Long time with no updates

Sorry it's been so long between updates. I've been by the big box office supply stores, but I haven't come across anything new, so nothing to review. I've been bouncing back and forth between the Signo and the energel needlepoints for the past couple of months, and they are both writing well. I'll keep my eyes open for new things to try.

Pentel Energel Needlepoint/Uniball 207 Needlepoint

I've been switching off between two different pens. The Uniball 207 Needlepoint, in Fine (0.5), as well as the Pentel Energel Needlepoint in 0.5. I've been enjoying both pens, but they lay down very different lines. The Energel is more of an extra fine point, while the Uniball is noticeably wider, verging on a medium tip.

From a design point of view, the Uniball is much nicer looking. There is a nice soft-touch grip with subtle texturing, and the body of the pen is clear, with a smoked black tint. The body of the pen is nicely contoured, and it feels much smaller in the hand than the Pentel.

The Pentel is like writing with a dowel. it's a straight body, with a fairly slick soft touch grip. There isn't any contour to the body, and there is a block of usage instructions on it-Remove tip before use, Always retract after use, etc. visually, there is a lot of mass in your hand as you write, which makes the pen seem somewhat back heavy. The Uniball is much more visually front loaded, making it seem much smaller and lighter.

Earlier Energels has a self retracting mechanism that would retract the point when putting it into a pocket, but that's been removed, which is a big loss. I much prefer the Pentel as a writing instrument, but visually, the Uniball is much nicer.

Uni Kuru Toga

I've been writing with this pen for a couple of weeks so far, and I'm really enjoying it. The lead rotation mechanism works well, although it's really set up for printing, instead of cursive. The lead rotates when the point is pushed down onto the paper, so it really depends on picking it up and putting it down. It takes ~ 40 pushes to rotate the lead around, so the lead wears down evenly. I'm regretting that I didn't pick one up in 0.3 when I was ordering from jet pens. I'll have to remember this for the next time.

Pilot G2

I recently started a new job, and the default pen in the office supply cabinet is a Pilot G2 07. I haven't used one in quite a while, and I forgot how nice they are. Start up immediately, nice dark line, no blobs of goop on the lines. No wonder they are a huge seller.

I also broke down and ordered three pencils from Jetpens, a Pentel Kerry, a Uniball Kuru Toga, and a Pentel Wing Grip. I've used the Uniball Kuru, and it's really neat. The grip is clear, and you can see the lead rotating around, which is somewhat entertaining to watch. The Pilot Kerry is a nice, professional looking pencil, but I haven't broken it out yet. The Pentel Wing Grip is entertaining to look at, but I have't spent much time writing with it yet.

(4/27/09-Corrected mention of the Pilot Kerry to a Pentel Kerry. Oops)

Uni-ball Vision Needle Point

Well, I was looking for these for a while, and finally found some in an Office Depot. I'm somewhat disappointing, to be honest. I really like the way it writes, but the grip is the same slick, rigid grip that the Uni-ball Micro has. Not very comfortable, I find the soft rubber grips that the Pilot pens have is much more friendly.

Fountain Pens :-)

I just recently cleaned out and filled a Pelikan fountain pen I've had sitting around, and I've really enjoyed writing with it. There is definitely a different feedback from the nib, something that you don't get from a gel or liquid Ink pen. I'm not sure I'm happy carrying around an expensive fountain pen daily, but I enjoy writing with it much more than I like the more inexpensive pens.

Uniball Vision Elite Updates

A capped pen, this one works well after being held vertically in a shirt pocket. I can take it out of my pocket, uncap it, and start writing without a couple of funky looking words. Maybe now I can keep my shirts clean.

Pilot Precise Grip Extra Fine Updates

I've been using this pen for the past couple of days, seeing how much I liked using a capped pen, and I'm running into ink feed problems. If I keep it in my shirt pocket, the pen is held point up, and the ink seems to drain away, towards the bottom of the pen. When I take the cap off, the ink flow is pretty poor for the first couple of words that I write, until the ink returns. I'm finding this pretty annoying.

On the other hand, with a capped pen, I'm not likely to ruin more shirts by putting an extended pen point into my pocket, where the ink can wick,and ruin another shirt.

Bic Pro+ Ballpoint

 

The Bic Pro+ is a traditional retractable ballpoint with molded plastic body and a soft rubber overmold. The grip is nicely contoured, and the rubber runs under the pocket clip giving it good resistance to pulling out of a pocket. The Pocket clip is molded as part of the body, so it doesn't wiggle. The bottom of the clip is designed so that it won't grab onto your pocket, which is a nice feature.

