Plus Gelly 0.7 (Plus*Office brand)

Here we have a Plus Gelly 0.7 (from the Plus*Office brand), which is obviously a cheaper Pilot G2 Chinese copy.

As you can see the the design of the pen is almost identical to the Pilot G2, even down to the design of the refill and ink barrel. Length, with and weight are all comparable to the G2, no accident that it resembles the G2.

But how does it actually write?
Well I must admit, even with the huge popularity of the G2 with the notepad/notebook fans on the internet, I've never owned or used one, terrible of me I know. But as to this pen, well there are no complaints really, it has a decent and reassuring feel in the hand when writing, not especially heavy as you would expect from a plastic gel roller, the ink lays down well with no particular smudging issues.

The line is nicely dark and black, with a good consistency on the loops and whirls, no skipping here. The grip section is the usual hard rubber (almost plastic) set up evident on so many pens of this type and price bracket, certainly sufficient I would say to last the life of the pen.

The refill is not end capped, unlike the G2, the pocket clip feels sturdy enough, moulded as one piece withe the post nodule as it is, and has nice spring to it; it should hold firmly enough when in use. The click/spring action is certainly positive, no mistaking when you've extended or retracted the nib.

All in all a decent pen with some nice G2 like characteristics for a very decent price, this pen was one of the recent Spanish haul, if you see it around your usual haunt and are a fan of the G2 or gel pens in general I would say give it a shot.

Pilot V Super Color Permanent Marker Refillable - Bullet and Chisel tips

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This post is the first one to concentrate on permanent markers, honour of first post go's to the Pilot V Super Color Permanent Marker Cartridge Refill (no, it's not a spelling mistake, it really is spelled Color on the marker by Pilot).

Essentially, these are the standard style marker (in bullet or chisel tip), but use Pilot's Pure Liquid Ink technology to refill the marker by way of a cartridge inserted in the bottom, more of which later.

Above is the latest haul I made, 4 of the Pilot markers, in black, blue, red and orange. 3 are chisel tips and the blue is a bullet tip. Let's start with the blue

The bullet tip is very hard, to my feel, giving a very fine line for a marker, consistent colour (not color as Pilot have it on the barrel), and a generally smooth feel to the laying down of colour and ink.

Two line thickness' are possible with the nib, a fine line when using the point of the tip and a slightly broader line when using the side of the nib, either method is very easy and consistent with laying down ink, how the nib will hold up over extended use is anyone's guess, presumably it will behave pretty much like any other fibre tipped marker, gradually becoming more flexible and soft over use.

Now the difference with these and other markers, as with many Pilot products, these markers use their patented Pure Liquid Ink technology, they are refillable, meaning that the marker has a removable cartridge that clips securely into the barrel of the pen, filled with the liquid ink. The cartridge itself has a seal that is broken when inserted into the barrel, much like a fountain pen cartridge.

There's the cartridge fully inserted in its use position, not the warning not to remove the cartridge once it has been inserted and is still in use, i.e. with ink still in. believe me, really don't, even being super careful still resulted in a large amount of "Pure Liquid Ink" spilling all over the table, see the slightly lighter patch on the right of the photo, that's the table after I cleaned up the spill. The ink in these really is liquid and really is permanent, the cartridge refill is not like usual marker refills, the insert carrying the ink is a large fibrous plastic wrapped ink soaked sponge type affair.

Here is the marker in its capped and filled makeup, the top both when capped and posted, fits very firmly, engaging with reassuring clicks.

The picture at the top of the post (again left) shows the width differences of the chisel point between the edge and side uses.
As can be seen, the orange is quite dark and the red does have a pink tinge to it.
This could well by my eye's colour perception and the fact these were all first use tests, the colours may well develop more with use and over time.

And for completions sake here is a bleed  through on 80 GSM copier paper, just for those who this may be important too. I really like these markers so far, I think they could be very cost effective in the long run use, as long as the tip stand up over time.

Sharpie¦Pen: Retractable x 3 and the Stainless Steel refillable version

Here are the 4 Sharpie pens in this review, set of 3 retractable disposable and 1 stainless steel refillable.

