Pilot Juice, Hi-Tec C, and Zebra Sarasa Clip

Azizah over at Gourmet Pens recently posted a new (to me) online pen supplier and they were offering free shipping, so naturally I clicked on over and checked it out. I had seen the Pilot Juice pens at JetPens.com and added them to my wish list, but with JStationery.com offering free shipping I just couldn’t resist any longer. They have a really good selection and their prices are a little lower on some things, too. I’m not sure if the free shipping offer is still valid, but give it a try.

I ordered 3 Pilot Juice pens and a Zebra Sarasa Clip, all gel ink pens. Since I have been writing so many letters I’ve had the chance to use quite a few different pens and, other than fountain pens, gels pens have become a new favorite. Many ballpoints end up with ink collecting on the tips after a bit and leaving blobs on the paper, which makes me crazy! I have not had that issue with any of the gels pens.

Here are the Pilot Juice Pens:

Coral Pink (which is actually a 0.5mm), Brown, and Aqua Blue. They are pretty inexpensive, around $1.60, and although I had read a couple of glowing reviews, I didn’t expect to be impressed. I was wrong – they are wonderful! Smooth ink flow, no skipping or blobbing, and I love the ink colors.

I love a fine tip pen and these fit the bill perfectly. They are available in 0.38mm and 0.5mm tips at JStationery.com and 0.5mm at JetPens.com and just look at the colors!

The Zebra Sarasa Clip also got good reviews, so I decided to try one of those.

It’s another winner. 0.4mm fine tip, writes smoothly, and it comes in lots of pretty colors, too! Mine is Magenta, even though you probably can’t tell because of my lousy photo skills..

 

Next up is the Pilot Hi-Tec C, which came highly recommended by Delectable Pens. They have a super fine needle tip, similar to my beloved Pentel Slicci pens, so I had to try one. I ordered the strawberry color and it’s such a pretty shade of dark pink.

Here is a writing sample for both the Sarasa Clip and the Hi-Tec C. The Sarasa Clip retails for around $1.60 and is available is 0.4mm and 0.38mm tips. The Pilot Hi-Tec C is around $2.80 and is available in 0.25mm, 0.3mm. 0.4mm, and 0.5mm tips, and lots of gorgeous colors, of course.

If you are in the market for some inexpensive but awesome writing instruments, give these a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you found this information useful, and I promise to brush up on my photo skills so I can post better pen porn for you. If you have any questions, or just want to say hi, just leave a comment below.

I’m off to write some more letters…or maybe polish my nails.

Pentel Slicci and Pilot Penmanship Fountain Pen

I decided to start a new blog for my pen and paper reviews, since I couldn’t figure out if there was a way to burn an RSS feed for pages on Blogger. Most of my reviews will be about pens more than paper. I have a long standing love affair with pens, and now that they are available is so many different colors and configurations, I am truly and absolutely addicted. So let's get this party started!

JetPens.com has become one of my favorite websites, and feeds my pen addiction only too well. Pentel Slicci pens are one of my favorites and I started off with the 0.25mm which has a super fine tip. They come in such wonderful colors, it's hard to resist them.

See what I mean? Beautiful colors! They write very smoothly with no blobbing or skipping at all. I figured if the 0.25 was that perfect, maybe I should try the 0.4mm and even the 0.7mm. My order arrived yesterday! Here is a comparison of the 0.4 and the 0.7 (I forgot to add the 0.25mm, sorry. Next time, perhaps).

They are every bit as wonderful as the fine tip and even the 0.7mm is not too bold for me. I prefer a finer tip pen, so I tend to stay away from pens that are medium or bold tip, but this one is a winner.

I also ordered the Pilot Penmanship Fountain pen, which has a fine nib - a rare thing in fountains pens. It comes packaged in this Japanese language covered sleeve and includes one blue cartridge, which I promptly stored away and put a purple cartridge in it instead. I am a sucker for pretty ink colors. There is a writing sample on the page above with the Slicci samples.

Here is a closer look at the nib and the Ergo Grip. It is a little hard to see, but it has slight indentations all the way around, which make it a very comfortable pen to hold. It is made of hard plastic, so it's very lightweight, too. The little cap screws on and I wasn't sure I'd like that, but I don't mind it at all. It posts securely, too.

It does produce a very fine line and is a wee bit scratchy, but I hope that will wear off after a bit of use. All in all, I'm very happy with it.
Look what I found at Target today! Fold and Send letters! I had read about them on a couple of blogs and letter writing sites and was very excited to find them locally. There are 20 sheets and it was only $4.99 - not a bad price point. They only had 2 designs and the other one had cartoon dinosaurs on it, so I just bought this one. I hope they will get more designs at some point.

This is what the letter writing portion looks like - that's a fair amount of room for writing. The paper is kind of thin, and I don't think it would take fountain pen ink very well, but gel or ballpoint pens should work fine. I will give it a try and report back on that later. I suppose you could also enclose a couple of other sheets if this wasn't enough writing room, and just seal it more securely on the sides.

The front address section.

I think they are too cute and I will be writing a letter on one of them today to send out to a lettermo.com participant.
That's it for my first pen and paper review. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed it.