The Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite is a new limited edition demonstrator faountain pen from Aurora that our friends (and sponsor for full disclosure) at Goldspot let us borrow and test out for this review.  Besides being one gorgeous looking pen, it also comes in a pretty amazing and substantial wood box with grey/silver finish and leather-like lining.  As I said this is a loaner from our friends at Goldspot and you can find it right here on their website, but lets dig into the review.

For this review of the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite I thought maybe it would be fun to take a top down look at the pen, so lets start there, the top.  First and most important, since this is a limited edition pen, there are only 388 of these in the world, which is kind of cool.  If you click on the picture above you can see the very cleanly engraved unique number engraved in the awesome looking blue accent on the cap.  This pen is number 146/388 made.

Moving down from the top of the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite cap, you will find the clip, the cap collar, and the collar on the body of the pen.  The clip and cap collar are both chrome plated, while the body collar above the section is made of the stunning blue azurite color material that has amazing depth and complexity to it.

Removing the cap by twisting it counter-clockwise from the body reveals the nib itself, which in this case is a Fine point.  Many times you will find your nib size printed on the metal body of the nib itself, but in this case its on the back on the plastic of the feed.

Rolling the pen over to see the nib itself shows the highly polished and nicely engraved rhodium plated 18kt gold nib.  Additionally I left the cap here to show more of that stunning azurite look on the tip of the cap.

Working down the body of the pen once you remove the cap and get past the nib, you can see the translucent resin section and pen body.   As you work your way up past the section, there is a very slim chrome collar on the body that is immediately followed by an azurite accented collar that is about 3 times as wide as that chrome collar below it.  Speaking of the cap and section, it takes about one and a half turns to open or close the pen as you twist the cap on/off.

At the back of the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite you will find the knob that operates the piston filler mechanism for the pen.  The finish has multiple complex layers of blue that range from light almost sky blue to a deep dark royal blue, and with everything in-between as well as a great deal of shimmery sheen to it.  It actually reminds me of some of the complex and varying blue colors I saw in some glaciers on a recent trip to Iceland.

Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite Writing Sample

So I inked up the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite with some Noodler’s Q Eternity which I concidentally also picked up from Goldspot quite a while ago, and you can find right here.

I was pretty impressed with how super smooth the nib on the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite moved over this Clairefontaine 90gsm bright white paper.  Not once in all of my writing did the ink flow act inconsistently.  There was no skipping or burping up of any additional ink.  It had a perfectly balanced flow that wasn’t too dry and wasn’t too wet, Goldilocks would definitely approve.

The overall balance of the pen in my hand with the cap posted felt pretty comfortable in terms of the weight and there were no real issues with writing fatigue even in long writing sessions with the pen.  I was also impressed by how the consistency of the ink flow seemed to remain the same even when varying the pressure of the nib on the paper from very light to somewhat firm.  The nib just seems to perform quite flawlessly, although I’m quick to point out nothing in this world is perfect, the nib is pretty darn nice.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the Aurora 88 Minerali Azurite comes in a substantial wood box with silver satin-like finish, and also comes with a bottle of Aurora ink, which I didn’t bother to test out.  I’m pretty sure nobody is buying a limited edition pen like this just to nab a bottle of ink. 🙂  Anyway, this is a pretty high end limited edition pen so although it may not be for everyone, if it fits within your budget, you won’t be disappointed.  Thanks again to our friends at Goldspot for loaning this pen out for the review, it will be a sad day here when I pack this up and send it back.  Check it out right here over at Goldspot if you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket and you are looking for a gorgeous new pen.

©2017, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.