Stainless Steel Sharpie Pen Review

Well hello there!

That is what I said when walking down the pen aisle at Wal-Mart this morning. The Stainless Steel Sharpie Pen was on my radar, but I sure didn’t expect to run across it this morning while picking up cleaning supplies and Coke Zero.

Ever since Sharpie introduced the Sharpie Pen line, they have done a great job with regular updates to the design, function, or colors, and this Stainless Steel model is the latest - and possibly greatest - of the bunch.

Let me start with the obvious - the barrel. The simple, clean stainless steel design suits this pen perfectly. It is similar in design to the stainless steel barrel they use for the permanent marker, but in this case it is shaped like the Sharpie Pen Grip. The dimensions are identical as best as I can tell, with the only difference being the added weight of the barrel material. It is well balanced when writing, if ever so slightly top heavy with the cap posted. Nothing too noticeable though.

Ink wise, it is exactly like the Grip. Nice, clean, pitch black lines that don’t bleed through the page. Even my little mark out mess-ups in the writing sample don’t bleed, which is an impressive feat by Sharpie.

The best feature of all? This pen is refillable. I didn’t see any refills available on the shelf, but I’m sure they are coming soon. The entire grip section screws off and is replaceable, so I’m sure they won’t be cheap, but it is better than a $4.99 pen every time you run out.

Overall, this is a perfect addition to the product line, and I am very happy to see Sharpie continue to improve their offerings. What could possibly next?

Oh yeah - I bought all three they had on the shelf, so how about I give away the other two to two lucky commenters on this post. Hopefully you read this far down! Leave a comment by Saturday at midnight telling me what you would like to see next in the Sharpie Pen line. I will post the winner on Sunday. And sorry, US only please. Good luck!

Kikkerland WritersBlok Notebook Review

Pocket sized notebooks are a great utility item. I keep one on my person when I leave the house (even though I also carry an iPhone), one in my car center console, and one in my backpack when I take it to work out of the house. I have tried many - Doane Paper, Field Notes, Moleskine, Behance, Ecosystem - and across the board they are all good quality notebooks. The Kikkerland WritersBlok Notebook, on the other hand, is not so good.

I added these to a recent Amazon order, and I could tell before I even took off the shrink wrap there was going to be a problem. The cover of the notebook has a raised rectangle area for you to apply a label. It was out of alignment by several degrees on the top notebook, and progressively worse through the next two in the pack. I could let that slide if it were just the cover, but unfortunately, it transferred to the paper too.

You can see clearly in the photos what I am referring to. If I used blank pages it wouldn’t be an issue, but trying to use grid paper cut like this is not going to work. I’m not sure how a product like this leaves the factory to be quite honest. It’s too bad because this could be a decent option for a pocket notebook.

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen Hard Tip Review

On my never ending quest to forcibly turn artistic use brush pens into my own personal writing and note taking pen, the Tombow Fudenosuke is the latest put to the test.

If you haven’t been paying attention, I realized a few months back with the the Kuretake Fudegokochi that some brush pens make for pretty good writing pens. As one who uses felt and plastic tip drawing pens on a daily basis to write with, the brush pen provides a unique option. It takes a very particular brush pen to work well in this scenario, starting with a very hard tip.

For a brush pen, the Fudenosuke has a hard tip, but it is not hard enough for writing notes with. It is a wonderful pen for its intended use - I can get a wide range of line widths, and the ink is great - but for general writing it is not firm enough. Artists shouldn’t hesitate to pick this one up.

Are there any brush pens that you have used that I should try out for general writing use?