Bic Gel-ocity

Review 3/3

Now this was a pen that I didn’t expect to be reviewing, but kinda just happened to fall into my hand when a friend left it at my place. When I tried to return it, he brushed it off and told me had 3 more and that I could keep this one. Given that I had just acquired a new pen that I had never tried before, I figured that I could write a review of an apparently very popular choice for a cheap ballpoint. I didn’t realize how popular this was until I looked around in my stats class and counted 5 people around me using this pen. Either these were given out for free, or it was indeed a tried and true choice for them.

The Bic Gel-ocity is a rather interesting pen. It is a standard 0.7mm black ballpoint and there seems to be no special characteristic about it. In fact, it’s only sold in packs at office supply and other stores. I simply could not find a retailer that was selling these individually. It’s $5 for a pack of 4 and that’s the only way which I found it, in a pack. There were no sites that were selling it on its own and I think that’s mainly how BIC products are sold. The main focus is not quality, but value. This means that instead of selling one amazing pen, they sell packs of average pens. With this in mind, I really wasn’t expecting much out of the Gel-ocity, however I was surprised by how my first time writing with it was.

It was a surprisingly smooth and above average performance for a standard BIC pen. The grip is much better than I thought it would be. Based on looks alone, the grip doesn’t seem like much, but the scored lines do a great job of giving the writer a decent amount of purchase. Simultaneously, it is made out of an extremely rigid material with minimal “give” if any. I found my fingers becoming slightly cramped after an hour of continuous writing. At the same time, the overall writing experience and the smoothness of the ink was exceptional and wasn’t affected despite my changing writing style due to my discomfort.

I would definitely give this pen a look if you are interested in spending about $3 for a pack of pens instead of the usual one good pen. While this doesn’t match my tastes, I’m sure there are advantages to getting a 5 pack and not having to worry about replacing them or losing them. I think these would be ideal for an office or classroom setting where you can use it and abuse it without having to worry about any of the things that would come with using a nice pen, such as a fountain pen.

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Uniball Jetstream – 0.7mm

Review 2/3

I purchased the Jetstream due to a recommendation from one of my friends back in Cali that swore by it. He said, and I quote, “It is by far the best pen I have ever used and if I could chose one pen to use for the rest of my life, the Jetstream is my choice”. Very high praise, coming from someone who I helped get into pens and stationary. He’s extremely picky with his writing experience and had gone through several pens throughout the years, but this is the one that immediately grabbed his attention and the one that he still writes with today. With such a sterling recommendation, I knew I had to eventually try it out, despite my then slight dislike of ballpoints. The years went by, he and I fell out of touch for a long time and I just recently reconnected with him. One of the first things I remembered was his love of the Jetstream and asked whether he’s still using it, to which he replied that he is and still loves it. Time makes us all  bit wiser, and after finding some great rollerball style pens, I was coming around on considering using ballpoints. It was the perfect time to experience what my friend did and I leapt at the chance. Suffice to say, he was right about everything.

I absolutely love this pen. It was love from first write and after constant use for the last 5 months, my love for this pen has consistently grown alongside using it. Everything from the design to the writing experience is downright amazing and I have never experienced such a great desire to write more with a pen since I first used my beloved Pentel Energel.

The simplistic design that is classic Uniball takes a nice detour to something that is extremely elegant with an all black finish and a slightly textured plastic body with tastefully minimal branding. The overall design is very streamlined, as would be expected from a pen called Jetstream.

The clip is pretty standard and not really that durable. I did notice a bit of excess bending when I tried to use it in the same scenarios as the highly flexible clip of the Tombow Airpress and it would not bend far enough to allow for versatility in how I carried it.

That being the case, it found a nice home inside my Nock Co. Sinclair, where I keep all the my daily drivers. More often than not, after first experiencing the amazing feeling of gliding across the page with it, I found myself reaching for it more often. In fact, I’ve been using it exclusively for taking notes in the stats class I’m currently in. It feels great writing with it and as an added bonus, with me enjoying writing, I’m also paying more attention to the material, being in a good mood and all.

