The cheap pen that changed writing forever

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201028-history-of-the-ballpoint-pen

by pseudolus • 6 years ago

263 188 6 years ago

kaonwarb• 6 years ago

One side effect not discussed here: how the shift to ballpoint pens increased hand strain [0]. Writing with a fountain pen is relatively effortless - not to deny it has several other drawbacks. I imagine this is part of why, as an elementary school student in France, I was required to write with only fountain pens.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...

bluedino• 6 years ago

I always use roller/gel pens, but I have never tried a fountain pen.

I cannot use a cheap stick ballpoint pen. My writing looks bad, my hand cramps up, I don’t know why that is.

WalterBright• 6 years ago

The gel pens are my favorite, but I did enjoy using fountain pens in grade school - I just liked the way the result looked.

hinkley• 6 years ago

I find the uniball gel pen substantially easier to write with, so conversely I find all other ball point pens harder to write with. I know in college there were certain pens that hurt to use all day and I quickly got rid of those.

Most of my favorite pens at the moment are uniball, or take the same refill size and I’ve converted them. Somewhere I have a collapsing fountain pen but I had to be careful of the type of paper and I let it dry up at some point, got it working again, and forgot about it because I found another collapsing pen I could shoehorn the uniball gel into (by swapping the spring)

chrisseaton• 6 years ago

Right - ballpoint pens are horrible to write with and your writing will look terrible, but they are useful in an austere environment like a plane or outdoors, especially when they're the pressurised variant.

wanderingstan• 6 years ago

Ballpoint writing doesn't have to look terrible, it's just a different tool from a fountain or dip pen.

A few years ago I hit the front page of Reddit with my ballpoint writing: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/969vta/i_practice_alp...

GuB-42• 6 years ago

While in most cases, it is a drawback, it is an advantage when you are making carbon copies.

There are forms that require you to use a ballpoint pen for that reason.

criddell• 6 years ago

What's the difference between the kind of strain you get from pressing harder with a ball point pen and the kind of strain you get from lifting weights in a gym? I guess what I'm really asking is if your body will adapt to the increased hand strain? Is it a short-term problem?

virtue3• 6 years ago

you lift weights along muscle systems designed to handle load.

Your wrist/elbows etc are relatively weak. See tennis elbow, etc.

The other issue is that you end up writing 4-6hrs a day in school 5days a week, wheras the gym is something like, maybe 20 minutes per muscle group? depending. And that doesn't tend to be more than 3-4x a week.

I used to weightlift with a much lighter ex. The one thing I noticed was that even tho I could lift substantially more, our recovery rate was basically the same. So I'd end up with a lot more nagging injuries over time if I didn't properly take care of myself.

woofie112• 6 years ago

Intense, short loads, with long recovery breaks in between build muscles and strengthen tendons. That's lifting weights at the gym.

Writing and typing is continuous, repetitive strain with no recovery. That's the killer.

Broken_Hippo2• 6 years ago

Lifting weights generally has variety in motion and muscle group. Writing is doing the same, short lift - without using the full range of motion - for the same muscle group day after day after day.

It isn't a short-term issue: Comic artists often work long days (contract work) and work until their arm doesn't function well anymore (often decades before retirement age). Writing (and drawing) can produce a number of repetitive strain injuries (hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder). You can increase your tolerance if you are healthy, but it still is going to lead to injuries over time and you are better off taking more breaks than you think you need and learning not to press as hard as people are prone to do. You do "improve", but the improvement isn't really in strength but fine motor control and motion and things like that (especially with drawing).

redvenom• 6 years ago

I also write for long periods of time, and use a mechanical pencil with softer lead (2B). It doesn't replace a pen when you need a pen, but if you just want to avoid hand strain, this is another option.

Maha-pudma2• 6 years ago

I always use a pencil over a pen when ever I can. I write a lot outdoors and pens don't work in the rain. And there's also the story of pens and pencils in space I like.

m4632• 6 years ago

My favorite pen is the pentel energel 0.7mm.

It will write smooth dark lines just the right thicknes without blobbing or cutting out, and is the most effortless pen to write with.

But yes, it does write at a higher angle than a fountain pen. I had a fountain pen years and years ago, and it was something you had to want to use. I can't help but think of it like vinyl records, straight razors and film cameras.

godelmachine10• 6 years ago

>pentel energel 0.7mm.

Thanks for mentioning this

I am currently on the lookout for new pen to make my standard usage pen.

