Saturday 30 November 2013

Review of the metal-cased J Herbin rollerball

Slowly crawling out of hell... always helped by a parcel containing stationery arriving (and listening to the glorious Julie Fowlis).

So, what have I bought now? Actually, something I have bought before – a J Herbin rollerball from Bureau Direct. I reviewed the others here. This one however, is the metal cased version. The pen takes standard-sized cartridges and costs £18.95 for the pen and two tins of J Herbin cartridges (which come in THE most adorable tins!) or £14.95 for the pen alone. Bureau Direct are doing a ‘12 days of Christmas’ series of offers at the moment and one of the offers was to get the pen but with three tins of cartridges instead of two (the tins are £2.25 each tin to buy on their own).

J Herbin rollerball with metal casing

In my original review (about a year ago) I said that the pens were a bit scratchy to write with. I’m pleased to say that the one I loaded with bleu pervenche ink 11 months ago and have used daily since (it’s slotted into my 5-year diary. That’s how I know I’ve used it all year!) has stopped scratching and squeaking when I write. The one loaded with Lie de Thé is still a bit scratchy, but hasn’t been used anything like as much. The metal-barrelled one doesn’t squeak or scratch at all and is a nice weight in the hand.

All opened up and with Larmes de Cassis cartridge inserted

I asked for three tins of Larmes de Cassis ink with the pen. My favourite coloured ink by J Herbin is Poussière de Lune, but since I have a bottle of that and a syringe and wide-bore needle thing for refilling cartridges, I didn’t see the need to ask for tins of that colour and the Larmes de Cassis looked lovely. I’ve written a bit with it and, like the original pens, the line laid down is fine and the ink is wet enough to be decently dense but not too wet. The colour of the Larmes de Cassis is (unsurprisingly!) a bit like Ribena!


Overall:
Bureau Direct are brilliant (as ever! No affiliation; just a perpetually happy customer!) and the pen is great. It looks so much smarter than the original versions and I LOVE the ability to use a rollerball but it take nice ink cartridges. 5*

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