Jacques Herbin Ambre De Birmanie

Ink Reviews
Written By Julian

Ink Review #123

 

*Please note that the scan is the accurate representation of this color.

 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission.

Overview

The color:

Ambre De Birmanie is a golden yellow that offers moderate shading with a soft cut to a near-orange tone. The ink gets especially dark when laid down heavily (such as swatches or ink splats), and you may even see some brown edges, but in my tests, it never got quite that dark during writing. Although it’s a yellow, I didn’t find this ink to be too light, especially not with the wider nib sizes.

Ink Splat

Droplets

 

Rhodia

Leuchtturm1917

 

Performance on paper:

Ambre De Birmanie was well-behaved and only showed minor bleed-through on the Kokuyo paper with the larger nib sizes.

The dry times were mostly average, with the large nib sizes all drying within 20 seconds and the fine nib sizes taking slightly longer than average 10-15 seconds.

Water exposure quickly washes most of the color away. There were still some faint traces left over (that are much easier to see in the scans than to the naked eye), however I wouldn’t count on this if it gets wet, especially for any extended period of time.

Midori MD

Maruman

Tomoe River

Kokuyo

Water resistance

Chromatography

Performance in the pen:

Amber De Birmanie has a surprisingly smooth medium flow. It’s well-lubricated and comfortable to write with, and I didn’t experience any hard starts, stops, or skips during my tests.

Cleaning the ink out of the nib units only required a basic soak and flush, though there was still some leftover residue inside the barrel of the pen that wouldn’t come out with just water. In most pens, this is easily removed with a finely twisted paper towel, but in pens with closed or difficult-to-access filling systems, this could be an issue.

 

Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River (white) paper with a broad nib

Written on Midori MD (cream) with a broad nib

  • Performance in a pen: 10/10

  • Performance on paper: 9/10

  • Color saturation: 6/10

  • Sheening: 0/10

  • Shading: 6/10

  • Dry time: 7/10

  • Water resistance: 1/10

  • Ease of cleaning: 8/10

  • Shimmer: None

My personal thoughts…

This was such a pleasant surprise. “Ambre De Birmanie” translates directly to Amber of Burma, or Burmese Amber. Both the color and the art on the label represent the name accurately (it is, in fact, a lump of amber and not a golden potato as a certain neighborhood editor insists). This ink has been suggested to me on several occasions, so I’ve been itching to get my hands on a bottle for some time now. I’m so happy that I finally did. And now that I’ve tried it, I understand why it was so highly recommended. Yellows can be such a mixed bag with huge and disappointing disparities between presentation and performance, but this was a wonderful experience. It’s not too light, lovely to write with, and overall just so usable. This might just be my new favorite yellow and it’s an easy recommend.

Writing Samples written in a 52 gsm Tomoe River notebook (cursive) and a Midori MD Notebook (print) with a pen by Relic Pens (broad nib)

More images/info:

Featured in the photography and writing samples:

Tools and materials used in the writing samples:

  • A TWSBI Diamond 580 AL with 7 nib units including a Needlepoint grind, EF, F, M, B, 1.1mm stub, and an Architect grind. All nibs are tuned to perform at the same medium wetness.

  • A Rhodia No16 A5 DotPad

  • A Leuchtturm1917 A5 Notebook

  • A Midori MD A5 Notebook

  • A 52gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook

  • A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook

  • A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook

 
Julian
Next

Stationery Spotlight: Tailormap Harris Tweed Notebook