Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

jetpens.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 202 posts

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#21

Post by dragontamer »

I spend way more money on jetpens's selection of notebooks than pens though. Also, I tend to prefer pencil, and will recommend the Pentel Kerry.

---------

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The future of online stores is jetpens and websites like it. Jetpens is useful because I trust their reviews.

They're a store, yes, but more importantly, they're a trustworthy source of information. Amazon reviews are no longer trusted by me, but all of the discussion / reviews from Jetpens has been 100% accurate in my experience. They've managed to build up this relationship with their customers (such as myself) where I will trust their reviews and prefer to buy from them.

Bonus points: a shop like Jetpens organizes their journals in A5, B5, A4, (etc. etc.) sizes. Amazon does not. Custom browsing experiences / categorizations is a big deal. Logically presenting Jetpen's catalog to the user makes me more likely to use their site and end up buying something.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#22

Post by giraffe_lady »

rektide wrote: post #10
eschneider wrote: post #2

I heartily agree with their fountain pen choices. The Pilot Metropolitan is insanely good for a cheap pen that you can take anywhere and the TWSBI GO is my go-to daily driver. It leads me to believe that the rest of the reviews are likely good.

I bought a moonman m2 a long time ago and really love it but also if I travel with it I end up bringing a whole cleanup kit because even with care I tend to have at least once where ink comes out into the cap. Is this just a fact of life with fountain pens in general? I love the writing but keeping them clean & operational has been non-trivial for me.

If you drop one or bang it hard you'll usually get some ink in the cap yeah. Finer or more recessed nibs reduce the effect. Pilot also has a line of retractable fountain pens that almost completely eliminate it.

The pressure changes when flying can force ink out the nib as well. I've heard people say you can prevent it by having the reservoir completely full but I fly with it empty or usually just leave it at home.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#23

Post by meindnoch »

kstrauser wrote: post #20

Fountain pens completely changed how I write. I've always gripped ballpoints like my life depended on it and gotten hand cramps from how hard I press them down. I don't want to, and can temporarily stop doing that when I consciously notice, but then I forget and go back to trying to stab the desktop through the paper. A Lamy Safari's triangular shape makes it physically hard to hold the "wrong" way. It nudges me to w…

I'd love to use fountain pens. Unfortunately, I'm left-handed.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#25

Post by RobotToaster »

eschneider wrote: post #2

I heartily agree with their fountain pen choices. The Pilot Metropolitan is insanely good for a cheap pen that you can take anywhere and the TWSBI GO is my go-to daily driver. It leads me to believe that the rest of the reviews are likely good.

The vanishing point is an amazing pen too, if a little pricy.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#26

Post by MisterPea »

Glad to see fountain pen enthusiasts here. I'm embarrassed to say how much I've spent on them over the years.

I agree with their recommendations, especially the TWSBI ECO Fountain Pen - would recommend that over the Pilot Metropolitan, but both are great.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#27

Post by nordsieck »

warner25 wrote: post #18

I have a bag of BIC Cristal pens that I've been working through for over a decade now. There are still a few left. What am I missing? I've used a lot of random pens when signing my name at various places of business, and none of them seemed better to me than a BIC Cristal. In fact, many are so much worse that I usually bring my own BIC Cristal to places where I know I'll be filling out paperwork.

My favorite are the Bic Round Stic pens. I like to write small, and I find that most other pens have more flow than I want.

It also helps that they're dirt cheap, so I can just get a big bunch like you and I don't have to care if I lose one here or there.

Ironically, I find that if I only have a few pens, I start to lose them over time, but if I have a large amount, I actually accumulate pens. Not sure how that works.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#28

Post by ArcMex »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #19
warner25 wrote: post #18

I have a bag of BIC Cristal pens that I've been working through for over a decade now. There are still a few left. What am I missing? I've used a lot of random pens when signing my name at various places of business, and none of them seemed better to me than a BIC Cristal. In fact, many are so much worse that I usually bring my own BIC Cristal to places where I know I'll be filling out paperwork.

Tactile experience and aesthetics mostly. If you're fine with what you use don't worry about it.

Highly agree on tactile experience. I have Zebra Blen 0.7 and 0.5 for everyday use and they are much better than my BIC pens to me.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#29

Post by dragontamer »

chrisweekly wrote: post #24

Tangent: When it comes to mechanical pencils, the Pentel GraphGear 1000 is really, really good. Let alone for like $10.

Depends. Its a heavy pencil with a sharp-ish point, making it ill-suited for carrying in your pocket.

I'd say the GraphGear 1000 is great as a "stay on the table" kind of mechanical pencil. But if you plan to carry it around with you all day, Pentel Kerry is far superior.

GraphGear 1000 might be good for a backpack or purse though.

Re: The Best Pens for 2023: Gel, Ballpoint, Rollerball, and Fountain Pens

#30

Post by ben7799 »

I'm left handed and have used this site before.

I have a bunch of Uni-ball Jetstream pens that I'm real happy about. I learned about those from this site in one of their previous articles.

I can't tell if they're saying the Jetstream is no longer as good as it was, or these other new pens are even better, or they're just kind of pushing something new.

I'm tempted to order some of the Pentel Energels, Pilot Multiball, etc.. I'm not a highlighter person so don't care about that one. I guess the other thing is knowing some other options to look for in a pinch. The Uni-ball Jetstream is not commonly found in stores near me. I generally have to order them. If the Pentel/Pilot options are more common I need to keep that in mind.

Their specific articles on left handedness explain a ton.. I never connected any of the effects (cramping, calluses, scraping the paper, etc..) other than smudging because I never really thought about how righties are pulling across the paper in left-to-right languages and lefties are pushing across the paper. It also explains why fountain pens are so brutal for lefties. They're so annoying maybe it explains why they used to try so hard to get left handed people to learn to switch for writing. I actually think I'd have been fine if forced to switch.

My silliest pen story was walking into a fancy pen store and the sales person was a total snob. He lost a sure fire sale instantly based on judging me on my clothes or something. None of the pens had prices and when I asked about one he said if I had to ask I couldn't afford it. I wanted to come back and say I could buy every pen in the store or maybe the whole store, which I might have very well been able to. They went out of business. (Part of this was they were renting space in the mall, they didn't own their premises)

Post reply on HN