Zebra Tapli Clip Ballpoint Pen 1.6 mm Blue Review

I love my micro tip pens but I do get asked from time to time to review pens on the opposite end of the spectrum. With a 1.6 mm tip size, the Zebra Tapli Clip Ballpoint is waaay out there compared to what I normally use.

How does a pen like the Tapli stack up to some of my favorites? Not very well. It is not just that it has a wide tip that I don’t care for it - if a pen is a good pen I will say so - it is that the performance is poor regardless of the tip size.

The ink is very messy when writing with the Tapli. You can see several blobs of ink on the page even in the smaller size photos. It is consistently bad, and the 1.6 mm tip actually made it worse because there was so much ink coming out of the tip. There was even some bleed through to the back of the page which I have only seen one other time with a ballpoint.

Once you cross the 1.0 mm threshold you really need to temper your expectations. There is only so much good that a tip size that large can do. Yes, it will be very smooth and probably dark, but the ink flow might also be unmanageable.

Do you have a ballpoint, gel, or rollerball pen 1.2 mm or greater that consistently works well for you?

Sailor Clear Candy Fountain Pen Review

I have been talking a lot about entry level fountain pens lately I wanted to discuss another recent acquisition: the Sailor Clear Candy. It was recently introduced to celebrate Sailor’s 100th anniversary and comes in 15 different barrel colors with eight colors of ink cartridges. I chose the clear black body and orange ink cartridges for something a little different. I have a thing for translucent barrels and always like to see a splash of color inside instead of boring old black.

Once I snapped the ink cartridge in the fine nib began writing immediately. The nib itself is a little scratchy compared to the Lamy Safari and even the Platinum Preppy. It writes very clean and sharp but I am wondering if I need to break it in a little more to get a smoother feel.

The orange ink is a nice touch. It comes out light when still wet on the page but dries into the great shade you see in the picture. The barrel is nothing to write home about. It is a basic plastic design with few frills other than some nice logo work, which I enjoy.

The Sailor Clear Candy lies in the middle ground between the Preppy and Safari in both quality and price. If you are looking for a decent entry level fountain pen that offers a little more than the basics then you should check this one out.

Ink Links

– The Faber-Castell Ondoro (Leigh Reyes)

– Try Something New: Colored Pencils (Rhodia Drive)

– Pilot Acroball Smooth Writing Ballpoint Pen 0.7 mm (No Pen Intended)

– Moleskine Highlighter Pencil Set (Office Supple Geek)

– How the Pen Evolved from a humble Paintbrush Into a Precise Instrument of Writing Perfection (Gizmodo)

– Review: Retro 51 Green Crocodile Tornado Rollerball Pen (Gourmet Pens)

– Uni Brush Pens (Julian Kay’s Blog)

– Stationery Archeology 11 (Stationery Traffic)

– Kaweco Sport (giblog)

– Uni-ball Signo Broad White (A Penchant for Paper)

– Platinum Plaisir Fountain Pen Review (Palimpsest)

– Pink Pens (Bunnies in Blazers)

– The Rotring Skynn for Dummies (From the Pen Cup)

– Current Favorites! Part 1: Brush Pens + contest! (nemu*nemu)

– Extended “Super Six” Pen Review 2012 Part 1 (Leaves in the Pages)

– Did You Know I’m a Fountain Pen Geek? (SurfBits)

– 1001 Ink Bottles (Meathaus Enterprises)

– Moleskine Monday: 3-Piece Diary/Planner Review (Notebook Stories)

– Pelikan Blue Black (Stationery Traffic)