0. https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/comments/1fzacf9/...
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/comments/1439ru7/...
These cracks usually aren't obvious until they meet a conflicting load. For example, tapping threads up the end without supporting the work correctly. It's not like this is a load bearing part, they could get around this issue with a little care. Holding the work in a hex collet during tapping is cheap, adds efficiency, and would solve the problem. Sending feedback to the extruder is free and usually effective. Or maybe the product is moving well enough on brand equity that it's not worth bothering.
This story is so common that I wish there was an established economic term for it. Something like "reputational arbitrage" or perhaps "sentiment stickiness".
The basic idea is that a business can change its quality much faster than its reputation changes. If the business rapidly cuts costs and quality, their sales will reflect their reputed quality more than their actual quality for some amount of time. That gives them a window of very high profits where they can basically sell shit like it's gold.
Eventually the reputation catches up with them, but it seems to take a very long time to do so, if ever, so it's an extremely tempting business model.
There is a related but different effect where a brand establishes some level of cachet or meaningful emotional attachment back when the product was good. The product tanks, but people keep buying it even while knowing it's garbage just because of the emotional associations they have with the historical product.
The line between these two effects can be blurry. I think Pyrex leans more towards the former where people keep buying it simply because they don't realize it kind of sucks. But Jeep is the latter where it seems like everyone knows they'll spend half the time in the shop but people just like Jeeps anyway.
I do know that when I bought a Pyrex measuring cup last year, the labeling faded in months. Meanwhile the old one I inherited from my mom is still usable.
I thought we'd collectively decided on "enshittification"? Or is that different?
So the MVP that meets what ever feature requirement a customer wants - at the lowest price - wins, regardless of how stable or secure the service is.
What I'm talking about is buying concrete objects at discrete moments in time.
Similar, but not the same.
People don't still use Facebook because of any lingering nostalgia from its halcyon glory days. They use it because that's where their friends are and they can't get away. That's what enshittification is about.
There's no lock-in making boomers buy Harleys. It's just brand nostalgia despite the fact that the bikes suck now.
What are the best refills to use for them?
It’s not made to be kind to humans.
and I was surprised that no one brought up the very real downsides of being left handed in a left-to-right writing system region of the world (which is most of it). Most comments were leaning towards backwards conservatism and straight up malice with regard to students being forced a hand in writing early in school and it seemed no one brought up the very real practical reasons for preferring to write right handed, especially with ink.
And I say this as someone who is completely ambidextrous when writing but does not do the 'hook hand' left hand to write, and thus I usually write right-handed with pens and pencils. I have a left handed friend who does write that way and it just screams RSI/Carpal Tunnel to me.
That's because this is why it was done. My parochial school in the 1990s did not allow me to use my left had because of the associations with evil, and one need not look further than the latin word for left to realize how entrenched this mindset was. To extrapolate that into a beneficial practice for writing styles seems like an unfounded stretch.
"My child is right handed!" some insisted. I wondered how they could know that about a child who had never swung a bat before. I also wondered why a parent would want their child to be so limited.
You are a saint..
Maybe the inks I use dry fast enough (Parker Quink or Pelikan 4001) or it's the way I learned to write back in school.
That is such a genius solution!
I previously used Waterman Black - it flows really smoothly, but it isn't waterproof. Also, it doesn't seem quite as dark as the Noodler's.
I had no idea. Great tip; thanks.
I'm looking for alternatives to lamination for posting outdoor flyers & signs.
I just received some (alleged) weatherproof copier paper to experiment with.
Happy customer for years.
I suppose in today's public school you wouldn't be allowed one because it could conceivably be used as a weapon, but it would seem to be helpful.
Maybe useful if you were really committed to the tool. I've been casually interested in fountain pens for a while but the downsides seem to stack up whenever I actually look into it.
Maybe try a dowel with a glob of clay or something on the end and see?
The biggest crime to lefties is the fold-away half-size writing desk you see in lecture halls.
Thank you for using its name. I first saw it on TV showing someone hand painting a design on a car (probably a Rolls Royce on Top Gear) and thought it was brilliant in its simplicity, but didnt know its name.
Because I'm usually using low quality paper, I mostly use ballpoint pens so that I can write on both sides of the page. Fountain pens can feel scratchy on cheap paper and the ink bleeds through.