The Jetstream’s grip is really nice, allowing for a lot of purchase while also not bulking up the pen’s slim profile. The grooves in the grip are reminiscent of a shark’s gills, which also adds to the whole jetstream vibe that the pen gives off. The grip tapers off at the sides, allowing for a good amount of cushioning near the front, where it is most necessary and there is a very distinct delineation in the curve where the writer can feel where the extra padding is. I feel that it’s a very good choice as it prioritizes the comfort of the writer while also allowing for a confident grip for long writing sessions.

Overall, the Uniball Jetstream is a very well designed, sleek and comfortable pen that offers an amazing ballpoint writing experience. The ink is smooth, consistent and great with all kinds of paper. I would highly recommend anyone who wants a great ballpoint pen to put the Jetstream at the top of their list, because it is certainly on the top of mine.

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Tombow AirPress Ballpoint – 0.7mm

Hello everyone, so sorry with the late updates. I’ve been a little busy the past few weeks and decided that whatever happens, I’ll catch up on reviews this Sunday. So this is review 1 of 3 and the rest will be published shortly. Thank you for your patience so far, and it’s good to be back. 🙂The Tombow Airpress Ballpoint is a very interesting pen that fits into the built like a tank category. Other pens in this category are the Fisher Space pen, Uniball PowerTank and other such pens that are meant to take a beating and still be reliable writers when necessary. I’m usually not one to carry these types of pens mainly because I don’t carry pens in my pocket. All my writing utensils are always in my backpack encased within my Nock Co. Sinclair. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve never bothered really picking out a solid “EDC” pen (because I’m always walking around with my backpack). I was a little hesitant to really get the Tombow due to the slightly extravagant price of $8.50 on JetPens. I’m happy to report, however, that I was wrong to hesitate and have discovered a new-found appreciation for pocket pens that are built for EDC.

My initial reaction when I first pulled the AirPress out of the JetPens package, was astonishment at how nice it looked. If you’ve been following my blog, you all know that I’m a sucker for blacked out pens. It’s aesthetically very pleasing and is my preferred style choice when I need to make a decision. The Tombow AirPress, in my opinion, is a perfect example of minimalist, utilitarian design. The branding is subtle and matches the color scheme perfectly so as to not draw too much attention. The window that lets the writer view into the mechanism contains just the amount of contrasting color to give a clear indication when the pen is ready to write. I love the color choice as the red juxtaposed next to the all black exterior looks elegant, thereby elevating the overall look and feel of the pen.

The pen is surprisingly small and light-weight, which makes sense given that it is geared mainly towards EDC and the like. It has a very decent clip with strong retention and due to its wide range of flexibility, I’ve clipped it onto anything from my pocket to a notebook cover to my mouse pad when I was taking breaks in between completing assignments. The pen also features a handy little loop on the backside of the pen for threading some string through to facilitate lanyard retention or something similar. The grips were something that I found to be surprisingly well designed. The AirPress utilizes a clear, window style grip that gives the writer a view of the spring inside the pen and provides a decent amount of purchase too. The grip is made up of clear, ovular and tapered pieces of plastic(?), that are wonderful to admire the red spring inside. I never once felt myself losing my grip on the AirPress despite the less than ideal conditions I was using it in.

There are genuinely a lot of good things to say about the Tombow AirPress, but one of the major flaws is the writing experience. To say is was mediocre would be considered high praise. I really could not get used to how dry and scratch it felt when writing despite using a variety of papers known for their smoothness such as Maruman and Rhodia. The ink is okay, nothing to really write home about. The performance on wet paper or in the rain (yes I actually tried this with all the thunderstorms going on) isn’t as good as I expected it to be. I was expecting a pen that can match the likes of Rite in the Rain notebooks, no matter how much water falls down, it’ll keep going faithfully. This was not the case with the AirPress and I was frankly a little disappointed. While some may not find as much fault with it, with me having been spoiled with amazing pens that offer a significantly better writing experience, my bar is naturally set pretty high.

