OP asking the real questions! Also just ducking glad to see something not news or politics related. My gosh it's overwhelming today.
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2025
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Asklemmy
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I have a Plaisir Platinum fountain pen that's awesome. It was pretty cheap as far as fountain pens go but it writes really nicely and has a good solid feel to it.
For day-to-day disposable pens I like the Zebra Sarasa ones, or the Pilot P500 for drawing. I bought a big box of the P500s to keep in reserve in case they ever stop making them lol.
Bic
The cheap white plastic bics with the colored rubber grips are some of the most consistent pens ever. The cheap black/blue all plastic ones are some of the shittiest pens ever. I don't understand how this is the case.
Bic mediums are comfortable in my hand and I don't ever worry about losing them because their cheap and reliable.
Papermate inkjoy. The other nurses keep trying to steal my last one that I stole from my last workplace just before it started going downhill and stopped buying the nice pens. It was about 6-8 months before they swapped all our managers and supervisors with ones that were literally physically violent. Now that I think about it the pens have actually been a pretty good thermometer of all my past workplaces. If you go to a hospital and all the nurses have the same decently nice pens, that means their employer is probably taking decent care of them (at least as far as healthcare execs go) and well kept nurses are better at taking care of patients.
I commented this elsewhere, but I figured it deserves it's own top level comment.
You can take an affordable stainless steel zebra f701 and swap out the ink with a fisher space pen refill for a solid, utilitarian pen for less than 15 bucks.
Zebra Sarasa. Bought one on a whim at a 711 in Tokyo a long time ago, kept coming back.
Sharpie.
Crayon,
Waterman
Rotring. German company. Outstanding heft and quality. I like the 800, but if you prefer a click actuation to a twist, go for the 600.
Clickers are why my pants and pockets have ink all in them. Twist for life.
Zebra F-301
Parker, usually. But Pilot is also good. Depends if I want a nice pen or a cheap pen. Kawecos are really nice, but I donβt currently own one.
I'm no pen enthusiast, but I used to really enjoy Zebra. Build quality was good for the price point, and they were super smooth to write with. Unfortunately the quality went downhill maybe 5 or so years ago and they haven't been great in my opinion ever since. They still feel fine physically, but the ink will stop dispensing randomly while writing. Got sick of it and switched to Pilot. Been using Pilot Precise V5 0.5mm and find them great. The ink runs a little wet though, so the only downside is that if you rub your palm across the page too soon after writing it'll smear a bit.
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Bank teller w/half a dog tag chain.
I literally go to the bank to write my novel. The tellers are starting to suspect why I'm a depositing a single penny every ten minutes
Iβve used all kinds. My favorite is still the cheap Pilot G2. Writes effortlessly and has a great click to it.
Parker, specifically the Jotter. I still have and use a stainless steel one that I bought in 1999 because I kept losing pens, and I thought that if I spent a little more on one I might take better care of it. It's my favorite by far.
G2s are nice for pena. We also have some of the Sharpie ones.
I really like the Papermate felt tip marker pens.
Zebra F701 is also nice.
Iβm a big fan of the Tactile Turn machined pens. They are made in titanium, copper, and bronze, and they have microgrooves for grip. They make bolt and click pens in standard and slim width. They take either Pilot G2 refills, Parker-style refills, or (in the case of the mini) Pilot G2 mini refills.
Pens for $100. Reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg joke. "I bought an expensive pen because I was tired of not caring when I lost it."
When I pay $100 for a pen, I donβt lose it!
Seriously, Iβve never lost one in the years that Iβve carried them. And the writing experience is drastically different than writing with a cheap plastic one.
I'm in the pen losing crowd. I can't tell if you guys are serious and I need a more expensive pen or not. 100 dollars is too rich for me though. But this logic sort of makes sense.
If you want to ball on a budget, you can get a steel f701 pen from zebra for $10, slap a fisher space pen refill in it, and call it a day. It's what I use.
What price range would this fall under in comparison to some of the moderate levels of pen craftmanship?
I have no clue, I'm more utilitarian than fancy. I've tried fountain pens but found them to be too high maintenance. If it means anything, my second favorite pen is probably a G2.
