Uni Limex Ballpoint Pen Review, feat. R.E.M.’s “Sitting Still”

The Uni Boxy 100 is a pen I’ve long admired. It is a classic office supply pen, most likely found on desks and in cabinets across Japan for the last 40 years.

And it’s great. I’d say it is right where it belongs - in the office - but that would be underselling it. Is it the Uni-ball Jetstream? No. Is it better than 9 out of 10 ballpoint pens I’ve used, and worth residing on my desk? Absolutely.

If you are still interested after reading those few words above, then you may find the Uni Limex to be a fun pen to add to your arsenal.

What is Limex? A nearly inexhaustible raw material, often used as a paper or plastic replacement. Now, my stance on stone paper is well known, but this is a different rock altogether. And I dig it.

There is no difference in the Limex barrel shape, design, or functionality over the Boxy, but there is a slight weight difference - 7 grams for the original, 9 grams for the Limex. Still, it is a rather lightweight pen, making it good for nearly any use.

The color of the barrel is great, too, taking on the off-white appearance of its namesake material. I keep inspecting the barrel to see if I see any small, darker bits in the material, and there are none. It’s very clean.

Like the Boxy, the Limex ships with an 0.7 mm standard black ballpoint refill, and I enjoy using it. The lines are clean and sharp, and while there is some slight scratchiness from time to time, it’s remarkably smooth for an 0.7 mm that feels like an 0.5 mm.

As much as I enjoy this pen, there is a kicker. One of the most popular kickers of all, in fact: Price! It’s $3.50, versus the $1.75 of the Boxy. In my original Boxy review, I thought the price was high, and that was from the perspective of buying them as an office pen by the dozen. So of course I think the price is high for the Limex, but it’s different in my mind. This is a singular pen purchase. It’s unique, it’s cool, it has a story, and I’m not trying to stock the entire office with it.

In short, it’s fun. And that’s what I enjoy most about stationery.

If you have some spare time after this short review, fire up your music player of choice and give “Sitting Still” by R.E.M. a listen. I got on an old school R.E.M. kick last week, with the album Murmur in heavy rotation. Days later, and countless internet searches later, “Sitting Still” is still stuck in my head.

Why? It is literal nonsense, while being an absolute banger.

I wanted to use the lyrics for the written part of this review, and if you know anything about this song, then you know that is asking the impossible. That’s what makes it so great. Enjoy!

(I purchased this pen at regular price from Yoseka Stationery)

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Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pen Review

A bit of extra disclosure as we get into my review of the new Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pen. I have a friend that works at Pentel of America, and the story of my first experience with the GlideWrite involves him directly.

It was at the 2019 San Francisco Pen Show, and my friend mentioned he had a game he wanted to me to play called the GlideWrite Challenge. The idea was a simple one - it was a blind writing test to pick the smoothest ballpoint pen. He loaded up several generic barrels with popular refills. Pentel’s GlideWrite and RSVP were included, along with the Uni-ball Jetstream, Pilot Acroball, and I think maybe the Fisher Space Pen. All refills were 1.0 mm black refills to make them as comparable as possible.

I took the handful of pens, broke out a Nock Co. note card, and began scribbling. Since I’m telling you this story, you likely already guessed how it ends. Yes, I blindly picked the GlideWrite as the smoothest pen out of this group. And if memory serves, only the Jetstream was even close. The rest were clearly down the smoothness list.

Now, smoothness alone does not make for a great pen. It’s mandatory to start there - a scratchy pen will immediately be dismissed - but in this market, it can’t end there. Are there additional properties in the ink that set it apart? Is the barrel well built, and comfortable to use? In the case of the GlideWrite, the answer is yes to both of those questions.

Pentel markets this ink as TechniFlo, which is a way to describe its low-viscosity properties. This makes the GlideWrite ink thinner than traditional ballpoint inks, which is a good thing. Thick ballpoint inks make a mess on the page, and on the tip of the pen. There are no such problems here.

The barrel itself is solidly built, and comfortable to hold. There is no rattle in the knock, or at the tip of the pen, and the grip feels good between your fingers. Now, is this design my style? Not particularly, but I also understand that this pen isn’t designed just for me. This is a mass market pen which will appear on retail and big box store shelves around the world, and I think it is perfectly designed for that.

