J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor: The Cleanup

I had noticed that small particles of the gold flakes did collect on the feed, so I wondered if this could be an issue in cleaning.

I initially expelled the ink with the piston, to remove as much as I could. I saw a lot of gold flakes in that first pool of ink, and I didn’t really see many afterwards. I flushed the pen with water, with the nib in and then with the nib out. The blue dye is persistent, and it took a decent amount of time — three or four minutes of flushing — to remove it all.

I then put the end of the barrel, and separately the nib, into my ultrasonic cleaner to check how much ink remained. Some Emerald of Chivor remained trapped in that little interior recess that Pelikan piston fillers have, but that’s the case with any ink. After about 45 seconds, the ultrasonic cleaner removed it. I saw no gold particles.

With the nib, I actually found that almost all of the blue dye had come out when I soaked the nib unit in water for a few minutes while cleaning the barrel. After that, only a few tiny wisps of dye were left for the ultrasonic cleaner. The nib was clean.

I’d classify Emerald of Chivor as a medium maintenance ink. The gold particles cleared very quickly and weren’t a factor. The blue-green ink dyes took more time to clear than some inks — the dyes look bright and the ink is saturated. But I never had to use pen flush. I don’t think you need an ultrasonic cleaner if you can soak the nib. It reminded me of cleaning out Pilot Iroshizuku inks; for example, Ku-jaku is a similar color and requires a similar level of cleanup.

I think I’ll continue to use Emerald of Chivor in a pen that can be easily cleaned, like a Pelikan with removable nib, or a cartridge/converter pen. Because I just don’t like to spend a lot of time cleaning my pens. But on balance it’s as easy to clean as any other ink of similar color I’ve used. That’s a relief, since it’s such an easy ink to like.