We have a red, blue and black of the disposable variety and a plain black in the stainless steel, the three disposable come as a varity pack of the three, the stainless steel version came as a single, although I'm sure there must a twin- or even tri- pack available also.

Nibs extended/uncapped, as you can see, it looks like all pens hare the same internals and nib structure, not really surprising is it? I always expected the stainless version to just be a re-barreled disposable anyway, but sometimes manufacturers throw up surprises.

The stainless version close up of nib, here you can see that like the disposable the nib is very short, hard wearing like usual Sharpie products, it at this stage does not feel like it will give away before all the ink is used unlike some fine liners, I do consider these pens to be Sharpie's version of the fine liner, just with their expertise in ink and design.

What did surprise me with the stainless version, was the refill. I was not expecting the whole nib and grip area to be part of the refill, I can imagine this makes for a elevated price for refills, but likewise I can understand Sharpies logic, presumably the expected use of these pens, as with most of their products is the art/design/crafting etc world, so the intention I believe i s that they will be used hard and hence the grip area will be used extensively so when it comes time to refill you get a new grip too and hence an almost totally new pen.

Grip area close up, the grip having said all that does seem to be hard wearing, not very think rubber casing, but comfortable despite that. You can also see the one piece construction of the refill area and grip area.

The cap, understandably hard wearing, as is all of the pen, what else to expect from a all stainless steel construction? The pocket clip appears to be sturdy, again only time can tell how strong and long lasting the clip is. One design addition I think Sharpie missed out on was enabling the black top of the cap to be a touch screen compatible feature; BIC have a new Crystal pen out at the moment that has this feature, a great addition I think for the usual target market of Sharpie products, the designers etc of this world.

The refill and barrel, not much to say here, other than the fitting of the refill is very easy and durable, no weak points here, a good indicator that the pen will actually out last the refill and it is worth buying refills as the barrel will last. I assume in time that other refills will be available for this pen and not just the fine liner options, perhaps the fin marker or perhaps some new product,I think Sharpie could really expand this range, brush markers perhaps or other arts and craft specific markers, or even pigment ink refills for the artist, something archival quality would be my hope, or perhaps a hard italic tip.

Now the disposable version, pocket clip holds some worry's for me, experience has left me with doubts as to the durability of metal clips attached to plastic bodies, I may be being unfair here, but again as always only time will tell. Also, note the position of the extend/retract button, for such a short nib extension the button travel is long, best seen in the nib retracted photo below.

The grip area is very much like the stainless steel version, the thin covering of rubber, again it feels substantial enough and more than likely to last the usable life of the the pen.

In closing, I rather like my first experience of Sharpie pens, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, other than build and ink quality, I would recommend them so far, especially for those who like a fine liner and need something with a bit of quality.

Bic All in one disposable fountain pen

Unsurprisingly BIC are also in the disposable fountain pen arena, what is more of a surprise is that hey are not the market leaders, I would say that Pilot and their famous disposable fountain pen the Pilot V5 must be ahead in the number of units sold, surely?

Anyway, here is BIC's contribution, and again coming as no surprise they are only available as a multi-pack, now depending on where you buy them and what price you can get them for they are either very reasonable or over priced, I  managed to find these for £1.99 for the pack of four (one free! WOOHOO!) consisting of 2 blue, 1 black and 1 red, I shall not go into the issue with most pen manufactures believing that consumers prefer blue ink over black, other than to say black is very popular too! *rant over*

So, what to say, the pen is of all plastic construction, apart from the nib of course, viewing windows in the side of the barrel to observe ink level, a good sturdy solid plastic pocket clip, a very reassuring feel to it in fact of the few pocket clips I would actually trust to do its job.

A nice sturdy and durable nib, neither fine nor medium, somewhere in between, not much noticeable flex when writing, the ink flows straight away on first use, and continues to through writing, with a nice smooth travel over the page, not always evident in disposable fountain pens.

The cap in all it's glory, not much more to say really about the cap that has not already been said regarding it and the pocket clip earlier, other than to say that it caps nice and firmly with a reassuring feel. 

