Jacques Herbin Bleu Minuit

The last of my three Jacques Herbin inks is Bleu Minuit. This is the ink I thought I would like the least but more on that later.

Bleu Minuit is a mid to dark Blue Black. After my experience with Violet Boreal and Bleu Austral, I wasn’t expecting too much from this ink. Being as dark and as pigmented as it is, I expected it performance to be at the same level as Bleu Austral, which I really struggled with initially. However, first tests of the ink on Tomoe River didn’t have any issues like what had happened with Bleu Austral.

Surprisingly, I spotted a bit of sheening with this ink and the colour was really appealing to me. I know its basic blue, but it’s a lovely tone and I thought the shading on this ink was lovely. Its not as apparent in finer nibs, I’m not sure how well it will come up in a real life situation (for me, I typically use medium nibs), but its pretty nonetheless.

The ink bled through Rhodia and there was noticeable feathering on this paper as well. This paper is no slouch, so you would need to use specific paper if that sort of thing bothers you. I didn’t spot any feathering or bleed through on Tomoe or Cosmo.

There’s a tiny bit of sheening in broader/wetter nibs, but not in the finer nibs.

All in all, this ink is a nice, mid-dark toned blue that works well with drier nibs. It’s a good work appropriate colour, although if you dislike feathering, bleed through and you use copy or non-fountain pen friendly paper, you might want to stay away.