Paper Mate Mini Roller

After much delay I finally got my hands on the Paper Mate version of the ink cartridge roller ball. I posted a while ago about a W.H.Smiths version and its disappointments here: http://pensetc.blogspot.com/2013/04/whsmith-euro-cartridge-mini-rollerball.html. Lets see what Paper MAte have managed to do with their version.

At first glance the construction is virtually identical to the inferior (in my opinion) W.H.Smith's version, but once the top is removed (a very reassuring) and the barrel unscrewed the difference can be felt immediately. Barrel has a very reassuring tightness to it and long screw action to attach/detach. this is not coming loose. Surprisingly the pocket clip is also very firm, which first impressions would lead me to believe it will not stand up to much use, but so far its proved to be very robust.

The pen in capped configuration really is very compact, roughly 5 cm's long, very pocket friendly. a nice tactile and comfortable weight to hold and carry.

Nothing particularly striking about its appearance, other than the size and the cartridge refill aspect, it will not draw attention in use especially, but it's a nice one to have just for the fountain pen experience in a roller ball form factor.
Especially if you have a favourite cartridge only ink.
Here we can see the pen breaks down to 3 roughly equal parts; cap, barrel and nib section.
Here we can see better the long screw to attach nib section to barrel, as you can see, in comparison to the pen over all length it a large percentage of the pen, very reassuring construction points. As can be seen, the lid is longer than the barrel, which causes some issues, more on this later .

And now the issues, as can be seen the cap posted pen is not much longer than the capped pen. This is the main problem, strangely enough I don't think the cap sits low enough on the pen when posted. This results in the pen cap coming loose during writing, very easily, and when this happens the pen is to short (for my hands) to rest against the join of thumb and forefinger.
Which all results in a constant fiddle to stabilize a wobbly and wandering pen, just like the W.H.Smith's version.

So taking into account these similar issues does this point to a design problem and flaw in these mini roller ball/cartridge pens? I would hope not as I really like the concept, I do think a simple redesign and indeed a full size pen would be ideal for this concept.

A nice surprise is the inclusion of 8 standard euro cartridges with the two pens, 6 in the box and one in each pen, not bad value for £0.99, though it would have been nice to maybe get some colour variations instead, perhaps 4 of each colour. I also wonder if these pens would be ok to use with registrars ink or pigment ink, for drawing and document signing etc. Perhaps there is an experiment i need to conduct.

Below is the standard writing test, I think it writes very much like a fountain pen, purely down to the ink, no smudge test this time as it's all down to your ink choice.

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

** These are now for sale over in the www.pensetc.tk shop (click here) or use the link at top of page **

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.

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.