As to be expected the ink delivery system is by the standard veined fin workings, this method seems to be pretty much ubiquitous across the industry now. One nice touch is the reinforcement of the nib attachment to the plastic carrier, many pens of this type i have seen rely on the nib to stay attached just by one mounting point, hopefully this points to a good writing life for the pen.

It's test time, the pens come as a pack of four (in this special offer) comprising of blue, black and red pens. As you can see the written line is in the fine side, but not so much that I found it scratchy. The blue and black inks lay down nicely giving good colour reproduction ,matching expectations, the red I found in normal light to actually look slightly orange or even pink, dependent on lighting, not as red as I would have liked, this could be down to colour intensity or thickness of the ink, it's opacity. It's not a huge problem, for a disposable fountain pen I think you can live with slightly "off" colours, after all they are meant to be everyday every use pens, not a special ink or colour cast. Having said that I do actually like the colour of BIC's red, it is not the same sort of red that the BIC Crystal we all familiar with lays down, it actually looks rather special on perusal.

Muji 2-in-1 Pen/Pencil

Muji, a Japanese design house selling everything from CD players to bathrobes and stationery, have long been a favourite of mine to get inspiration and envy from when I'm bereft of new ideas or desires to fulfill, sadly there is not a branch close to me to indulge myself very often. Anyway, here we have their 2-in-1 pen/pencil, twist one way for pencil and the other for the pen. Then pencil takes standard 0.5mm lead refills and the pen takes refills available from Muji, for a very reasonable cost, if you call in the shop to check out the pen and end up buying it, get some refills for the pen at the same time, save you a trip and ensure you have a good writing life with the pen, they do last a good while and I think are not available anywhere else.

Here we can see the workings of the pen, this is as far as you will get taking apart the pen without destroying it, the spring cased section is the pencil workings and the other part is the pen refill. As you can see the pencil workings enable a "push to advance" method of lead advancement, the pencil section is replenished by filling with new leads in the usual manner with propelling pencils, pop the eraser off the top of the workings and tip them in (see below). The pen is replenished by simply gently pulling the pen refill out of its housing and inserting a new one.

And there it is, the one extra with this pen, an included pen top eraser, usually hidden under a metal ferrule, they appear to be standard size erasers and holders, as witnessed on other mechanical pencils so i guess that it will be easy to replace when it is all used up.

And there it is, what you have all been waiting for, the famous pensetc.tk test card. The pen performs perfectly well, all Muji pens seem to work perfectly well from first use and have a very smooth flow, no skipping or troublesome ink flow. As the use of the pen, I think it's an ideal everyday pen, tough due to it's all metal construction, handy with the pen and pencil combination (though if they could make one with two colour pens and a pencil then it would be a must have buy) and cheap enough to buy for everyday use. It feels very substantial in the hand and very comfortable, although as with every all metal pen imagine it can become very slippy for those with hot hands.

Cross ball point Ion-a-like

Firstly apologies, i have totally forgotten the correct model name for this pen, scouring of the cross website does not help either as it doesn't feature on their website anywhere, thankfully the refill is a standard size and readily available from The Pen Shop here in the UK on the highstreet.

And here it is, above, with nib retracted, as you can see the pen is elliptical in shape, the nib and knurled end rest proud of flat surfaces, it is of course cap-less. The knurled knob extender is infinite, continuous turning cycles through extended and retracted nibs, in either direction, so no fear of over extension of the nib, and means a quick readiness for writing, which is ideal for one reason, more of which later. This particular variant of the range is covered in brown leather, which after all this time (about 5 years of ownership  has shown no signs of coming undone or peeling away from the barrel of the pen. 

Here we see the writing nib extended, as you can see it doe snot protrude a huge amount, maintaining the very compact dimension of the pen when writing, also the extended knob does not raise or lower with extension and retraction of the nib. Below is close up of the extended nib.

The dissassembled pen has three user dismatleable parts, the nib cover, the barrel and the refill.

The refill in the picture is actually an after market replacement, available from The Pen Shop in the UK, I beleive these particular refills fit a wide range of Cross pens, including the Filofax slim Century models that are so popular.

