review: nagasawa kobe #8 arima amber - ink between the teeth

Oct 5, 2020

review: nagasawa kobe #8 arima amber

Hey, folks! I took the month of September off from writing reviews. Thanks for sitting through the many blips on the radar when I accidentally posted reviews before they were ready. I am a forgetful person who didn't unschedule a bunch of stuff. But we're gonna hop right back into it! Yeehaw!

Today, we're taking a look at an ink I've reviewed before, but never here on my blog.

Nagasawa Kobe inks are made by Sailor and come in the old Sailor bottles, which are flat and circular. They don't have a plastic reservoir inside, which I think some people would appreciate. I never really found the reservoir an issue, though it does get in the way on occasion.

Nagasawa Kobe Arima Amber is a dark, coppery-orange red color. I'm fairly sure that the name is a reference to Arima Onsen, a hot springs in Kobe. A kind of spring that can be found there, "kinsen," is colored yellow-orange from the minerals dissolved in the water.
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This ink has some water resistance. Most of your writing will stick around if you dab off the water quickly.

Arima Amber dries quite quickly on Kokuyo MIO paper. It no longer smeared to the touch at the 15 second mark.

It has a good amount of shading in both the fine and broad nibs, though it's more prevalent in the broad. The color is quite consistent in both nib sizes as well.
On Tomoe River paper, there's a lovely amount of shading.
I quite like this orange-brown color, so I have quite a few of them, though nothing is like Arima Amber. Colorverse Ginkgo Tree is more yellow-orange, while Kyo Iro Moonlight of Higashiyama is brighter and more red. Diamine Ancient Copper is much deeper and redder. Diamine Terra Cotta is less saturated and more red, and Colorverse Methuselah Tree is pretty much just a red.

I had this ink in my Pilot Custom Heritage 92, which does quite well with most inks. I didn't have any trouble with it when paired with Arima Amber, and I had a lovely time writing it empty.

I've mentioned Arima Amber previously in my Top Five Inks of 2018 post. I'm still a big fan of this color, though I don't use it as much. It's a very usable red-orange color that stands out while still being fairly sophisticated. It looks especially good on cream-color paper.

Where to buy

I purchased this ink with my own funds.

    This post was previously available on the blog On Fountain Pens. I have updated it to match my current review standards and posted it here as an archive.

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