Great scent, a bit misbehaved
Firstly, this is a great, very dark, matte black ink that dries quickly and lays down an initially clean line, with a more powerful than expected but still subtle scent that is very masculine.
If that were the whole story, then this would be a five star ink. Unfortunately, this ink is *extremely* high penetrating, though not quite as high penetrating as some of the crazy Noodler's penetrating inks. This means that it has much higher than normal bleedthrough and on many papers it will feather faster than other inks. For example, in a wet music nib on Apica CD Medium paper I get feather on a regular basis. This is the sort of ink that will work great in finer nibs on good paper, but which starts to cause issues in broader/wetter nibs on less than perfect paper.
The ink lacks any sheen, and dries to a very solid matte surface texture, so those of you looking for that sort of matte black will be ecstatic with this ink (and many of the Herbin line), but those who are looking for a more glossy or sheeny black should look elsewhere.
Additionally, I have had some issues with this ink being a somewhat dry (but lubricated) ink, meaning that the flow isn't as smooth/wet. This means that on some converters you might be more likely to get air bubbles and reduced flow compared to very wet inks. This doesn't mean that you aren't going to get a solid, clean line on the page (you might even get too much ink) but it can cause air bubbles in the converter more so than some other inks.
Overall, IMO, there really isn't much competition against what this ink can deliver, and if that's what you want, and you take into account the particular special needs of this ink, then it's well worth it and will deliver many milliliters of enjoyment on a multi-sensory level, but if you expect this ink to be a low maintenance fire and forget ink, then look elsewhere.