Overall, I was initially impressed with the design aesthetics and the exterior features that made this pen so versatile and great for EDC. However, when it comes to writing the same can’t be said. I’m sure that someone looking for a decent EDC pen that is built to withstand less than ideal conditions would appreciate this pen more than me, but I would also point them towards slightly more expensive options that offer more value than the Tombow AirPress. If you are interested in EDC pens and the like, this can definitely be a solid option if you don’t care much for how well it writes. If you’re like me and you’re used to pens performing like the Uniball Signo DX and Pentel Energel, this would seem like a huge downgrade and not something I would recommend.

 

 

 

 

 

Uni-ball Vision Elite Rollerball 0.5

Alongside the Ohto Fude Ball 1.5, I really wanted to try out another rollerball style pen, as I usually don’t write with one as much as I used to. Ever since my Morning Glory Mach 3 ran out of ink, I’ve been hesitant to get another rollerball. While I can appreciate the feeling of the ball gliding across the page, it just didn’t give me a sense of feedback at all.

I have slowly noticed an actual change in my tastes for what I look for in a writing experience and it is something that struck me as surprising. For the longest time, I was all about the smoothness of the nib and as minimal feedback as possible, but now, I find myself desiring a little feedback and finding some sort of appreciation for what it brings to my writing experience. Maybe I can chalk this up to my character maturing and being able to appreciate different things instead of restricting myself. Only time will tel I guess. Anyway, back to the review

Needless to say when I first wrote with the Vision Elite, my conceptions on how a rollerball is “supposed” to feel were thrown out the window. Due to using the Uni-ball Signo for the longest time, I’ve gotten used to the slightly scratchy but pleasant sensation of writing with it. It gave me a perceived sense of precision and consistency that the Morning Glory simply couldn’t because of the way it would sometimes deposit extra ink onto the page causing variations in line width. The Vision Elite seems to be a strong middle ground in between the two. Smooth enough at varying angles due to the rollerball and having just the right amount of feedback that almost made me mistake it for a gel pen.

The grip section is very well designed and the diamond-shaped groove pattern provides a decent amount of purchase while not cutting into you fingers. Initially, I had problems adjusting to how thin the section was in relation to the rest of the pen and my extra string grip led me to feel uncomfortable and my hand started cramping. It took a couple of days to really find the right grip strength and placement that allowed me to comfortably use the Vision Elite. Once I found that specific combination, my writing experience improved by leaps and bounds.

While I haven’t been able to test it, the pen is supposed to be airplane safe with a “protective reservoir inside the barrel that prevents air from expanding in the ink tube” (excerpt from JetPens description). Since I’m taking a couple of summer courses, I won’t be able to test this out until late July, but when I do, I’ll definitely come back and update the review with my thoughts.

I’m very happy with my decision to get the Uni-ball Vision Elite as it is a pen that provides a great middle road to choosing between a gel pen and a rollerball. The consistency of the line as well as the ink make a great pairing and absolutely catapults this pen to the top of my Top 5 Rollerball Pens list. The Vision Elite has very quickly grown to be my most reached for pen when it comes to both note-taking and writing in general. I highly recommend this to everyone who likes using gel pens or rollerballs as the Vision Elite allows you to experience the best of both worlds.

 

P. S. I know I’ve been releasing a little slowly, schoolwork is ramping up and I’ve been inundated with numerous projects to keep track of and exams to study for. I’m in the final stretch, so I’m almost done. Expect maybe one more review tomorrow to cover for the first half of April, but after that, I won’t be able to post until the semester ends on May 4. I’ll take a week break to rest up and refocus for summer, then I’ll post 2 reviews for the second half of April and the first half of May. Thanks so much for your patience and support guys, it really means a lot to me. Wish me luck for finals! 🙂

 

Rotring Tikky Graphic – 0.3mm

The Rotring Tikky was something that I really wanted to try out because I was getting a little tired of my standard Staedtler Pigment Liner and wanted to try something new. I picked it due to the positive reviews on JetPens and it being cheaper than the Pigment Liner.

One thing that I was a little surprised about was the relatively consistent lines. I had previously read some reviews on the Tikky from different pen bloggers and some had mentioned that the line was pretty inconsistent for them and was mainly based on the amount of pressure when writing. I found that not to be the case for me and can only wonder whether they have since improved it, as most of the reviews date back a couple of years.

