Jacques Herbin Ambre De Birmanie
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 and Properties
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
Chromatography
Performance on Paper | Dry Times | Water Resistance
Ambre De Birmanie was well-behaved and only showed minor bleed-through on the Kokuyo paper with the larger nib sizes.
Rhodia
Leuchtturm1917
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.
More Pages
Performance in the Pen | Cleaning
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.
Writing Samples
Written on 52 gsm Tomoe River (white, 5mm ruling) paper with a broad nib
Written on Midori MD (cream, 7mm ruling) 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:
Jacques Herbin Ambre De Birmanie (Amazon)
Hand-turned pen by Relic Pens, broad nib
GoodInkPressions 52 gsm Tomoe River dot grid notebook
Midori MD A6 lined notebook (Amazon)
Chic Sparrow Outlander Fergus A6 leather notebook cover
Single pen holder by Relic Pens
Single pen sleeve by Galen Leather
Jacques Herbin Ink Blotter (Amazon)
Nakabayashi Hikigiri Slim scissors (Amazon)
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 52 gsm A5 Tomoe River Notebook
A Maruman Mnemosyne A5 Spiral Notebook
A Kokuyo Campus A5 Notebook