The Well-Appointed Desk

Jacques Herbin 1798 Cornaline d’Égypte (MSRP $28) is the second color in the 1798 ink line and the sixth (!?) in the J. Herbin specialty line of metallic-ish (I say “-ish” because I don’t know how to explain Rouge Hematite) fountain pen inks. The ink was officially released this week so it should be available from your favorite retailer (check the sidebar for all our favorite retailers that stock J. Herbin).

The packaging for Cornaline d’Égypte is just as deluxe as the previous releases and features the same wider opening as the Emeraude de Chivor last year which means a pen nib will actually fit into the bottle.

I don’t know what it is with me and ink names but I managed to get the name of the ink wrong when I was writing out the header on the page! I kept trying to tell myself “It’s not called Coraline, it’s not called Coraline.” So, I wrote Corinne instead of Cornaline which sounds like the Iowa State Fair Corn Princess to me. The color is sort of reminiscent of a sunflower too so its not far off. Anyway, leave it to me to mess up the spelling of an ink name and not notice it until I am uploading it to the blog. Sorry, folks. I sometimes letter nicely but I don’t always spell well.

In writing, the particles of glitter are not nearly as apparent but the deep, burnt orange color is legible and has a good deal of shading. I stopped and agitated my pen several times in hopes of getting more glitter to show in the writing but it didn’t seem to improve the outcome.

In a wider nib or with heavy application, the color starts to look more reddish. With lighter application, the color is a bit more of a yellow orange but not a clear, clean yellow orange. It’s still got a slightly ruddy undertone.

I tried to get some close-up shots of the ink to show it catching the light. The 1798 inks contain silver metallic flakes instead of gold. The particles in Cornaline d’Egypte are very tiny which helps the overall ink flow but they still sink to the bottom of the bottle or the pen quickly. There is some evidence of the glitter flakes in the close-ups, but not much.

I don’t have a lot of other metallic inks to compare Cornaline d’Egypte to but Pen BBS #218 ($16 for 60ml bottle) and Diamine Shimmer Brandy Dazzle ($20 for a 50ml bottle) were the closest ink colors I had and both had gold sparkles, not silver.

I took some close-up images of both Brandy Dazzle and PenBBS #218 as well, even though the flecks are gold rather than silver. Both seem to have more apparent light reflecting particles and the gold does seem to match the orange hue better than silver.

In the fine, small writing, PenBBS #218 had the most metallic reflection of all three inks. So, if that’s a feature you are looking for I’d hold out for a bottle of PenBBS over the Cornaline d’Egypte. If you are an ink completionist, then you’ll probably want a bottle of Cornaline anyway, just to have to whole set. Thankfully, Herbin only releases one color per year so its not a huge investment each year.

Tools:

• Paper: Rhodia Uni-Blank No. 16 with 6mm guide sheet
• Pens: Jinhao Shark Pen, Midori bullet pencil modified dip nib holder with Zebra G titanium nib ($33.50 per 10-pack), Acrylic dip nib pen (Approx. $15), Shawn Newton Esterbrook Nib Holder with #9556 nib
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Book ($10) & Col-o-dex Rotary Cards ($15)
• Brush: Blick Synthetic Round #0
• Ink:  Robert Oster Australian Opal Mauve ($17 for 50ml bottle)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Exaclair/QuoVadis for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Review by Tina Koyama

I had never heard of Nagasawa, a stationery store in Kobe, Japan, but when I saw the bottle design for the Nagasawa Pen Style Inks on JetPens, I instantly thought, “Sailor.” Sure enough, the inks were developed by Sailor (one of Japan’s “top three” fountain pen manufacturers, along with Pilot and Platinum), and as a devotee of everything Sailor, I had to try some.

Choosing among the Nagasawa line’s 26 colors took lengthy hemming and hawing, but I managed to make relatively objective choices based on what was missing from my Sailor Shikiori collection (formerly called the Jentle line, which came in bottles that look identical to Nagasawa bottles but nothing like the current Shikiori bottles. Got that?).

While we’re talking about bottles, I noticed that the Nagasawa inks do not come with the little basket thingie inside the neck that is supposed to make it easier to fill certain pens. I always syringe-fill my pens and always have, so I don’t miss the basket thingie, which just gets in the way.

Now, on to today’s ink. Sannomiya, which means “panse” (that’s how it’s spelled on the box label, but I assume it’s the flower pansy), is a bright, cheerful violet. The closest hues I found in my collection are Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu (slightly cooler), Sailor Jentle Shigure (much darker and cooler) and Diamine Majestic Purple (warmer). I filled one of my broadest-nibbed pens with Sannomiya, and I love the rich hue.

One reason I favor Sailor inks is that they are fast-drying (essential for this lefty), and the Nagasawa inks follow suit. I didn’t test for specific drying times, but writing relatively carefully, I didn’t smudge the page written on Tomoe River paper. (Mind you, I was writing this sample more slowly than I normally do, but I’ve also been writing with it in my Leuchtturm 1917 journal at my normal pace, and I’ve smudged only a couple of times – not bad at all, for me.)

Unlike most fountain pen users, who probably prefer their inks to be more waterproof than water-soluble, I look for inks that make an interesting smear when washed lightly with water because I enjoy sketching with fountain pens, too, and using the wash for shading. This is another reason I favor Sailor’s formula – the washes are often surprising and complex. I see hints of both pink and blue in Sannomiya – the wash is not just a diluted version of the full-strength ink. (However, you’ll see in another ink I review later that not all Kobe inks are as complex.)

Sannomiya is a lovely purple that I enjoy both writing and sketching with.

TOOLS

• Papers: Writing sample: Hobonichi A6 Techo A6 2016 planner ($33); sketch sample: Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook ($17.99)
• Pen: Platinum 3776 Century with double-broad nib ($67)
• Swatches: Col-o-Ring Ink Testing Cards ($10)
• Brush: Weber Prima round 6 ($4.99)
• Ink: Nagasawa Kobe Sannomiya (No. 18) ($30)

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.