Paper Mate InkJoy 500 RT 1.0 mm Blue Review

The Paper Mate InkJoy is the most recent store-shelf pen to receive a big marketing push. Advertisements and store displays are abundant, as are PR pitches to mark the launch of Paper Mate’s Revolutionary New Ink System. But how revolutionary is it?

On a scale of 1 to 10 it checks in at about a 0.

Special ink blends are the new black. Uni-ball has used this technology for years in their Jetstream line. Pilot and Zebra followed up more recently with hybrids of their own - the Acroball and Surari, respectively. Formulating an ink to give you smooth, consistent lines is neither new, nor revolutionary. Unfortunately for Paper Mate, all of the other companies do it better.

There is not a lot of bad to say about the InkJoy 500 RT that I reviewed. There is not much good to say either. It is just a pen. I use that phrase to describe pens that are average and offer nothing new or exciting. It writes smoothly (as every 1.0 mm pen should) and starts quickly, but the lines are not as crisp and clean as marketed. There is plenty of white space as if it were your basic generic ballpoint. It has that wonderful ballpoint ink aroma as well.

Regardless of what I think about this pen, Paper Mate will do well with the InkJoy. I bought this pen at Walmart, where Paper Mate has taken over approximately 25% of the pen section. That is where the problem lies. There is nothing new or interesting on the store shelves where the vast majority of consumers shop. The last big change in that section was when the Sharpie Pen started making waves, which was over two years ago.

The pace of innovation in mass-market pens is extremely slow. Inroads are being made by a few manufacturers, and let’s face it, I am not their target customer. The Paper Mate InkJoy is a prime example of that.

Say hello to your moms new favorite pen.

Cross Ion Modification and Review

(This is a guest post by Brian Draghi. You can flow Brian on Twitter @Sketchscape)

I came across the Cross Ion several years ago when I found it in a college bookstore discounted to 5 dollars and immediately purchased it. The small portable design was unlike anything I had seen before and its futuristic look of opening and closing the pen had me hooked. The pen was the perfect size to carry in my pocket without it being too distracting. I only used this pen for a brief amount of time because of the one main drawback which is the large point size.

The only available size for the Cross Ion was the 0.7 mm refill which is too large for my writing style. There was no way to add a smaller refill size from other pens because you could only use the non-standard refills made specifically for the Cross Ion.  Cross had never offered a smaller point size with this pen for those of us who prefer a smaller size.

It had been since shelved and forgotten into my collection of pens. I recently came across it again in my reserve stash of pens in my office. It had such a cool design that I really didn’t want it to go to waste. I was determined once again to find a way to use the Cross Ion with a refill that was smaller than a 0.7. It occurred to me to just try to find a replacement tip for the pen instead wasting my time with refills that would never fit properly.

After several failed experiments trying different tips from my collection of pens I finally found a solution to my problem. The tip from retractable version of the Office Max TUL brand 0.5 needle point as well as the retractable Energel X needle point fits the Cross Ion perfectly. Here is a simple and easy 5 min guide to convert to a needle point tip for the Cross Ion.

Cross Ion mod tools needed:

- One TUL 0.5 needle point refill.

- One Cross Ion refill.

- Pilers.

- A cloth over work area in case some ink spills.

- Good light source.

Four step process:

- Take a pair of pilers and grab the side base of the metal tip, not the needle point part.

- Do the same with the metal tip on the Cross refill. It should put out with some minor pressure.

- Use the pilers to insert the new tip in the Cross refill; it should snap into place perfectly.

- Enjoy your new needle point Cross Ion!

View the entire Cross Ion Mod photo set on Flickr.

Cross Ion refills can still be purchased off Amazon and the Cross website. Some Staples stores still carry these refills but they can be hard to find. I tend to buy multiples of the things I like, so I think I grabbed 3 when I saw them last at Staples a few months ago. I’ve tried to find something smaller around the .35 range but was unsuccessful. This is the simplest way to change the larger point size without having to mod the existing Ion refill or replace it all together. So far, the TUL 0.5 needle point tip works perfectly with the Cross Ion.

Ink Links

– Midori Brass Ballpoint Pen (Lost Scribe)

– Red and Blue pencils from Berol Mexico, Caran d’Ache, and Linex (Pencil Talk)

– Stationery Store Series: Papeterie in the Alps (Palimpsest)

– Strong O-Pen-ions (Culture Connoisseur)

– Uni-ball Signo 207 v Signo 207 micro (Penfan.ru)

– Rhodia Meeting Book (Gear Patrol)

– Rotring Tikky Graphic and Deleter Neopiko Line-2 (Drawing with a Squirrel)

– Sticky Note Envelopes from Muji (Office Supply Geek)

– More notebooks. Again. Sorry. (Vomi Mot)

– Soverato (Field Notes)

– Schrade Tactical Fountain Pen (No Pen Intended)

– Schrade Tactical Pen (Went Sketching)

– Review: Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4 (Stationery Happiness)

– Typing for output. Handwriting for recall. (Recording Thoughts)

– Fisher space pen (Quo Vadis Blog)

– Somewhere Between Write and Wrong (Does This Pen Write)

– A Lamy Lament: The Lamy Balloon Liquid Ink Roller Ball Pen (From the Pen Cup)

– Searching For The Perfect Pen (Tiger Pens Blog)

– Noodler’s Kung Te-Cheng ink review (Peninkcillin)

– The Pentel Tradio Stylo Fountain Pen - Black Body - Blue Ink (Rhonda Eudaly)

– Questions About How I Use Notebooks (Notebook Stories)

– Stabilo Pen 68 (A Penchant for Paper)

– Pilot Hi-Tec-C review (iamthekiller)

– Stationery Archeology 10 (Stationery Traffic)