Here is a close up of the twist knob for nib extension, there's not really much to say about this other than it's infinite turn property's as mentioned earlier and the nice attention to detail with the cross hatching.

And there is the test, there is not really much to say about it other than it performs perfectly reasonably for a ballpoint, it does exhibit a little skipping on first use, but I will put this down to new refills starting temperament rather than a sustained 
and persistent behavior trait.
I would say this is not really intended for a sustained writing session, it is more of a occasional use, jacket/bag pen for those time where you need something with a bit of style, for some reason it presents itself to me as a perfect pen for business mans suit, small and stylish enough to be carried every day in a suit pocket and serviceable enough to use when needed.

New Finds: Pilot V5, Pilot DR & Uni Pin Fine Line

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Here we have a couple of very interesting new finds discovered recently while shopping.

First up is a new range of Pilot V pens, the 5mm and 7mm variants, but these are new refillable pens, fantastic! I have always wondered why Pilot, didn't already do cartridge refill pens in the V series, now here they are. I'm still to try these out, but I'm sure they will probably write very much like the disposable version, price point look with little research to be about twice the standard price of disposable versions, which is OK i guess for a refill pen. Personally I think Pilot are missing out here, why not instead or as well, make a slightly more premium version of the V series pens that are refillable, I think more people would invest the extra money in something that will more likely last, a steel version or something similar. After all, the refill pen looks to be exactly the same as standard disposable, while the standard pen does last well till ink runs out, I wonder if the refill version will last 4 times as long. But all in all a nice development, this may well push me over to Pilot V series pens for every day use, shame the full range of colours doesn't seem to have been released, a small critique but may well be the decider for some.

Next are a couple of pens from Pilot and Uni. For those regular readers you probably already know that I am a fan of drawing pens, any and all sorts, pencils too, and pastels as well, basically any art implements. But my favorite are definitely drawing pens, technical pens some call them, usually these are form the classic manufactures of art consumables, as well as some Asian makers, Zig etc. and usually are hard to come by, if not nigh on impossible, unless you frequent art supplies shops, which usually charge a premium for stocking these.
Well here we have two new pens from Pilot and Uni, found at Asda (WalMart for our American friends), both of which are marketed as drawing pens, the difference between these and the normal variants being they come filled with pigment ink, which is naturally water and light resistant, meaning the line last longer when on display, an obvious importance when we are creating artworks, they are both sold for technical drawing/drafting purposes, but I'm sure they are perfectly acceptable for drawing in the artistic sense of the word.
The Pilot pen comes as a single pen per pack, I've already done a review post of the non-drawing version of the pen in an earlier post, have a look back as there is also some artwork created by me using the V5 Hi-Tec point pen. No doubt there will be varying nib widths of the pen, but on display was only the 03.
Second up is the Uni Pin fine line set of 5 pens, again filled with pigment ink, with a nice selection of nib widths in the pack, from 0.1 to 0.8, a really useful starter set for budding artists like me, these are also available in other colours, blue, dark blue, red, green, black, yellow/orange and purple. These seem very interesting pens to me, suiting my art and drawing style and I'm sure to be getting some of these soon, probably in all colours available. Watch out for a review as soon as I do.
One last note, the Uni pen pack of 5 was less than twice the price of the single Pilot pen, why I'm not sure, both brands are on a par in terms of quality and respectability, so I can only assume that the Uni pack is very reasonable.

Erich Krause Liquid Line 0.5mm

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So here we have a new make to me, Erich Krause from Germany.

They seem to have a diverse range of products and types of pen that I can find in my local stores.

This pen is a liquid ink 0.5 mm nib fineliner, that writes very fine indeed for this size nib, but surprisingly not in a scratchy way, a big surprise considering the cost, just 0.99 pence.

The ink in the barrel is very dry with great fastness very soon after writing, unusual in my opinion for a liquid ink pen, they tend to be much wetter with a tendency to smudge for a while and have a wetness about them I usually find difficult to work with, whether writing or sketching.