My prime requirement is that it should be 1.0mm, or at a minimal 0.7mm, since I love the thickness. Secondary requirement is that it should be smooth.

I bought Baoke gel from Amazon and while I loved it a lot, was greatly disappointed to find it was of Chinese make.

Am now searching for something that’s of non-Chinese origin. So far, I have zeroed in on Uni-ball impact 1.0mm gel pen, and am shortlisting their 0.7mm gel pens as well. I would also give uni-ball 1.0mm and 0.7mm ballpoint pens a try as well in case I feel gel pens get used up faster, since always carrying a backup refill can be an inconvenience.Also, TCO with gel pens is always more than ballpoint pens.

Does anyone have any suggestions in mind?

Please proffer

porknubbins• 6 years ago

I use my fountain pen all the time out of mostly laziness because my ballpoint pens run out and I don’t want to make a trip to the store to pick up (or find lost in my house). A jar of ink lasts forever.

shinycode2• 6 years ago

I bought and tried hundred of different pens and Pentel Energel 0.7mm are the best. Smooth writing, bold colors, dark black. Now I buy them by pack of ten. Look no futher they are the best

AhtiK• 6 years ago

I did like the Pentel Energel 0.7mm a lot, until tried to cut waste and use the refills. Turns out the rubber and plastic becomes loose over time, for about the time you want to use the 3rd refill.

So I dropped the idea, bought 2 Lamy Safari fountain pens to rotate when one goes empty, 1 pot of Diamine ink, 1 blunt-tipped syringe to refill and never had to think about this topic again :)

ascar4• 6 years ago

On the other hand, using a fountain pen is incredibly frustrating and exhausting for left-handed people (in a left to right writing system). I had to unnaturally bend my hand above the line I wanted to write so I don't immediately smear the ink. Basically mimiking a right-hand draw position with the left hand while having your hand above the line instead of on the same level. It hurts.

We were also forced to use it in German elementary school and I remember very well that my dad went to the dean (successfully) demanding that I am allowed to write with something else and abandon cursive training. Thanks again dad!

smabie• 6 years ago

Gotta learn that mirror script like da vinci

orthoxerox• 6 years ago

I wonder how Arabs managed writing with a fountain pen.

Saint_Genet• 6 years ago

Ball-point pens are fairly useless too, When you're a lefty uou push the pen rather than dragging it so it clogs up. Gel-ink pens has made my life so much better.

OJFord• 6 years ago

I remember a left-handed teaching assistant with extremely consistent/neat handwriting; she solved this problem by rotating the page 90deg counter-clockwise, writing 'bottom-to-top' rather than left-to-right, and 'down' the page to the right.

I've never seen anyone else do that, but it certainly worked. Though I remember wondering why not rotate it the other way, so 'down' becomes left and hand wouldn't pass over the previous line either.

golergka2• 6 years ago

Now I finally realise why left-handed people were so often forcibly re-taught to be right-handed in school in 20th century. It always seemed so pointlessly cruel! But with only fountain pens available, it must have been the only choice.

Edit: this also makes me wonder how the hell Ben Yehuda revived Hebrew without ballpoint pens.

wdb• 6 years ago

I prefer writing with fountain pen, you don't get that scratching feeling like you have with a ballpoint.

BeetleB3• 6 years ago

High quality ball points are a lot less scratchy than the cheap ones. I've used some that are definitely less scratchy than a fountain pen with a fine nib.

petre2• 6 years ago

Do try a rollerball with ink. I also like fountain pens but this one is more convenient.

Brajeshwar• 6 years ago

School days in the 80s/90s had us writing a lot, with fountain pens. I still own few fountain pens now and I love writing with them at home. My current favorite is Muji's Aluminum Fountain Pen[1] -- a not-so costly but fantastic fountain pen.

I can get used to any of fountain pens pretty quickly, even the worst and the cheapest ones. The advantage of growing up using hand-me downs during school, is that you learn tricks. Here is one, for the bad fountain pens, I slant it to "my angle" of writing and sand it (very gently) against either a very fine stone/rock or go a carpenter's shed and sand it against their finest sandpaper.

I have been trying to teach my daughter to write more, especially with fountain pens but she seems to not like it so much yet. She does like having few around -- perhaps seeing me line up my pens nicely on my table inspires her.

1. https://www.amazon.com/Muji-2724644690738-MUJI-Aluminum-Foun...

Sharlin2• 6 years ago

Huh. I never even realized that in other countries schools might have pupils write with ink pens. Here it’s 100% pencils and has been at least since the early 90s when I started school.

harikb• 6 years ago

I had a teacher who considered the mess it leaves on the front short pocket as payback for jumping/running around in school grounds - as sort of a sign of lack of discipline.