The clip is really stiff and will properly secure the pen. I kept this in both my Nock Co. Sinclair, my jeans pocket and my shirt pocket and the clip still holds firm. I was a little worried that the jeans pocket would warp the clip a little bit due to how thick the material was, but it turns out that the clip is much more solid than I thought. That being said, it is really easy to scuff up and as you might be able to see in the picture above, the edges are really scratched, but it doesn’t take away one bit from the durability.

One thing that I really loved about the Tikky was the grip. Initially, I was a little skeptical at how well it would perform due to it being so thin. I was pleasantly surprised by how grippy it was, as the texture provides a decent amount of purchase on the pen, regardless of my sweaty hands. It was pretty consistent and comfortable during longer writing sessions and I practically never had to readjust my grip.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my decision to get the Rotring Tikky as the Staedtler Pigment Liner was my go-to for a long time and this was a nice change of pace. The two are quite similar, but the Rotring shines through due to minute, but highly effective changes, thereby improving the writing experience. I particularly like the grip sections and the clip design of the Tikky as it gives the pen a versatility that the Pigment Liner doesn’t have. On the other hand, I found that note-taking was a little difficult.

In one of my classes, all of our quizzes are done on cheap printer paper. Using this pen for quizzes quickly became a hassle and it was almost impossible to use with the amount of bleed-through. I can get away with writing on cheap paper with the Sakura Pigma Micron, Staedtler Pigment liner and nearly all the other felt-tip pens I’ve reviewed so far. The Tikky just didn’t play well with cheaper paper and I was restricted to using it on Rhodia and Maruman notebooks. It’s the one thing that keeps this pen behind the Pigment Liner on my Top 5 list, but I would definitely rate it higher than the Pigma Micron.

Ohto Fude Ball 1.5

I really wanted to try a more unique pen as I was getting bored with the standard 0.4mm and 0.7mm rollerballs that I have reviewed in the past. I saw the Ohto Fude Ball 1.5 in my recommended list of products when I was purchasing some notebooks and pens to review on JetPens. It struck me as slightly odd due to how big the line width was. Usually, the size of 1.5mm is something I’ve only experienced on my Lamy Safari with the 1.5 calligraphy nib. Having that same size in rollerball was something that sounded really odd and not my taste, but sometimes, to find something you like, you need to first get out of your comfort zone.

I can say with certainty that this was a hit and miss for me. I tend to write a little on the smaller side, which has been a characteristic of my writing since childhood. This pen forced me to write larger than I was comfortable with and hence, my letters were all out of sorts and crooked as can be seen in the written review above. There was no grip on the pen which made it very easily shift around my hand, causing the line width to vary sometimes from letter to letter. It took me a while to get a solid straight grip that didn’t vary in angle, but it was difficult to maintain for a long writing session. The ink was a little finicky and feathered on most of the papers I had which made it difficult to take notes in class.

Some of the positives that come with the rollerball being this wide is the amount of pressure you have to put when writing is nearly negligible and the pen can easily slide across the page without effort. The problem with this is that it makes it difficult to keep a steady angle of writing. The pen itself is really lightweight and slightly translucent so you can keep track of how much ink is left. With a 1.5mm line width, I’d expect the level will go down quite quickly.

Overall, I wasn’t very impressed with the Ohto Fude Ball 1.5. Maybe it’s just not my cup of tea, but I’m honestly happy I tried something different. The monotony of reviewing pens with the same characteristics can really get to you, so it was nice to switch things up for once. Although it didn’t work out for me, if you’re looking for an extra wide rollerball with a lot of line variation, this is one pen you can definitely give a try.

TWSBI Eco – M nib

TWSBI is always known for pushing the buck on affordable fountain pens. From their Vac Mini line to their Mini model. They’ve constantly surprised the pen community with just how affordable they can make such great pens. That’s why I was really excited to try the Eco, their cheapest pen to date and one that can be anyone’s first fountain pen. After some time of using it nearly every day for notes, I was pleasantly surprised.

