[Pen/Pencil Review] J. Herben Lie De The Ink Rerun for Thanksgiving
Originally published at Rhonda Eudaly. You can comment here or there.
I fell down on the whole pen blog thing yesterday - for reasons. My day off turned out to be quite full with stuff that went on all day after two days of Good News/Bad News comic con (not it’s name and I’ll talk about it tomorrow). So… today’s a rerun…about brown ink for Thanksgiving this week.
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So last week, I talked about the J. Herbin roller ball hybrid pen that I really like. Because I have some family stuff to deal with this week, I’m just going to add to that by talking about the Lie de Thé (Tea Brown) ink from the same company. You saw it a bit in the last review, and it’s also from JetPens.
The J. Herbin Lie de Thé (Tea Brown) ink comes in the standard short international cartridges, giving you a wide range of pens in which to use the ink. This ink comes from the “Jewel of Inks” series, which has been around since 1700. The ink is water-based, lightfast, and non-toxic. It’s also called “pH neutral” so I would assume that means “acid free” for archival issues.
The ink does dry fast. It’s got a good, rich pigment. I struggle with brown inks. Sometimes I like them, other times not so much. I do like this one. It’s a good chocolate-y mocha brown - not too dark. Not too light. There is a disclaimer on the website that cautions about freezing - this is a water-based ink, it will expand when frozen so it might cause leaking, but unless you keep your pens and ink outside in the winter or in your freezer, I don’t see that as an issue.
The ink comes in a charming metal canister holding six cartridges. The canister, though nice, does affect the pricing of the ink. But if you’re really picky about the ink? It really might be worth it. This ink does seem to last a lot longer than other inks I’ve used in similar cartridges. I’ve used it pretty frequently in the roller ball pen, and I still haven’t come to the end of the first cartridge - so there is that to also consider. You might pay more, but if it does last, then it might be worth it.
The numbers:
1. How does it work? - 1 - I like it. The color is rich. It’s smooth and lasting - at least in the roller ball. I haven’t used it in a fountain pen.
2. Grip and feel - 1 - Obviously there is not “Grip” to an ink cartridge… but the feel of the cartridge is good. Unless you freeze it, there’s no indication that any of the plugs or seams are going to give.
3. Material - 1 - It’s a good quality international cartridge with an extremely good quality ink. The pigments are rich, the water-based design lets the ink flow out of the cartridge easily. The pH balance is nice.
4. Overall Design - 0.5 - It’s a classic design for an ink cartridge, just has the aluminum container - which though cute, the lid doesn’t stay on as tightly as I would like. I have to keep track that cartridges aren’t spilling out somewhere.
5. Price Point - 0.5 - These are only really available on JetPens, so you have to order them. The canister only holds 6 cartridges - and the container costs $5.50. That’s more expensive than Pilot or Kaweco by quite a bit, and I don’t know if that’s a direct correlation to the container or the quality of the ink.
That’s 4 of 5 bronze pencils.