What makes this cost that much (other than they are owned by uniball)? The material certainly isn't worth that much? And the function would be replicated in the market for less? So, what makes it not some luxury bullshit?
Sometimes it's nice to splurge on high quality items - especially when you use them every day, like a pen. It's a little thing, but it brings pleasure every time you use it.
Not everything is about cost efficiency. You'll never regret buying quality.
More expensive fountain pens are indeed luxury products - replicas are often available on places like aliexpress.
I think it probably feels like bullshit if you don't think you'll gain any satisfaction or derive any pleasure from the act of writing or the aesthetics of your writing instrument.
The nib feels much, smoother. Mine is fairly wet without excessively showing through low quality paper. The refilling mechanism is a lot nicer than the cartridge-pump I'd been using on the Al Star.
Is it better? Yeah, but it's not 10x better than the Al Star which is what the price would suggest. So it is definitely a luxury product from that point of view.
My daily driver is a Pilot Vanishing Point. It's a fountain pen with a form factor of a clickable ball point pen.
I also like Lamys. Most of their pens look simple but they’re work horses. Esp. Safari Umber.
I’m a bit too deep in that rabbit hole. :)
My all time favourite was the Parker 25 in stainless steel, with a medium nib and blue-black ink. Sometimes I would go for purple if I was feeling a bit raunchy.
I know a lot of people liked the 105, and I had one, and a bunch of others, but there is something about the utilitarian functionality of the 25 that I really have a soft spot for.
I think there was a year or two where I may have flirted with ballpens, but not seriously.
Also even used Rotring and Staedtler Mars technical drawing pens on and off for regular writing. That was always fun in the middle of a lecture with ink everywhere.
It's such a shame I don't get to write on paper that much these days. No real need. Such a beautiful experience though.
Genuine question: don't you need to dispose or recycle the ink bottles?
Multiple Parker Vectors I had typically lasted a few years of use each before the plastic windings between the pen head and the holder wore out or broke.
My Pilot Metropolitan did the same just a few months back.
I still have the high-end pens my grandfather used that, while mechanically still sound, I am unable to get the ink flowing through them.
I love writing with fountain pens, but long lasting they are not in my experience.
My main problem is that most papers can't really handle the inkflow from fountain pens anymore and since the place I come from is somewhat humid, the papers quickly start to bleed ink. So, my more common instrument is a Pentel graphgear mechanical pencil.
I do calligraphy as a hobby so I have separate arsenal of dip pens and nibs but those are not for daily use.
I also have a couple ones older than 50. They also work. Clogged ones generally need a good flush with a fountain pen flush.
I use J. Herbin's flush, which doesn't mind being used over and over. I filled an old Lamy 30ml ink bottle with one, and flush my pens with the same "liquid". From what I feel, it has some soap, some other surfactants, which it doesn't react with the rubber and seals inside the converters and pistons. Alcohol eats them from my experience.
The bottle I have gained interesting properties. It's a green-turquoise hue, which becomes reddish if you shine strong light through it :)
But it cleans like it's never used, which is nice.
I generally "power flush" my pens with a syringe: Get a 50ml syringe, cut the sealed end of a cartridge, fill the syringe, mate the syringe, cartridge, pen, and push the water through. After a couple of times, the pen is thoroughly cleaned. Shake a couple of times, let it dry.
On the other hand, many (if not most) inks have some detergents in it, and keep your pen clean and clog free as long as you use them. Older inks used Solv-X which was more effective but deemed carcinogen and banned in modern inks.
Because of it, I generally EDC it with a good, low maintenance inks, and try to use it very regularly. As an EDC pen, the nib balances its quirks.
Lamy 2000 and Pilot Custom 823 are two of the most patient pens I have ever used in that regard.
(I found them particularly good when used with the washable ink cartridges, never drying out even after long periods of disuse. The permanent ink isn't as good in this respect and the pens need more regular use.)
I got a Parker Sonnet as a prize in a competition. It is still good, even though I rarely use it nowadays.
I'd expect there to be a reasonable amount of variation in how long these pens last due to differences in usage, machining tolerances, ink types and materials - though mine has done very well considering how many times I've chucked it into a bag, dropped it on hard floors, etc. (I've probably just been lucky so far).
