Pilot G2

Well, I've been using this for a couple of days, and it's not too bad. Compared to the Uni-Ball Signo RT, the line is a little wider, which is a bad thing. On the other hand, it looks like there is a ton of ink in the cartridge, so I expect to be able to write for a long time with this.

As far as the ink flow goes, it's not bad. I'm not seeing any gaps or skips when I start up, which I appreciate. On the other hand, I do notice that when I am writing, there seems to be some times when the ink flow isn't enough, and the line gets a little thin and ink starved, something that didn't happen with the Uniball. I am using the 05 point width, so this is likely something that is specific to the extra fine width. The 07 width probably doesn't do that.

I bought this at Staples, $4.89/4 or $1.22 each.

As with the Pentel, I'll sent one to the first person who leave's a comment here. US only, please.

Uni-ball Signo RT Gel 0.38

This is more along my lines of a very fine pen to use. Most of the writing I did with this one was in a moleskine notebook, and it did a very nice job. As I mentioned, I tend to write very fine, and this fine point was just the thing to use. It started up immediately, and left a nice dark line. The ink didn't smudge on the paper. I bought this in a package of 4, with 2 black, 1 blue, and 1 red. I'm using all the colors, and they all leave a nice dark line of the appropriate color.

I have 2 complaints about this pen. First, the ink cartridge doesn't contain much ink. It's nice and long, but the plastic that is used in the cartridge is thick enough to support my car :-). Seriously, it's a very thick wall tube, and it contained enough ink for filling up about 30 pages on a regular sized moleskine, plus some other miscellaneous writing. Not an impressive amount of ink.
The other complaint is that the pen point exploded and leaked ink onto a shirt of mine. Certainly not the first time, and it probably won't be the last. None the less, it was annoying



I'd certainly use this pen again, but I'd have to say it wasn't as nice as I was hoping, primarily because of the two faults I've mentioned. It certainly wrote nicely though.

Pentel Energel Retractable

This is one sweet pen. I prefer retractable pens so I can easily remove them from my shirt pocket and write. The clip is attached to the retract mechanism so that if I put it in my pocket with the point extended, it automatically retracts. This is a great feature, I've ruined several shirts by putting pens in with the point extended.

The real reason to use a pen though, is to write things down. In this, this Energel excels. It writes smoothly, and lays down a nice dark line. No start-up stutters or gaps, and it keeps up with high speed scribbling as well. The ink will smear if you rub it immediately after laying the ink down, but give it 5 seconds, and it's smearproof.

I tried scrubbing the paper with Acetone based nail polish remover, and it didn't smear at all.

The only downside it that I really want one in a narrower width, and I haven't seen one in a store yet. I'll be keeping my eye out for them, though.


This came in a package of 3 for $5.79, or $1.93 each.

I'll send one to the first person who leaves a comment on this blog. US Only, please.

What to do with all the pens?

One of the bad things about buying all of these pens is that now I have lots of extra pens laying around. While some of these are available in singles, the big office supply stores all sell them in packages of 3 or 4. This is great if you really like the pen, but what to do with the one's I don't like?