Shopping Finds: Exercise books, BIC pens, Stabilo

Latest shopping finds, kicking off withe these exercise books, squared ruled 88 page staple bound books available from Poundland, invoking memories of school and coloring in the squares when bored.

Next up are some more memory invokers, the classic BIC 4 colour selector pen and a new "mint" colour version. I always wanted a 4 way colour selector pen when i was young, to this day I've still never got round to getting one. Both are currently on sale at Wilkonson's in the UK along with a larger range of BIC products, including the M10 as in the picture, which I never knew actually had a model name.

And here we have more BIC products available in the Wilkinson sale, these look to me to be the infamous "For Her" BIC colours that created a bit of a foray a while back, that have now been repackage and renamed as "Fun" Cristal pens. They are nice colours I'll admit, but the whole debacle with the previous branding incarnation will no doubt stick in my mind. For a lighter look at what people thought of the original pens and that marketing campaign, check out these reviews on Amazon: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004FTGJUW

Finally we have a sale deal on the Stabilo 10 fineliner pen set, I've always liked these pens, but found them to be too expensive for what they are, but this price makes them much more attractive. Give them a go, they are a lovely pen for drawing and general colour work, thought hey are not light proof or pigment inks so don't expect them to last too long on paper.

*** SOME PICS HAVE BEEN LOST - POST REMAINS FOR REFERENCE ***

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.

Wilkinson Gel Roller Ball

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Wilkinson is a UK department store (click for more info) that usually has a very good range of stationery at the budget end of the market branded as their own make as well as branded makes, here.
This particular pen is sold as a pack of 5 for a very reasonable £1.15 ($1.76/C$1.79) in a plastic wallet in the standard blue and black, all of which are a fine nib.

As you can see it is a very basic looking pen without frills or ornamentation, what else can you expect or want for the price? It is in fairness a nicely balanced pen and a very robust construction, it is not refillable.

As I have found with most Gel Rollers the inked line is very wet and susceptible to smudging and wiping, but this could be down to my writing style as much as the ink wetness. The line laid down is a very pleasing solid black wiht little or no skipping, writes from first use consistently and evenly.

Posted or capped the pen is nicely balanced and not overly long or short, the crip part of the barrel is covered in a soft knurled rubber cover which stands up to use for the writing life of the pen, more on this later, the cap has a pocket clip denoting ink colour but it does nto hodl the pen in pocket very firmly on thin pockets or material, the clip also comes away form the lid easily, perhaps due to the breathing hole designed into the lid.

The lid does cap with a reassuring click and stay on the pen barrel well in transport.

Other than the comments above there is not much more to say about the pen, but there is one final point to make which I believe is vital, and that is the writing life span.

When using this pen solidly for note making on an A5 writing pad the pen only lasted for 4 or 5 pages, I've used two now over 10 pages, admittedly the full page was covered in writing, but I feel that a pen of this size should last longer, does anyone else have any thoughts or comments on the writing life if ink in pens of this sort? But in fairness what can you expect for the price, some pens of the same style and ink cost 2 or 3 times more for just one. In closing I can't really fault or criticise the pen any more than above, I think they write very nicely, have a reassuringly black line and are very reasonably priced.

*UPDATE*

Just finished another pen, this one lasted a bit longer, 6 and a half pages, but not much more. The pen and ink do write consistently until the very last letters, no skipping or reluctance to write evenly, so you do get to use every last drop of ink. I'm still undecided f these are a bargain or a waste of money, if only the refill was larger/lasted longer, I would gladly pay more as the pen itself and nib are very nice for the current price.

Pilot V5 Hi-Tec point 0.5

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Here we have a Pilot writing pen, although in my opinion I like them for a multitude of other uses to which they are very suited, more of which later.

