It’s been a while…

Heyaaa!  Long time, eh?  Well, we’ll just rip the bandaid off and get right back into it.  Today’s offerings are the Pentel Arts 8 Color Automatic Pencil and the Ogami Professional Notebook.  Both are pretty nifty!

The automatic pencil is basically a lead holder with replaceable leads.  It comes with light blue, blue, green, yellow, red, pink, orange, and brown, which seems a bit odd.  Personally, I would have ditched the light blue and pink in favor of black and purple but maybe with only 8 colors, it is pretty hard to get everything you want.  The colors are rather pastel in nature (not my favorite shade) but they’re at least smooth and don’t flake.  One drawback is that they don’t really erase well but as the intention is for art or whatever it probably doesn’t matter.  I got mine on Amazon for about $15, which is pretty good considering it was originally $25!

Now onto the notebook!  It was a cool find in a shop near where I live (and their website is down, boo) so you’ll have to find a place to buy them.  Here‘s a link to a Design Milk post about them with more pretty pictures!  The paper is made of stone dust and resins, which makes for an interesting texture but it’s waterproof, tree free, and recyclable.  I really like the design, colors, and sizes the notebooks come in.  And you get a nifty pocket in the back for papers and whatnot!  Writing on it is a bit tricky.  The smoothness (due to the waterproof nature of the paper?) requires rather long drying time for some pens/inks but old fashioned petroleum ink ballpoint pens work very well.  I would stay away from gel pens and those with very fine tips (I’m talking about you, Pilot Hi-Tec-C!).  I picked up mine for about $12, but it’s worth it for a sweet new notebook that’ll make you the envy of all your office supply aficionado friends!

 

Ta, for now.

Pilot B2P & Rifle Paper Co. Notebooks / I’m too impulsive for my own good

Yet another review of a Pilot product.  Shocked?  You shouldn’t be.  I want to like these pens.  I tried to, honest!  But something gives me pause.  It’s not the design, brand, quality, or anything like that.  It’s that I’m wary of the huge wave of “green” products available and that I have to take the company’s word that it’s better for the environment.  The 89% recycled content in the B2P seems nice but I don’t think it hurts to have that checked.  Assuming it’s true, that’s a rather nice feature for Pilot to include!

For me, that’s almost enough to get a pen (as long as it’s not completely awful).  However, this pen works very well and looks snazzy too, which makes it a very good pen to have.  It was designed to resemble a bottle of water, which I believe plays well into conspicuous conservation, something Prius owners know very well and benefits for the green movement.  The B2P takes Pilot G-2 refills, to the delight of some and the ire of others.  In my opinion, this guarantees you’ll never be far from a refill and you’ll know what you’re getting into.

Now, a little warning.  I have seen some B2Ps around that are bit cheaper but they are not the same as these!  They are ballpoints, which isn’t horrible, just don’t get one expecting it to take G-2 refills.

And now onto why I’m too impulsive for my own good.  Recently, at an awesome shop near where I live I found these drool worthy notebooks from Rifle Paper Co. aaaannnd then I saw the price.  $10 for the 2!  It seemed so expensive but I thought, “these are too cool to pass up!”  So I bought ‘em.  But who cares? Not me!  They were so worth it.  Get some if you’re feeling dangerous.

Ta for now pen aficionados!

Pilot Better Ballpoint / quality on a budget

Okay, so I have to admit something.  I like cheap pens.  Don’t get me wrong, expensive fancy pants pens are great!  I even own a few.  I just love that feeling of satisfaction you can derive from a $1.33 pen from a drugstore.  You can own every color without spending a small fortune and you don’t have to sacrifice performance or quality!  Some of the best pens I’ve owned have been cheap.  Which leads me to the Pilot Better Ballpoint pen.  As for these Pilot Better Ballpoint pens, I’ve used them for years and for me, they’re a staple.  Their design is long, thin, and reminds me of a Hi-Tec-C.  I keep them everywhere – the car, the office, and home – and I don’t feel bad if I lose one or someone walks away with one.  I’ve never had issues with how they perform except the cap doesn’t always fit perfectly and they slightly rattle.  As for writing, they are consistent and don’t blob or skip.  And that’s the Pilot Better Ballpoint!  Here’s some quick pics and a writing sample.

Ta for now!

It’s been too long!

