Top 5 Pens Spring 2015 Update

Do you know this pen?

Big changes are happening with my Top 5 Pens list. Not so much in the content and ranking of the pens, but rather the the meaning of the list as a whole.

In the past, I have used the Top 5 Pens list as a snapshot of what pens I was enjoying the most over the previous few months. That worked well for a while, but as the popularity of the list has grown I realized it needed more clarification on what it means.

Going forward, the list represents my recommendations for each Top 5 category. This adds clarity to what the list is for, and to be honest, that’s what readers were using it for anyway. After each Top 5 entry, I’ll add a bit of my own commentary to discuss any changes or personal favorites I have that may or may not be part of the recommendations themselves.

I know readers still want to hear some of my personal lists on very specific topics and I plan on breaking those down in standard blog posts, hopefully at least once per month.

I would love to hear what you think about the changes to the Top 5 page.. Do the changes make what the page is for more clear? What else would you like to see as part of the Top 5 Pens page?

Three Questions With Mary Collis

In my next life I want to come back writing cursive, and I want my handwritng to look like Mary Collis's. She writes the wonderful From The Pen Cup blog, and may be the nicest person on the planet. My thanks to Mary for answering Three Questions.

1. What role do analog tools such as pens, pencils, and paper play in your day to day life?

Ever since I read David Allen's Getting Things Done in 2007, I've been a fanatic about capturing tasks, appointments, and all of the random stuff that comes at me during a day. I have one of those jobs that involves a lot of input from a lot of people, but it's not just practical (or fun) to walk around capturing notes on my phone all day. Though I love my phone (it's the first thing I check in the morning, and the last thing I check at night), pen and paper feel the most natural to me. A pen geek from WAY back, I love seeing ink flow onto paper, filling up notebooks, and coloring in my little hand drawn check boxes. I can't sustain a digital calendar to save my life, though I've tried countless times. I'd rather jot down an appointment in my homemade Field Notes "planner." For some reason, a task or appointment doesn't seem real until I've written it in own hand. Writing it down means it's captured and my brain can take a rest. Using pens and paper feels a little like playing, and who couldn't use some fun in their jam-packed work day and personal life.

2. What are your favorite products you are currently using?

Some of my analog tools have "stuck" for years—like a Field Notes notebook in a Doane Paper Horween leather notebook cover. I have one for work and one for home. It's a size and format that works perfectly for me. I keep my daily task lists in these notebooks, checking off items throughout the day. New tasks are captured in a Levenger Circa Junior size notebook outfitted with Levenger's Vivacious cross-dot Circa paper...glorious stuff. (Items from this notebook are added to master Action, Waiting, and Someday/Maybe lists in Evernote). My calendar, as I said, is handmade using a Field Notes notebook, kept in a Davis Leatherworks cover. For grocery shopping and on-the-fly list making, I use my Nock Co. Fodderstack with Nock Co. DotDash or Frictionless capture cards, and my Nock Co./Karas Kustoms Render K. I currently have two journals going- a Five-Year Reflection Book (short form) as well as a Nanami Paper Seven Seas Writer Journal (thanks to Patrick Rhone for the recommendation). The Seven Seas journal is filled with Tomoe River paper so it's an absolute dream to write in. Though I have a horrible track record for keeping journals going, I feel sure that I'll eventually fill this one up. I also write almost all of my letters on Tomoe River paper. Once you try that, nothing else measures up. I also make my own envelopes for letters using the Kuretake Handmade Envelope Template available from JetPens.

As for pens, well, ask me today and get one answer, ask me tomorrow and get another. For fountain pens, I'm currently enamored with the Waterman Phileas that I recently wrote about on my blog. Filled with Sailor Yama-Dori or Montblanc Irish Green, letter writing and journaling is pure joy. My Wahl-Eversharp Skyline Technik is always filled with Wahl-Eversharp Everberry. I'm still crazy about that nib. I carry WAY too many pens to work in my Nock Co. cases, but lately I'm using the Ti2 Design Gonzodized Techliner (Shorty) the most. The one-of-a-kind Black Fade to Silver Retro 51 that I recently won comes in a close second. But really, I have pen A.D.D., and can wind up with a herd of pens strewn all over my desk by the end of the day, even though I start out pledging to keep things simple and neat.

No problem detected.

Pencil-wise, I'm really enjoying the Write Notepads & Co. Jumbo pencils, now that I have the Classroom Friendly Large-Hole sharpener to sharpen them. These are BEEFY pencils that lay down a rich smooth line. Really great.

I carry my notebooks and pens to and from work in a Levenger Metro Messenger bag, in sage green. This is fairly new for me and has been working out great.

I display my pens in Mike Dudek's The Divide and The Block, and a couple of Levenger display cases—The Point of View Pen Case and the True Writer case (no longer available, apparently).

Oh, man- I could go on and on listing favorites!