There was also a whole thing about rich vs poor in the classroom - the ones who still struggled with a leaking pen vs the one who always brought the fanciest ones. I went to public school, so I could see this right before my eyes. We did have school uniforms, but the pen and the lunch box were the only ones for the rich kids to show off.

Technology aside, the cheap and functional ballpoint pen did change the life in subtle ways for so many kids.

petre2• 6 years ago

There are rollerballs with regular ink now, such as the one I have from Schneider. It does need a refill, but writing with it is efortless, just like with the fountain pen and the writing also looks good because the trail is continuous. I think they have a ceramic ball tip instead of a metal one. I absolutely love them. One can also reuse the cartridges and refill them with regular ink using a syringe if they can be bothered to do so.

https://schneiderpen.com/en_us/cartridge-rollerballs/easy-wh...

stewbrew• 6 years ago

If that were true, nobody would use pens. I write differently with pens and everything is fine.

zentropia• 6 years ago

As a left handed for me was awful.

lmilcin• 6 years ago

I think the problem is only with people who never learned to write with fountain pain in the first place.

Fountain pen teaches to not press on the paper and keep correct angle while you write. When you don't need to press the pen you don't need to have a tight grip on it and it allows for relaxed grip.

Once you learned to have a tight grip on your writing instrument you transfer it to other instruments. So if you've learned incorrectly with ballpoint pen, you will have hard time figuring out what the fuss about fountain pens is all about.

That's why my kid who is currently actively learning writing is writing with fountain pen exclusively until he learns relaxed grip and good posture while writing. I assume then it won't matter much what he is going to write with.

Cancan822• 6 years ago

I recently switched to a fountain pen - way easier to write with and way less tension. Neil Gaiman suggested it and so I gave it a shot. Never going back - my handwriting is better (but I write cursive) and it is easier to write longer without strain.

That said - super cool story.

NewOrderNow3• 6 years ago

Same, once I used one, there is no no going back.

You can certainly go deep with ink and pens and whatnot, but you can buy a Lamy for cheap on Amazon and just stick with cartridges and still get a far superior result.

If anyone feel like their writing is sloppy and avoid writing because of it, try a fountain pen.

karlding• 6 years ago

For what it's worth, the consensus on /r/fountainpens and other fountain pen enthusiast sites is that you risk receiving counterfeit Lamy Safari pens when purchasing from Amazon. These fakes often have poor quality nibs and ruin people's first experience with fountain pens. The recommendation is to purchase a pen through a reputable dealer so you know that you are getting the real thing.

There's a post here on Imgur [0] regarding an individual's experience after receiving a fake on Amazon if you want to compare the fake and original.

[0] https://imgur.com/gallery/RC0hU

wombatmobile5• 6 years ago

I love fountain pens too, and recently tried to switch back to my classic Parker 45.

Sadly, the plastic lining of the reservoir had perished, so the pen wouldn't suck ink up. I tried a replacement reservoir, but it didn't work. So I tried a different type, with a screw based impeller mechanism, and got ink all over my fingers and desk. Some of the ink went up into the reservoir, but wouldn't flow back down through the nib for the purpose of writing.

I don't like disposable fountain pen ink. The plastic is bad for the environment, and the experience is half of what I am trying to get away from by returning to the mechanism of the refillable apparatus.

I tried buying a new fountain pen, for $50 from Officeworks. It has a screw based impeller mechanism that has the same shortcomings as the one I tried with my Parker 45.

Has anyone seem a replacement reservoir for Parker 45 that works?

Can anyone recommend a non-refill fountain pen?

I'd love to return to using a fountain pen! Not just for ergonomic reasons. The writing looks better too.

adolph2• 6 years ago

I'm new to fountains and enjoy my Lamy Safari even if it is inexpensive plastic. The refillable reservoir is of the screw-suction type but I don't use it that way. I use an inexpensive syringe to transfer ink.

https://www.jetpens.com/JetPens-Ink-Syringe/pd/22182

BeetleB3• 6 years ago

Apart from Lamy Safari, another option is the Pilot Metropolitan. If you want smooth writing, get a Medium or larger. Pilot Medium's are the equivalent of Fine in most countries.

dbtc• 6 years ago

Lamy converters and cartridges fit in my Parker 45.