However they are also dangerous, beware of hand movents when holding one, otherwise there is quite some cleaning to do, and even document rewriting.
Agreed, except I have _not_ been able to get my Aurora Hastil to write/fill reliably for a couple of years now, despite cleaning, and I can't send it in to the manufacturer since the tip was ground to a chisel italic by Gretta Lostkemper (who used to oversee custom grinding at Sheaffer). Guess I need to get an ultrasonic cleaner and try that....
I use Muji gel pens now. None of those problems and you can take the cartridges back to them and they recycle them. And the pen bodies themselves last functionally forever.
A tipped fountain pen will be incredibly resistant to wear --- while I did significantly wear down the inexpensive Platignum (British brand, but despite the name untipped steel) fountain pen I had when I was younger after a couple of decades, when I finally switched to using more expensive pens with nibs for tipping, haven't had to replace a nib since.
https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-ball-One-F-Gel-Pen-0.5-mm-Faded-...
I do like the Rotring pencils over the pens, but still prefer Uni as I feel less bad about losing a Uni Kuru as it is cheaper and still has knurled grip. Also has a fun rotating lead.
https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-Kuru-Toga-Roulette-Mechanical-Pe...
Pigma Microns and Uniball One are my go-to pens. Previously it was Signo DXs as well. I think I prefer the barrel of the DX, but the wire clip and general appearance of the Uniball sold me.
It feels really nice to write with. I also have a Kuru Toga I picked up at a neat little stationery store on vacation, but I was reminded when I got home that I don't care for writing with pencils. Should that change, there it is waiting for me.
https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-SXR-600-Jetstream-Ballpoint-Pen-...
I also recommend the 800 mechanical pencil which has a very satisfying twist-retract tip.
Sighs and busts out the credit card.
Edit: it’s on its way. Curse you.
Note though that for longevity in engineering notebooks I don’t like to use Jetstreams because of the yellowing seepage problem over time. But for everyday throwaway writing this setup is the ideal best of both worlds.
From top of my head:
- UniBall Eye / Vision Elite's Red, Blue, Black and Green (look for fade-proof / water-poof note, or SuperINK)
- Sakura / Faber Castell / Rotring pigment inked, felt tip markers (Look for Archival Ink / Fade Resistant)
- Pelikan 4001 blue black (which is not sold in the US)
- Rohrer & Klinger's Iron Gall inks (scribosa, ebony, etc.)
- Noodler's "Bulletproof" series cellulose reactive inks.
- Lamy Blue Black
- Lamy Crystal Benitonite
- Montblanc Permanent Blue / Permanent Black
Always use an acid-free higher quality paper. Leuchtturm 1917, Rhodia, Yu-Sari, Mnemosyne comes to my mind. Do NOT use Moleskine notebooks with fountain pens. They are not designed for fountain pens.
Or for hard use in general. Well over priced for the quality of the paper and bindings.
They gradually reduced their quality, and created a “higher, more expensive tier” to offer their previous quality.
Leuchtturm 1917 is a world apart when compared to today’s Moleskine.
Or, for gel-based, the Uniball Signo black ink is my second choice. I particularly like using the Signo GelStick 0.7mm which I can make line variations from hairlines to super broad strokes (again, the leverage-based force application is key for effortless pressure variation techniques)
Unfortunately, it’s not water safe, but it’s great. My favorite feature is that it dries REALLY quickly, so I can left-hand without smudging.
I know you can get fountain inks that are more resistant, but at that level of finickiness, I’d rather just carry a lower maintenance ballpoint, and the Jetstream is good enough that I don’t miss my other lovely pens.
PS: One time a reporter asked me what I thought of a particular food, and I described it as snacking on the wings of angels sent to earth for our dining pleasure, and they quoted me. My wife reminds me of this often.
Edit: Here’s the quote: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://omaha.com/m...
Although lately I’ve been using this multipen: https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-Jetstream-3-Color-Ballpoint-Mult...
It’s nice having 3 colors of ink available, and it’s not that chunky blue thing we had in elementary school.
