Herbin Ballpoint Fountain Pen & Edelstein Onyx Ink | Kinetics Audiobook is nearly done!

First, the Kinetics audiobook is now done and edited. It should be out and available on all audiobook sites on February 11, 2023. Sorry it took forever but it is here! You can listen to the audiobook sample on the “Published Works” page.

Now, about pens.

I got another pen – yes, I know, I have several – but this one is a ballpoint fountain pen!

I have what I like to describe “a metric crap-ton of ink”. This means I obviously want to use it. I don’t buy ink to donate to Ferris Wheel Press and Dominant Industry, I buy ink to use.

This ballpoint pen is so that I can use it. I wanted a ballpoint fountain pen because A) I had no idea they existed B) I thought it was cool that it existed C) I need to use up my black ink since I don’t really use it for story writing. I only have one bottle of black ink, which was Higgins, an ink I very much did not like. I sent my Higgins ink to a writer friend who I convinced to get a fountain pen and got a different black ink that I hoped I would like, Edelstein’s Onyx ink.

What is a ballpoint fountain pen? It is a ballpoint pen that uses fountain pen ink to work. I don’t like throwing away pens and I prefer to reduce, reuse and recycle so this helps with that. I just have to refill the pen and there you go. I wanted an “everywhere pen”, a pen I carry in my bag for all the times I need to write something and I thus need a pen around. It looks unique enough that I won’t lose it.

For an “everywhere pen”, I prefer black ink only. When I am writing my novels and stories, I want alllllll the colors of the rainbow. Out in the regular, degular world? Black. It’s a stable color and is document safe.

I got an Herbin ballpoint, because it was fairly cheap ($11, usually Herbin pens are way more expensive) and because it was small. Herbin ballpoints do have a fountain pen version but I already have a fountain pen so I only want it to be a ballpoint. I prefer thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin supa dupa fine lines but this Herbin doesn’t believe in “fine line”. It is a medium line at best. If it were for story writing, I would be massively disappointed. As it is an “everyday pen”, I don’t care as much because, hey, I’m just writing on documents and forms when I’m out and about. I don’t get finicky when I go, “Can I borrow a pen?” so no point in getting finicky now.

There really aren’t a lot of ballpoint fountain pens. I think it’s just Herbin and Monteverde (which is a massive price jump, from $11 to $78). There is also Pilot V5 Refillable but those are hard to find. I should know, I own a pack. Pilot pens are for Masterbooks or hand-edits, not as an “everyday pen” so that’s that. Very small crowd, I tell you.

Also, the Herbin is for if I have to sign books on the go. This way, my books are still signed with fountain pen ink. – Oh, wait! I just learned. I now sign my books at home with a glass dip pen and using Ferris Wheel Press’ ink called “Stroke of Midnight”. It’s now a sold out ink so yay, go me. This means that adds to the authenticity of the signatures and ink since it’s not like people can just buy that ink any ol’ where. Back to Herbin. I don’t like to travel with my regular story-writing inks for a litany of reasons. But a regular black Edelstein is fine by me. So, long story short: if your book was signed with a glittery dark blue ink (or red blood-like ink), it was pre-signed. If it was signed with plain black ink, it was signed in-person.

The ink I got was the Edelstein ink in Onyx. I love the look of the bottle and it looked like an ink that does well on copy paper/cheaper paper (when it comes to fountain pen ink, paper does matter). I got a 3ml sample from Anderson Pens (who I super suggest for sample inks) since I don’t plan to run through the black ink as much as it is not being used for story writing, where I use a lot of ink. Once I run out of the 3ml sample, I’ll probably buy a bottle and use that bottle only for my Herbin since the ink writes really well so far. Edelstein Onyx is waaaaaaay better than the Higgins ink. It is also waaaaaaaaaaaaay more expensive than the Higgins ink, at $30 for a 50 ml bottle. A bottle of Higgins is $5.99 for a 75 ml bottle.

One thing I nearly forgot: The Herbin ballpoint doesn’t come with a cartridge so you will need to purchase one if you want to use the Herbin right out the box. I have a Monteverde push/pull cartridge (in opposed to a screw cartridge) and it holds a good amount of ink for what I need it for. I’m not using this pen for creative works therefore I’m most likely going to spot when I’m about to run out of ink, especially since the pen and the cartridge is completely see-through. The cartridge was about $5.

It’s not too bad a pen and I think the ink is nice. Woo.