Helvetindex Cards Review

I have followed Aaron Mahnke for a while now, either directly via his Twitter feed, through his Read & Trust network, and even through his design work and various blogs. He is quite prolific - and I didn’t even mention that he writes fantasy novels! That would be enough to keep a normal person busy for years, but not Aaron. His latest project - the Helvetindex Card - has recently launched, and Aaron was kind enough to send me a pack to review.

If you have been around these pages for any length of time, you know I am a fan of the index card. I find them useful for a wide variety of tasks - notes, to do lists, brainstorming, mind mapping - just about any task you can throw at them. Best of all, they are highly portable. Throw them in your pocket, toss them in a bag, rock a Hipster PDA, and you are good to go! So, how do the Helvetindex Cards stack up?

The first thing that grabs you is the design. I love the layout, especially the room allocated for headers and footers. Regardless of the paper I write on, I always have a header of some type - either the date or topic - so I love this aspect of the card. The writing space has a white background with tiny plus signs in a grid pattern, very similar to any dot grid pad you have used. They are unobtrusive, but still provide a guideline or framework if you need them.

The paper stock is 3” x 5” premium 100 lb. uncoated cover stock, but to me, the cards look and feel like they have a coating on it of some type. This caused some inks not to work very well with the Helvetindex Cards, while some did just fine.

Unsurprisingly, fountain pen ink performed poorly. The card stock essentially rejected the ink, giving it a washed out look and taking forever to dry. You can see the Lamy Safari and Kaweco Roller (which uses fountain pen ink cartridges) writing samples on the card above.

The ink type that caught me off guard though were the hybrid ballpoint inks, and not just one of them. Every single one I tested looked like I was laying down the yellow dashed line down the middle of a freshly paved road. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me. Take the Uni-Ball Jetstream 0.5mm for example. I made sure the pens were primed before writing on the card, and even tried multiple cartridges out, but they still did poorly. I could write the same text on any other scrap paper and it worked fine, but then I would go back to the Helvetindex Card and it would skip. Similar pens like the Pentel Vicuna and the Pilot Acroball performed the exact same way.

The saving grace for me is that gel ink works just fine, especially since that is my ink of choice. There was no skipping, and the drying time was reasonable. The colored gel inks remained bright as well. I was worried that the large tipped liquid ink pens like the Bic Z4 would be a problem too, but there were no issues to speak of there.

Despite the various ink issues I had, I still love these cards. The design and layout is perfect for me - I just have to pay attention to which pen I am using.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.3mm Grip Black Review

Finally!

After all of the talk, after all of the praise, after all of the top rankings, I finally have a review of the exact Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.3mm Grip Black that I talk about so much. This is my go to pen.

So, what makes this pen so special? The lines. This pen lays down the best, sharpest, and most consistent lines around. The grip is an added bonus that is only available on the black, blue, and red ink colors, so why not take advantage of that? I also buy the 0.3mm black refills for my Cavalier when I want to switch up the barrel but keep the same writing experience.

The only thing I regret is my photography. I might break down and reshoot this page. The lighting is funky, and the clarity is poor, making it hard to see how clean the lines really are, even in the larger size photos on Flickr. I didn’t realize how bad it turned out until I sat down to write this post.

As much as I love this pen, it is not for everyone. Some find that the 0.3mm tip is just too fine. But if you ever want to take a chance on a pen and a new writing experience, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.3mm might just be for you.

Zebra Mini T3 Ballpoint Pen Review

Mini pens are a tough thing. I think that everybody can benefit from having one for various reasons - wallet carry, pocket carry, purse carry, etc. - but there are equally as many reasons for not carrying one. Most of those arguments are size related, and are valid points. Can I even grip a pen that small? How long will the ink last? Am I just going to lose it? The Zebra Mini T3 Ballpoint doesn’t pretend to solve those problems, but it may be the best of the bunch if you want to give a mini pen a try.

The thing that stands out to me the most is the barrel construction. It is fully metal, and just feels durable. If a pen is going to be this small, I at least want to feel the weight in my hand when I write. On top of that, the default blue ink cartridge pleases me to no end. You can order black, red, and green refills for the Mini T3, but blue ballpoint ink is my favorite. It writes wonderfully.

One minor issue that cropped up from time to time is the knock release in the clip. You press the knock down like normal to write, then to retract the pen you press the end of the clip. Since the pen is a shorter length, I sometimes hit the clip with the cup of my hand if I rotate it when writing. Most of the time it isn’t an issue, but I did want to mention it because it happened more than once.

It may not be perfect, but I am not sure what else I could ask for in a mini pen. What do you look for in a mini pen? What other mini pens do I need to check out?