I got a box of 12 for a few bucks from Amazon, here is the link since it's hard to search by model,
As pencils go, though, lately I've been fond of the Uni Shift 0.9 mm. It's inexpensive; retracts for pocket carry; and I've never broken a lead with it. My only real complaint is that the eraser is minuscule and can't be reliably adjusted once the initial usable part is gone.
I see no reason to go evangelical/Apple about it.
And there's always a good reason to go evangelical/Apple about it. A day you spend using tools that you love using is a better day than one where you are using tools that bring you no joy.
As far as evangelizing goes, I'm much more interested in the things you love than the things you hate.
It's all in your mind. Simple tools are king. They allow you to be creative anytime, not just when holding the "right" tool.
Fetishizing gear such that you use lack of the right gear as an excuse to not create, or spend all your time acquiring gear and not using it is definitely toxic.
But, also fetishizing minimalism such that you end up with a process that is all self-flagelating toil and misery is also toxic.
Everyone's gotta navigate the boundary between those themselves.
Plus, I am a lot less concerned with losing a 5 dollar pencil as compared to a 50 dollar pencil.
But, its tip is very fragile so after it bent I got a Pentel Orenz Nero , it’s close enough, has retractable tip and lead auto advances. It has become my current favorite.
Fun fact: Orenz Nero is a palindrome.
> But, its tip is very fragile
I came here to say this. I have a rotring 600 mechanical pencil with non-retractable tip, and it bends if you even look at it funny. It can be straightened again if you insert a sewing needle so it was not a big deal, but it was unexpected how easy it bends.
Heck, I have to treat it even more carefully than my smartphone. Not that I treat it rough or anything, but I have to be very conscious of where I leave it, lest it rolls off and falls off a height of a few centimeters.
Other than that I don't regret buying it, it's been a few years and it still feels nice to use.
It's even survived going through clothes washing machine. The one part I had some minor annoyance with is the ring below the control to adjust tip retraction would loosen up when carried awhile. I originally used a bit of superglue which came out in the wash. Now I've added some loctite so it will probably never loosen again. Other than some finish wearing off it's been great for years.
Edit: oh I use pilot neox F graphite in it. Feels like writing with HB but it doesn't break as easy as I write with pretty heavy hands.
I paid more than 20€ for a Parker pen with refills and it was worse than a 3€ Pilot V5 Hi-Tecpoint (which is my current favourite, I have it in black, red, green, blue and pink colours).
It's very disapointing to see brand new nice pen designs that only support Parker refills.
If you can get a compatible Monteverde, it is great. Schneier is also very nice, but hybrid. Pelikan has the pelikan blue style, you either love it or hate it. QuinkFlow... ok, whoever says they are fine, send me that legendary "fine" refill I keep hearing about.
All that said, I reach for my Lamy Safari first. I also have a Pilot Vanishing Point as my “grail pen”, and while it’s a cool fountain pen, I don’t love the feel on paper.
Try moving one nib size up with the Vanishing Point, especially if you're used to Western pens. Pilot's EF is sharp enough to draw blood and you'll never really break it in; the F starts out a little rough but wears in nicely. Too, the Vanishing Point itself I found a little big and heavy for real comfort, both in the hand and in a shirt pocket. The Decimo is mechanically identical but smaller and lighter, enough so that it's my go-to pen for almost every purpose, even sitting alongside a Parker 51 Deluxe.
I have a few other fun (relatively) cheap fountain pens I like: brass Kaweko Sport, Muji fountain pen, other random finds. However, the downside of fountain pens if that if you don't use them, you end up with a bunch of clogged nibs.
I mean, I wouldn't turn my nose up at a $1000 handmade Pilot Urushi but I surely also would not buy one, not at least unless I meant to try to make flirting with ambassadors more than a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's a beautiful pen and I'm sure it functions superlatively! Just that it belongs in far finer and less hardly used hands than mine. Good grief, I sometimes feel I make even my Decimo look like a sewing needle, and that isn't really at all a small pen, being by mechanical necessity about as long as its thicker, heavier sibling. But it also by far is the tool best fit to my hand of all the ones I've ever tried, and that's what counts, right?