You can also use a syringe to clean and refill disposable cartridges from an ink bottle.

wenc2• 6 years ago

I use a TWSBI ECO F (~$30) every day. It is one of the more inexpensive piston filled demonstrators out there. The writing experience is the best I've had so far (when paired with heavier Rhodia or Clairefontaine paper). The only downsides are (1) it uses a screw cap mechanism (which is preferred by some in the fountain pen community because it doesn't fail like snap-on cap mechanisms; but is slower and less convenient) (2) It's made of plastic -- very high quality plastic -- but plastic nonetheless. It's more of a technological pen than a classic pen. That said, I would rate the writing experience of the TWSBI much higher than that of the more popular Pilot Metropolitan (I should know, I own 4 Pilot Metros).

Also, as much as I'm a fan of fountain pens, they do have some downsides. The ink tends to smear/smudge easily (even quick drying ones) on normal paper, which makes them less suitable for scribbling marginalia on paperbacks. And even their extra fine nibs aren't that fine, so one can't squeeze as many words into the margins. Therefore, I use a different pen for marginalia: a Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.3mm (~$3). It's a gel pen with a very very fine nib (0.3mm is finer than Western F fountain nibs). Fountain pen inks are also usually water soluble so they're less suitable for use cases that require permanence, like say signing the back of a credit card, so I find myself having to switch to a cheap ballpoint in such cases.

To me, fountain pens optimize for one experience and one experience only -- the pleasure of writing on good paper. It trades off versatility to achieve this optimization.

citrusybread4• 6 years ago

Platinum Plaisir is also a great pen! I combined with Noodler's Bernanke Blue. It dries extremely quickly and it's very smooth writing. At 0.3mm (Platinum Fine), it's really hard to tell the difference between inks but Bernanke Blue is a fairly pleasant blue.

I think I paid 1000 JPY for it, but these days it's around $10-$20 on amazon.

yiyus• 6 years ago

If you liked the pictures in the article, you may like Juan Francisco Casas, who makes hyper-realist drawings with bic pens:

https://www.google.com/search?q=juan+francisco+casas&tbm=isc...

Tehdasi• 6 years ago

"Fountain pens were messy and needed regular refilling"

So the solution is to not make the refilling better and less messy, it was to invent landfill. Not only from having to replace the pen when it ran out of ink, but from high failure rate of the aforesaid pens.

enriquto3• 6 years ago

The wording of this article is very strange. All references to fountain pens happen in the past tense, as if they did not exist anymore. Millions of people still use fountain pens every day. The author lives in a bubble of ballpoint users or what?

ta8645• 6 years ago

Don't most of us live in a bubble of ballpoint users? It is the most pervasive pen by a pretty wide margin.

enriquto3• 6 years ago

I don't think so. I have lived, studied, and taught in three different European countries and everywhere, a sizeable proportion of students used fountain pens (a large majority in the case of France). For my part, I use mostly rollers and fountain pens, and I hate the high pressure needed to use ballpoints.

EDIT: In any case, even if most people use only ballpoint pens, it seems very hard to live without ever crossing a fountain pen user (as seems to be the case for the author of this article).

watwut• 6 years ago

I most definitely do. Fountain pens are used by first graders and second graders. Everyone else is using ball point pen.

People even draw with them.

Polylactic_acid2• 6 years ago

I'm not exactly deep in the fountain pen community but it looks like to me that fountain pens are the pen version of mechanical keyboards or mechanical watches. The ordinary person doesn't own one and would likely see no benefit from one but a bunch of enthusiasts continue to keep them going.

Symbiote3• 6 years ago

Not quite, as in some countries they are used almost universally by school children, although usually much less often by adults.

tvb122• 6 years ago

I didn't know fountain pens still existed until two years ago. I bought a Pilot Metropolitan and I've found it to be an improvement. However, I still have not seen another in the wild.

Err, "an improvement" probably needs clarifying, though. It moves across paper much more smoothly than the ball point pens I've used, and I find reloading the ink to be enjoyable (I've also gone two years without the pen disappearing into the void, something which has never happened for me when using disposable pens). It does seem like fountain pens require heavier paper than ball-points, though. Maybe it's the ink I bought, but trying to write on the standard lined paper used in schools leads to a lot of smudges and bleeding ink. Standard weight printer paper is fine, unless it was left out on a few humid days.

sellyme• 6 years ago

I live in Australia, and I'm pretty certain I've never even seen a fountain pen. I would have definitely put them in the same "only used as movie props" bucket as quills were it not for your comment.

