Efnir: Jacques Herbin Émeraude De Chivor

[LizEF]

Extra Fine Nib Ink Review: Jacques Herbin Émeraude de Chivor

 

This is review #46 in my series. Here's the YouTube video:

 

Post-recording notes: Easy cleaning, but I confess, I removed the nib and feed to rinse them off.

 

And here is a screen of the final result, for those not interested in the video:

Scan of Completed Review:

 

Zoomed in photo:

Absorbent Paper Closeup (puzzle paper like thick newsprint):

 

Screenshots also available on Instagram: @zilxodarap

 

Previous Review: Callifolio Bleu Equinoxe (5).

 

Want to influence the inky sequence? Take the "next ink" poll.

 

Hope you enjoy. Comments appreciated!

[yazeh]

Really like this ink.... Great job Liz

Do you know which generation of E de Chivor you've got? I believe there are three generations....

 

P.S. I wonder what were the lies the 5th Wizard was spearing

[LizEF]

Really like this ink.... Great job Liz

Do you know which generation of E de Chivor you've got? I believe there are three generations....

 

P.S. I wonder what were the lies the 5th Wizard was spearing

I had no idea there were generations of this ink! Since it was a gift, I have no idea which it is, but I received it in the first quarter of 2017, so it had to be bought prior to that.

 

PS: Lies that would change the world, no doubt!

[yazeh]

I had no idea there were generations of this ink! Since it was a gift, I have no idea which it is, but I received it in the first quarter of 2017, so it had to be bought prior to that.

 

PS: Lies that would change the world, no doubt!

[taimdala]

Really like this ink.... Great job Liz

Do you know which generation of E de Chivor you've got? I believe there are three generations....

 

P.S. I wonder what were the lies the 5th Wizard was spearing

 

I had no idea there were generations for this ink. Are there any differences between them? If so, please, what are they, if it's not too much trouble to share with us?

Thank you!

[A Smug Dill]

Thanks for the review, @LizEF. You've inspired me to go and fish out (from my wife's pen case, actually, since I don't often write with shimmer ink) the Wing Sung 3008 piston-filler pen I have dedicated to Émeraude de Chivor — I have one of those for just about every shimmer ink I have here — to see if it still writes without flossing its EF nib. Unfortunately, it seems the ink has all but dried up since last used heaven-knows-when, even though it still made a few incomplete marks on the paper for me; so right now the pen is completely disassembled and its parts going through an ultrasonic cleaning cycle. Interestingly, I didn't see much shimmer particles when checking the last dredges of the reservoir's contents and flushing them out, even though the ink was never poor when it comes to density of shimmer particles.

[LizEF]

Thanks for the review, @LizEF. You've inspired me to go and fish out (from my wife's pen case, actually, since I don't often write with shimmer ink) the Wing Sung 3008 piston-filler pen I have dedicated to Émeraude de Chivor — I have one of those for just about every shimmer ink I have here — to see if it still writes without flossing its EF nib. Unfortunately, it seems the ink has all but dried up since last used heaven-knows-when, even though it still made a few incomplete marks on the paper for me; so right now the pen is completely disassembled and its parts going through an ultrasonic cleaning cycle. Interestingly, I didn't see much shimmer particles when checking the last dredges of the reservoir's contents and flushing them out, even though the ink was never poor when it comes to density of shimmer particles.

You're welcome! Regarding the bolded bit, I'm mostly¹ clueless why that would be, but it is clear to me from the few times I've used ink with glitter in it that the glitter likes to "congregate". You could almost say it's religious about it. I find that to get it coming out evenly, you really have to frequently roll, rock, and / or otherwise move the pen to keep the glitter in suspension - or suspended animation?

 

¹My first flossing, which yielded the big hunk of gunk, had me believing there was a bit of glitter that made it through the manufacturing process without getting broken up into small enough pieces - I thought it was solid - it acted solid as I studied it on the end of my shim. I could even move it around like a solid - was going to look at it under magnification, just out of curiosity. But then in one of my attempts to maneuver it into a good position, it dissolved entirely into one gold smear - no specks, just a smear. So it seems like that glitter might be semi-soluble or crushable or something...