 

The ink itself shows up as a dark grey, not quite the nice solid black that gell or liquid ink pens gives.

As a retractable, the pen point is held firmly when it's extended to write, so it doesn't wiggle about.

Overall, a pretty nice pen for a ballpoint.

Uniball Vision Micro

This is noticeably cheaper than the Vision Elite at $6.49 for four. The clip is a simple piece of metal, with a bent over end to form the clip. While not as visually nice as the Vision Elite, it doesn't have the towel holder inside that will grab onto clothing.







The grip is smooth clear plastic, and the feed mechanism looks very similar to the Vision Elite. There isn't any provision for refills, so it's disposable. Posting the cap on the end it secure, but there isn't a stop on it, so you just push the cap on until it's snug.

Writing on this is pretty nice. It's getting so that all of the pens that I get leave a very nice, deep black line with instant starting and no globs or drips left behind.

Overall, it's an OK pen. I prefer the Vision Elite, which has a more comfortable grip, as well as looking nicer overall.

Uniball Vision Elite Micro 0.5

This is a fairly expensive pen, at $10.49 for 4. This is a capped pen, that is fairly visually attractive, with a nice grey and silver color scheme. The clip is firmly attached to the cap and doesn't wiggle. Inside the cap is a spring loaded seal so that the tip doesn't dry out.



The grip is made of the same plastic as the cartridge, so it's not cushioned. There is a subtle diamond texture to provide some slip resistance. Inside the grip is the visible air flow mechanism, a set of thin ribs and vanes. The liquid ink capacity is pretty large, so this should write for a long time. (Perhaps I need to invest in a pen plotter to provide measured line lengths)
The pen itself is very light, and posting the cap changes the balance slightly, but not enough to be annoying. Posting the cap on the back of the pen takes a distinct push to snug it down. Once it's on, the cap is held firmly in place, and takes a real pull to get it back off.
As to the writing, it's pretty good. Ink start up is immediate, and the pen leaves a dark line, without any gaps or streaking There isn't a lot of feedback from the pen as you write, no slight vibration as you move across the paper, but it writes well.

Pen shopping success

Managed to get to Staples this week, and I picked up the following pens

Uniball Vision Elite Micro 0.5
Uniball Vision Micro 0.5
Bic Pro+ 1.0
Papermate Profile 1.4B.

You'll see reviews of all of these over the next couple of weeks.

Pen Updates

If I don't get any updates soon, they are going to revoke my blogger card. I've been really happy with the Pilot Precise V5 RT and the Pilot Vball RT, both in Extra Fine. However, the last time I was in Staples, I noticed a few new items in the pen racks, so I need to go make another visit and pick up a few goodies. I'm also running out of pens at home, disappointing my family. Time for some more shopping. Updates by this weekend, for sure.

PS-The laptop needed a new HD. Once that was installed, it's been running very well. How about that?

Quick Updates

I've been busy downgrading my wife's Laptop to Windows XP, which has cut into my time. I've been sticking mostly with the Pilot Precise V5 RT recently. I flirted a bit with a Pilot VBall Grip in Extra Fine, but it wasn't quite fine enough. In addition, the liquid ink feathered a bit on the paper I was using, so I put it away. More updates when I get the WiFi working :-(

Pilot Precise V5 RT

This is pretty nice. Not much feedback from the pen point as you write, but a nice dark line behind, without gaps and blobs on the line. Startup is good, and there isn't a problem with blobs of ink accumulating on the point as you write. The pen itself is pretty good looking, The body is ink colored, as is the soft rubber grip. It's soft, but not too sticky, so you can slide it in and out of a pocket without difficulty. It uses a BXS-V5RT cartridge, and it's held securely in the pen as you write, so there isn't a lot of wiggle in the pen tip as you write.




The Pen Clip is a bit cheesy, and wiggles a bit. The bump at the end on the clip is created by folding the edges over, leaving a triangular hole on the inside that can and does grab a pocket, making it difficult to remove, depending on what you've clipped it to. I had a real problem with a knit shirt, and ended up with a snag in the shirt :-(

Pilot Frixion Pen

Purchased as a single for $2.29

The Pilot Flexion Pen writes very smoothly, with good startup and no ink feed glitches that I've seen. Erasing works pretty well, with most of the ink disappearing. You can still see a slight shadow of the ink behind, but it's pretty faint. The Eraser doesn't rip up the paper, either.

I'm not so happy with the ink color, as it's a very light black/dark grey. The Pen leaves a wet ink trail that dry's over ~ 15 sec, so a lefty may have trouble with this pen.

