Uni Style Fit Meister Multi Pen Review

Earlier this year, I started using a Uni Style Fit multi-pen to plan and track my work for different projects in a Leuchtturm notebook. I wrote a review of the multi-pen shortly after, stating that the gel refills were some of my favorites. While that was certainly true, I wasn't a huge fan of the standard plastic barrel that I chose to house the refills. Luckily, there's a more "premium" barrel option that features metal materials and a twist mechanism as opposed to the three knock switches that make a lot of noise.

And just like that, the Uni Style Fit Meister became the perfect work log solution for me. The refills are top-notch, and I finally have a barrel to match.

Everything about the original review still holds true when it comes to the refills. These are probably my favorite multi-pen refills. They're incredibly smooth and reliable even at the 0.38mm size. And, surprisingly, they last a long time. I'm getting about 3-4 months of daily use out of these refills. I'm a big fan of them, and I hope you check them out sometime.

The new member of this multi-pen family, however, is the Meister body. This classes up the format from "art tool" to "business pen" for me. The metal adds some weight in all the right places to improve the feeling in the hand while writing, and it looks great in the process. The metal is shiny and catches fingerprints like nobody's business, but it's easy enough to clean. If there were more color options in the lineup, I certainly wouldn't complain.

That being said, I really love the gunmetal color I chose. It looks great and feels nice when writing.

Another improvement over the cheaper body is the refill selector method. In the plastic model, there are three knock-like switches that you can depress to use a certain color refill. On the Meister, you twist the body to roll through the 3 refills. For me, this is a huge improvement. I love how smooth the movement is, and I also like that it's quieter than the plastic model. The mechanism feels great for the price, which is saying a lot.

Even though the body is metal, there's a clear window midway up the pen that allows you to see the refill colors. The "active" color lines up directly with the clip, which makes it easy to see what color you can expect when you start writing. It also makes it easy to rotate and select the color you want. The window is a bit small, so you might have some trouble seeing the colors clearly if you're using similar colors. For me, it's really easy to differentiate between blue, green, and orange.

The clip isn't exceptionally strong, but it gets the job done. It's designed to be slim to match the overall aesthetic of the pen, so that might explain why it isn't overly strong. Still, I've never had any issues with it coming undone once it's clipped to something.

One of the things I haven't taken advantage of with this pen is the ability to add a mechanical pencil unit. This isn't possible with the cheaper plastic model, but the Meister incorporates a click mechanism to advance the lead. You only have the option of 0.5mm lead size for this unit, so keep that in mind if the mechanical pencil is something you'd use in this pen.

I have no problem saying that this is my favorite multi-pen to date, and it gets used every day to plan and track my work day. The Meister body improved the experience by adding a better design and feel to an already useful instrument. Definitely try out the refills, and also keep in mind that the Uni Style bodies also work with the Pilot Acroball multi-pen refills (if you prefer those to the Uni refills).

The Uni Style Fit Meister is available from JetPens in a variety of colors, and keep in mind that they don't come with any refills — you need to buy those separately!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)


Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, which I am very grateful for.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Posted on June 15, 2016 and filed under Uni, Style Fit, Multi Pen, Pen Reviews.

New Pilot Pens And Tactile Turn Now At Vanness Pens (Sponsor)

It’s no secret that Pilot is my favorite fountain pen brand, and Vanness Pens has added two of the best models to their ever expanding product lineup.

The Pilot Custom 823 has been a revelation since I bought one of my own a few months back. The size, shape, and weight of the pen are perfect for long writing sessions. Combine that with the large ink capacity and vacuum filling system you could go weeks between refills.

The Pilot Vanishing Point is another favorite of mine, and the only retractable fountain pen you should consider. The mechanism works flawlessly, and the pen as a whole is easy to clean and maintain. New barrels colors are launched each year, and the new Blue Matte model is in stock and stunning.

Tactile Turn is the newest brand to hit the shelves at Vanness Pens, featuring fountain pen barrels made from Polycarbonate, Titanium, and even rare metals like Damascus Steel. These unique designs are made to withstand any situation you can put them in and make for the perfect every day carry pen.

My thanks to Vanness Pens for sponsoring The Pen Addict this week.

Posted on June 13, 2016 and filed under Featured Sponsor.

Bookblock Custom Printed Notebook Review

Spawned from a Kickstarter campaign in 2015, Bookblock Notebooks allow you to build a notebook just for you. Their covers are customizable with your own artwork, and their are several different options for notebook layouts and paper options. Bookblock offered to make a Pen Addict logo notebook for me earlier this year and I gladly took them up on the offer.

Working with Bookblock to get the notebook made was as simple as providing them a high resolution file of my logo. The cover art doesn’t have to be a simple logo or brand either. You can upload you hand-drawn artwork, digital designs, or anything else you want to show off on the front cover of your notebook. They even snuck in The Pen Addict tagline on the back cover of mine, which was a nice touch. The quality of the logo printing is excellent, and the colors were spot on. The other examples I have seen from Bookblock look equally as nice.

Dark smudge around the logo

Before getting to the paper choices, there were two issues with my notebook I brought up to the Bookblock team. One, their choice of packaging negatively affected the logo design during shipping. The notebook wasn’t wrapped inside the cardboard envelope that it shipped in, causing it to rub the cover all the way across the Atlantic. You can see in the picture how the dark grey ink smeared across the white. It’s going to get dinged up anyway with regular use, but I want to be the one to do it. This is an easy fix though, as one layer of bubble wrap should do the trick.

Secondly, there are no grommets or other protection where the elastic band connects to the back of the notebook. When you are printing the covers of the notebooks in color you are going to see chipping and wear around those holes if they aren’t protected, and it will likely get worse over time.

Writing - front

The grommet issue is directly related to the choice of notebook, in this case Monsieur. There are a few other choices, such as Moleskine, Castelli, G.F. Smith, and Bookblocks own brand name. And honestly, I would choose all of them over Monsieur due to the poor paper they use.

Writing - back

When using any type of wet ink, from fountain to rollerball, you can feel it seeping into the page as you write. With the metal nibs of fountain pens, especially the finer ones, you can feel the paper loosening and even getting caught in the nibs of finer pens. Ballpoints and gel inks are generally ok and pencils are great. Markers obviously need not apply, although that can be said about almost any standard notebook.

As an idea and product, Bookblocks has what it takes to provide quality to the end user, but they could use better paper choices. I would choose Moleskine over the Monsieur every time, and word from friends is that the Castelli Notebook they offer handles most inks very well. Hopefully we will see other options in the future.

My thanks to Bookblock for sending this notebook to me at no charge for review purposes.

Posted on June 13, 2016 and filed under Bookblock, Notebook Reviews.