In the annual battle between #TeamAL-Star and #TeamSafari, the clear winner is … neither? Myke and I discuss these new launches, the Kaweco Collection Iridescent Pearl, and we answer the question posed to listeners in Episode 500.
This episode of The Pen Addict is sponsored by:
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(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)
One of the things that distinguishes a Pen Addict from a Pen Afficionado is that we are equally transported by fine writing instruments as we are by the simple things. There are few things in life as exciting as a new fountain pen, but one of those things is ... washi tape.
Washi tape can be anything from beautiful and artistic to plain and purposeful, and I love it all. Washi tape that serves a purpose that also saves me time is especially worthy in my book, so count me as a fan of the JetPens Kanso Writable Washi Tape—especially of this Stars one, which allows me to quickly and decoratively annotate my journals.
I think this star tape will be especially appealing to book nerds like myself. Do you keep a book journal, a reading tracker, a bullet journal entry for your reading? Then you need this. I can roll off a quick run of stars and tape it into my planner to rate my reads--or movies, or music, or pens, or heck, even other washi tapes. You could tear off just one star to add emphasis to a priority, or a whole page of stars to express your enthusiasm for Encanto. Because the tape is writable, you could tear off five stars, but fill in three to denote the "meh" nature of your most recent read. It's useful, time-saving, and versatile. I love it. I rate it five stars, which I can do easily now that I have this tape.
The writable tape also comes in boxes, circles, arrows, days of the week--all kinds of handy labels that any planner user will find instantly useful.
The surface is coated, so it takes a little bit of dry time with some inks. I used primarily gel pens with mine, and it was set after a minute or so. Ballpoint was much faster, though some liquid inks didn't set as well. Whatever coating the tape has that allows it to adhere to itself but still pull away cleanly is not ideal for fountain pen, but works well with most other pens.
The size of the shapes in the washi are designed to work best with 5mm grids, but the pale white background is semi-transparent, so it can work with any kind of paper.
I highly recommend this line of washi tapes for anyone who does any degree of planner customizing. Each roll is $2.85, so it's great for topping off your cart to get free shipping, but I could easily fill a cart with just this and be delighted on mail day.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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(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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