October Sponsor Spotlight

Sponsor support is very important to me here at The Pen Addict. My sidebar advertisers put their faith in me to deliver good value for them month in and month out, and I want to shine the light on the best of the best for you. If you are shopping for pens, paper, inks, and more, please check out these great companies and see what they have to offer. Some recent highlights:

Pen Chalet has you ready for an inky holiday season with the 2022 Diamine Invent Calendar.

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Vanness Pens has the highly anticipated Pennonia Strigoi Limited Edition 2022 ink, so add that to your wishlist today to be notified on launch.

JetPens received the full range of Platinum Preppy Wa Fountain Pens, my number one recommended fountain pen for beginners.

Faber-Castell Fast Gel Z 0.5 mm Gel Ink Pen Review

(This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.)

How important is the grip when choosing a pen?

For some, it is the first or second consideration. If you fall into that category, then you will want to read on for my thoughts on the Faber-Castell Fast Gel Z ink pen.

Before I dig into the grip, let’s talk about the first thing I want to know about any traditional ink pen: the writing performance. How does it write? In this case, pretty well!

I shouldn’t be surprised, as Faber-Castell has been making pens for decades, and have been in business as a stationer for centuries. Yes, literally. But I have far more experience with their fountain pens and inks-even pencils-that I do their standard pens.

The Fast Gel Z, along with many other recent Faber-Castell products, were sent to me by Faber-Castell Malaysia, who had a strong belief that I would like what they are selling. And so far, they have been right. This pen is an 0.5 mm black gel pen with a needle tip, and writes very well. The ink is dark and smooth, although the lines need to be slightly sharper if it were to crack any Top 5 Gel Ink Pens list.

That’s rare air, as I don’t even rate the Pilot G2 or the Sharpie S-Gel that high either, but I would rate those two pens ahead of this one.

That line sharpness is a real differentiator at the 0.5 mm tip size, and finer. If you aren’t a tiny print writer like myself, I think you will enjoy this pen, or it’s 0.7 mm tip relative. Heck, I’ve really enjoyed it myself when I want to leave some dark marks on the page.

As far as that Fast Dry time claim? Yeah, it’s pretty good. I lined it up against the Uni-ball Signo DX 0.5 MM, Pilot G2 0.5 mm, and Pentel Energel 0.5 mm, and, despite being the widest, wettest line, the Faber-Castell had the lightest smudge mark in my quick dry time test.

While writing with the Fast Gel Z is good, the grip makes the feel of the pen great. This is the softest, most comfortable gel or ballpoint ink grip I’ve tested in recent memory. It’s soft and cushioned, and you can feel it give under your grip with each word. I love it. I do wonder how it will hold up over extended use, but I see no reason that it wouldn’t outlast the refill in essentially the same condition it started in.

The Fast Gel Z is currently available on Amazon for around $17 for a 10-pack of pens, which is accurately priced in my mind. This is a good, solid, middle of the pack gel ink pen, with a couple of minor features (soft grip, fast drying) that may push certain users toward it as opposed to the competition.

(Faber-Castell Malaysia provided this pen at no charge for the purposes of this review.)

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Misfill, Elastic Edition

Each week in Refill, the Pen Addict Members newsletter, I publish Ink Links as part of the additional content you receive for being a member. And each week, after 10 to 15 links, plus my added commentary on each, I'm left with many great items I want to share. Enter Misfill. Here are this weeks links:

— A Deep Dive into Elastic Planner Systems (AKA Traveler's Notebooks/Fauxdori) (The Well-Appointed Desk)

— Analog Office – A Life in Pocket Notebooks (The Cramped)

— Mossery Threadbound Notebook Review 4K (Blake's Broadcast)

— Montblanc x Naruto Orange Fountain Pen Ink (Gourmet Pens)

— Ed Emberley's Little Drawing Book of Weirdos (1973) (Present & Correct)

— Joan Didion - Group of Thirteen Blank Notebook (STAIR Galleries)

— (22) Benu Skulls & Roses + DOUBLE GIVEAWAY (Figboot on Pens)

— The 100 Best Songs and Albums of the 1990s, According to Pitchfork Readers (Pitchfork)

— Leonardo MomentoZero Grande Dutch Pen Show 2022 Fountain Pen Review (SBREBrown)

— Ink Review #724: Stipula Calamo Ebony Black (Fountain Pen Pharmacist)

— Inktober Day 23: Packing Up the Plastics in the Sea Exhibit (Writing at Large)

— Roshi Rouzbehani on saving the world with art, empowering women, and developing her own visual language (Creative Boom)

— Hacking Stationery: Don't Be Afraid to "Personalize" Your Products! (They're Yours, After All) (The Gentleman Stationer)

— Christopher Locke's Playlist for His Essay Collection "Without Saints" (Largehearted Boy)

— Ink Review #1925: Laban Athena Grey (Mountain of Ink)

— Van Dieman’s Tassie Salmon on Muji Planting Tree (Inkcredible Colours)

— Data Matters (Stuart Lennon)

— Haruki Murakami: Where My Characters Come From (The Atlantic)

Want to catch the rest, plus extra articles, reviews, commentary, discounts, and more? Try out a Pen Addict Membership for only $5 per month!