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loonarfyn · 6 months ago

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sol's pen review!

due to popular demand (got 3 likes on priv) i'm going to do a pen review!!!

but first, some background. sol, what makes you qualified to review pens? and my answer is I'm Not. this is an unserious blog post and i Will play favorites.

i'm surrounded by either artists, architects, or engineers (i study manufacturing design) so everyone has different pens, and we constantly recommend drafting tools to each other. over the course of many classes, i've accumulated way too many different pens, and i've gifted or lost the same amount. and i have a lot of opinions on them! so i thought Hey i should post them <3

disclaimer this post is extremely autistic and extremely lengthy. read at your own risk hehehehehehe

this review will be broken down into 4 parts:

an explanation of the rating system

an explanation of common ink types

the actual review itself

a conclusion (skip to this part for my favorite pen!)

the rating system

to keep it simple, i have 3 categories. each can be rating from 1-5 stars!!! none of these categories will be objective, and they're all my definition of what the word means. i'm not a fan of extremely engineered pens so keep that in mind!

in order of importance:

drying time and bleeding: i decided to put these two subcategories together because they both affect how the paper absorbs the ink

drying time: 1 star = so so so slow, 5 stars = so so so fast. i work quickly and when i'm drafting, i need to be able to move my ruler over lines without wasting much time in between, and i don't want to smudge them

bleeding: a little bit different than drying time--it's is how the ink shows up on the back of the paper. not a super big priority for me when i'm sketching/drafting because i tend to use thicker plain paper, but when taking notes, i need to know if the ink will bleed through or feather.

smoothness: how easily the pen writes and if the ink comes out consistently

comfort: self explanatory??? 1 star means super uncomfortable, i can't hold it for long. 5 stars means i could probably work with it for 2 hours or so before i get tired. note: i don't enjoy super soft grips.

common ink types

oil based (ballpoint ink): water resistant, requires a high amount of pressure for ink to be smooth, cheapest, lasts forever. tends to come out a bit streaky if the ball gets stuck.

oil and gum based (gel ink): slightly water resistant, generally smooth and consistent, best choice for note-taking and bold lines. may smudge when drying.

water based (rollerball ink): water soluble, runny, requires little pressure to write, ink is used up quickly, dries slowly, may feather.

alcohol based: more common among markers than pens, prone to feathering, strong smell, permanent, quick-drying.

the review!!!

ok jesus christ i've done so much research on pens for this Anway!!! let's do some actual reviews!!! i have a nice even 10 pens that i use typically (some more than others).

3 are oil based, 2 are gel based, 4 are water based and 1 is alcohol based! all pens are tested on strathmore 60 lb sketching paper.

let's start with oil based ink

bic round stic (m)

drying time/bleeding: 5 smoothness: 2 comfort: 2 total: 3/5

this is probably The pen ever. everyone's got one, and they either hate it or have minimal feelings towards it. pretty inconsistent when it comes to ink flow, but still smooth. it definitely isn't a pen i pick up first, but it's the first pen i lend out, just in case whoever's borrowing it forgets to give it back. my current one lives in my pocket and has scratches all over it! i have no idea where it originated from but it's stuck with me until i lose it <3

2. zebra jimnie clip

drying time/bleeding: 5 smoothness: 1 comfort: 1 total: 2.3/5

i'm pretty sure i actually have an older version of this pen because mine doesn't have a white eco clip on it... anyway! i haven't used this pen in ages and it's Really bad. the only thing positive is that it's got absolutely zero smudge. but this probably has the most people-unfriendly ink because it was genuinely Fighting Me. like this ink did not want to flow, which resulted in a faded and inconsistent pattern. might actually retire this one from The Bag because it's that bad.

3. pilot dr. grip 0.5

drying time/bleeding: 5 smoothness: 4 comfort: 2 total: 3.6/5

the thin point combined with the extremely squishy pen grip makes my lines shaky and uncontrolled, so i'm not a fan. it's also an oil pen, and these guys tend to be pretty inconsistent with the ink flow, resulting in streaky lines, as seen above. that being said, it still writes smoothly so i do pick this pen up when i have to write messy notes or if i have to write quickly! people have commented on how nice the pen writes, but it's not really for me.

onto the gel ink!

muji gel ink cap type 0.5

drying time/bleeding: 4 smoothness: 4.5 comfort: 4 total: 4.2/5

this is probably the New "everyone has this pen" slkdfhlskhdf especially among students! i used it a ton when writing notes in high school because it was smooth, minimalistic, and the ink dried fast. i haven't used this pen in a while just because it's better for writing over sketching since it's so thin (0.5 mm). but i still enjoy using it! great pen that deserves the hype <3

