(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
We're still in full-on winter mode for a few more weeks (at least), so I figure it's high time to break out some bright and cheery inks to lift the somber tone that cold, bleak days tend to bring. For me, a happy turquoise or bright blue ink always does the trick.
Private Reserve Infinity Turquoise is a shade that fits the bill perfectly. It's bright, happy, and does a great job at shading between blue and turquoise to add that extra character that I love so much in my inks. I'm not new to Private Reserve, but this is my first ink that features their Infinity formula. According to their description, this is a special formulation that provided "extended cap off" time, which means you can leave a pen uncapped for "hours" with no adverse effects. This is a bold and interesting claim, and I was happy to test it out.
Before getting into the Infinity behavior of this ink, let's look at the more usual aspects. The ink is a bold cobalt blue with plenty of lighter blue and hints of green mixed in. The color is ideal in my mind in terms of what turquoise means in my mind's eye. It's just a happy, bright color that makes me smile.
The shading is plentiful, which adds a lot of character to the ink. The more inks I try, the more I come to believe that shading is a must-have for any non-black inks. The fluxuation of color adds so much visual interest and character as you write, and this is what makes fountain pens so much fun to use. Infinite Turquoise does a good job of showing of its different shades.
Unfortunately, this ink has a couple of downsides. The dry time is incredibly long. By my estimates, it takes this ink anywhere from 25 to 35 seconds to fully dry, and these tests happened in incredibly dry weather (like 28% RH). I had trouble not smearing this ink with my hand as I wrote through a full page, and I use a "traditional" right-handed grip. This ink will not suite left-handed writers very well.
The other negative that I noticed almost immediately was the ink's tendency to feather in areas where the ink pooled. I noticed this a lot more with the 1.1mm stub nib, but it also happened frequently in a stock fine nib (German sizing). The paper made a difference, but nothing completely got rid of the feathering tendency. Coated papers had less bleeding, while uncoated papers had a lot more feathering effects.
So far, the ink is firmly in the slightly below average category in my mind. Great color and shading, but poor dry time and feathering behavior. How does that claim on extended cap off time hold up? Actually, it holds up rather well.
If you've ever left an uncapped fountain lying on your desk for more than a couple of minutes, you probably had to draw a few lines to make the ink start flowing again. This normally isn't a problem if it's only been a few minutes. A few scribbles is enough to make the ink flow again; worst case, running the nib under some running water will fix any dried ink clogging issue. This problem is exactly what the Infinity ink formula is trying to solve. In my testing, I left my pen uncapped for 2 hours, came back to use it, and it wrote perfectly immediately. I wasn't honestly surprised because this defies everything I already know about fountain pens. Pretty impressive!
I also left the pen uncapped for 12 hours, and I had to scribble a bit to make it write again, but that was easy compared to fixing that issue with any normal ink. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this feature works as promised.
I can only assume that the magic that went into the ink formula to allow it to sit uncapped for hours and still write properly had some negative side effects. Long dry time once the ink is on the page? Makes sense! Feathering on my papers? Also seems like a plausible side effect.
Either way, the main feature of this inks works as expected. If you're shopping for an ink that will work great after being uncapped for hours, you should check out Private Reserve Infinity Turquoise (or any of the other Infinity ink colors). While there are some downsides to the ink, it all depends on what you need in certain circumstances. That's what makes this hobby so fascinating! Inks that can write after being uncapped for hours, pens that can write under water, paper that can withstand the elements, and plenty of other fringe use cases. It's wild!
(Pen Chalet provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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