3. What post are you the most proud of on your blog?

Can I name two? Strangely enough, neither is about pens. I had a blast writing about leaving my beloved Akkerman ink behind after the DC Pen Show. It was an especially fun post to write because of the rollercoaster of emotions, and because there was a happy ending. Had it ended badly, I probably would've kept it to myself. I'm also proud of my post about my desire to get healthier via the Whole Life Challenge. This post seemed to hit a nerve with a lot of people because my readership shot up the day it was posted. It felt good to share my story in the hopes that it might help someone else, much like Brian Goulet's story helped me. I'm still down 25 pounds, thanks to the new habits I picked up during the Whole Life Challenge.

Zebra Sharbo X LT3 Review

(Please welcome Susan M. Pigott as the latest addition to the Pen Addict family. Susan is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more of her work at Scribalishess.)

The Zebra Sharbo X LT3 is a brass-body multipen with three interchangeable components. I chose the pen in Cobalt Blue, but you have a choice of other colors for the exterior (black, silver, champagne gold, and azure blue). The pen feels solid in the hand because of the brass construction. It isn't heavy, weighing 22.9 grams with the refills inserted. At only 9.3mm in diameter, it might be a bit thin for those with larger hands.

The pen allows for three components: a mechanical pencil (0.3mm, 0.5mm, or 0.7mm) and two pens or a pen and a stylus. The stylus is only for resistive touch screens, so it won't work with iPads, iPhones, or other capacitive touch screens. Pen refills come in a variety of colors and sizes. You can choose gel inks in 0.3mm, 0.4mm, and 0.5mm or ballpoint refills in 0.7mm and 1.0mm (these are the only sizes I could find for ballpoint refills on JetPens, but I did find a 0.5mm ballpoint refill on another site). Colors include Royal Blue, Carmine Red, Blue Black, Black, Blood Red, Blue, Magenta, Sepia, Mandarin Orange, Evergreen, and Emerald Green in the gel inks. In ballpoints you can also choose Fluorescent Pink or Green. Refills come in small cellophane packages, one refill per package. Gel refills cost $2.75 each, ballpoint refills are $2.65 each, and pencil refills are $5.00 each. If you want the stylus it is $5.00.

One of the benefits of the Zebra Sharbo X system is you can mix sizes for the components in each pen. For instance, you can have a 0.5mm mechanical pencil, a 0.4mm pen, and a 0.3mm pen in different colors.

The Zebra Sharbo X LT3 comes with a small eraser underneath a screw-on cap on the end of the pen. If you do lots of erasures, you may want to leave the cap off (but put it in a safe place because it is small and easy to lose). With such a small eraser, you'll either need to buy refills (pack of 3 for $1.65) or use a larger, separate eraser.

The pen does not come with any pen components, so you'll need to order those along with the pen. Inserting the refills is fairly simple (which is good, since all the instructions are in Japanese). Just unscrew the barrel portion below the Sharbo X logo and push the refills in.

It took me a while to figure out how to get the pencil refill in it takes a bit of force to push it onto its barrel. To select which pen/pencil you want to use, twist the barrel to one of the marks on the outside. When you want to advance the lead, push on the back of the pen with your thumb on the eraser cover. To retract the writing implements, twist the barrel so it is between the exterior marks.

I never use a clip with my pens, but the clip on the Sharbo X is flexible and should work fine on a shirt pocket.

I bought the Zebra Sharbo X LT3 for underlining and making marginal notes in textbooks. I'm not a big fan of highlighters, but I wanted to underline in different colors and make notes using a color code. I use the pencil if I want to erase my marks (for instance, in a library book). The pen works quite well for this purpose. Underlining and making brief marginal notes does not tax the hand. However, while writing this review, I found my hand cramping. This may be due to the pens small barrel size or the fact that I am using 0.3mm pen sizes that make me write smaller than usual. I ordinarily write with fountain pens, so I am accustomed to larger barrels and larger nibs.

The Zebra Sharbo X LT3 is well made as it should be for $49.50. The brass construction is solid. Nothing about this pen body feels cheap.

However, I am very disappointed in the quality of the gel ink refills. They run out or dry out quickly. I've had to discard one refill that refused to write at all. At $2.75 a pop, they aren't inexpensive you could buy a full-sized gel pen for that much. I haven't tried the ballpoint refills yet because they only come in larger sizes, but I may resort to them if the gel refills continue to drive me crazy. My first multipen was the Pilot Hi-Tec C Coleto. That pen is plastic and much cheaper. But the refills worked like a dream and the pen was a bit wider, lighter, and easier to hold. I may wind up going back to that pen in the future even though I didn't like the Coleto's plastic construction.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Excellent construction, solid pen
• A selection of pen body colors; I love the Cobalt Blue
• Easy access to the pen/pencil components
• Easy to refill

Cons:

• Refills are fairly expensive
• Gel ink does not last long and dries out quickly; sometimes it doesn't work at all
• The thin diameter of the pen caused hand cramping at least for me

The Zebra Sharbo X LT3 is available at JetPens for $49.50. Pen/pencil components are not included with the pen.

Handwritten Review (Paper: Rhodia Dot Pad)