2. papermate inkjoy 0.5

drying time/bleeding: 3.5 smoothness: 4 comfort: 3.5 total: 3.7/5

when i think of The gel pen, i either i think of those cheap skinny capped ones, or the papermate inkjoy. all the cool kids in middle school had these. i still hold fond memories of them, and though i'm using the black pen, i remember one of my classmates having a whole rainbow of inkjoys in her pencil case. smooth, no smudge, with a really nice pigment. however, it Does tend to bleed so be careful if writing on thin paper!

next are the water based inks!

pilot g2 0.5

drying time/bleeding: 3 smoothness: 3.5 comfort: 4 total: 3.5/5

ohhh boy. the Cult Classic. right so i actually think this pen is overhyped. i have a medium grip strength, but whenever i write, i notice that the tip indents pretty heavily into the paper and the ink is so watery that i have to try really hard so that my letters don't connect to each other. it also bleeds a bit.

don't get me wrong, it's a good pen. pigmented, bold, a very nice thickness. i understand why lots of people use this as their daily pen but for me it's just too liquidy and not smooth enough for that flow to be worth it.

2. uniball 207 plus+

drying time/bleeding: 4/5 smoothness: 5 comfort: 5 total: 4.7/5

easily one of, if not The smoothest pen i've ever had the pleasure of testing. a furniture designer actually gifted this to me recently, and it's absolutely perfect for quick drawing. when i'm sketching, i'm aiming to communicate, and this is the pen i want to be able to whip out in order to show what i'm thinking. it's bold while being quick-drying, smooth, and comfortable to write with, and i feel confident when drawing my lines. while it does bleed a bit, this isn't a problem for me because i don't use this pen for anything but initial messy sketching.

3. papermate flair

drying time/bleeding: 3.5/5 smoothness: 3.5 comfort: 4 total: 3.7/5

it's a marker if it was a pen. that's basically it. and people Love this pen. if you asked a manufacturing design student if they have a flair pen in their bag At This Moment, chances are, they'll say yes. it's a no-frills, bold marker-pen that's popular for sketching. that being said, i am Not a fan. it sounds horrible to me when you drag it across a surface! and i don't like the way it feathers on thicker paper. also, i made the mistake once of running a marker over an outline drawn with a flair, and it smudged so hard it ruined the entire sketch. not too many good memories with this pen! but unfortunately, it's one of a kind which is why it has a high-ish rating.

4. sakura pigma micron 08

drying time/bleeding: 3 smoothness: 3 comfort: 5 total: 3.7/5

unlike the rest of this list, microns are fineliners, which have plastic tips instead of rolling balls that distribute ink. they use archival ink, which is the most permanent available ink often used in museums and other preservations. since fineliner tips tend to be extremely fragile (especially as you go thinner). i only use microns when i'm outlining a final mockup or floorplan, where the thinnest fineliners are the Best at what they do. i never use them for casual sketching (which can be aggressive).

i'd like to try more fineliner brands, but these pens are fawking expensive! be careful with them! for now this is the one everyone pretty much uses and i'm pretty okay with them! they don't cause me trouble, so i'm not itching to switch brands, if you get what i mean.

last but not least, we have our one and only (gowon reference) alcohol based pen

sharpie ultra fine point

drying time/bleeding: 3 smoothness: 2 comfort: 3 total: 2.7/5

sharpie is... a marker brand. their markers are great. permanent, long-lasting, a staple in every designer's bag. however, they don't do pens very well. the pen tends to leave an ink-ring around the tip, which stains hands. the ultra fine point is also a fineliner, which means it has a fragile plastic nib that splits after a while, and so you're left with a bunch of ink, but a messy nib.

i'm not sure why people would choose a sharpie over a micron or other established fineliners. (well. it's cheap i guess. and it does the job if you want to buy it in bulk for traditional art). but it also Smells like a sharpie, and Bleeds like one too. I don't have a lot of good things to say about this pen--it wasn't mine in the first place but i will not be purchasing it in the future.

OKAY WE'RE DONE!!!!! CONCLUSION!!!

thank you for reading until the end (or maybe you just skipped here idk lsdkhflisdhflshdf) but hopefully this is.... somewhat entertaining

my favorite pen for industrial sketching is definitely the uniball 207+ plus. if you get me started on this pen i'll never shut up so all i'm going to say is i will be buying a pack of 20 as soon as i either lose or finish this one.

for students/people who write a lot, you can't go wrong with the papermate ink joy. and look! it comes in all kinds of cool colors!!!!!! they're so fun and i love them. these come in 0.7 but the one i use is 0.5, which is plenty thick enough. also, the thicker you go, the more pens tend to bleed.

yay yay yippee now we're done for real hehehe

#pen review #jesus fucking christ #autism #this is 2k words of me talking about pens

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