The pen itself is comfortable to write with. It's a capped pen, with a nice rubberized grip and good diameter for writing.

The graphic design is pretty bad. It looks like a tribal tattoo design, printed in silver on a black pen body.

Overall I'll give it a C, primarily for the graphics. if you don't mind trying too hard for that, it's a decent erasable pen.

Pentel Hyper-G

The Pentel HyperG 0.7 is a refreshing pen to look at after the Frixion. There is a nice diamond pattern on the inside of the barrel, which provides some nice subtle eye candy from the light reflections. The rubber finger grip is also nicely shaped, with subtle scallops in the design, leading to an interesting feature on the top of the pen point.

The tip unscrews to get the refill out, and Pentel did a nice job of indexing the threads so that the chrome tip always stay's in the same orientation as you remove and replace it.

The Clip is metal, and firmly attached to the pen, so it's unlikely to break.

Now, onto the important stuff. This leaves a Pentel KLR7 refill. it leaves a nice, deep black line, with the occasionally ink flow startup problem. No globs or skipping that I've seen. There isn't much writing feedback when using this, the pen point slides over the paper with an almost greasy feel. I'm not sure if this would be the same in an 0.5 size point or if it's due to the ink used.

Overall, I'd give this a B. Writes nicely, and is pleasant to look at.


Purchased as a single for $1.99

Pilot VBall RT Extra Fine

Another Gel Pen from Pilot. This is a fairly nice writer, with a nice black line and quick ink startup. This uses the Pilot bls-vb5rt ink cartridge. The Design is fairly interesting, with a black and white color scheme. The grip is a soft rubber compound, a bit stickier than the Uniball Vision RT.

This doesn't have the nice feature of retracting when it's put into a pocket, which is a nice feature of the Uniball.

Purchased at a 3 pack for $5.49/$1.83 Each.

I'm giving this a B Grade. It's a nice writer, with a good thick black line, and starts up reliably. I'm realizing that I like the automatic retract feature on the Uniball, so I'm going to upgrade the Uniball Vision RT to a B+

Uniball Vision RT

I ended up hitting the jackpot a last month when I went into the local Staples. There was a display in front with a bunch of different new pens, and so I picked up a bunch. I'll start with the Uniball Vision RT.

(Purchased @ 2.99 each, pretty steep, but it was sold in singles, which was nice)

I've stopped using a Moleskine for my daily writing. I finished off one, and I realized that:
1-I rarely go back and look at the things that I've written
2-I think before I write in the notebook, to make sure that I'm writing something that is worthwhile (Pretty sad, I know).

so I pulled a Circa notebook out of a pile,and printed out some day planner pages from diyplanner, and away I went. I'm scanning the pages to PDF as I write on them, so I have a permanent record of what I've written.

Now that I'm writing on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, I'm not so sensitive to writing so small, and a larger pen point is acceptable.

The Uniball Vision RT is a reasonably nice pen. I've been using the 0.6 point, and it writes reasonably well. Cosmetically, it's a nice looking pen, with a combination of clear and dark grey plastic. The dark grey is soft and grippy, but not as sticky as a real rubberized grip, so it slides in and out of a pocket easily.

One feature that I really like is the retract button has a release under the pocket clip. When you slide this into your shirt pocket, then fabric slides between the pen body and the pocket clip, and releases the ink cartridge so you don't pick up an ink spot in the bottom of your shirt pocket. The mechanism isn't particularly smooth, but it works reasonably well.

One nice thing about this pen is the tip is quite solid when you are writing. On some cheap pens I've used, the tip moves around as you are writing, something that I find very irritating.



Now, as to how it writes. This is a liquid ink pen, not a gel pen. Even though I'm not looking for a 0.18 pen, it writes a bit broad for my taste. In addition, it seems pretty sensitive to the amount of pressure on the tip. With a really light touch, I end up with a very fine line, and then when I put a little pressure on it, the line thickens up to the normal width. I also ran into some situations where the ink flow didn't start up immediately when I wrote. I picked up the Black, Blue, and Red, and then colors are quite nice. I get a thick, opaque line for all three colors.




Overall, I'd have to give this pen a B. It writes pretty well, it's attractive, and the pocket clip retract is a real plus.

Not Happy with Pilot anymore

Well, I've given up on the Pilot Hi-Tec-C line. Both the slim knock and the regular Hi-Tec-C have lost the little ball in the tip, making them useless. I wasn't finished with either pen, as well. I've gone back to the Uni-Ball Signo RT Gel, which started up flawlessly after 9 month's of sitting in a cup, and continues to start up instantly and leave a opaque black line behind.