Pilot G2 Limited Gel Pen

When I first bought the Pilot G2 Limited, I thought that I was just getting a nicer body for the refills inside my G2 pens. At the time I had no experience with the market for pen bodies and refills. Turns out, the pen body adds to the performance of a pen — good to know. The heavier pen stabilizes the pen while writing. The pen is pushed down ever more slightly, without additional effort from the user. For me, this translates into a more consistent line and a smoother, less scratchy feedback — and the G2 is a scratchy pen. In addition, the G2 Limited does a better job of controlling the rattling of the pen parts — the spring in the clicker, for example, prevents the clicker from shaking and so writing is quieter. I had no idea.

Features that I like:

• better plastics
• refined chrome-like trims
• comfortable rubber grip
• vastly improved performance for the same refill

Drawbacks:

• still all plastic construction (including trims)
• clip is not very resilient and has begun prying off on one of my pens so I no longer clip them to my shirt

I would recommend the G2 Limited, if only to improve the performance of the G2 in the finer 05 and .38 sizes — where the extra stability counters the scratchiness of the finer points.

1950s Eberhard Faber Mongol 482 No. 1 pencil

The 1950s Eberhard Faber Mongol 482 No. 1 pencil is a soft, large core, general purpose pencil.

General purpose pencils are pencils without a usage niche. In contrast, art pencils are graded for hardness across a broad range; writing pencils are long lasting and smudge resistant — the Ben Franklin 500 and Black Warrior, which I’ve reviewed here, are examples of writing pencils.

Back to the Mongol.

The 1950s Mongol is a handsome pencil that lays down a rich, dark line. I can imagine scribbling on a slip of paper, in a sooty steel factory floor, some instructions about quantity and purchase orders.

The Mongol has all the features of a solid pencil.

• Consistent, uniform lead
• Dark, rich lines
• Sharpens well
• A good paint job
• Designed to withstand lead breakage through binders– a lost art

The pencil is quaintly overloaded with information.

• The name of the pencil
• A decorative star
• The company name (spelled out)
• Country of origin
• The model number
• The numeric hardness
• The descriptive hardness

In addition, the Woodclinched/Complastic Lead method is die stamped (cut) into the paint

I find all the information interesting, like the outline of a manual, which you’ll have noticed don’t exist much anymore.

Pentel Hybrid Technica

The Pentel Hybrid Technica is a specialty needle nosed pen, marketed to artists but I use it strictly for writing, where it gives me a thin, consistently dark line. I have it in .04, .05, and .06 mm sizes. The .05 is my favorite.

It uses a pigmented ink, instead of a dye ink, such as is found in most gel pens or ballpoints. That won’t mean much for casual pen users and it won’t mean anything for the cognoscenti either. The ink’s designed to be of stable, archival quality– with a neutral acidity, just like the quality paper used by many artists. The ink will not fade or change color with time and it won’t interact chemically with paper.

In my experience, it works best on finer, smooth paper with some absorbency , including the paper found in Moleskine or Rhodia Web notebooks, where I use it. I don’t recommend using it on copy paper. The performance on cheap paper is poor and you’ll send the pen to an early grave. Nor is the pen any good on ultra slick paper, like vellum or the standard paper found in Rhodia pads. On this kind of paper, the tiny rollerball will glide over the surface like it was glass.
Overall, the Pentel Hybrid Technica is a good pen when you need a thin line to write small or neat or if you feel like taking a break from your usual stash just to try something new.

The Pilot Better Retractable – Fine

The Pilot Better Retractable – Fine is an excellent and affordable ballpoint pen.

Are there better pens out there? Absolutely. Better ballpoints? Yes! Of course! The Pilot Better doesn’t claim to be the Best pen…it simply says, there’s better. You don’t have to settle for junk and you don’t have to spend too much for quality.

There are different classes of pens, as there are with many types of products. For pens, there’s trash on one end (we can and should ignore these); there’s premium class on the other end; then there’s a vast middle ground, full of compromises.

This is why I think the Pilot Better Retractable is, in fact, better than its peers:

• It’s a skinny pen — too many pens out there are just too fat, with excess plastic or rubber grips.
• a major step up in quality from disposables (surprise!)
• in design, similar to the Bic Cristal Stic Ball Pen, just more evolved
• good metal clip for putting it in a pocket
• nice metal nib-sleave and clicker
• writes well and for a long time
• good price

There are some drawbacks, though. The absence of a plastic nib-sleave means that the ink stick rattles during usage. A well designed plastic sleeve would have quieted this, but I get it. It was a design choice– there’s already too much plastic in the affordable pen world.

All in all, a good writing choice.

Eagle Verithin No. 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser

The Eagle Verithin No 2745 – Carmine Red with Eraser is an old, no longer manufactured hard colored pencil that was made in the U.S.  I suspect mine came from some time around the late 1970s and early 1980s, based on the box design. In spite of having a hard core (lead), the pencil is not brittle. You can sharpen it to a long point and it won’t crumble under reasonable pressure. The 2745 is the eraser capped version of the old Verithin 745, which instead has a small metal cap — I think the eraser makes it more beautiful, personally.

I’ve used the 2745, now, for drawing and for correcting printed documents. It’s similar in appearance to the Eagle Black Warrior. Both are premium pencils, with the exact same brass ferule with painted band. The 2745 has a dark burgundy paint job, alluding to the red inside but not trying to duplicate it — it’s there for looks. When I throw together a bunch of pencils, the 2745 stands out. Contrast this to the Verithin of today, which has been stripped down to the basics — the paint job more closely matches what gets laid down on paper and there’s less ostensive design — there’s just letters, not even a metal cap. Hey, every penny counts and finishing-touches cost money.

I use the 2745 for both pre-drawing (which will later be finished with graphite) and for finished drawings where all I use is the red. This is an excellent hard colored pencil and I hope I have enough to last me for a while. I don’t know if I’ll ever catch another 2745 auction. Thankfully, the old 745 is common on eBay and if I ever need some, I can get them for cheap.