NewOrderNow3• 6 years ago

/r/fountainpens/ would like a word

egonschiele2• 6 years ago

I was thinking the same thing, and see a lot of similar thoughts in the comments. Ballpoints are convenient but hurt my hand and are not a pleasure to write with.

grimgrin2• 6 years ago

not entirely related, but my buddy is sitting on ballpoint.com

he isn’t a squatter but it’d be nice if he could flip it no doubt. maybe in 1945 ;)

CamelCaseName• 6 years ago

Visited the domain, wasn't sure what I expected, but I laughed. (https://www.ballpoint.com for easy access)

grimgrin2• 6 years ago

no www :P

egonschiele2• 6 years ago

what does he want for it?

rwmj• 6 years ago

A few years ago I went round the house and threw out every ballpoint / biro (replacing them with Uni-ball UM-153S which are much more pleasant to use). There had to have been at least a hundred of them. So many were free from conferences or charities.

sxt• 6 years ago

Anybody else here who uses Fineliners? I've only stuck to fineliners ever since the first time I've used it, the upgrade in comfort and penmanship was extraordinary. Yes fountain pens are great and I've used them most of my life, as most ballpoints weren't suitable for my left hand writing style. But fineliners are way less cumbersome

fuball63• 6 years ago

I had to look up what this was. At first I thought it was the same as a felt tipped pen, which is what I primarily use, but I guess we're both in different minorities.

EDIT: guess I'll add why I like felt tipped pens. I like how the ink dries quickly, still have control over how much is being put to page, are fairly cheap, and personally I like the stratchiness/resistance on the page, it helps my handwriting I think.

marvypenlover• 6 years ago

I really love Marvy Le Pen. It glides smoothly on paper. It doesn't leak on an airplane. It's inexpensive and comes in many colors. I find I have to hold it almost perfectly vertically. Just out of FOMO I would be interested in knowing if there's anything better. From time to time I try something else but have never found one better.

wrp• 6 years ago

This article rather misrepresents the social aspect of handwriting before ballpoint pens, as it ignores the use of dip pens and pencils. Oddly, there is an illustration of a dip pen rather than a fountain pen.

meerita• 6 years ago

Bic all the way. Lazlo Biro legend.

dzonga• 6 years ago

write on paper first using pen, then type out the notes to computer. efficient and reinforces learning

ajmurmann• 6 years ago

It's also nicer in meetings, since it's obvious you are taking notes and really appreciating what's being said rather than being distracted by Slack

stevewillows• 6 years ago

I use a mix of pens. Often a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen, Marvy Le Pen (almost felt-like), and also gel rollers from Muji (0.38, 0.5, 0.7).

Overall, the Le Pen is my favorite, but I notice an improvement in style and consistency with the fountain pen.

I think one of the main differences between 'the old days' and what we're taught now is that we're not raised to write from the shoulder, which can lead to extra strain and exhaustion. I'm still not great with this, but when I make a concerted effort to write like this, I find that my writing is far more consistent and effortless.

dirtyid• 6 years ago

Am I the only one who loved BIC Crystal's because the cap looked like the canopy of a fighter jet?

themodelplumber• 6 years ago

The same! I learned to love them even more when a friend who's a car designer showed me that you can vary the pressure to shade with them almost like a pencil. IOW they are good sketching tools.

Well, I guess there's also that Jason Bourne scene...that was a Bic, no? ;-)

qndreoi• 6 years ago

This author maintains that fountain pens are amenable to cursive, whereas ballpoints are better at printing. Thus, the demise of Palmer method and Spencerian script and the preponderance of printing. link: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...

ajarmst3• 6 years ago

A notable side effect not mentioned is that the biro began the downfall of cursive handwriting, as described by an interesting Atlantic article: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...

I still use fountain pens, although that is arguably an affectation--they were already on the way out when I was in school. Cursive reduces the number of times you lift the stylus from the paper, greatly reducing the number of blots or gaps in flow of a fountain pen. Biros don't have that problem. Still, writing in cursive on good paper with a proper fountain pen has an aesthetic that I'd not like to give up.

Arguably, the shift to keyboarding completed cursive's downfall. My children report that, although they did learn cursive in primary school, they now (High School) don't know anyone who uses it. I've had post-secondary students complain that they have difficultly reading cursive comments on submissions, even if I've taken pains to write neatly (I no longer challenge them thus.)

