Muji Aluminum Pen Case and Needle Tip Gel Review

My pen friends are the best, and Carmen (@ccorrada) might be the leader of the pack. Her latest trip took her to New York City, and she stopped by the Muji store to pick me up one of the newish Refillable Aluminum Pen Cases for their super popular 0.38mm gel ink refills.

Muji prides itself on minimalism in its design, but even more impressive to me is the seamless functionality of the few parts involved. The barrel has three parts - the tip, the barrel, and the cap - and any other Muji gel retractable ink cartridge fits right in. The neatest part (which I managed not to take a picture of - and neither did Amy) is how there is a cutout on the top of the cap to allows you to see what color ink refill you have loaded. Muji applies Apple's "It just works" philosophy perfectly to minimalism, and this pen is no different.

I have raved about the performance of the ink cartridge time and time again, so no need to rehash that other than to say I have yet to have any performance problems to speak of. What made this one unique to me was the fact this was a needle tip refill, where I have only used the conical tip in the past. In fact, I don't even see the needle tip as an option on their web site, so I'm pretty happy to have been sent this one.

Since these aren't the easiest pens to come by, you should be sure and grab one or several if the opportunity ever arises.

Sakura Pigma Micron 01 Blue Review

I have reviewed the Sakura Pigma Micron several times in the past, and honestly, there is only so much to say about this great pen. But, I just found this photo in my Flickr stream from October of last year, and realized it never got its proper due. Aren't you all just so lucky!

One of the main reasons I have reviewed so many Sakura's is because I love taking notes with this style of pen. The plastic tip leaves such a clean line, and the barrel design works great with my low grip. For hard and fast writers and artists, tip durability could be an issue, but I find the Sakura Pigma Micron to be one of the best pens in this category.

As if all that wasn't good enough, you also get the benefit of one of the premier options for archival quality ink. The Pigma Micron web page has all of the technical specifications one would need to feel secure in choosing this pen for their next archival project.

This 01 (0.25mm) blue model is a little thin for me to use as an every day writer. The 03 (0.35mm) is my go to pen, preferably in black ink, but the orange ink is an excellent choice as well.

JetPens carries the Sakura Pigma Micron Drawing Pens in tip sizes ranging from 0.2mm to 0.5mm, and in a wide variety of colors. Be sure to check them out if you are looking to add something different to your writing arsenal.

Office Depot Foray Retractable Ballpoint Review

Continuing this weeks theme of readers favorite pens, this lovely chap you see in the photo above is the Office Depot Foray Retractable ballpoint. Pen Addict reader Amy sent me a few of these earlier this year after a discussion on the blog about which store brand pens are the best. My stance was there is only one that is worth the money - the Office Max TUL Gel. And honestly, there wasn't much disagreement with that. There just aren't many store brand pens that stack up well to their name brand counterparts.

The Foray Retractable is a decent option though. I like the needle tip style, which you don't see all that often in a ballpoint. The pen writes smoothly and relatively cleanly, although there were a few instances of extra ink hitting the page. Overall, it is a decent writing experience.

The barrel has a great design, but just feels average in the hand. It is fully plastic, even the "chrome" parts, so it is lightweight as well. The only thing I didn't really care for was how high the tip section screwed into the barrel shaft. Being a low gripper, that got in my way a bit.

Overall, you could do a lot worse than the Office Depot Foray ballpoint, which I guess is saying something. :) Do any of you have any store brand pens that you like that I need to check out?