Defective J. Herbin Straight Body Glass Dip Pen?

[Xircuits]

I just received my J. Herbin glass dip pen in the mail and was very excited to try it out. I've never written with a glass dip pen, so it's all very new to me. I have many different fountain pens and regular pens too and figured it couldn't be drastically different. I also ordered a bottle of Royal Blue J. Herbin Pearlescent ink to try it. Long story short, I can't get the thing to write. And when it does write, I can get out maybe 2 words before it's dead again. I've tried different angles and I've tried writing with the pen vertical to the paper and nothing helps. I've even tried different inks. I went to my Noodler's Oppenheimer Black and my North African Violet, with no luck and it looks like the flutes don't even hold much ink. I can't imagine writing for a whole line let alone a paragraph with what it holds. I wonder if anyone here can help me. Thanks!

[ac12]

Did you contact the place that you bought the glass pen from?

[Xircuits]

Not yet. I ordered it from JetPens. Can I just email them and they'll send a replacement?

[MCN]

Apparently the quality of these has become inconsistent, to the extent that Goulet stopped carrying them. I still like them and one that I bought a couple of weeks ago to replace one that I dropped on a tile floor writes quite nicely right out of the box. But the broken one behaved as you describe when I first got it. I found that a bit of massaging with 400 grit sandpaper fixed things up. But if you don't want to mess with the pen yourself I'd inquire about an exchange from Jet Pens.

[MisterBoll]

I got one a while back this is very hard to write with. The sandpaper massage as recommended by MCN will make it better.

 

My advice would be to return it and go with a Rohrer & Klinger - which write beautifully.

[ac12]

Your first course of action is always the seller.

Jet pens is very good about defect replacement, just contact them.

[inkstainedruth]

Apparently the quality of these has become inconsistent, to the extent that Goulet stopped carrying them. I still like them and one that I bought a couple of weeks ago to replace one that I dropped on a tile floor writes quite nicely right out of the box. But the broken one behaved as you describe when I first got it. I found that a bit of massaging with 400 grit sandpaper fixed things up. But if you don't want to mess with the pen yourself I'd inquire about an exchange from Jet Pens.

How hard is this to do and does one have to worry about glass shards or dust?

Like the OP, I have a J. Herbin glass pen and couldn't really make it work. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to return it to the seller, because I don't know where the pen came from originally. In my case, it was given to a friend of mine a few years ago, and last winter she found it in a desk drawer (it was a set with a couple of small bottles of ink, one purple and one blue). She brought it to a party I was at on New Year's Day, on the thought that someone at the party might want it. I tried writing with it once, but didn't have a lot of luck, then got sidetracked by all sorts of lovely vintage FPs on Ebay.

Seeing this thread made me think of the pen again -- I can see the box from where I'm sitting (although the ink bottles recently got consolidated into a fairly nice looking storage box, along with other inks).

Also, does anyone know off hand what the inks might be? Are they "standard" Herbin inks (i.e., would they be safe to put in a regular FP) or some other line (IIRC Herbin also makes "calligraphy" inks that should only be used with dip pens)? And if they're part of the standard line of FP-friendly inks, any clue what the colors would be (the bottles just say "blue" and "purple" (or the French equivalents, I forget which)?

Thanks in advance.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Xircuits]

Hmm... I think I'll try sanding it down. Although, I will have to assume when I do this, I won't be able to return it to JetPens, but I like tinkering and trying to get things to work. So here's my next question: I have a nail buffer with 4 different sides that provide finer sanding and polishing. Do you guys think this will work better than with 400-600 grit sand paper? I normally use the nail buffer to take out scratches that I have on watches and cell phone screens. Thanks!

[MisterBoll]

How hard is this to do and does one have to worry about glass shards or dust?

Like the OP, I have a J. Herbin glass pen and couldn't really make it work. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to return it to the seller, because I don't know where the pen came from originally. In my case, it was given to a friend of mine a few years ago, and last winter she found it in a desk drawer (it was a set with a couple of small bottles of ink, one purple and one blue). She brought it to a party I was at on New Year's Day, on the thought that someone at the party might want it. I tried writing with it once, but didn't have a lot of luck, then got sidetracked by all sorts of lovely vintage FPs on Ebay.

Seeing this thread made me think of the pen again -- I can see the box from where I'm sitting (although the ink bottles recently got consolidated into a fairly nice looking storage box, along with other inks).

Also, does anyone know off hand what the inks might be? Are they "standard" Herbin inks (i.e., would they be safe to put in a regular FP) or some other line (IIRC Herbin also makes "calligraphy" inks that should only be used with dip pens)? And if they're part of the standard line of FP-friendly inks, any clue what the colors would be (the bottles just say "blue" and "purple" (or the French equivalents, I forget which)?

Thanks in advance.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Gentle gentle gentle will get the job done.

 

Don't chance using those inks in a FP.

[MCN]

"How hard is this to do and does one have to worry about glass shards or dust? "

 

I did find it a bit tricky. My first assumption was that the problem was that the tip wasn't rounded enough so I put a nice round edge on the point with the sandpaper. Result: the pen didn't write at all! The trick seems to be to sand off the tip square and then round off the edge just a tiny tiny bit to reduce the scratchy feel. At least this is what worked for me. You

don't need to apply much pressure so I don't think there much danger from flying glass bits. And glass dust is basically sand so no worries there. Manicure abrasives might work but they might not be abrasive enough to do much. Certainly the orange emery boards would be way too coarse. 400 to 600 grit seems to be the sweet spot. I would recommend washing the tip after sanding to remove the glass dust.

[Paddler]

A glass pen is just a different type of dip pen. The flutes get smaller and narrower as they approach the tip. They actually have to make it all the way to the paper for the ink to flow. If the manufacturer fire polished the nib too much, the flutes all melted together before reaching the paper contact surface. The sandpaper trick grinds off some glass and exposes the flutes again. If all that is OK, then try washing the nib with water and dish detergent. Dry the nib and then lick it before the first dip. Just like on a steel dip nib, the saliva will make the glass nib hold a lot more ink and release it smoothly to the paper.

[tylchick]

I am lucky that my newly purchased J. Herbin is working pretty well. But I found that it has some sweet spot too. It works ok on regular ink but works really well on some pigmented ink (J. Herbin silver) which is thicker. Your tip on 400-600 grit sand paper is useful if it ceases to write smoothly one day.

 

Ink: P.W. Akkermann Laan Van Nieuw Oost-Indigo (#9) Paper: Maruman

Edited October 11, 2013 by tylchick

[Keyless Works]

I just purchased a Rohrer & Klingner glass dip pen. I have never used a dip pen before and it wrote beautifully my first try. I sounds like you got a bad one. I would just return it and either try another one or try a different brand.