(One final note worth making: the Decimo and Vanishing Point bodies are designed around the same nib unit, which I believe originated with the initial "Capless" models in the sixties. If you order a Decimo with the next nib size up from what you have in your Vanishing Point, then, the nibs and bodies will be fully cross-compatible!)
One of the few grips that don't get sticky over the years, feels good in the hand and looks nice. The clip is of metal which does stick to magnets, so it's easy to attach to places like a monitor or a lamp.
[0] https://www.fabercastell.com/products/essentio-ballpoint-pen...
They are thrice as expensive (3 INR) now, but that's still throwaway money: https://www.amazon.in/Nataraj-Glow-Ball-Blue-Pack/dp/B0DF7YC...
and don't stop on the price ; this pen is amazing,
it's actually one of the recommended tool, used by the super talented and proefficient korean drawing artist Kim Jung Gi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmqFbgKWoao (not sure he uses it in this video) ; Kim is known to be able to draw anything from memory
you can see him drawing with the BIC pen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30_IDH1TzFs&t=1231s (video: Kim Jung Gi - What Kind of Pen Do You Use?)
The other I really like is UNI Kuru Toga, the plastic one (shrug). The twist mechanism actually works; it is slightly wider thus more comfortable (for me) for longer writing sessions.
If you haven't already, give the Alvin Draft/Matic a try, imho it's up there along with them.
That said, these days I just carry a Skilcraft B3 Aviator as a slimmer, more pocketable multi-pen option (though I'm on my second, broke the clip of the first and haven't worked out how to disassemble and replace it).
As a left-handed that refuses to twist their hand to avoid smudging everything: what refills brands offer the best dry time to avoid black or blue smudges?
Roting pencil it is.
Those refills might fit this barrel, might be worth checking out if you're a lefty.
I'm thinking ~pencils~ (edit: felt-tip pens) in various colors, and good paper.
For colours, I tend to use the Bic 4-in-one coloured pen (the one with the blue bottom and white top), though I don't bring that out often.
For loose leaf paper that takes ink and markers well, use "color copy digital" paper.
What is best is a personal preference. Some people like their pens to be as light as possible. Personally I far prefer the solid weight of my Rotring 600s. So I recommend that you try it out.
Not at all uncomfortable once you get used to it, but the first time I pick it up after a few days my reaction is still always “wow that’s heavy”.
* If you want one that's got regular pen dimensions and will fit in a breast pocket, get the slim model with the short length.
Seems it’s laughable to some out there, but’s been trusty for me!
Ok you win.
Up until now, this is not a particularly ravishing story. But this is about to change (?). The issue is, those MF's won't stop writing! They ended up in my possession by now more than 10 years ago, but when I pull one of them out, they still write! So, a sharpie-style (sort of) pen, that still writes well more than 10 years later!
Of course, they eventually dry out, when I exhaust them of ink through use. But the 10 years of age has not dried them out. And further, they appear very well provisioned with ink. This story could end here, but there is another twist: Of course, I quite love these pens, and I really would like my own supply. But here is the kicker: They are not available to civilians/consumers :-(. LYRECO only wants to trade with companies. So to be able to buy my own, I would have to start or register a company. (In particular, to fill out their online order forms, I have to fill in mandatory fields with numeric codes only companies have). So, at various times, I have filled out most of their online ordering forms, and stared longingly at the empty fields I have no numbers for. I have also, on other websites, started to fill out the registration form to start my own one-man company. But never completed it, both because I don't have a valid business case other than "I'd really like some of those pens, man!", and because having a registerered company requires you to follow certain procedures, like filing specific tax forms regularly, IE I could get into trouble and bother by making a "fake company". The last issue is, that I also am paranoid, speculating that maybe the late-stage capitalism monsters have arrived at LYRECO's offices in the intervening 10 years, and whispered in some guy's ear "You know.. we don't really have to make our pens THAT GOOD, we could ship shit instead and charge the same!"
() I don't know what their actual type is. They are filt pens I guess, with the 'filt' sticking out of what I assume to be a steel tube.
I’ve found many interesting products via HN recommendations. Do you have any more interesting pens?
Then there's fountain pens, which is a whole new ballpark... If that interests yourself, I recommend these brands: Platinum, LAMY, Pelikan, Sailor, Montblanc, Pilot, and Nakaya, in no particular order.