What to say about this? Well, its very much what you see is what you get, there is no fancy over designed additions or build in the pen itself externally, barrel, cap and pocket clip are all there are, it does not come apart and is not refillable, but what it does do is endure, and write very well from start of ink flow to finish, a solid black line with no skipping or missed curves. As you can expect from the 0.5 on the barrel, the nib and the written line is very fine, but still strong and very legible, if you do not have terrible handwriting like I do. 

The ink itself lays down very well and drys quickly, no discernible smudging or wetness is left on the page when writing. This is in contradiction, for me anyway, to the pure liquid ink advertised on the barrel, I would have expected a very wet line to be laid down with care haign to be taken to avoid smudging, but happily I was very wrong in my initial expectations.

And here is the nib itself, as you can see it is fine, a needle point in my opinion, but surprisingly robust and stands up to a lot of abuse, I'm a bit heavy handed when writing and I have not had any issues with the nib or the writing performance.

What, precisely, the pure liquid ink is supposed to benefit or deliver I'm not too sure, but I suppose liquid ink flows smoother and more consistently than other inks, on reflection the ink flow is rather like fountain pen ink and the line when writing does have that feel to it, so I guess the intention is give the best of both worlds in a fine nibbed rollerball.

The pocket clip is very springy and firm when slipped over over pockets, especially thicker material ones, the clip itself is very robust and stands up to a lot of abuse, so much so that if the spring on the clip is not enough it can be gently bent to provide a stronger grip.

Further to the comment in the opening paragraph, I really like drawing with these pens, a great use for them I think, the pen and the nib suits my style and drawing technique, if they came with artist grade ink, permanent, lightfast etc I think they would be come my default and go to pen for drawing, especially with a range of nib sizes offered. And yes, that is my representation of Leon played by Jean Reno in the film of the same name, the remake anyway, one of the very few examples where the remake is as good as the original, possibly. 

Schneider Slider Memo XB *UPDATED*

The Schneider Memo XB is a very nice smooth writer, ink flows easily and instantly from first use, what the actual names means is open to discussion, thou it may have something to do with it being marketed as a scholars, or pupil as the manufactures website has it, pen, but as a "memo" pen, then its does it's job admirably, writing quickly and efficiently with a quick drying time. Ink is also "wipe proof" when used with highlighters and waterproof, some nice considerations and presumably why its marketed as a school/pupils pen. A nice range of colours is also available, apart form the normal blue. black and red, there are Green, Orange, Violet an Lilac (these are my interpretations of the colours on official website, as there are no supplied colour names by the manufacturer), each colour having its own barrel colour combination, the inner black part barrel of test pen changing to math ink colour.

The drying time is acceptable for any but the quickest of left handed writers, I am not left handed so please let me know if a "dryer" pen is best, with a strong, even and medium thickness line, again stated by manufacturer as 1.4mm, laid down easily and with little effort. Presumably due to the Viscoglide (R) - Technology used by the German manufacturer.

Below is a plain paper ink test with bleed through. As you can see its a nice fine dark and constant line with very little show thought to reverse side.

Written line test, plain "copier" paper

Bleed thought test, 80 gsm plain white copier paper

The body of the pen itself is very comfortable, light and easy on the hand, with a slight rubbery feeling to the bulk of the covering (blue bits). The pocket clip feels very strong and has a reassuring heft in it's spring, this pen is going nowhere in every day use and carrying, the cap itself fits snugly over the nub and even more snugly when mounted for writing, a stop lug is in place to prevent over fitting (see second picture below).

All in all a pleasant and promising everyday/pocket pen. The nib itself is stainless steel and wear resistant. The pen does not appear to be user dissemble, so i would say it is a disposable.

See www.schneiderpen.de/en/ for more info, using the penfinder to find this pen, and to browse the other products from manufacturer.

I received the pen as a free sample from www.cultpens.com when purchasing other items, I can heartily recommend them for any of your pen, refill and ink needs, free delivery on orders over £10 and ship worldwide.

Include the book the test quote is from in the comment area for personal kudos, all tests will have an (CLUE) opening line from a literary work.