uni-ball Vision Elite Bold 0.8 Blue/Black (come fly with me.)

uni-ball got it right on this one. I hooked up with these guys on Twitter and they fired these off for me to take a look at. All I needed to see was "Blue/Black on the packaging and I was sold. I am a huge fan of my blue/black fountain pen ink, so to get that combo in a roller ball is awesome and very welcomed from the norm.

Their bold is listed as a .08 and that feels about right compared to my .7's. Not too bold, just right. I just cant got over how great the color of this ink is. I mentioned that already right? A larger view gives you a better look.

I never noticed this before on their packages, but they claim they "won't leak in flight." which is a huge bonus considering the traveling I have been doing. Now you know why in the first picture the pen is resting on two planes. I am trying to be a little clever here as well. This is a good pen, I am throwing on in the travel bag as well.

The waiter at the restaurant I went to tonight had 3 black G-2's perfectly lined up in his apron, but gave me a crappy ballpoint to sign my check. (Smart man.)

Uni-ball Jet Stream RT 1.0

I hooked up with Uni-ball and Sharpie and they were gracious enough to send a few pens out for reviews and I have to say this pen definitely surprised me with how well it writes from the start.. The grip runs the whole way through the body and the pen feels a little thicker than usual which is very welcome to me.

Nice fat Bold 1.0 point. I probably would not have grabbed this off of the shelf if I had not had the chance to write with it first. I tended to stay away from the 1.0, but this pen changed my mind a on that. It works pretty well on my 3x5 cards and writes smoothly on a small cheap sketchbook I use.

I am staying with the flying theme today (Jet Stream, get it?) Click for a better view. It's very true.


In other news, last night was a marathon fountain pen restoring session. Wow, that makes me sound very boring. I wish I could match some of the older ink colors I find cemented inside of these 50+ year old pens for my own. Last night was an older Parker with an insane aqua-blue that I need to go find a match for.

Sanford Uni-ball Micro (You are to blame)

Every now and then science makes a great discovery, something that ties together a string of unanswered questions, or explains the unexplainable. Like cracking the Genetic code in the 60's or the Neutron in 1935 or Silly Putty in 1943. I believe that this pen is what sent me over the edge into pen lunacy. I remember always having these pens handy and it was probably the only pen I wrote with for a long time.


At the time they seemed like the perfect pen to me; lightweight, thin, great colors and with a smooth line that was consistent. I am not sure if my tastes refined, or if I over-used this pen but the tide turned and sadly, I barely write with these pens anymore.


It is important to remember where your roots are and where things start from. Writing with this pen I was still impressed with how classic and smooth this pen writes. I am not sure if it will go back into use, but it's nice to know that I have these if needed again. Good pen.

Uni-Ball Signo 207 takes a bath

There's a huge sticker on the front of the package that says "Helps prevent check fraud." Sanford uses a special ink formula that traps the ink into the paper fiber to prevent washing your info off of your checks.

So being the curious fellow that I am, I wrote down a quote and did my best to get rid of it.

Click for better views....I did not feel like having a bunch of guys in suits knocking on my door so I didn't do any online research on how to commit check fraud. I did do a 6 hour soak and then sprayed on some Spray and Wash and gave it a little scrubbing. The first picture is just after the soak.

It reminds me of the Office Space quote: "I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "money laundering" in the dictionary." Good Stuff.


This was after the scrubbing. Bottom line, it held up very well. In the past I would sign my checks with a fountain pen, but... no more, this is my new pen of choice when it comes time to give that little punk up the street a check for mowing my lawn. (I never trusted him anyway.)


It's a Good Pen. It's a .7 and writes like it,  puts down a nice fat line of ink.  There's one more day to get your guess in on winning a free pen. Just check yesterdays post, and the winner will be announced tomorrow.

Uni-ball Vision RT bargain bucket

As always, click for better views.....When I go to Staples, I usually head to the bargain table. I just scan through the pen aisle because I tend to just see the usual suspects and move on. Last time, in the clearance bucket was a ton of pens, so I grabbed a handful and headed to the checkout without really seeing what I had.

Turns out, I got a bunch of these and a few pretty cool mechanical pencils that I will review later. But this pen was a little bit of a surprise to me. So far, no skips, blobs, or messes, the point looks like it's somewhere around a .6 and the ink is nice and black. I think the RT might stand for "retractable tip" because when the clip is opened, it retracts into the pen. Or I could be an idiot and it means something else like righteous tip, regal tamale, renegade tomboy, who knows. But anyway...the mystery remains.

I have been using this on my 3 x 5 cards and they make a nice combo. It's a Good Pen. It looks like retail was around 2.99 so for my .50 it was also a Good Buy.

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.