I need to invent something

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a while. Copied from Kokuyo's website. I can't wait till these hit the states.

http://www.kokuyo-st.co.jp/stationery/beetletip/

It's a highlighter that outlines.

What did she bring me? Episode #1

Zebra F-701 from Staples



If you are just joining in, I asked my wife to pick up a pen for me, no questions asked... for a review. I have a cabinet full of vintage fountain pens, perfect gel rollers, brush pens and now I own a  shiny new ball-point.


Click for a better view.

To her credit, it looks like a nice pen. It's metal, sturdy, slim and with a knurled grip. I just am not sure I will ever use it. I love a heavy line of ink and this one seems like it's not putting out the effort. The one thing I did notice is that when writing, it is extremely smooth compared to the thin pens I have been writing with and it says .7 but the line feels much thinner to me.



The receipt says 6.00 and to me that seems expensive for what you get, In my mind, that's half a bottle of Noodlers, or 4 Sarasa's,I only did a few tests with this, but I will give it a day of writing just to be sure.

OK, now I have Pen Envy

Someone just sent me a link to a pen that I just drooled over. http://www.leighreyes.com/blog/?p=1037 It just looks perfect. I do not want to know how much it costs. Looks amazing.

The Classics

As always, click for better views.

I am postponing the "What did she Bring me Segment" till she actually brings me something. Yesterdays texts messages went a little like this:

Her "what kind of pen do you want"
Me "just buy a pen, it's for the blog"
Her " but, what kind should I get you?"


Instead I bring you two classics. One modern and one, not so much. Some days I feel like I could do anything with a loaded Parker 51 and a Moleskin. I know you purists will run about and scream about bleeding and feathering and all that, but I deal with it. They just go so well together. When I have these at a meeting, I immediately am the cool guy, no questions asked. Instant Penvy. (Pens + Envy... get it?) In some fountain pen users eyes, the Parker 51 (any 51) is still the perfect everyday pen. I usually have 4-5 inked at any time and they are in heavy rotation.

Good pens.

Another Good Jetpen

Jetpens was awesome enough to send out two pens for me to take a look at.

Click for a better views. Between the .28 point and the sky blue color, it's a little hard to read on the thumbnail.


I also reviewed the Uni-Ball Signo Orange here and this one is #2.
These pens just have a great feel in the hand and put down a nice layer of ink. Even the .28 just comes flowing through. I mostly used in a Foray Notebook and had no issues with the fine lines. On some super-soft paper the point tended to dig in a bit, but that might be because I press hard when I write, I would not blame it on the pen, the paper in my sketchbooks took the pressure with no problem. These pens have gone into steady rotation on my desk and I find myself reaching for them a ton more than I thought I would.

Good Pen.

I just asked my wife to pick up a pen for me today, no questions asked. She knows I am a bit of a pen junky, so I am not sure if she will come home with another Double Jeweled, Mustard Yellow, Empire Cap Parker 51 (yes, I own one of these) or a Bic Stick, either way, Episode 1 of "What did she bring me" starts tomorrow.

The Modern Waterman

Happy Veterans day. Ooh Rah, Semper Fi.

Now to the pens. The Waterman company was established in NYC, but now runs under the Waterman S.A. name in France. Notice the French proverb people, I am trying to entertain a little here as well.

The great thing about Waterman's is that they are reasonable pens to start off with and almost every pen store sells them. Even Amazon sells the Phileas model for $45.00. (There are a few used there for $35.00) I might caution against buying a used pen on Amazon, Jimmy in Iowa might have used it in a knife fight for all you know.

Wiki tells me that François Mitterrand was known for carrying two Waterman's wherever he went. (as Paris Hilton would say "He was, like, the President... that's hot") If I happen to ever be in France again, I want to be there for the Tour de France and a Tour of the Waterman factory, in that order.

Good Pens.

Quoting Fight Club on Monday Morning (going to be a good week)

Chuck Palahniuk wrote “On a large enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” Well, we hit a zero over the weekend. If you can manage to use a pen enough, at some point it will run out of ink. (Which is my overly obvious statement of the day.) Here is my Bic Z4 0.5 mm-bone dry and in the trashcan. This pen was well traveled and well used. It seemed like it held a ton of ink and somehow I managed to burn through that ink without losing this one.

It seems like a perfect .5 to me, not too thick, dried fairly quickly and the point stays pretty wet even with the cap off. I think since I bought this, they have changed the way this pen looks, but you still should be able to find these out there. I will be buying some more as soon as I can find them. Cheap and a Good Pen.

The Z4 has chosen to be cremated and it's ashes will be placed into a bottle of Noodler's Black waterproof ink for future generations to enjoy...

I am starting a new column this week called "what did she bring me.' Stay tuned, more to follow.