So, last week I am sitting in a French restaurant in Yokohama, Japan at a business meeting. The guy across the table from me has a monogrammed Pilot Frixion in .38 and I loved it. You may recall that in the past I said that multi-pens tend to do a lot of things...but none of them that well.
Something clicked and I needed to have this pen. (Not that exact one silly, it was already monogrammed.) The search was on and I started swinging by the stores, but all I can find are the .5's. I did find one .38 but it was in some sort of lavender color and I couldn't pull the trigger.
Oh, by the way, the 7-11's in Japan have a ridiculously awesome array of pens. Anyhow...cut to the airport later that week. .5's everywhere, but then across the display, I spy the .38 refills. BOOM, problem solved. Except for green, I could not find the green refills. No biggie, I can deal.
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| Elusive little guys |
So, for about 3 bucks a color, I made the pen more enjoyable for me. (I am not calling this a hack, that terms is getting overused in the pen circles.)
I like the Frixions. I wish the ink was a little darker, but I get it... It's cool technology with the heat/ friction erasing capability so I will cut them some slack on the darkness level. I am generally not a .5 anything type of guy, so thinner is better regardless.
It was a 2 second fix, the same as refilling, pop out, pop in, screw the top back on. Easy. The white ones have the ,38 tip.
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| Green is .5, blue is .38 |
It's not coming across on the paper as well, but it is a subtle enough of difference that I prefer the thinner width. (Blue) I started taking my work notes in different colors (red is for action items) and I have been picking this pen up more and more in my daily writing. I like the weight, I like the feel and this is the most that I have used a multi-pen in forever.
I have not looked to see if the .38's are available in the US. I have seen the .5's for sale (Jetpens) and unless you geek out on thinner widths, the .5 should be fine for you.
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| Springy Spring |
The spring clip is a nice touch. It's still a pretty big pen to throw in your shirt pocket, but at least you know it will stay there. So, what else is new with me lately? I bought a TON of pens and notebooks. I bought a lathe to consider making pens with. The Red Sox are on an incredible run and I rescued this little Mastiff/ Lab mix.
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| Meet Boden the Great. |
My next post will probably be how I have just about perfected the perfect pen cup. Not the actual cup, but the contents. It's close to awesome and I will get it there before I post. Cheers.