21 Days I’ve been away but it hasn’t been without reason!  New job, new city, new everything!  I’ve since moved one state over and now live in a pretty city with lots of new writing implements to buy and share.  I fiiinally have internet after an almost two week debacle with a company.  Bleh…  But now I’m back!  No reviews just yet but give me a few days and I’ll have them coming.

Ta Ta For Now

Pilot V-Pen / less money equals less problems?

Okay, so I have to mention two things: one, that the link from The Pen Addict was very exciting!  (I may have done a double take).  And two, I’m in the middle of moving to another state so forgive me if I’m a little short on posts.  I’m trying to keep up on a fairly regular basis as it’s a fairly cathartic thing to have an outlet like this.  So, bear with me please!

Now, onto the important stuff – the pens.  I thought I’d do a quick review of a surprisingly good pen, the Pilot V-Pen, which I’d gotten on a whim.  The VPen is a budget disposable fountain pen available in 7 colors, all with medium nibs.  It’s the same as the Pilot Varsity in the U.S., which are available in some office supply stores but I got mine through JetPens of course.  At $3.80 each it’s really easy to justify getting one of these, especially if you’re someone like me who has trepidations about using expensive pens.  I’ll admit that I get attached and losing them is a rather painful ordeal.  How well does it work you ask?  Very well, I’d say!  It writes like butter, the ink is rich, and it starts immediately even if I haven’t used it in a week.  Can I just say that again?  Even with periods of not using it, the pen starts write right away.  There are only a couple tiny things to look out for.  The ink for mine is violet but really is a deep purple, the overall look of if is rather cheap, and it feathered a tiny bit on my cheap paper.  Also, the nib only comes in medium.  That being said, it has quality where it counts and is perfect if you want a fountain pen but don’t want to spend gobs of cash or are just getting started with your pen addiction.

So that’s the VPen.  On the next post I’ll compare it to my Waterman and Muji fountain pens to see if I have any useful thoughts or crazed musings on fountain pens more generally.  Till then, happy pen hunting!

Review: Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.25mm

I’ve had the 0.4mm Hi-Tec-C for a while now and I love it.  Thin line, simple design, ink quickly dries, and inexpensive, among other things.  Recently, I managed to snag the 0.25mm version in orange in order to see if it lives up to the performance I’ve come to expect of Hi-Tec-Cs!

Sad to say, it doesn’t quite perform exactly like the 0.4mm, but the difference is pretty minimal for a pen that, by many standards, is tiiiiiiny.  On regular paper, I found it to be a bit scratchy but on smoother paper with less writing pressure it worked very well.  Compared to the Slicci, it performed as close to equal as I can humanly see.  The Slicci’s line may be a micron thicker, but that’s more a guess than anything.  I can safely say, even though they’re basically equals, I prefer the Pilot due to it’s better grip and design.  So, if you’re looking for a pen with a ridiculously thin line with lots of colors that’s not a Pigma Micron, get this!

*Look out for future reviews of pens and maybe more Pilot Hi-Tec-Cs (I’ll try to do all 4 sizes together and really compare)*

What do you all think?  Is it worth having a little scratchiness for a line that crisp?

Ohto quick review

I recently received some more awesome products from JetPens and I thought I’d do a quick review two items that really stood out to me.  They’re both by Ohto, both kind of quirky, and both really neat in their own way.  They are the Pieni needlepoint ballpoint pen and the Comforcil 2.0mm lead holder.

They’re $5.75 and $3.30 respectively, which is pretty affordable even by my standards.  The Pieni is the oddball of the pair being a 0.3mm ballpoint, wooden body, striped pen.  The writing quality is a little sub par considering what you can get from pens of that size these days but it’s not too bad.  Light writing pressure and smooth paper definitely help.  The wooden body makes it a little fragile, so don’t expect it to perform like an aluminum pen.  That being said, it is a good-looking pen.  I know it may be a little shallow but it’s just a piece of eye candy!

Now onto the Comforcil.  I didn’t really have this pencil at the top of my wish list, so when I got it, I didn’t really have any expectations.  And I could not have expected how it’d blow me away.  It’s a nice length (a tad longer than average), writes well (you can easily get your preferred lead at most art stores), is very comfortable, and cheap.  It even has a handy, on-the-go, sharpener on the end where most pencils have those little emergency erasers.  The one tiny little issue is that the clip is too stiff but it’s metal so I’m not that worried about it.  So, in sum, I really would recommend the Comforcil.  It’s a dream.