Bic Triumph 537R

So a couple of months back I went to Staples looking for nothing in specific and found some somewhat expensive Bic pens. I decided to think about them and come back later, mostly because of previous dissapointment with Bic pens (including the Z4 leak back in 7th grade). I grabbed a 4 pack a few days later and tried it out.

This is one of the few refillable Bic pens (probably the only one unless you consider the 5 cents a piece stic pens, which are indeed refillable, but refills aren't sold -they must be sourced from another pen :|) and after trying it out I decided that it wasn't bad after all. It doesn't have the nice feel of Pilot or Uniball pens, but it doesn't feel like a Bic either.

Some people complain of ink bleeding, I was using them on regular bond paper (20lb 92 brightness, 30% recycled, Staples brand) and didn't notice anything bad, but if you are using 20lb notepads things might be different.

I still have to try the 730R ones, but that will be later, once I throw away some 3 or 4 (and an upcoming trip home means I will come back with ziploc bags full of pens)

In conclusion, not a bad pen, a departure from what we think when we hear "Bic". I'm not sure if I would buy another one though, I like more Pilots and Uniballs, so I might just go thru this 4-pack, maybe try the 730R and that will be it.

On a side note, there are many pens advertised as refillable, but aside from the Pilot G2 and Uniball Signo (regular, 7mm ones), refills are hard to come by unless you order them online, possibly in a big order (to avoid paying $2 for a refill and $7 for the shipping) and selection is sometimes limited.

Pictures will come once I find a pen (3 of them are sitting inside a box in my storage unit, the remaining one has been flying around my truck for the past week after I wrote down some coordinates while traveling on a dirt road and didn't put it back in my pocket

They're here!

After some inactivity, I have a story to share.

At the same time I moved for college, my family moved to an apartment, and in the process it seems like someone found my writing instruments drawers and got some new stuff, among them was a Uni M552, several pens and a Pentel Graph 1000 limited in blue.

I haven't been able to find another blue 0.5mm one (I think there's a few on Ebay selling from like Russia or Japan, so I'll have to take a look). Well, JetPens now has the 2nd edition of the limited edition, so I managed to order 3 of the champagne 0.5mm and a grey 0.3mm (they were out in 0.5mm) and they just got here (I wasn't expecting them until tomorrow), at this point I'm really happy. Even though the blue one was my favorite, these ones are really nice (and at some point they might end up being collectors items -like many other engineering/architecture things after 40 years).

Photos to follow later, in the meantime, here is a pic from JetPens

Going green

Well, after almost 2 months of inactivity here's a new review. I have plenty of pens to review, I just forget about it or don;t have time to do it.

This time is the Zebra Eco Sarasa Clip 0.7mm, I picked a 2-pack of these at Office Max during a sale they had last week, 25%off their eco products so I could not resist.

This pen is exactly the same as the Asian Sarasa Clip which you can get from JetPens (they now call it the Push Clip), the Sarasa Clip is not found at normal stores here in the US (not that I know of) but the Eco is. The main difference is that the Eco's clip is clear plastic as opposed to the clip of the Asian Clip which is the color of the ink. I feel it to be far more comfortable than the regular Sarasa, which is not bad at all, but the Clip is better.

The interesting part is this. According to their website, the Eco Sarasa is made of 81% post consumer waste, including Polypropylene (good, those grocery bags are filling up our landfills), Polycarbonate from CD's and headlamps and Polyacetal from cassette tape reels, plus the packaging that is 100% post consumer waste.

I feel that this is a good approach on becoming greener, of course, trying to get rid of things like paper magazines or newspapers is outrageous, but the idea of helping the environment using pens made of recyclable materials (which are already recycled) is good and not very expensive (unlike switching your 5.3L V8 Chevy Tahoe for a $45000 Hybrid Tahoe). Also remember that it takes a regular Sarasa cartridge so you can get a 0.4mm or 0.5mm cartridge from Jetpens and still be green enough. Uniball Signo and Pentel Energel / Hybrid Technica refills fit too (I did have a needle point Sarasa for a while)

The downside, it comes only in black, but hey, you can still put other cartridges in there. And the rubber grip tends to collect some lint.

