The 2nd Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper

The Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper is a traveling monthly collection of the best blog posts about notebooks, pens, pencils, paper products and anything else deemed relevant by the editors. The Carnival appears the first Tuesday of every month, with the second carnival set to publish on September 8th, 2009 here at The Pen Addict. It will feature product reviews, photos of users’ collections, sketchbook art and doodles, and more!

You can find information about the carnival here. If you’re unfamiliar with blog carnivals, they’re a great way to build community and awareness among blogs that share similar subject matter. Bloggers and hosts can get more exposure for their posts, and readers enjoy an edited collection of posts and can discover new blogs they might not be aware of.

Submission guidelines:

Submit your post using this form no later than 5pm EST on the first Sunday of the month. Submissions must relate to the subject matter of the Carnival. One submission per blog per Carnival. All posts are included at the editor’s discretion and any considered inappropriate, off-topic, or of sub-par quality may be rejected.

All participants whose posts are selected for must post a link back to that edition of the Carnival within one week of its publication, also including a link to the Carnival home page at http://www.notebookstories.com/carnival-of-pen-and-paper/.

The Carnival will rotate to different hosts. Contact the organizer at carnival@notebookstories.com if you would like to host a future carnival. Hosting will be restricted to active, on-topic blogs at the discretion of the organizer.

Review: Zebra Sharbo X

When I first saw the Zebra Sharbo X pop up in the new items list at JetPens a few months ago, I thought to myself that I would never spend that much on a pen, let alone a multi pen.  I'd take a glance at them from time to time, each time closing the window saying, nah, I just don't need to spend that money.  All was well and good, but then friend of the blog Der Bingle chimed in on how much he liked his, and oh by the way, he has an extra one for sale because he upgraded to a different model.  Can you say enabler?  :)

I still wasn't completely sold, but I thought about it for a week or two before finally sealing the deal with a quick Paypal transaction, and the Sharbo X was on its way.  The model I purchased was the Zebra Sharbo X ST3 Pen Body Component - Black, which is the exact model I would have bought if I had my choice of the entire line.  When I opened the package, I was immediately in love with it.  Not only was it in perfect shape, but the look of it and the feel of the barrel in my hand had me at hello.

The pen body is a coated brass, and while the weight of it is greater than all of the plastic barrel pens I normally use, it is not overly heavy.  The best way I can put it is that it is perfectly balanced.  I feel the weight of the pen in my hand, but it has no effect on my writing.  It just feels right.  The twist mechanism is the best I have seen in a multi pen.  It is designed in a way so that as you rotate the top half station to station, the pen will continue twisting in that same direction forever.  As Adam mentioned in his review last week, in cheaper pens, you often have to reverse your twist so as not to unscrew the barrel, which is a huge annoyance.  It doesn't make a sound when rotating either - just a solid bump you feel when lining up the cartridge.

All of the Sharbo X pens on the market right now have three cartridge slots, one of which is dedicated to the pencil cartridge (you cannot have three ink cartridges, but it looks like a 3+1 is in the pipeline in Japan).  I am not a big pencil user, but I'm thinking I might replace the traditional lead with a colored lead of some sort, but I haven't done that yet.  Otherwise, the two ink cartridges are fantastic.  If you have used a Zebra Sarasa pen then you have a good baseline of how this pen writes.  My pen came with two gel ink cartridges - 0.4mm black and 0.4mm mandarin orange, and I think they write a bit smoother than the standard Sarasa pens.  The lines from both colors are nice and clean with no skipping at all.  The only real concern about the ink is how long each cartridge will last, because the refills are rather tiny and expensive.  That is still to be determined over time, but I did order a few extra inks just in case:  0.4mm Royal Blue and 0.4mm Crimson Red gel, plus 0.7mm Fluorescent Pink ballpoint.  That's right Der Bingle, I am defacing your Sharbo X with Fluorescent Pink!

This is a beautiful pen, and I am glad to have been shown the light.  The best compliment I can give is that I plan on buying another one - or maybe two.

Click here for the XL review.

Pentel Prize Pack Winners

Thank you to everyone who entered this great giveaway, and thanks to Pentel for supplying all of these pens!  Here are the winners:

127
mArcObONA said...
GOOD PRIZE!!
GOOD LUCK FOR ALL!!
Reply August 19, 2009 at 01:13 PM

167
Sharon said...
Those are some nice pens :)
Reply August 19, 2009 at 06:07 PM

188
Fry said...
Great, now if I win this, my wife will mob me for them!
Reply August 19, 2009 at 09:11 PM

191
Alina said...
Sign me up! Thanks a lot for organizing this!
Reply August 19, 2009 at 09:40 PM

Congratulations to all of you!  I need each of the winners to do two things:  1) Leave a comment on this post and 2) Send me an email using the address on the sidebar with your mailing address.  You have one week to claim your prize.