Review: Sailor Pocket Brush Pen - Super Fine

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

The Sailor Pocket Brush Pen (Super Fine) isn't really a brush.  It's even less of a brush than most brush pens of the type.  In order to provide a line that could be described as "Super Fine", Sailor got rid of all the brush-like attributes and has simply provided a fine felt-tipped pen.

I don't mean that as a complaint, really.  The pen works well, the tip is performing well so far (I've seen one review that claims the tip doesn't hold its point for long, but haven't seen that problem yet myself), the ink is waterproof, and it seems to be a good workhorse product.  If I wanted to draw comics with a consistent line instead of the variability you can get from, say, the Tombow Fudenosuke which I unabashedly love, this super fine Sailor would be a decent option.

    

However, I will not buy this pen again.  At $2.25 (JetPens), it's the same price as the Tombow Fudenosuke.  The Tombow has a much nicer body made of recycled plastic with crisp, professional printing on the side; the Sailor is made of cheap plastic with sloppy silver printing on the side.  It just looks and feels cheap.  The Sailor Super Fine will give you a more consistent, thin line compared to the Tombow Fudenosuke's variability, but if consistent line width isn't your top priority, the Sailor brush loses its only advantage.  Personally, I just wasn't very excited to pick this one up, but will probably keep it around and use it until it runs dry because it  performs a simple function and works fine for what it does.

I haven't tried the other sizes of Sailor brushes, and they may be very different from the Super Fine so there is further investigation to be done.

If you're a fan of the Sailor Super Fine brush, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it and whether the tip has held up over time.

Note: Drawings on this page are based on Victorian mugshots, which are easily found online and lots of fun to browse.

Review: Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio

Do a simple search around the site and you'll find few pens that write better than those in the Pilot Hi-Tec-C family.

For my writing style, I go with 0.4mm for quick writing and smoothness. Between the ink you can get in the single pens or the multi-pens, I greatly prefer the multi-pen inks. They don't seem to skip as much and there is no hesitation in initial ink flow.

With that in mind, I use the Hi-Tec-C Coleto quite a bit. While I love the feel of the Coleto, it's appearance has kept me from using it in the workplace. Something about a clear multi-pen is off-putting.

Fortunately, the Hi-Tec-C Coleto Lumio was recently released. It comes in four body colors – black, metallic blue, silver and pink. When I placed my order at JetPens, the black and silver were immediately sold out, so I went with blue.

The Coleto Lumio has a more professional look to it with a slick one-color plastic barrel. The pen is accented with a silver ring where the top screws in, a silver metal clip and silver plastic at the top.

There are a few notable differences between the Coleto and the Coleto Lumio. Most obviously, the Lumio supports four ink cartridges compared to three. So for stick-in-the-mud types who need to use black, blue and red, the fourth cartridge can be the wild card. Pilot also has a pencil component, but more on that later.

The biggest flaw with the Lumio is that it doesn't have a grip at the handle. The standard Coleto has a nice rubber grip while the Lumio is slick. For those with animated hands, such as myself, make sure to put the Lumio down if you're talking. The pen requires a solid grip as more than once it slid out of my hand.

At $15 for the body, the Lumio isn't exactly a cost-friendly pen. But if you're in search of a professional multi-pen, this is worth it.

As mentioned, Pilot offers a mechanical pencil component. It's 0.5mm in size. Unless you desperately need a pencil component, I'd avoid this one. It writes just fine, but aesthetically it's a drawback. Compared to the pen components, it sticks out quite far and downgrades the overall look of the Lumio.

When four ink cartridges are loaded in the pen, it's an attractive writing utensil. Just hold on tight for the ride.

(If anyone has photo-taking suggestions, let me know. I have a Canon G10, but can't seem to take a good close-up photo with it)

Review: Muji Gel Standard Gel Ink Pen, plus a "Build Your Own"

This review is from UK reader Shabana, who also contributed the Nomadic Virgo-Attrezzo standing pen case review.

I will be reviewing the Muji "build you own" 0.5 retractable pen in purple, and the normal 0.38 stick gel pen in purple. In the pictures the blue is the same pen as the purple stick gel.

Starters: How big are the two pens in comparison to one another. They are roughly the same size when the stick is capped. However, the barrel of the RT is wider which is why I prefer the normal stick. When capped, the stick gel is longer by about 14mm. The stick looks better than the RT in my opinion especially the nib.

 Now, these two purples are different shades. I don't know why this is, and seeing as my local Muji only stocks the RTs in black and blue now I can't go back and check whether they did it in two shades. The stick gel definitely only comes in this shade of purple. From the top of the pens it can be seen that there is some difference.

Now for the writing. From the photo it can be seen that the stick gel is darker.

There is also a photo comparing the two shades of purple, and the darker purple with the blue.

The stick gel is a better writer and the 0.38 tip is sturdy. In fact, it can probably be used as a weapon should the need arise. I can't imagine writing with the RT in a 0.38 tip as even the 0.5 seems a little too fine for it. The barrel is also smoother where I would hold the pen. The stick is therefore better for precise writing/drawing whereas the RT is better for more 'loopy' larger handwriting. The good thing about the RT is that the entire cartridge comes out so you can use the empty barrel to try different colours. Both these write well in a Moleskine with absolutely no bleed-through. They are not so good on standard refill pads as the paper is too rough. They are excellent on smooth paper such as Black n' Red.

Over here the are around £1 each so definitely worth the price, although the 0.5 gel stick pens tend to run out pretty fast.