The pictures will appear later since my camera is in my truck and I already feel the symptoms of sleep deprivation.

Uni-Ball Vision Needle Fine

A new addition to Uniball's lineup. It is available as Fine and Micro and in a variety of colors.

Contrary to what The Pen Addict did, I have to say that it is a really good pen, no bleed, almost no feathering and good feeling. The key is in the paper, it will perform miserably if you use 15/16lb regular paper, it will be barely decent with 20lb bond paper, and the best performance so far is in the Staples Eco-Easy Paper Pads, probably because of the paper composition (it's mainly a cellulose obtained from sugarcane bagasse), the only problem is that the ink doesn't dry out very fast, so you can have disastrous results (lefties, don't even try it).

I got a 4 pack of black ones at Walmart, and yes, the performance was bad at first, until I tried the Staples paper, which gave really good results.

The pen itself is a normal Vision, just that the graphics are different, the needle tip of course, and the end cap is from the UB Boxy, the Asia-Pacific version of the eye/Vision. The large cap with the clip is a new design.

Staples Eco-Friendly Writing Pads

Well, during a trip to Staples yesterday I stopped at the writing pads section and found a new product, some Staples brand Eco-Friendly Writing Pads, while taking a closer look the paper looked good quality, so I decided to get a 2-pack, after all, at $1.99+tax, $1/pad is decent.

After arriving home I decided to open one and check it, well, the paper is really good. Even though it feels as light as 15/16 lb paper, pens glide like it were 20 lb, and feathering is almost nonexistant. It has a slight bright and smooth texture which makes it feel so good.

The big deal in these pads is that the paper is made from sugarcane waste (bagasse), which is rich in cellulose, it is not recycled paper itself, just made from waste, and for being made out of waste, it is good. I assume that because of this material the paper looks different, I might be wrong though, but I don't care much for that.

Also, I find myself taking notes in class very often and then re-copying them neatly, because while you are rushing in class, everything is scratched, rewritten, fast drawings, etc, so the idea of spending $1 in a pad that might end up in the recycle can doesn't seem that bad, unlike throwing away a $3 Doane Paper pad for example. The only bad thing is that the back of the pad is thin cardboard, unlike many pads that have thick, rigid backs.

The pad has 50 sheets and comes in both letter size and a smaller one.

Here's the page for the letter size one http://www.staples.com/office/supplies/p4__253774_Business_Supplies_0_10051_SC1:CG10:CL140569 the website only has it in a 12-pack, so if you don't want 12, then stop by a Staples.

I finally have pictures for the blog, they will be up soon, together with 4 reviews.

Sanford Penguin

Well, not the usual pen review.

The Penguin was a marker made by Sanford years ago, it was marketed as a marker that could be used to mark stuff that was going to be frozen (hence the name). It is essentially a Sharpie that withstands freezing temperatures.

I managed to get one last week, brand new and it's great.

Even though I don't need a marker for frozen stuff, I got it more for it's historical/sentimental value. A Penguin was my first permanent marker, well, I borrowed it from my mom, but that was the first one, then a black sharpie came, then a blue one and then a red one. That was I'd guess around 93-94, and the marker has been missing for a long time, apparently, she gave it to my grandma, or she threw hers away and got one for my grandma , I have no idea. I know there's one in my grandma's kitchen, and I had been considering replacing it with a brand new Sharpie, just to keep it, but now I have a new one, so I'm fine.

I might not even use it a lot, since I have 2 black Twin Tip Sharpies and 3 Fine Industrial ones (plus a large stock of assorted Sharpie and Signal markers down in Panama, stock that will find it's way here).

BREAKING NEWS

First of all, The Pen Addict has moved from http://penaddiction.blogspot.com to www.penaddict.com , so please update your bookmarks.


Second, I'm hoping to have some pictures this week for new reviews, and I'm trying to play catch up. This is what I currently have pending

-Bic Round Stic Med
-Paper Mate Eagle Med
-Pilot VBall RT
-Pilot V5 / V5RT
-Pilot V7
-Pilot G2
-UB Vision Needle Micro / Fine
-Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip Fine / Med // believe it or not, these $2/dz pens are wonderful [and I got them for $0.99/dz this weekend]