 

Meanwhile, I was really quite surprised at how well it did in this nib, and I'm interested to see how my other glittery inks do. I suspect it will depend partly on the presence or absence of flow aids - EoC flowed very nicely - wet and lubricated - and while that resulted in some spread, I suspect that's also what kept the glitter going.

[A Smug Dill]

I've just finished cleaning and reassembling the Wing Sung 3008, and now just waiting for the feed to dry completely (by standing the pen nib down on a paper towel). I want to see whether the ink will spread on Rhodia Dotpad paper for me. I might even try it in a PenBBS 494 on which I think I can fit a Pilot steel EF nib 'donated' from a Penmanship pen.

[LizEF]

I've just finished cleaning and reassembling the Wing Sung 3008, and now just waiting for the feed to dry completely (by standing the pen nib down on a paper towel). I want to see whether the ink will spread on Rhodia Dotpad paper for me. I might even try it in a PenBBS 494 on which I think I can fit a Pilot steel EF nib 'donated' from a Penmanship pen.

The spread isn't awful, just noticeable. I'm finding that some inks are what I've come to think of as "normal" (in regard to line thickness), some inks are very "crisp" - meaning they write a very narrow line (narrower than "normal"), and some spread (write a line fatter than "normal"). So far, I haven't come across any where I'd say these tendencies are bad, just different from each other. I haven't made any effort to explicitly include this in my reviews (in part because it didn't seem significant until I reviewed Aonibi - the crispest line I've seen so far, and surprisingly so), but I still have the review pages and can at least go back and compare. I may even do that eventually. I wish I had one of those reticle things for accurately measuring line width, but I suspect a decent one is out of my price range. And "eyeballing" it is at least enough to put inks into above three categories.

Edited September 30, 2020 by LizEF

[Intensity]

I too am interested to learn more about these “generations” of this ink. This is the first I’ve ever read about variations in this ink.

[yazeh]

 

I had no idea there were generations for this ink. Are there any differences between them? If so, please, what are they, if it's not too much trouble to share with us?

Thank you!

 

I too am interested to learn more about these “generations” of this ink. This is the first I’ve ever read about variations in this ink.

It is my understanding:

1st release - Big Gold glitters..... (it is possible I'm mistaking this with Rouge Hematite)

2nd release - Small gold glitter - Amazing sheen

3rd edition - Gold glitter - Faint sheen......

 

I have the 3rd edition. Sheen is only visible on TR.....

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is a fascinating review. thanks.

 

I used to have a lot of glitter inks, even concocting my own and giving them fancy names. Back in the day, this Emeraude was my first because its amazing swatches won me over.

 

I'm done with glitter now. Glitter inks ruined one pen (lucky it was only a Preppy), and if I want sparkle I will grab a Sakura Gelly Roll.

 

Those also clog.

[LizEF]

This is a fascinating review. thanks.

 

I used to have a lot of glitter inks, even concocting my own and giving them fancy names. Back in the day, this Emeraude was my first because its amazing swatches won me over.

 

I'm done with glitter now. Glitter inks ruined one pen (lucky it was only a Preppy), and if I want sparkle I will grab a Sakura Gelly Roll.

 

Those also clog.

Interesting. Can't the Preppy be disassembled for cleaning? (I've never owned one.)

 

I think of glitter more as a mild amusement than as something I would want to use more than a sample of. It seems like a good thing for writing letters to politicians (or other people you wish to annoy).

[Sailor Kenshin]

Interesting. Can't the Preppy be disassembled for cleaning? (I've never owned one.)

 

I think of glitter more as a mild amusement than as something I would want to use more than a sample of. It seems like a good thing for writing letters to politicians (or other people you wish to annoy).

I tried disassembling the Preppy. Frozen stuck tight by the evulz that is glitter.

