
The Best Pen (2015) - Tomte
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-pen/
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dwe3000
This article focuses on ink flow, which I understand as important, but my
favorite pen is my favorite because of something completely different - the
body of the pen.

Personally, I do not like what I refer to as "fat" pens. My favorite pen is a
slim model ball point made years ago by Paper Mate. They no longer make it. At
its widest, it is not much bigger than a standard number 2 pencil (it's
narrower than a Fisher Space Pen). All of the larger, "ergonomic" pens I have
ever held remind me of the twice as thick pencils used in pre-school and
kindergarten when I didn't have the fine motor skills to hold the smaller
pencil - maybe okay back then, but not what I want now.

~~~
hga
Absolutely!

Hmmm, I can get cheap ball point pens (round Bic Sticks), and I've been able
to find narrow fountain pens, but I gather trying to find good ones in-between
these extremes is a lost cause?

~~~
dwe3000
I have looked in what I believe to be the step above the Bic pens - 5-10 USD
range - and it has been harder and harder to find anything I like.

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NoGravitas
I personally don't like the uni-ball Jetstream very much. Here's where I'm
coming from:

I'm a fountain pen aficionado, but I have various troubles with fountain pens
that mean it's not practical for me to carry them around. (In particular, if I
insist on carrying them upright in a pocket or the pen-loop of a notebook or
messenger bag, somehow I always end up breaking off the clip. But if I just
dump them in a pocket of a bag, then they're not upright, and they leak into
the cap.) So what I want is a pen that performs more or less like a fountain
pen, but without the inconveniences. In particular, it needs to write with a
smooth, wet line, and never skip or require pressure to write, and it needs to
not leak if just dumped in a bag.

The Jetstream does not meet my needs because it writes like a ballpoint. It
puts out a thin, dry line, and requires some pressure to write.

The best pen I've found for my needs is also from uni-ball, however. The uni-
ball Vision Elite is the rollerball pen that comes closest to the fountain pen
experience for me. After that, the next choices would be either a group of gel
pens: the uni-ball Signo, or the Pilot G2. Neither is quite as fountain pen
like as the Vision Elite, but they're both quite reasonable.

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londons_explore
I just want a pen I can leave in a drawer for years and then when I finally
want to use it not find it dried up and not working.

~~~
Tomte
Pencil. Not the high-tech mechanical ones. A simple pencil.

~~~
NoGravitas
Murphy's Law would require that all the pencils the parent posters find in a
drawer be broken.