The f701 is 8 bucks, a space pen refill is another 9 dollars or so.
So for 20 bucks you have a stainless steel pen that will last forever, while writing in damn near all conditions. Looks snazzy enough to trigger the "I better not leave this" for me, too.
Iβm dead serious about my pens. Some want expensive tennis shoes, some will get by with cheap ones. Some want the nicest, fanciest, sportiest cars, some just want basic transportation. Some want a mansion, others just need a roof over their heads. Itβs all in what you put emphasis on. For me itβs pens, something I use all day every day during work. My wife will use whatever plastic pen with a broken clip that she finds on the floor, but I want something a little nicer that feels good in the hand.
And while you think $100 is a lot, itβs really not in the machined pen community. Fellhoelter pens can go for hundreds or even a thousand. The best thing that happened to me was for my wife to go with me to a pen show (yes, they have pen shows). Fountain pen prices can be insane, and she saw some for $20,000 and $25,000. It made my $100-$200 machined pens not look so bad! Sheβs still not happy about me spending money on pens, but after the pen show she knows that it could be SO much worse!
Thereβs a good sized market for metal machined pens that take standard refills like Parker-style or Pilot G2. If you use one once, youβll either get it or think itβs stupid. If you get it, the rabbit hole can be deeeeeeeep.
This kind of intrigues me. I may give it a shot. What is a good decent pen for say 20 dollars. Smooth, thin line. Say. 5 or so.
Don't have an actual favorite. Just using bics forever due to convenience
Uni jetstream edge .28 mm. Uses an oil-based ink that doesnβt smear if it gets wet. Feels good in the hand too.
Also, the rOtring ballpoint pens.
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I carry a Fisher Space Pen everywhere, but I switched its cartridge for Pilot Hi-Tec-C refills. It takes a little fiddling to get the refill in there, but once it's in it works great!
I'm not familiar with the pilot refill, what about that swap do you enjoy?
Pilot Hi-Tec-C is a gel pen with refills that happen to fit in the Space Pen. It puts down a crisp, fine line.
The problem with the stock Space Pen is that it's a messy ballpoint. I might be getting worse-than-typical results due to being left handed, but in general I find ballpoints don't write crisp lines, and the ink smudges on my hand much more than gel pens do. But with the gel swap I do lose the feature of being able to write upside-down.
I'll have to try it out! I currently use fisher space pens, and while the pen is reliable, I definitely notice that it's not guaranteed to write evenly.
Was there any hacks you had to do to fit the refill?
Yes; first pull the black plastic piece out of the end of the refill. I read that there needs to be a little airflow into the refill for ink to flow, and when the back of the refill is jammed into the pen that can cut off airflow so you might cut a little notch in the end of the refill where the black plastic piece was. I also sometimes trim about 4mm off the end of the refill, or put a tiny bit of wadded paper in the pen for spacing. But I do this a little differently every time I put a new refill in.
Thank you kindly!
Kaweco sports, LAmy, rotring, and pilot vanishing point, opus 88, and one from montblanc but that wasn't a fountain pen.
I slept on the kaweco sport, but when I finally got one, it quickly became my everyday. I got a transparent body and fill the body directly with ink like an oil tanker ready to defile the ocean within my pocket, then lube the threads with petroleum jelly. Not a single leak.
Iconic style, affordable, ink lasts forever, one of the most reliable, smoothest gold bibs came with it, and it's comfortable to write with. I love that pen and wish I had as many chances to use it these days as I did in the past. Unfortunately, my writing at work is almost entirely digital now.
I have a bright orange with carbon fibre trim kaweco sport. The opus88 I have is demonstrator so transparent, so I wanted something different. And maybe because it was the last one at the pen show.... Lol.
I've seen those orange ones, but was never much of a fan. The demonstrators are beautiful though. There's nothing quite like seeing a beautiful ink sloshing around inside.
Picked up a Rotring for my wife a while back and she constantly gets compliments on it. Really nice weight and feel to it.
Brand? Bic.
I bought myself this beauty a year ago, metal body and refillable
Bic 4 colour ftw! πΈπΈ
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