Moleskine Rollerball Pen

Ever since I saw sketches of the new Moleskine line of writing instruments on the Moleskine website, I’ve been DYING to get my hands on the rollerball pen.  This past week, Moleskine held various events in New York showcasing the new line of products.

On my monthly visit to my favorite pen and paper stores, I discovered that A.I. Friedman on 18^th Street had the entire new line available for purchase.  My heart actually started to race.  After I checked out the other items, I decided to purchase the standard pen.  Retailing for $14.95, the Rollerball Pen comes in medium (.7mm) and fine (.5 mm) points.  The refill colors include black, blue, green, purple, red and brown in .7 mm but only blackand blue in .5mm.   I hope this changes because I'd love to buy purple and brown inks in .5 mm.  The design of the pen maintains Moleksine's trademark simplicity.

The cap is designed to be attached to your Moleskine horiztonally.   The word "Moleskine" is imprinted on the cap which I didn't realize until I took a picture of the cap.

To change the ink, you must unscrew the end of the pen.  There is a spring attached to the corkscrew part of the cap.  The other end of the spring is attached to the ink cartridge. 

The pen provides a very smooth writing experience.  I prefer needle points for my fine line pens but the lack of a needle point won’t deter me from using the pen.  The rectangular grip means that my handwriting slants more to the right than usual.  It’s a very comfortable grip and doesn’t appear to cause fatigue, although I won’t be able to confirm this until I put the pen to a test over the next week. 

After I wrote my initial review, I went to the Moleskineus.com website to read more about the features. Turns out, there are little labels included in the package.  You can attach the label to the end of the cap to indicate the ink color.  Luckily, I didn't throw the package away or I would have thrown out the labels.  The labels are housed within the left side of the package.  The package also includes the typical Moleskine insert although this one talks about Moleskine as "a brand that encompasses a family of nomadic objects..."

The website mentions that the pen includes a faux-suede carrying sleeve.  My pen didn't include one.  I'm going to write to Moleskine to find out what's going on.  

Bic 4 Color Soft Grip Pen

On a recent visit to Target in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I discovered a new Bic 4 Color Soft Grip Ball Point Pen (“ Soft Grip”).  Bic multi pens bring back fond memories of junior high school in the early 80’s.  My friends and I would write long letters to each other using a different color ink for each sentence.   I had picked up the Bic 4 Color “Fashion Colors” Ball Point Pen (“Fashion Colors”) pen at a Walmart in Florida and was interested in trying the new Grip version.  The new Soft Grip version looks great and less juvenile than other Bic multi-pens. It has a black body with grey cap.  The grip is similar to the rubberized grip I’ve seen on other retractable Bic pens.

I’m not that particular about multi-pens, mainly because I find the body of the pen too thick.  I do love the convenience of having a variety of inks at my fingertips.  I just wish I could find it in a thinner body.

Except for the green, the inks are nice and dark.  All of the inks flowed freely from the very first pen stroke.  I don’t think I’ll use the pen on a regular basis but it’s nice to have in my collection.  I’ll probably try this pen all next week before making a decision about its place in my rotation of pens and pencils.  One great benefit of it being in black is I don’t think I’d be ashamed to use it in the office.

Compared to the Fashion Colors model,  the Soft Grip model has a much thicker barrel.  While I like the comfort of the grip, it seems to me that they should be able to make a smaller barrel.

Here are writing samples and side by side comparisons of the both the Fashion Colors and Soft Grip model.

Muji Hexagonal Retractable Pens

My love affair with Muji started in November 2009 when I visited the Muji On-the Go store in the Jet Blue terminal at JFK airport.  Since then, I visit one of the 3 Manhattan Muji store locations about every other month.  I've always been a fan of the hexagonal stick pens.  On a recent visit, I discovered the hexagonal retractable pens.  They come in .38, .5 and .7 mm points with black, blue and red inks.  The .38mm is a true needle point which is different from the .38 mm refills from the "Make Your Own Pen" refills.  The .38 and .5 mm verions use gel ink while the .7 mm version uses a traditional oil based ball point pen ink.  The hexagonal shape makes for a comfortable grip on all of the pens. Both inks lay down a smooth line.  The .38mm version is my favorite as it works best with my writing style.  Unfortunately, the Muji on-line store does not sell the hexagonal retractable pens so you can only purchase them in one of the stores.  For anyone planning to fly into JFK on Jet Blue or anyone who lives in NYC, I highly recommend checking out the pens.

I also picked up the aluminum hexagonal retractable pen.  I'll save my review for another post.

Kinokuniya Run

Our office closed early today due to inclement weather so I decided to make a visit to one of my favorite stationary stores in New York, Kinokuniya. Today's purchase was a set of tabs that you stick to paper to create a permanent divider. I'm a huge fan of the Avery tabs but find them a little pricey now that the buy one, get one deal is over at Staples. Always on the search for new office supplies, I was interested to try out these tabs. They are created by Kokuyo. The package description states that it is a “Tack Index (Permanent Type)”. The 60 tab XL pack costs only $1.95. I think that’s a great deal. They also come in large, medium and small although I didn't pay much attention to those. I'll be picking them up on my next trip.

To use the tab, you write the desired information on the bottom half of the tab. You then peel it off the backing paper and affix the bottom half to the piece of paper in the desired location. To permanently affix the tab, fold it backwards and press both sides together. The middle of the tag is scored so aligning the sides is very easy.

The thing I like about them is that they are small enough and thin enough so that you can seamlessly affix the tab to the paper. They are also large enough so that you can write a significant amount of information, particularly if you use a .25 mm pen point. For my example, I added tabs to my notebook of Supernatural episodes. (I'll talk about my weird practice of taking notes on my some of my favorite television shows in a future post.)

The down side is that the tabs are permanent. Although, if I decide that I'm unhappy with the placement of a tab, I can easily cut it off. I don't see that this would be a particular drawback for me but it is one way in which Avery tab would work better. I definitely plan to start using these at work to mark frequently used documents in my various three (3) ring binders.

Staples Run

Ever since http://www.penaddict.com/ mentioned that he got some great deals at Staples, I've been on a mission to duplicate his deals.  Living in NYC, I'm used to missing out on deals available in other areas.  However, I was not going to rest until I found the Ecosystem journals.  Finally, my hard work paid off.  I found the journals!  I scored the medium lined journals (5 1/4 x 8 1/4) for $4.10 and the small lined journals (3 5/8 x 5 5/8) for $2.70.

Medium

Small

 



I also picked up a really cute pencil pouch for $0.50.   When I purchased it, I assumed it was a regular pencil pouch.  When I got home, I discovered all of the neat features.  First of all, the pouch has 4 separate compartments.  The middle compartment has a velcro closure with a mesh pouch on each side.  I stored my Tombow pens on one side and  Le Pen pens on the other.

 

The other sections are zippered pouches.  One side has a pleated bottom.  I decided to put my Uniball Signo pens in that section.

The other side is a slim, zippered section.  This side houses a variety of Pilot Hi-Tec and G-Tec pens.

I think I would like the pouch more if it had pleated compartments on both sides instead of just one.  But at $0.50, it's a great deal.