Pilot B2P Review

Every now and then I come across a review that gets lost in the shuffle, and the Pilot B2P is the latest example. It looks like I bought this pen in January of this year, and did the written review and photo upload in early February. That is part of my normal review workflow, but then I forgot about it, and it was never posted to The Pen Addict. Time to correct that!

I recall some of my European friends getting their hands on this pen first, well before I came across them in my local Staples. From that point until now the B2P has spread like wildfire, and you can find them everywhere, including JetPens.

What makes this pen unique is Pilot’s claim that this is the first pen made from recycled plastic bottles. Not only is the body 89% recycled, but the entire look and feel is made to emulate a plastic water bottle, and they pulled it off well. It is a real eye catcher, and comfortable to hold.

The one non-unique part of the B2P is the refill. It is a standard Pilot G-2, which is good and bad. Bad in that fact that it is not a new writing experience - if you have used one G-2 you have used them all - but good in the fact that there are options. I am a fan of the 0.38mm G-2, so the standard 0.38mm G-2 refill pops right into the B2P barrel without issue.

Pilot has been making real strides in their recyclable pen lines, and the B2P is my favorite of the bunch.

Uni-Ball Signo 207 0.38mm Black Review

This one caught me off guard, but it really shouldn’t have. I have known for ages that the Uni-Ball Signo RT 0.38mm refills fit in the 207 barrels. In fact, one of my favorite setups is the Signo 207 Premier barrel with the lavender black 0.38mm RT refill. So I was happy to see these show up at JetPens a few weeks ago.

My only real question about the pen was if this was just an RT refill plugged into the 207 barrel, but it isn’t. The 207 is widely known for having “Super Ink” technology which prevents check washing, and these new 0.38mm pens fall right in line.

If you have ever used an RT 0.38mm pen then you know exactly how the 207 version will write. Crisp, clean and dark gel ink lines, and pretty smooth all things considered. It isn’t as smooth as the Signo DX 0.38, but few pens in this category are.

If you have ever wanted the Uni-Ball 207 in something smaller than 0.5mm, now is your chance. Some of the colors are already sold out, but should be restocked soon.

Pentel Vicuna 0.7mm Sky Blue

I have enjoyed my regular black ink Vicuna pen, and raved about my Vicuna Multi Pen, so I wanted to give the new colored ink Vicuna pens a try. I went with the Sky Blue ink, and I am wishing I would have tried a different one first.

The issue was noticeable almost as soon as I started writing. At least once or twice a line a glob of ink would hit the page, usually at the start or stop of a letter. You can see the dark spots in the written review above very easily. The black inks I have reviewed before don’t have this problem, either because 1. They really don’t have this problem, or 2. The base ink color is dark enough so it is not noticeable. Unfortunately, the light shade of Sky Blue ink doesn’t hide the dark spots.

I was hoping it was a breaking in issue, but it didn’t improve over time. Maybe it is just this particular pen, so I would like to try another one, as well as some of the other colors like purple and orange. The Pentel Vicuna is a great pen, but you might want to rethink the Sky Blue.