I do find one thing puzzling: why has the effort once expended on teaching elegant cursive not shifted over to instruction in touch typing? None of my students report having had instruction in that (I've polled them several times). It seems odd to me that very so very few of the so-called "digital natives" I work with can challenge the skills I learned on an IBM electric 45 years ago.

oh_sigh• 6 years ago

They can probably touch type on their cell phone, just not on a full QWERTY keyboard.

nine_k• 6 years ago

It is likely hard to impossible to touch-type on a cellphone: the keyboard is always on the screen, so the eyes (nit touch) constantly help adjust fingers' positions. This does allow for impressive speed, though, especially with autocorrect.

Broken_Hippo2• 6 years ago

The problem with this is twofold: 1. There isn't much to touch on a screen except the screen. On a keyboard, some keys are different sizes and we often have a key that allows us to know proper finger placement (mine is j and f: I've used keyboards with a dot on d and k too).

2. Cell phone layout isn't as standardized as a qwerty keyboard. Sure, the letters are in the same spot, but symbols aren't always there.

We have other methods to quicken touch screen typing, though: Swipe-friendly keyboards and predictive text.

Polylactic_acid2• 6 years ago

I think I witnessed the exact moment cursive officially died in my area. I was born in 1998 and some time in primary school (Don't remember when) the school was teaching non cursive to the lower years and cursive at about year 5 (I think) the year I reached that year they had removed it from all years and it was never taught for the rest of the time I was in school.

vel0city• 6 years ago

Some schools do prioritize touch typing. At the middle and high school I went to in the US, there were several mandatory computing courses to teach some basic computing skills. One of the main things they worked on was touch typing, which did work out to a good chunk of your grade. They had some typing tutor software which would report results to the teacher's database. For tests, they would drape a cloth over your hands and keyboard. Intentionally pulling the towel away was considered academic dishonesty and followed the same kind of rules as cheating.

The school I went to did have an elementary school associated with it. From what I understand they also made a point to teach typing proficiency as a focus on computer classes.

Some schools do teach it, but I do agree it appears it is sometimes overlooked. I have many, many peers who despite having a job behind a keyboard every day have poor typing form, cannot touch type, and have some incredibly low WPM. Even some basic training on typing could potentially make them much faster typists. But its just not a priority in their lives.

app4soft2• 6 years ago

Bic Cristal[0] was really painful for my fingers (due to "hexagonal body") & avoid to use it since 2010.

In last 10 years my fav ballpoint pen is Schneider K15.[1,2]

FTR, Schneider ballpoint pens multiply times got "Red Dot Design Award" (2006, 2010, 2013, 2019)[3] ... until this year; this year Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel Nr.1 ballpoint pen got "Red Dot Design Award'2020".[4]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bic_Cristal

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3ABallpoint-pen-parts.jpg

[2] https://www.red-dot.org/project/schneider-schreibgeraete-406...

[3] https://www.red-dot.org/project/schneider-schreibgeraete-406...

[4] https://www.red-dot.org/project/drehgriffel-45706

animal531• 6 years ago

I had a pretty large callus on my index finger from the way I gripped the pen during school and university.

After that I almost never wrote again, and now 20+ years later it's pretty much receded (I can only barely feel it).

app4soft2• 6 years ago

Yeah, I has same non-sweet memories: when I was in school (there are was not good pens on the market yet) many of us put a small piece of rubber tube on a pen as "DIY softener" to relieve pressure on the fingers.

Later when I sew new pens with rubber tube putted by default on the market it keep me smile a little.

quickthrower2• 6 years ago

Going to show that wealth is somewhat proportional to how much landfill waste you can create.

GekkePrutser• 6 years ago

The bic caps are also great as makeshift plastic prybars to pry open electronics :P They get thicker along the clip so you can often use them to keep pressure and they don't cause 'bite marks' because they're made of really soft plastic.

Of course spudgers are a better tool for the job but if you don't have them to hand, an old credit card and a few bic caps are great :)

mleonhard2• 6 years ago

I wrote a lot in university. My favorite pen is the Pilot G-2 07 black. It can make the tapered points of Chinese & Japanese characters. Its only shortcoming is that the ink takes about a minute to dry.

UNI JetStream 0.7mm black has quick-drying ink and is just as smooth. But it cannot make the tapered line ends, is more expensive, and has a counterfeit problem.

emit_time• 6 years ago

Pilot G-2 0.38mm is the correct size.

mleonhard2• 6 years ago

It's the correct size for what?

fomine3• 6 years ago

I was using very tiny 0.18mm ballpoint pen to write tiny text 10 years ago. I found that the product (Mitsubishi Signo bit) discontinued.

The cheap pen that changed writing forever

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