For $30USD, this pen really delivers on the TWSBI experience. I was a little hesitant due to the all plastic build, but decided to trust TWSBI with their quality, something that I will no longer hesitate to do. The plastic they used is solid and reliable. The one problem of this, is that there is no texturing around the grip area. I constantly found myself adjusting my grip because no matter how hard I tried it slipped after a couple of minutes. One of the biggest drawbacks to this pen for me, is how insecure the grip feels. However, due to the quality of the plastic, it can survive being dropped multiple times. I feel that they could improve on this by just adding some texture to the grip area, nothing fancy just a couple of line to ease up the grip pressure and not stress the hand out as much.

For the rest of the pen, I don’t particularly mind the use of plastic as nowadays the quality of plastic is relatively high and helps keep such a great pen affordable. I know some have complained a bit about the flimsy nature of the piston, but I feel that it’s merely a tactile difference in operation form the standard metal knob that is present in all of TWSBI’s other models. To me, it doesn’t feel flimsy and was very smooth in operation. I wasn’t worried about any accidental turns leading to spills.

The best part of this pen has got to be the nib. While I was expecting the standard TWSBI experience of smooth nibs to be there, it wasn’t until I actually tested it and affirmed my suspicions that I realized what it meant. When it comes to fountain pens, you usually tend to get what you pay for, especially in the price range of $15-$30. The fact that they managed to keep the amazing quality of the nib in this pen is something to be commended. I honestly have never tried another pen in this price range that had such a smooth nib out of the box. It lays down a nice line consistently and hasn’t failed me even once. Kudos to TWSBI for managing to do this. However, I found that there was often a small amount of leaking occasionally and feel that the clear direct feed design makes it much easier to occur. While it’s cool to see the ink run through the feed and look at the color right underneath your fingers, it also diminished my confidence in keeping it in my pocket. I found numerous ink stains on my fingers sometimes without knowing exactly how I got them while writing. I think it might have to do with my grip position alongside the way the feed was designed.

Finally, the branding is very subtle and tastefully done. It’s not festooned around the pen and it really accentuates the glossiness of the black plastic that I opted for. TWSBI also has a lime green and clear version with the same nib range (EF – 1.1 Stub).

All in all, an a great and affordable first fountain pen that can definitely turn people into pen addicts. I would highly recommend this as a starter pen for anyone who wants to get start writing with fountain pens, or as a way to get others into the hobby. The first pen is a very important milestone that can make or break an individuals perception on fountain pens, so it’s important to have something beginner friendly and high quality that can give a great writing experience. The TWSBI Eco checks all those boxes for me, so don’t hesitate to try it out.

 

Pilot Frixion Point 4

Now this is a pen that I personally found to be much more comfortable than the slim version I reviewed a while ago. The body is larger than the slim (go figure), but this change in the size and width make it that much more easy to write with.

The cap is a welcome addition as it is much better than the knock archaism on the slim. It caps nicely with a resounding click and is not going to accidentally pop off any time soon.

The grip is a little thin, but it surprisingly makes up for it by being made of a slightly squishier material than the standard plastic grips I’ve gotten used to. It reminds me of the Alpha-gel pencils that were extremely popular in high school. Though not as squishy as that, it definitely does a decent job in helping keep stress off my fingers when I grip slightly harder than usual. With the stress I’ve been under studying for finals, I’ve noticed that I’ve been squeezing harder than usual.

The ink is the same as the last Frixion, a thermo-sensitive ink that can be erased through the power of… you guessed it: friction. One of the things I’ve noticed after lurking on many a pen store scouring the various reviews is the possibility of getting a bunch of lemons in a pack. People were complaining about how after a few sentences or after a couple of weeks, the Frixion dried out quickly. One trick to reactivate the ink would be to put it in the freezer as recommended by JetPens. Now I personally have yet to face this issue with either of my Frixions so I cannot make any conclusions as to the validity of these claims, but I figured I should mention it, just in case any of you were looking into picking one up.

