J. Herbin Straight Body Striped Glass Dip Pen - Small - Green Tint

These glass pens look like the most unlikely contraption ever devised. "How could THAT possibly work?" You think to yourself.

The fascinating part is that they DO.

In addition to looking absolutely awesome, these pens write beautifully. The tips aren't as glassy smooth as you might expect (pun partially intended) but that might be a good thing -- The slightly scratchy feel of the glass pen is sort of like that of a mechanical pencil. If the tips WERE 100% polished the pen would probably be prone to skitter right off the edge of the page and onto the floor.

These pens seem to prefer light, thin ink. I tried some Sanford branded black "calligraphy ink" and it functioned flawlessly. Conversely, I tried some Windsor & Newton silver ink that I thought would look really cool, but it didn't flow well enough off to write and seemed to dry up on the glass nib within a handful of seconds.

These pens are somewhat sensitive to the angle at which you hold them, and will write darker, wetter lines for longer if you keep the pen pointed straight up and down as opposed to at an angle. Still, I was surprised to find that these glass pens hold more ink and write for longer than traditional metal-nibbed dip pens like Speedball and so forth.

Paper matters a lot, too. The pens seem to dig into thin, porous paper too much, bleeding all over the place and shedding their ink much too quickly. On finer toothed, heavier paper you can write very fine, clean lines.

I don't think I'll be using either of my glass pens for any of the bulk of my day-to-day writing (I still haven't been able to motivate myself to carry an inkwell everywhere) but they are neater than heck, and if you're looking for something unique and different these just might turn your crank. They're not the easiest thing in the world to use (even compared to other dip pens), but man are they cool.

While the pen is definitely beautiful, the one I received was scratchy to write with and I haven't been able to find the Goldilocks writing angle between barely laying down any ink and laying a thick line that takes an hour to dry. I put the pen under powerful magnification I could see several burrs on the tip that hadn't been ground down when the pen was finished. I took some 800 grit wet dry and smoothed it out, which helped with the scratchiness, but did nothing for the thin line/insanely thick line problem.

Now that I've voided the warranty I'll keep experimenting to see if there's anything I can do to smooth things out. I know there must be some good writin' in there somewhere; I bought the pen because of all the good reviews.

These pens are absolutely beautiful, and write well. However, I find that I must rotate the pen every few words in order to keep the amount of ink coming off the tip consistent. If you don't rotate it, you'll run out, turn it slightly, and get inconsistent density. Other than that gripe, this is a gorgeous pen that is a pleasure to write with.

I love this "pen" so much! It is perfect! I love the scratchy feeling when you write. I would highly recommend it! Five stars!

I just bought this pen and am waiting for it to come in the mail. It usually takes about 1-2 days to get to me and I've ordered many times from jetpens. I read an article saying you can refill platinum preppy fountain pens with regular bottled inks by just adding an o-ring to the threads of the barrel. I am currently in love with the j. herbin and pilot iroshizuku bottled inks and am waiting on my glass pens and the platinum preppy pens to test them out. I am definitely looking forward to receiving these pens in the mail. I only wish bottled inks were cheaper... $22.50 for a bottle of iroshizuku is really taxing my wallet. overall, great buy though!