Pentel EnerGel Needle Point Liquid Ink Pen

Many thanks to Brad and JetPens for sending me this Pentel EnerGel needle point liquid ink pen, which writes like a dream.


I love the true blue color of the ink, which does dry fast. There's something elegant about needle point tips the longer I look at one, although I can find them at times a bit disconcerting on first sight. I like how regular pen tips taper from the section down to the ball of the tip, and needle points seem strange and spiky.


I find myself looking for my needle point pens now because they are great for writing in really tiny spaces such as marking errata on knitting charts, which I've been doing a lot of lately--both knitting and catching mistakes in the pattern. With little space in the book for making changes, needle point tips are essential for correcting these errors and making notes. So the 0.5mm width of this tip seems quite good for what I need, but a 0.4mm or even 0.3mm would be great as well (if only EnerGel pens came with those tips!).

Definitely take a look when you're mulling over your next order from JetPens (I was looking at all of these items just the other day, someone got a great haul of goodies!)

Pentel Oh! Gel Retractable Gel Ink Pen

Pentel's Oh! Gel retractable gel ink pen is one of the largest pens, diameter-wise, that I've used in a long time It's a comfortable pen, the grip is soft rubber and the pen itself has great "hand feel" to it--not too heavy, not too big, but definitely noticeable next to all those skinny Pilot Hi-Tec gel inks.

Staples carries 5 packs of these pens, one pack in all black and one in a black-red-blue assortment which is what I bought. This blue is very dark, one of the darker blues I've seen in a gel ink pen that isn't a blue black. It's also got a thick, 0.7mm line width that isn't too big for my taste. The ink dries fairly quickly, so smearing shouldn't be a problem. The barrel has a nice diamond patter that's distinctive, while the clip is substantial without being heavy.

If you're looking for a substantial gel ink pen, one that you can't possibly loose among the clutter of your desk or bag, the Pentel Oh! Gel ink pen is something to check out.

Pentel Tradio Pulaman Fountain Pen

I like the way Tradio pens look and write, especially the EnerGel, so I decided to add a black Tradio Pulaman to my fountain pen collection. The fountain pen features an angled, flattened point on both sides of the tip so you can have thinner or thicker line widths as you change your grip and pressure on the point.

I wouldn't call this a fountain pen, although "strange rollerball" doesn't work either. It's an interesting take on the gel ink/felt tip pen, and as it's refillable it's a keeper. Perhaps the best thing about Tradio pens is their design and color selection, while the pen part itself is just a fine writing cartridge.

What I find interesting is that the refill itself is almost the entire Tradio Pulaman fountain pen (and Stylo, as well). The Tradio's cap and barrel are almost non-essential, you could just buy the refill, keep the clear cap (which is actually not that bad looking, style-wise), and use that as an efficient if different-looking gel ink pen.

Pentel VICUNA 0.7mm Gel Ink Pen

Stopped by Kinokuniya over the weekend to check out any new pens or notepads and saw this display for the Pentel VICUNA. I have to say I was rather taken by it: the display included a 12-page booklet in Japanese (to the left in the above picture) featuring a young woman in black, wearing a Michael Jacksonesque fedora, lots of black eyeliner, and pale lips. For some reason it reminds me of the Virginia Slims cigarette ads of the 70s.

From what I could find on the internet, the VICUNA is a "three ink" pen designed with women in mind ("You've come a long way baby" for those who remember that tag line). I think they simply mean three inks were blended to make the one black gel ink used in the cartridge in the pen. I did notice when writing with it that the black ink is very dark and lays down on the paper slightly damp but dries very fast. It's a nice pen, the colors are very cute (I chose purple, but could have gone with orange), and costs about $3.

What I'm curious to know is why it's call the VICUNA (all caps)--the plastic molded name on the pen even includes the tilde (the wavy line) over the capital "N" so it's definitely Spanish and meant to invoke the Andean camelid. Uhmm...huh?

UPDATE: Thanks to @PentelofAmerica on Twitter for getting an answer to my question:
"The Vicuna has smooth, smooth wool. And the ink on the Pentel Vicuna is smoooooooth." So that's why Pentel named the pen the VICUNA. #nowyouknow

Pentel Karen C4 Multi-Pen

Since I've been interested in multi-pens lately, I thought I'd check out this Pentel Karen C4 multi-pen, especially as I loved the pastel colors. It's not a bad pen, but it is a ball point and the line is too small for my taste although I normally love 0.5mm gel ink pens.

The pen itself is cute but not too cute: the pastel colors are lovely, and the green ink deploys when you press down on the pen clip, which is definitely cute. But I'm just not that into ballpoints, and I couldn't get into writing with this. I'm thinking a gel ink hack is in order, and will have to compare it to my Hi-Tec-C ink refills to get a sense if any will work. Otherwise, into the pen tray it goes for those rare times I need a ballpoint.

Pentel Tradio

Lots of reviews of the Pentel Tradio, especially here and here, and of the Tradio
fountain pen. I finally ordered one from JetPens, in a sedate gray color, and am now getting around to my own few words on the subject. It's a great rollerball, glides smoothly over the (Doane) paper, and has some nice design features. The hard plastic has a matte finish that's a touch silky, while the grip sports a wavy design that allows for a firm hold and no slip. I love the clear plastic windows on the side of the cap that allow you to see the pen tip, absolutely useless for anything but adornment. That's an interesting feature, as is the way the body of the pen nips-and-tucks in to accommodate the cap when posted.

Pentel Handy-Lines and Sharpie Accents

While hunting through the office supplies section at Rite Aid I came across a pack of Pentel Ultra Slim Handy-Lines, a retractable permanent marker that's also refillable. I like both ideas but especially the latter, as I really would rather not throw plastic things away. Billed as a fine point, the Handy-Lines marker is made from 55% post consumer recycled plastic and is part of the Pentel "recycology" campaign. The marker has a broad stroke, and the bleed through is spectacularly impressive--two sheets of Doane Paper were sacrificed, something I've never seen with any other marker I've tested before. Definitely a great marker for writing on CDs or DVDs or for other projects, but not for general note writing on paper.

The other two-pack that caught my eye was a set of Sharpie Accent retractable highlighters in yellow and pink. The feature Smear Guard technology, which resists smearing of many pen and marker inks. The pic to the left doesn't really capture how bright the colors are, but you can definitely see there was no smearing. I used it over the Handy-Lines marker, and almost no black ink was picked up on the highlighter tip (a yellow highlighter with black ink on the tip annoys me to no end). These will be tested against some gel and ballpoint inks, but the Sharpie Accents seems to be a great find for me as I want to highlight notes I make as well as books and magazines.