Writing-wise, I’d be hard pressed to ask for more. The lines are smooth, clean, and consistent - with one exception I’ll mention below. What’s interesting is that in the sample packs Pentel sent me, there were no basic black, blue, or red colors included. That’s awesome! Good quality, easily accessible, out of the norm, ballpoint ink colors are hard to find. As best as I can tell, Pentel will be bringing out a cool dozen colors in the GlideWrite lineup, with additional barrel styles for standard black and blue.

My pack contained Purple, Pink, Sky Blue, and Green ballpoint pens. Out of that group, I found the Pink and Sky Blue lines to be the most solid and consistent. Purple was close, but did show a fraction more white space in the line than the previous two, possibly because it is darker. Green was the clear outlier, and not on the good side. It was almost like it was a different ink than the rest, in that it was far lighter (less saturated) and had much more white space in its lines. My expectation is that it should be in the ballpark as the others, and it wasn’t. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this with a green ballpoint pen, so maybe its just difficult to get that color right.

At around $1.50 each, the price is right for Pentel to be able to gain some shelf space at the office supply store. They have a huge challenge going up directly against the Uni-ball Jetstream, but the GlideWrite at least gives them a chance they never truly had with the RSVP. I hope it works well for them, because nothing is better for us as consumers than a little competition in the marketplace.

(Pentel of America provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Fisher Cap-O-Matic Black EMS Edition Ballpoint Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

In a year that's been punctuated by one atrocity after another, I can't even imagine being among the front lines of our national defenses against a pandemic. The health care industry has had a rough year, but they haven't given up. For that, they deserve our thanks and everlasting gratitude. In this particular special edition, Fisher is tipping their hat to those in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) sector. When I think of EMS, the first persona I visualize is a tireless EMT riding in the back of an ambulance with a patient, ensuring they survive the ride to the local hospital. I didn't know this before reading about this special edition pen, but EMS professionals are represented by the Thin White Line. As such, this special edition Cap-O-Matic features a single white line printed down the side of the matte black barrel. It's a minimal but striking design, and I've really enjoyed carrying it around on my (infrequent) trips outside the house.

This is my first foray into the Cap-O-Matic line, and I've been surprised by how convenient the retractable format is. Sure, it's not as small as the iconic Bullet, but it's still small enough to be pocketable and easy to stow away when not in use. When writing, it's just long enough to be comfortable and easy to control since the end of the pen rests on the area of my hand between my thumb and index finger. The included Fisher PR4 refill isn't my favorite, but it's hard to beat the ruggedness and "can-do" attitude of this refill. You can write with it anywhere, regardless of the conditions. Seems like a fitting refill for EMTs! The medium black refill tends to be anything but crisp and dark, but it makes marks on the page reliably. The trade-off of crisp, dark ink for the ability to write in wet conditions or upside down are manageable.

The clip on the Cap-O-Matic is really small but surprisingly strong. Once you clip it to something, it doesn't budge unless you pull the pen straight up in the direction of the clip. It's impressing how grippy it is, but still remains easy to slide onto a pocket or sleeve with no problems.

With any pen that features a barrel design with any sort of barrel-length lines or designs, it can be a little maddening to have these things misalign. My favorite example is the Caran d'Ache 849 fountain pen. All those lovely facets don't line up automatically! In the case of this Fisher, the thin white line aligns properly as long as you picked the right thread to start screwing the pen together. If you end up with the line on opposite sides of the pen, just unscrew it, unscrew it another half turn until you feel the cap drop onto the next thread, and then screw it back down. The line should be aligned at this point. If not, try again! This isn't a Rubik's cube puzzle, but it stumped me a couple times before I got it right.

The Fisher Cap-O-Matic EMS edition is only $17 at Goldspot (normally $25), which is a fantastic deal. This is a rugged pen with a bulletproof refill and will serve you well in any conditions.

It's also great that you can show your support for the EMS community and professionals with this pen, but I think it would be even more awesome if Fisher had some sort of charity set up to donate a portion of the profits from this pen to a worthy cause. It's cool to show support for something with branding, but money is the most universal means of showing support. If you're interested in supported EMS programs, the best way to do so is to donate to your local services. You can quickly find local chapters or programs that operate in your area, and they normally have some way of giving donations or providing other ways that you can help out and show support.

(Goldspot provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!