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Perle Noir, Herbin

Perle Noir is one of the most recommended and well reviewed black inks out there. When I bought this ink a few years ago, I was disappointed. It is not the blackest, not the smoothest, not the fastest drying ink, not an archival ink, not the cheapest.  I decided to give it a second chance so I eyedropped a Preppy with it and filled a Lamy All-star. Over the past few days I have written many pages of work notes with the ink. Perle Noir is a well behaving black ink that is sold at a reasonable price, but it doesn't excel in anything. Below some writing samples, followed by drying times and test in water resistance. Drying times are about average to slow, 45 secs with a broad nib on Tomoe River 52g paper. The ink is certainly not water resistant, but it can handle an accidental drop.   The full characteristics: Feathering none Shading hardly any Show through negligible  ...
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Red Fox, Mont Blanc, Le Petit Prince



Red Fox is a Montblanc Limited Edition, based on their Le Petit Prince series. The ink is a dark brown orange, not unlike the fur of a fox. I wasn't sure what to expect of this ink to be honest, reviews are mixed, but in the past week I have been writing a lot with it. It's great for personal use and at the same time, despite being a dark orange, it's a color that you can easily use in an office environment to take down notes. For longer reads the color remains pleasant.

 The ink and its color surprised me and I must say, I really like this ink. At 35 euro for 50 ml the ink is expensive, but well worth it.

It's a high quality ink. As expected, no feathering, no bleed-through on decent paper, shading is strong and excellent and the ink behaves extremely well in my Parker Duofold (medium nib). Lubrication is a bit better than most Montblanc inks I know but still, some pens have difficulties with it. TWSBI and Montblanc is not a good combination for instance. This is a non permanent ink, water will severely damage your writing. Drying times are OK. 

To give an idea what the ink looks like, I have written several samples with both the Parker and a Lamy with a broad nib. The orange is very distinctive and quite different from other inks I own. At first I thought it would be closer to a red, but but the two colors that come closest are Orange Indien (J. Herbin) and Cornaline d'Egypte (Herbin 1798).


N.B. paper used is Original Crown Mill (vellum)
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