Corail des tropiques, by J. Herbin

Some inks are just for fun. Unusable in the office, unusable for long notes, letters or stories, but they might work on for example greeting cards. I expected Corail des tropiques to be one of those colors. It's not pink, it's not orange, it's definitely not red. It mostly reminds me of salmon, but I'm sure there's coral out there somewhere in this color too. There is no arguing about taste, but personally I believe "ugly" doesn't even come close.

Color aside, how does the ink behave? That was disappointment number two. I have a lot of different Herbin inks and even though they perform slightly better in a dry nib than in a wet nib, it's always good. Not this ink. The ink doesn't write nearly as smooth as other Herbin inks, giving a dry scratchy feeling, even in my (wet) Parker Duofold. At the same time there is some feathering and the ink spreads a bit. This can best be seen with the poster nib (title) and the glass dip pen (writing sample).

And even though the color is quite unique - other inks are either way more orange or way more pink - this means Corail des tropiques is a poorly behaving ink in a difficult color. That makes it a waste of money in my eyes.

N.B. Written on Original Crown Mill Vellum Paper

Comments

Kikyou, Sailor Manyo

A few months ago this new ink series by Sailor was announced. Based on flowers, in a stylish 50ml bottle. What I see is not a flower, but an ink that is stormy blue with a hint of green. Teal? Maybe, but in my opinion it's darker than that, scans and monitors can be slightly deceiving. This ink can be a work horse. Very suitable for note taking, definitely works in the office, but also for personal notes and correspondence. The ink writes like a dream. It's not very wet, but smooth and extremely well-behaved in any pen. Just the combination crown mill vellum paper and a poster nib (as you can see), leads to some feathering of the ink. Drying times are simply fast, with just 12 seconds on this paper! Shading is low. Water resistance is low. Even after days it smears easily with just a tiny drop of water. I called this ink a work horse. It is, and an expensive one. Even though it's wonderful ink, it's simply not special enough to justify the price. Yonaga (Sailor)

Ultra violet shimmer ink, Manuscript

A new caligraphy ink by Manuscript with extreme shimmer. Definitely not something to use in the office but it looked interesting to write some cards with in the upcoming holiday season. This ink is clearly not meant for long notes or letters. A very dark violet or purple with heavy gold shimmer. I find it a hard to use ink. OK to use in a fountain pen like the TWSBI ECO with a stub nib, but a dip pen made the ink feather and spread, even on Clairefontaine or Crown Mill Vellum paper. On Lalo Vergé it was much better. The ink is very wet, causing considerable show-through and even some bleed-through. The drying time wasn't too bad though with 35 seconds. The shimmer smears easily for a bit longer. As can be seen even on this scan, shimmer is gold and very high. A bit of water will keep the ink readable, enough to rewrite. The violet or purple is comparable to Herbin's Améthyste de l'Oural . Diamine's Imperial Purple (no shimmer) is brighter and lighter.

Green Gold #2, KWZ

Searching for a gold colored ink I came across this ink. It’s far more green than gold, but the color is definitely intriguing. Can it be used in the office? I don’t know, maybe in Spring. For now I will stick to personal notes and correspondence with this ink. KWZ produces well-behaving inks and this color is no exception to that. The ink shows no feathering, a beautiful shading, no show-through, good lubrication, and moderate wetness with below-average drying times. I don't have any color that comes close. Herbin's Vert empire or Lierre Sauvage, as well as Grab von Faber Castell's Moss Green are true greens and don't come close. All in all this is a very nice ink and a unique color. A great addition to the collection! N.B. Written on Crown Mill Vellum (off-white)

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