Pens
Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m not really a pen snob, never was, yes I do enjoy quality pens, but I would have no problem what so ever using a standard Bic pen. Recently one of my friends, who is, well not really a pen snob, but an over achiever, and quite possibly has the neatest hand writing on earth, suggested that I use a pen that I feel comfortable writing with, and one of good quality. I’m just like the next guy, I’ve been writing something and suddenly my pen goes out. So since early this year, I started doing science, well not really. I started trying out various pens.
The first pen I tried out was the standard Bic pen, as a control, it was everything you would expect from a Bic pen. Normal, fine but not extraordinary. Plastic-y and had that standard 9-5 day in day out office/work/school pen feel.
Next I tried a Pilot G-2. A slight improvement, the ink was obviously better, easier to write with, a bit on the short end, and a clicky pen, I’m not a huge fan of clicky pens, but none the less a good pen, but it felt really plastic-y in hand, and had a bit of a high school feel to it.
So I moved on remaining within in the Pilot line-up and tried my friends recommendation, the Pilot Precise V5. Quite an improvement, it had a cap, length was fairly decent tip was a bit flimsy, again whats with Pilot pens and feeling plastic-y. The quality on this pen left me wanting more, the writing was good, but the pen wasn’t pleasing.
So I tried another recommendation Tul pens, again clicky, plastic-y, but the quality was good, probably the best pen I tried so far.
Then I came across the Uniball micro 0.5mm and the 0.5mm onyx, and that was it, the matte black finish, made it feel not too plastic-y, it had a cap, it was great to write with, and reliable, not to mention it was classy, unlike the others which always carried a high school-ish feel to them. The onyx line is cheaper than the normal 0.5mm line, but both are great pens, I can’t tell the difference yet, I believe the standard 0.5mm micro has no writings on the pen body.
Yes, I know this is a topic that no one will find interesting or amusing, but I was bored, and when you have to write as much as I do, you will start to appreciate a good pen, especially one with good ink, for when you have to highlight your notes.
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I love the standard bic “round stic” pens, I probably go through 20 or so quarter. More expensive pens more often than not annoy me to a point where I can’t even stand writing with them. Always carry a standard bic pen with me. I chew on the caps alot…bad habit but ruining a 10cent pen is +. I have used the Uniball pen you mentioned and it was ok, but I couldn’t use it on a normal basis. Worked great for a notecard though, extra fine! =D
tatertots
September 4, 2009 at 9:05 PM
I love using extra fine pens, because I usually write so small, but I see your point on the Bic pens, I use those a lot too, mainly for taking notes in lectures, or in other situations where I have to write really fast, but when I’m writing a lab report, or notes from a text book I tend to write small, and in those situations I tend to use a Uni-ball.
Mohammad Arfeen
September 4, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Ask anyone with arthritis if a pen is important. Then ask them what pen they used their entire life. I love watching kids write final exams and seeing kids take a rest and they have this look of pain as they stretch their hand muscles. Suckers. Bic pens are for people who are cheap and have no understanding of why their hand hurts while writing.
George Bush
September 9, 2009 at 12:06 AM
In that situation, an exam with an extensive writing portion, I don’t really think you can blame the pen, I think most of the pain, and inability for our generation to write long passages by hand, is due in large part to the advent of the computer and scantron forms. The major of teachers now prefer to use a scantron form for exams, because its easier for them to grade, and in most colleges/universities, like mine, its fairly easy for a teacher to book a computer lab for a final, and we type our essays for the exams. So, I think the more reasonable conclusion would be that our generation, doesn’t have much practice writing essays by hand. This can also be a cause for why our generation’s handwriting is so disgusting, we are so used to writing everything on the computer, and as a result more teachers, prefer scantron/typed exams because they don’t want to sit there and decipher our writing. So, while yes, when you have arthritis the pen choice might affect the amount of pain you experience, at this age, where most of use don’t have arthritis, I think pen grip and not pen choice, in a combination with lack of training for those muscles is to blame. An example of this is, I can sit down and type for hours, I know certain people that are older than me who’s hand’s start cramping up, its not keyboard choice, its just because I type a lot more, but when it comes to writing they can write much longer than me without experiencing pain. Its just a matter of training the right muscles.
Mohammad Arfeen
September 9, 2009 at 4:14 AM