The eraser boasts the same efficiency of the slim and I have yet to find any difference in the erasing ability of either. While I can’t confidently claim that all the Frixion erasers have the same level of reliability, I can infer that based on my experience with these two, the standard should be about the same across the board. JetPens created an amazingly detailed comprehensive guide to the Frixions that you can check out when making your decision.

The Frixion Point 4, as this particular model is called, is a great pen that completely bows the Slim Ball out of the water in terms of comfort. The erasable ink allows it to be used in any setting whether for personal or office related tasks. The ink erases without a fuss and the pen is well-designed. While a little more on the expensive side, the convenience of being able to erase while using a pen makes the cost worthwhile for me at least. If you’re interested in pen with erasable ink, look no further than the Pilot Frixion series.

 

Pilot Mutli Ball Rollerball

100th post! Yay! New milestone. Onwards to 250. 🙂

I was recommended the Pilot Multi Ball Liquid Ink pen by a friend and I simply got it just to give it a try. Little did I know, I would find such as amazing pen in the process. The Multi Ball is a liquid ink rollerball pen that has a fine tip. The writing experience is reminiscent of the Retro 51 but it has one very important difference, the size of the tip is absolutely perfect for me. The grip, while a little thin, is well designed with small circular indents to helps when I choke up my grip to try to gain maximum control. I tend to post most of my pens, but on the Multi Ball, the clip tended to dig in to my hand, so I just decided to not post. This was fine as the long body of the pen allowed for comfortable use without needing to post. Overall, I’m very happy with my decision to try this pen out. Go try the Pilot Multi Ball out and you’ll be surprised by the way it handles in comparison to the Retro 51 and for those looking for a thinner rollerball, give this a try.

Uni Pin Pen Review

Finally managed to catch Captain America: Civil War. I really enjoyed it and while it didn’t go specifically the comic book route, it managed to capture the darker aspects of being a superhero. The tension between Cap and Iron Man really sold the feelings of seriousness that is rampant throughout the entire story arc. Anyway, since I caught it in the morning, you, my dear friends, went without me. Fret thee not, I am finally here with my promised review. Let’s kick off, shall we?

The Uni Pin Pen was just another drawing pen in the veritable collection that I’ve been testing, it stood out as one of the stronger contenders among the masses. The barrel design is one of my favorite aspects of this pen, as it is seemingly difficult nowadays for companies to make their pens out of plastic, but not make their pens feel cheap in the process. Kuretake did an astounding job with the Zig Cartoonist line, making the barrel smooth and comfortable to hold. Uni has similarly done an amazing and arguably, better job on the Pin. It’s smooth, sleek and the branding is subtle. All in all, one of the most comfortable barrels I’ve handled so far.

 

The tip is standard fare for a plastic tip drawing pen. I opted for my traditional 03 size, which i this case, is 0.38mm and I wasn’t disappointed by the performance at all. However, I found that the angle of the pen really affected the thickness of the line more than some of the other pens I’ve been testing. Occasionally, my lines would slowly thin out at the end of the stroke, but I didn’t find this to be too much of a problem because I prefer to write in block letters. For those who write exclusively in cursive, this may be something of an issue. The ink is a pigment-based ink that is water-proof and fade-resistant.

The grip is one of the biggest problems for me with this pen. The grip gets too narrow too quickly, resulting in a large width difference between the levels that makes it hard to compensate for. I’m a “low-gripper”, meaning my grip is as close as possible to the tip as I opt for maximum control when writing. This grip is not conducive to that specific style of grip and could potentially be a huge factor in whether the pen is right for you or not. You have to make that decision for yourselves.

The clip is solid and snaps back with tenacity after being stretched to the limit. I kept the Pin in my pockets many times and every time I may have over-stretched, the clip held up nicely to the abuse.

The cap has a window for which I know no the purpose. It looks really cool, but I question the functionality and necessity a bit.

Overall, a solid choice for a drawing pen. The ink is dark and doesn’t feather too much on normal paper. The barrel design is one of the better ones offered by companies in the product category. While the grip is a bit finicky for those who use the “low-grip” writing style, it can be adjusted too if given enough time.