Tradeshow Pen Surprise

Last day to enter for the giveaway!

As always click for bigger images. My work takes me to some trade shows and I rarely pick up pens, (because generally they are crap) but this one was given to me in a drop bag. I am working on a project that I am collecting pens for (more on that soon) but for some reason I picked this one up to write with. Zip twang!

Some surprises are bad. Like hearing "hey, was that your car?" or "You got tested for that, right?" or your Proctologist calling you up asking if you found his ring. (Sorry about that one.) This pen was a pleasant surprise. It really writes well.

Dissected... we see a no name filler stamped with 07 on it. In terms of writing it is an 07 and normally that's a lot fatter than I like to write with but the ink this thing is laying down makes up for it. We are talking free flowing goodness that makes me just stare at this pen wondering where it came from.

I don't think this changes my mind about trade show pens but this was a nice surprise. Seriously, if you been reading you know I am a pen snob and discourage the use of cheap pens, but this one is a little different. It's a good pen.

My Old School Papermate

Some pens live in your heart, some pens live in your desk. Thankfully, this one lives somewhere
in between. Those two little hearts have seen a lot.

I really think this might have been the first pen that I really craved writing with back in the day. (Those days were filled with sk8ting, BMX, Ska and general adolescence.) However, I still took my pens very seriously, even if I didn't know what I was writing, I still wanted to enjoy the process and the idea of writing.

(Yes, I actually polished this for the pictures.) I know that times change and some pen styles move on. My tastes in pens have definitely changed (and there's very little Ska music in my iTouch) but I still like to appreciate whatever I am writing with. I can't say I use this pen often, or its in the rotation, but it's good to remember where your roots are and where your habits come from.

This pen is sort of like having a 1974 Volkwagon Superbeetle in the garage. It's cool, fun to take out, but in general, it just sits there. Have a great weekend and I will get to the comments and emails before Monday. Cheers.

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.