Sailor Highace Neo fountain pen

I love pens! Even so, I had never owned, or even used a fountain pen. I was intimidated by them for some reason. Lately my pen collection has been growing. I've discovered micro-tip gel pens as well as the Retro 51 Tornado. I'm altering ink refills to fit the barrels I prefer. I am getting in deep. Still, I didn't have a fountain pen. I always assumed a fountain pen would give a blotchy inconsistent ink flow. I was sure the liquid ink would bleed through to the other side of the page, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'm sure some fountain pens do those things, but the one I picked is nearly perfect what I needed.

I was pretty well set on buying the Lamy Safari extra fine nib. However, before I pulled the trigger I sent a message to Brad Dowdy (@dowdyism on twitter), author of penaddict.com. He kindly replied to me and recommended I look into the Sailor Highace Neo. I checked it out and I was sold. I put in my order.

The Sailor Highace is a great starter fountain pen. The fine nib with Sailor blue black ink is a nice combination. It feels so good to write with. The line is sharp and clear and there is no bleed-through whatsoever. It looks and feels great on the Moleskine paper I most commonly use.

The pen is extremely light-weight. I knew this going in and was worried it would feel "cheap". It doesn't. It is light, but feels well made. With the cap posted it has a great balance. I thought the Retro 51 Tornado was the best feeling pen to write with, but this one is definitely in the running. My hands typically feel fatigued after a long stint of writing. I wrote for a long time with the Sailor and my hand still felt fine. The light weight combined with the lighter pressure required for the fountain pen made for an extremely comfortable writing experience.

I almost never write with blue ink. I always reach for black first. When I was deciding on this pen something made me go with the Sailor blue black ink. I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't know whether it would be extremely dark blue or what. It is just normal blue, which I was a little disappointed with, but other that that is is really great ink. It does on very smooth and the line is consistent. I am going to go ahead and buy some of the black ink too just to have it around. I know I will use them. I have a feeling I am going to be going through a lot of ink with this pen.

My line up of favorites

Life Is Too Short To Carry an Ugly Pen

A few weeks ago I had never even heard of the company Retro 1951, or the Tornado pen. Now I own two of them. I’m probably going to buy at least one more. I’ve talked about my pen problem before, but it is getting worse. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole. My name is Deric, I am a penaholic.

I’m not sure what I love best about the Retro 1951. It comes in an awesome box. You open the box to reveal an awesome metal canister. You pull that apart to see your shiny new Tornado safely enveloped in a velvet pouch. The pen is the best constructed pen I have ever felt. It is all metal and the weight is perfect. It is a retractable pen, but they don’t mess with any of that click-y stuff. Nope. There is a metal gnurled knob at the top that you turn to bring forth the ink.

I mentioned I have two of them now. I got a classic stainless first. It looks amazing. They recently came out with the Stealth. It is an all blacked-out pen with a powder coated barrel. I couldn’t resist. I got it last week. They are easily the best feeling pens I have ever used. You can get the stainless for less than $20, which isn't bad at all for what you get. The Stealth was a little more than that, but not much.

The only thing I am not totally in love with on the Tornado is the ink. The ink is great, but it is liquid ink roller ball. I'm not a huge fan of liquid ink pens. It tends to bleed through the page onto the other side. There are some applications where I enjoy using it, but for most writing I want a ball point ink. Parker and Schmidt each have really great ball point refills that fit the Retro 51 Tornado perfectly.

I've already planned out my next Tornado purchase. There is a new "Lincoln" model that is pretty sweet. Before I know it I am going to be a collector. If you like pens, you will like the Tornado.

retro51.com

I have a pen problem

My obsession with writing utensils goes way back, but lately it is getting worse. For the last several months I have followed the Pen Addict blog. I enjoy seeing what new pens are coming out and how they all stack up.  I have a huge stable of pens that is always growing. I'm switching it up all the time depending on the task.

Zebra F-701

I've always loved the extra fine point Pilot G2 pens, and still use them quite a bit at work for taking notes. However, a few months ago, my main pen became the Zebra F-701 extra fine ball-point pen with the knurled grip. It is a great pen that looks good and feels nice, but on certain types of paper the ink isn't smooth.  It makes me miss the gel ink. I was a little dissatisfied so I set out to find a new pen.

In the past month the author of penaddict.com started a podcast. I was flooded with all different possible options for my new best pen. I've tried out a bunch, which means I bought a bunch of pens. Good thing it is a fairly cheap hobby. I've found a couple awesome pens I hadn't tried before that I will definitely keep stocked in my arsenal.

The Uni-ball Jetstream has been around for quite a while, but I had never tried it. I bought a pack of Uni-ball pens years ago and hated them, so I have been hesitant to try them again. However, the Jetstream is really good. The ink is a hybrid between a gel and a traditional ball-point ink. It is really smooth, but doesn't bleed like gel pens do. The standard 1mm point is too bold for my liking. The 0.7mm is good, but I wish there were a 0.5mm. Still it is a solid pen.

There was one pen that really intrigued me, but you can't buy it in any stores. The Pilot Hi-Tec-C (or G-Tec-C) has to be ordered online. I decided to bite the bullet and get a pack of multi-color 0.4mm pens to try out. I got them a few days ago, and I think I have a new favorite pen. I've been using them a ton. It is a gel ink so it goes on really smooth, but it is such a thin line with a precise needle point. At first it felt scratchy, but once the ink started flowing better it got much smoother.

The pen writes so nice, but I also want my pens to look cool. The Hi-Tec-C definitely does not look cool. It is a basic stick pen with a clear plastic barrel. I was excited to see a kickstarter campaign that addressed my issue with the bland form factor. I put in my pledge and should have my black P1 Premier pen sometime in May.

For now the Pilot Hi-Tec-C is my main pen, and I expect it to stay that way until the next awesome pen comes along. I really like fine point pens. If you like a bold point, then this probably isn't the pen for you. I wish I could buy ink refills in a store, but it looks like I am going to have to order them anytime I run out. I'm glad Amazon has these pens available.

Journaling and Pens

*just a warning - after writing this post I went back and read it, only to realize it was the most boring and pointless thing I have ever written.  you might as well just skip it

Yesterday was my birthday.  I am now 28 years old.  I don't feel any different or anything like that, and I didn't find it to be such a momentous occasion.  Birthdays are fine, but in the end it is just another day.  Maybe when I turn 30 it will seem more important.  More likely it will just feel more sad.  For my birthday my wonderful wife bought me a gift I Have been wanting for a very long time.  She got me a moleskine notebook.  I realize moleskine notebooks are a very hipster trendy thing to own.  I don't own it so I can look cool and artistic while I write at Starbucks. I freaking hate Starbucks.  No, I just really enjoy writing.

I have been keeping a journal since my freshman year of college. I wish I would have started writing one during high school. I would love to go back and read that now.  I don't really know why I started one, but I have done a fairly decent job of keeping up with it on a regular basis for the last 9 years.  I started out with pen and paper.  For the first couple years I wrote only this way.  Then I realized how much faster it is to type things out.  I started a soft-copy version, and rarely wrote anything in the hard-copy version.  To add to the fragmentation, I started this blog.  This is hardly a journal at all, I am not even sure why the hell I feel the need to write on a website that everybody can read.