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carpedavid
March 31st, 2010, 08:30 AM
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4456134480_e0a9157309.jpg

J. Herbin Café des Îsles is an aptly named brown ink, as, more than anything, it resembles the color of coffee. Other reviewers have mentioned its similarity to café au lait or to espresso, depending on the wetness of the line, and I find the comparison apt. Imagine dipping one's pen in a cup of coffee and then writing – that's the color of this ink – and the varying strengths of one's beverage are well represented by the low saturation and significant shading that it exhibits. It is also worth noting that, on a cream or off-white paper, it takes on a delightful sepia tone.

As with other J. Herbin inks, Café des Îsles flows easily in each pen I own. It is not as wet as Vert Empire or Bleu Myostosis, behaving more like Poussiere de Lune. The degree of feathering seems dependant on the paper in question: on Moleskine and Rhodia, there was little to no feathering, whereas on my Ecosystem notebook, the feathering was very noticeable. Regardless of paper, though, the show-through was minimal and the bleed-through nonexistent. Every paper I tried held up well to this ink, including the thin paper of a Moleskine cahier.

The dry time of this ink seems to be fairly consistent between Rhodia and Moleskine – about eight to ten seconds. However, on a very absorbent paper like the Ecosystem, the ink dried in less than three seconds – likely the trade-off for the increased feathering. Also, as I typically write on an incline, the ink pools at the bottom of letters, thus increasing the time it takes ink to dry when compared to writing on a flat surface. Therefore, flat-writers might experience a quicker dry-time.

I consider Café des Îsles to be an ink with a high degree of character – one I find myself returning to again and again. Even though it isn't an ink with a high level of contrast, I find its tone to be both easy to read and interesting, which makes it well-suited for journaling or other artistic endeavors.

J. Herbin fountain pen inks come in a 30ml bottle with an integrated pen rest that is suitable for displaying on top of one's desk.

A note about the scan: While I've been fairly happy with the representation of the ink color in most of my ink reviews, this ink has proved to be extremely tricky to scan properly. The actual color is slightly less saturated with a hint of cinnamon.

Review materials: For the wide strokes, I used a Lamy 1.1mm steel calligraphy nib on a Lamy Safari. For the fine strokes, I used a Lamy EF steel nib on a Lamy Safari. The paper is Rhodia 80g.

eriquito
March 31st, 2010, 09:04 AM
CarpeDavid! (very cool name!)

I'm working my way through your ink reviews now. This is the first I've seen. What a fantastic job! Thank you!

After my poor experience with a couple of J. Herbin Verts, I vowed to never use their inks again. However, your review has inspired me to give Café des Îsles a try. I'm very happy with my Visconti Sepia. Perhaps Café des Îsles and the idea of dipping my pen in my morning brew will be even more pleasant.

AND... you're site is excellent! I've been shunning the frumious Bandersnatch for years. Now I can beware the dreaded Walrus-Bee =) I'm going to be laughing all day.

Thanks again!

Eric
Son of Ragnar

dannzeman
March 31st, 2010, 09:17 AM
Wow, fantastic review! The scanned image is very neat. I am surprised to hear you say that the Moleskine performs as well as it does. All of my experiences were rather poor.

Based off eriquito's comment I can't wait to check or your website, but that'll have to wait until I get home. I'm also excited to get to your other reviews. Oh, welcome to Fpgeeks.

Sent from my htc HERO using Tapatalk

carpedavid
March 31st, 2010, 11:19 AM
Thanks, Eric.

I've posted all of the ink reviews that I've written so far, and will make sure to post them here going forward as well as my site and the FPN. It's nice to see another community around fountain pens be established.

As to J. Herbin - I'm not a fan of all of their inks - some are too watery and some are too unsaturated for my taste. Cafe des Isles and Poussiere de Lune are both pretty great, though.

Thanks for the kind comments about my blog!

Dave

carpedavid
March 31st, 2010, 11:24 AM
Hi dannzeman!

Thanks for your kind comments as well! I just recently started writing up reviews, and I've got a lot more ink to review, plus pens, paper, and other cool things.

As to Moleskine - my experience is that their products are inconsistent. Some journals will play very well with fountain pen ink, while others do precisely the opposite. I think their QA has picked up recently, though, as I go through an x-large cahier a month for work, and the product seems to be more consistent lately.

I hope you enjoy the site once you get a chance to look at it.

Thanks!
Dave

inlovewithjournals
January 11th, 2014, 10:42 AM
LOVE this ink! And all of your ink reviews.

heath
January 11th, 2014, 11:03 AM
Nice Review! The ink looks a bit less saturated than I prefer but the review is very well done.