The size of the pen is very nice, for me, not too long or short and has a nice weigh to it, the barrel and pen holding area is comfortable size. The barrel itself is finished in a slightly rubberized covering, only time will tell if it stands up to use or deteriorates quickly, I have a feeling it will, more on this later.

Here we have the cap and nib, the cap is unusually long, the recent trend seems to be for very short caps, personally I like a long cap, just feels more premium, the nib as you can see is short and very fine, I sometimes find with these needle type nib fine liners that that actual nib is too long meaning it can flex under pressure or rapid writing.
The pocket clips seems very strong on first impressions and is firmly attached to the cap barrel, lets hope it delivers what it promises.

Standard method ink delivery to the nib, the usual veined spiral system, the slight gap between nib casing and grip area is a slight puzzle, never come across this before, could this be a design flaw? I suspect it may start leaking from here at some point in the future.

And here we encounter the "issues" with the pen, the barrel unscrews, as I first assumed for refill insertion, but on closer inspection it became clear that the ink reservoir was actually molded into the nib carrier and ink veins, so while it may look refillable, it certainly is not.
Secondly, this pen was used only to write the test card, straight out of the packet, and as you can see the ink level is considerably below half way, in fact I would say there was only a quarter level in ink in the barrel. No doubt another cost saver and indicator of overall build quality and likely length of life. 
What started out as a promising looking pen, whilst it writes nicely and has some promise, ultimately disappointed, perhaps the maker is just starting out and waiting for some uptake before improving their pens, who knows, one to watch for now but I could not recommend a purchase or to but for regular users, the build quality slightly disappoints and the ink supplied would render the pen useless as a daily writer or every day pen.

Plus Office Star 4 Colour Mini

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On recent visit to Spain resulted in a decent haul of stationery, Spaniards love a stationery shop, but with recent global economy changes the prevalence and size of the shops has been decreasing, the fairly recent stocking by supermarkets of stationery for school/office use has also contributed to their decline.
Part of this haul was a Plus Office made 4 Colour mini, in the vein of the Bic colour multi pens, but a pocket sized version.

Comprising of red, blue, light green and black ink pens the pen is a very tactile and comfortable fit in the hand, the important purchase point here is the ink colour choice,the ubiquitous colours are all there, but the light green inclusion was the clincher for me. 

That and the design innovation of ascribing the black to the pocket clip, in other incarnations of this model from the major international manufacturers the retraction of a chosen colour is engineered by half pressing one of the other colours, the same is true here but the form factor has been intelligently designed to provide a more useful and roust pocket clip as well as a more considered and compact design.

Here we have the light green ink, to be fair the selector and in all tests, both initial and sustained, the ink does reflect the selector colour closely, if actually just a little darker, but not as dark as the standard Paper Mate 4 colour pen green and not as light as the Bic 4 colour pen special edition mint green, which is actually described as a turquoise, as well as the other included colours also being light version of the standard colours available.

And here we have the proof of the pudding as it were, as can be seen the colours are all pretty standard intensities and depths, the green is slighter than the normal greens available  but not too light to be unreadable or so dark to be overbearing, which I find BIC green pens to be, especially if using to write more than just comments, I do sometimes use green to write whole paragraphs, especially when reviewing notes and previous writing, red I reserve for changes and mark-up onmtext, green is a gentle addition, re-work etc.

One observation would be that the red does look pink, not as intense as BIC red or indeed other reds, some may see this as a failing but actually rather like it's hue and gentle tint.

And here is the black colour selector and model naming on the pocket clip, I presume the 0.7 refers to the nib width/line width, which i find a bit superflous on Biro pens, anyoen ever come across a bold Biro?

Here is the business end, the 4 colour refills, it can be hard to tell that these refill are of course mini size to fit the mini branding of the pen. Below the red is selected, as you can see extended selected colours do not protrude overly, all making for a compact and very hand friendly 4 colour pen.Generally I'm very pleased with this pen and the other models and variations from Plus Office, keep checking back for more, they seem so far very good value for money with lots of attention paid to design and function all, importantly, for a very reasonable price.