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.

#OnePenOneDay Lamy Balloon Roller

The Lamy Balloon Roller is one of those pens that I am desperate to love, but has one little thing that keeps it from being perfect. And by perfect I mean I REALLY like this pen, and despite the fact it is 0.7mm, I use it a lot. From me, that is high praise. But, in the initial review I talked about the ink cartridge skipping, and that has never gone away, even after repeated use.

I took a full 8 1/2" x 11" page of notes with this pen last week, and counted six obvious skips on the page. By skipping, I mean the ink line thins out for a partial or full letter, but no more that that. Six times over a full page is not a large number, but it is noticeable to a pen addict like me.

Giveaway: Sailor and Pilot Pocket Brush Pens

I need to take care of my art friends a little better here on The Pen Addict, so let's give away a cool little kit of pocket brush pens! One lucky winner will take home all three of the pens shown above, which are (from L to R):

Sailor Pocket Brush Pen - Super Fine

Pilot Pocket Brush Pen - Hard

Pilot Double Sided Brush Pen Black and Grey - Hard

I thought I might get some use out of these myself, but try as I might, my art skills aren't up to snuff. Better to get them in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. Here is how to enter:

1. Leave one comment on this post anytime between now, and Thursday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. You are limited to one entry. This contest is limited to US residents only.

2. Please follow @jetpens on Twitter and "Like" JetPens on Facebook. This is not mandatory, but I sure would appreciate your support! Feel free to follow me @dowdyism as well.

3. For this contest, I will pick one winner at random from the comments section of this post. The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on. The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the number of the winner.

4. The contest winner will be posted on Friday, June 10th. The winner will have one week to email me at the address posted in the right sidebar.

Thanks and good luck!