[Intensity]

 

It is my understanding:

1st release - Big Gold glitters..... (it is possible I'm mistaking this with Rouge Hematite)

2nd release - Small gold glitter - Amazing sheen

3rd edition - Gold glitter - Faint sheen......

 

I have the 3rd edition. Sheen is only visible on TR.....

 

How did you deduce that there were changes? Did you see reports of it or just looking at on-line images? If the latter, there's a great variability of photo quality, lighting, and pen/paper/amount of glitter included in a particular fill.

[Intensity]

I tried disassembling the Preppy. Frozen stuck tight by the evulz that is glitter.

 

Preppy has such a complex feed with lots of thin channels, I wouldn't use shimmer inks with it. More standard, simpler feeds should have no problem with these J. Herbin inks.

[LizEF]

I tried disassembling the Preppy. Frozen stuck tight by the evulz that is glitter.

Fascinating. May it rest in peace.

[A Smug Dill]

I spent many hours since yesterday on this, primarily because I accidentally put a 'Concorde' bend in the EF nib of my $4 Wing Sung 3008 — and it's not news that the metal used for the nibs on that model is notoriously soft and ready to deform inelastically (i.e. be 'sprung') — and tried desperately to fix it, even though I have a bunch of spare nibs.

 

This is what I learnt:

• Herbin Perle Noire is more apt to spread, at least on Rhodia Dotpad paper, than Émeraude de Chivor. I found that out by actually — but only partially — filling the WS3008 with both inks in turn (with the same 'proper' cleaning procedure before each fill, of course), and writing with the same nib before I damaged it and had to work on it.
• Having since reground the nib to effectively an extra fine Stub (or Italic), I can safely say that Émeraude de Chivor does not spread in a reacts-with-the-paper-coating way that would ruin the crispness of outlines or very fine lines, when the flow is relatively dry; in other words, there isn't a problem with the solvents or surfactants in the ink that is apt to produce woolly lines on paper.
• There are different ways to achieve extra fine lines, and they don't work equally well when using Émeraude de Chivor. If the tips of the tines are touching and pushing against each other to restrict ink flow and produce a relatively dry line on paper, you'll get few shimmer particles onto the page, but instead they will build up in the nib slit and eventually further restrict ink flow to the point of making the lines too dry and pale (and need to be remedied by flossing), or come loose in an unplanned manner and cause a glob of shimmer to fall onto the page. If you want to produce extra fine lines with Émeraude de Chivor while still allowing the ink marks to exhibit the characteristics for which the ink is known, the tine gap all the way to the tipping has to be wider than the diameter of the shimmer particles — I don't know what that is, but a gap of 0.1mm or perhaps 0.08mm will probably do — while the nib tipping is ground down to produce the narrow width (example: two halves of a glob of tipping each with a contact surface 0.12mm wide, with a 0.08mm gap in between, will produce a 0.32mm line if the shape of the tipping allows for crisp edges), and the ink flow is moderated by the feed (as opposed by the size of the tine gap) so that you get shimmer particles but not so much ink that it floods such a fine line and compromises the paper coating and/or cause lateral spread of ink into the paper fibres.

Edited October 1, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[whichwatch]

I find this very interesting even though it really doesn't matter to me. I love the color of this ink but dislike sparkles in any ink, so I let it settle and decant the ink off the top, getting as few solid particles as possible.

 

Anyone want to trade ink for a bottle of glitter?

[yazeh]

 

How did you deduce that there were changes? Did you see reports of it or just looking at on-line images? If the latter, there's a great variability of photo quality, lighting, and pen/paper/amount of glitter included in a particular fill.

I know there was a formulation change with Rouge Hematite and Bleu Ocean.

Here is the post.

I know there are two different packaging for Chivor.

If you move up the thread, you can see this, mine is teal/grey.

Obviously that doesn't mean different inks.

But I believe there was mention somewhere that the new edition had less sheen than the original version.

So, I stand corrected there are two editions....

I hope this answers all your questions.