Jacques Herbin Émeraude de Chivor (Emerald of Chivor)

Ink Reviews
Written By Julian

Ink Review #150

 

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

 

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Overview

The color:

Jacques Herbin Émeraude de Chivor is a shimmering teal with strong blue tones. In fact, depending on the lighting, it might look more blue than green (It was a difficult color to capture because of this). It shades with a crisp cut and red sheen when writing in both print and cursive. While the sheen isn’t necessarily the strongest, I would still call this a sheening ink, especially when writing in print, because it allows the ink to pool more and brings the sheen out the most. The particulates are fine gold. It’s not the heaviest shimmer, but it’s enough to be easily visible in the writing

Ink Splat

Droplets

 

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

 

Performance on paper:

I was very surprised to see that there was some heavy bleed-through on the Tomoe River (52 gsm) sheet. There were some signs of feathering around the edges of the ink droplets and ink splat, so I shouldn’t be that surprised, but it was interesting that it didn’t bleed through the other papers (well, it was close on Leuchtturm, but not quite). It also didn’t bleed through the Tomoe River I used in my writing sample, even though they appear to be the same Sanzen Tomoe River. Perhaps it’s because the ink pools less when writing in cursive, but I can’t say. Either way, this ink should still be okay with most fountain pen-friendly papers, but some may be easily pushed to the limit, especially when used with wetter nibs.

The dry times aren’t great, and honestly, inconsistent. This isn’t the ink to go for if you’re looking for quick dry times, as it often takes up to 20-25 seconds with even the finest nibs. It might be dry enough to close a book on within 30 seconds, but given its highly saturated sheening nature, it’s going to be prone to smudging for even the slightest residual hand moisture.

This also means that the water resistance isn’t going to be the best because the color will quickly cloud over when exposed to water, and while there’s some retention of the writing, it faded away surprisingly quickly, and the whole thing is terribly messy.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Water resistance

Chromatography

Performance in the pen:

Émeraude de Chivor has a medium-wet flow and is well lubricated. The shimmer doesn’t feel sandy and flows easily, and doesn’t seem to need a lot of agitation to keep going. Overall, this is a very pleasant, above-average writing experience, especially for a shimmering ink. I didn’t run into any clogs, hard starts, skips, or stops during my tests, and the ink was able to keep up easily without any noticeable drops in flow during extended writing.

Because of its higher saturation, Émeraude de Chivor will take slightly longer to clean out, but overall, I didn’t find it that bad — in fact, before cleaning it out for this review, the TWSBI Eco I used for the writing samples had Émeraude de Chivor in it for about 2 years, and it cleaned out surprisingly quickly without leaving any stains. The test pen and nibs used for this review also cleaned out relatively easily (though still needing multiple soaks and flushes). Unfortunately, though, it’s still a shimmering ink, and there were a lot of particulates left over inside the barrel, as well as some traces of green residue. Both pens required disassembly for them to be swabbed out, and even though there weren’t any stains on my pens, I would still be wary of using this with demonstrators or lighter colored, easily stained pens.

 

Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper (white) with a broad nib.

Written on Midori MD paper (cream) with a broad nib.

Here is an image of the same writing sample, taken in indirect lighting, allowing the shimmer and sheen to be easily visible.

  • Performance in a pen: 8/10

  • Performance on paper: 7/10

  • Color saturation: 7.5/10

  • Sheening: 7.5/10

  • Shading: 3/10

  • Dry time: 6/10

  • Water resistance: 1/10

  • Ease of cleaning: 6.5/10

  • Shimmer: Medium, Gold

My personal thoughts…

And here we are! 150 inks reviewed, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than with an absolute classic. Émeraude de Chivor (or Emerald of Chivor) is more than just a shimmering ink; it’s the shimmering ink. It may not be where fountain pen-specific mica-based shimmering inks started (I believe that would be Rouge Hématite in 2010), but it’s definitely the one that seems to have garnered the most attention, and it’s now 10 years old! And it’s amazing to think that despite the explosion of new and fun shimmering inks in all that time, Émeraude de Chivor remains one of the best. It’s still as breathtaking as it ever was. From a visual standpoint, I think this ink is perfect: the light delicate shimmer, the slight but consistent red sheen. Everything just comes together, and I love it. Is it all perfect? No, the dry times are awful, and cleaning shimmer out of a pen is never fun. But do we really care about that here? These are the kinds of inks that are beyond general practicality. We’re here for fun and beautiful — that’s exactly what Émeraude de Chivor is.

If you’re me, this is where you find yourself asking the next logical question: “What exactly is a Chivor?”
I have to confess, I’d never given much thought to this before now. One place to start might be with the old marketing copy that went out with the ink: Herbin is said to have kept an emerald in his pocket during his voyages as a good luck charm. Interesting, but we can’t exactly confirm this detail. However, the product description then goes on to highlight the historical background behind the name.
Simply put, Chivor is a town in Colombia famous for its emerald mines, which were in demand all over Europe. The history of the mines and this region, though wildly fascinating, is far beyond the scope of this review. But as with so many previous ink reviews (literally any Vinta ink, for instance), I’m pleasantly surprised at how often this hobby (combined with my own insatiable curiosity) teaches me something new about the world.

All from a name on an ink bottle.

Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with a TWSBI ECO (broad nib).

More images/info:

 

Featured in the photography and writing samples:

Current text: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Amazon)

 

Tools and materials used in the writing samples:

  • A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units, including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.

  • A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad

  • A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook

  • A Midori MD A5 Notebook

  • A 52 gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

  • A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

  • A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook

 
Julian
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