Moleskine Classic Roller Pen Review

Moleskine fans have been clamoring for accessories such as pens and pencils to match their favorite black notebooks for years and Moleskine finally delivered. I personally wasn’t too anxious to try them since I am not a big Moleskine user but the Classic Roller Pen is a very nice addition to the product line.

I had low expectations of this pen prior to reviewing it but it has turned out to be one of the best writing pens I own. The big red flag for many is the rectangular shape of the barrel. It doesn’t look like it would be comfortable to hold, especially for any length of time. When I first picked up the pen it felt odd but after a few lines I didn’t notice it was different from any other pen. Granted, I have a standard writing grip and you might find the barrel design a deal breaker depending on how you hold the pen.

The thing that made me forget about the rectangular barrel is how nice the gel ink cartridge is. I haven’t used a pen this smooth and consistent since I don’t know when. The 0.5 mm tip is a pleasure to write with. It is on par with the Pentel EnerGel for smoothness and is not as wet. As I was writing I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did. Impressive performance.

The unique pen clip is designed to attach to the cover of your Moleskine, but it will work on other hard cover notebooks as well. It is the lone metal piece of the barrel, with the remainder being a lightweight plastic. I would have preferred a little more weight to the barrel but it is fine overall.

At $14.95 this is not a throwaway pen so you will need to decide if it is going to suit your writing style. There are two 0.5 mm refills and six 0.7 mm refills so there are additional options to choose from down the line if you want to switch it up. I enjoy writing with mine and plan to make it a major part of my writing arsenal.

For another look at the Moleskine Classic Roller check out Brian’s review at Office Supply Geek.

Moleskine Memo Cards Review

After my Levenger Note Cards review last week, I figured I would back it up with these Moleskine Memo Cards pretty quickly. While they both appeal to the same audience, they are both very different when comparing the two directly.

The Moleskine Memo Cards come packaged 20 to a pack, with 10 gridded cards and 10 lined cards. Unlike the Levenger cards, they are printed on both sides. They measure 3 /12" x 5 1/2" and also have rounded corners, which I really like as a design element on these cards. One of the issues I have always had with Moleskine products is the poor quality of the paper, and if you have used a Moleskine product before, then you are familiar with how these memo cards perform.

The micro tip pens like the Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.25mm gel ink pens perform poorly, as do many of the finer gel ink pens (although the Signo DX 0.38mm is not bad), but the wider gel ink pens and the liquid ink pens do a nice job. What really surprised me was how well my fountain pens performed. While I would have a tough time even using them on the Levenger cards, I thought they were great on the Moleskine cards. Who knew?

But now for the real kicker - the price. Holy cow are these expensive. My 20 pack was $8.95 at Amazon, making them nearly 8 times more expensive than the Levenger cards. While there are several things I like about these Moleskine cards, there is no way I could justify that price in any quantity. Heck, I'm scared to use the remaining ones I have in case certain retailers start taking them as a form of payment.

Out of the higher end note cards, I still need to try out the Exacompta (I have some on order), but right now the Levenger cards are looking like the winner.

Review: A Uniball Double-Sided Pocket Brush Pen meets a Special Moleskine

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at Geminica.com.

I was recently given this adorable little Limited Edition Pac Man Moleskine notebook as a gift.  Despite the book's obvious charm I didn't have much idea what to do with it.  The pages are very thin.  Most ink sinks right through, and watercolor is out of the question. 

Since the paper wasn't inspiring, I coated some pages with acrylic paint as an experiment, but this added a new challenge since some of the acrylic was glossy and wouldn't take ink.

Enter the Uniball Pocket Brush Pen.

This pen was recommended by Pen Addict commenter and pen/pencil blogger ThirdeYe in response to my Kuretake Hair Brush review.  I wasn't optimistic, but gave it a shot in the Moleskine and it quickly came out on top!  

The Uniball lays down a nice wet line that is fantastic for quick, loose sketching - similar to the Pilot brushes but with a faster dry time.  You can see from some smearing below (center image, lower right) that this was still an issue due to all that ink, but the Pilot brushes were unusable for me for this reason and the Uniball was a big improvement.

You can see that the brush is visible through the paper, but it's not bad - my other brush pens were much worse in this regard.  The large molded foam tip is very flexible with no weird springback issues such as I've had with some disposable Kuretakes and the Copic brushes. It is so fun to work with that these days I keep it in my hand while watching TV and am constantly freezing frames for quick sketches.

Additionally, the pen works great over acrylic, even glossy acrylic.

  
 

I don't switch to the small tip often (actually I kept forgetting it was there) but it works well - not sure I'd choose it above the Tombow Fudenosuke Soft for normal use but it's convenient to have it on the other end of the pen.  Both caps are postable.

Now we come to the bad news.

When I spoke with friend and urban sketcher Alanna Randall  about this pen, she reported that hers quickly became unwieldy due to a frayed tip on the larger brush.  Not two days later, mine had become identical to hers, and started giving a weaker, dryer line - here's a post-fray sketch.

Besides this tip issue, the major drawback of the pen is that it is not waterproof.  I love it for quick sketches, but wouldn't use it for longer drawings that might later want watercolors.

 In conclusion, I have to assume this pen's tip can only last through perhaps a week of moderately heavy use - if that.  I'd feel a little better about the short lifespan if the pen were made out of recycled materials, which it isn't.  However, it works better than any other pen I have as a quick, wet brush for use on regular Moleskine notebook paper and over acrylic paint.  I recommend this pen as a lot of fun, just be prepared for it to be short-lived.