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Best Pens for 2025

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Re: Best Pens for 2025

#81

Post by lqet »

SoftTalker wrote: post #41
criddell wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren’t buying them from Amazon, are you? I’ve never had a genuine Bic do that, but I’ve had some cheapo bootlegs leak.

No this goes back decades. Ever since I can remember.

Interesting, I never had this problem with a Cristal. With cheap marketing pens, sure, after some use, they leak and smear, and some of them seem to have only small amounts of ink in them.

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#82

Post by dsign »

I've been programming some CAD algorithms during the last two months and found myself buying cheap pens for a cheap plotter (a Silhouette machine), to make geometric diagrams. Can't say that the process is more efficient than a color printer[^1], but it is way cheaper than those damn color toners and the profit-maximizing ways the printer accounts for its consumption. And the pen strokes on paper look cool, and one can chose different pens to draw different layers in the diagrams.

[^1]: Though, in truth, the plotter is extremely reliable and fast. Inkjet printers on the other hand have a lengthy warmup and drivers are finicky to the point one imagines they constantly are on the lookout for new ways to botch a job.

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#83

Post by atoav »

I had written a ton using Muji Gel rollers which are a neat compromise of not being to expensive and good to write with.

In the recent months I went back to writing with a mechanical pen as I found one that fixed the issue of having to rotate the pen to keep the same stroke width (Kuru Toga Uni).

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#84

Post by wink »

My writing utensil of choice (I don't write a lot by hand) for the last decade was a whatever-its-called 0.5mm gel pen from Muji. Picked one up in my first visit to a Muji store in HK in 2012 and have since grabbed a couple more when I could.

Doesn't have to be expensive, I think it was below 2 bucks.

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#85

Post by detritus »

lqet wrote: post #16

I have used a standard Lamy fountain pen for 11 years in school, and later several higher-end products (ball pens and fountain pens). But a few years ago I discovered that I really like writing with the Bic Cristal [0]. It's reliable and writing feels very smooth (even better than with some Lamy products I own). I also like that it has exactly the same shape as a classic pencil. Of course it is also very relaxing to…

I bought my daughter a set of multi-colour Bic Cristal pens and, aside from a weird plug that had to be removed from each tip (intentional? dried-up ink from the manufacturing process?) the textural quality of the ink is wonderful. I don't know what it is or how it's different from normal Bics but they are a pure joy to write with.

So I bought myself a set and now write in pink at work... .

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#86

Post by onemoresoop »

dqv wrote: post #80
onemoresoop wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

40 for a pen seems excessive for a regular budget even if 40 is not a lot of money anymore

Yes, like the GP says, it's a luxury pen. They didn't buy it for purely utilitarian reasons. They might like that it has an all-metal construction or that it weighs 88g. They might prefer the ink formulation used for the cartridges. They might like how the pen works in their preferred notebook. For many people, tactility (and other sensations too) is just as, if not, more important than, utility.

Only if this pen were a daily driver and not just kept in a case because, well, it’s expensive and we collect stuff..

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#87

Post by psd1 »

tiltowait wrote: post #54

I really like fountain pens and would love a Lamy Safari, Parker 51, Pilot 74, or any of the other pens that have caught my interest over the years. Like many people with similar interests, though, I know they'd just collect dust. I did buy a few Uni Kuro Toga pencils a few years ago (the cheaper models). They're neat. And they collect dust. If nothing else, I enjoy reading articles like this. It may be a world I'll…

I adore my Parker Vectors. Design classics and dirt cheap. I lose them more than I break them, but that's OK because I always have several.

I'd love a nice 51 but I'd probably drop it. The Vector writes very nicely at a fraction of the price, and it's not too showy to whip out in public.

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#88

Post by devchix »

Lamy Safari friends, I bought one, and it went unused for years because it was no fun to write with. The nib was scratchy, not feedback, scratchy, and no small tweak ever made it smooth. I was on the verge of buying a sheet of micro-mesh to fix it when I came to my senses, what the hell was I doing, like trying to fix a smokey candlewick for light. I thought to myself, it can't all be like this, and bought a TWSBI Eco. This was going to be my last fountain pen if it didn't work out. And, dear readers, it is amazing! It writes like butter, words cannot describe, I whip it out every chance I get to write with it.

(The Lamy does OK with a very wet ink and cheap printer paper. I use it to doodle, so all is not lost.)

Re: Best Pens for 2025

#89

Post by jq-r »

captainclam wrote: post #70

Pens are all well and good, but what are people's favorite notebooks? I've found that the paper is perhaps just as important as the pen in a satisfactory writing experience.

I've had couple of those popular ones, but settled (for at least couple of months now) on Kukuyo Campus A5 binder and Tomoe River Loose leaf sheets. I had to punch holes with a Carl 20 hole puncher but the combination is great. It gives you the way to sort your papers (eg remove temp ones) with the arguably best paper for fountain inks.
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