😂

I understand.  It's so messy getting the ink out of cartridges - even when you know what you're doing and are careful, something always goes wrong...

[yazeh]

28 minutes ago, LizEF said:

 

I understand.  It's so messy getting the ink out of cartridges - even when you know what you're doing and are careful, something always goes wrong...

It was alright. But I really wanted to use the Kaweco pen and change a bit from Lamy. Un the I had to use both. Kaweco for the review and Lamy for containing my rant. Conclusion awful as cartridge, ok as a bottle ink.