# What's your favourite pen?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 15, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364 "2005-10-15T15:57:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/1 "2005-10-15T15:57:37Z")
Related to the [What’s your favourite pencil?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=333966) thread.
Mine is the uni-ball VISION micro. I like the liquidy look of the ink and the sound the pen makes going across a piece of paper. It also lasts longer than other pens, I’ve found.
So what’s yours?
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/2 "2005-10-15T16:03:33Z")
I have no idea, Even with a magnifying glass I can’t find any identifying marks but I am on to my third refill. It has a soft grip bottom to the barrel and users gel ink.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/3 "2005-10-15T16:09:36Z")
When I was a kid my favourite was a Parker with a grey barrel. (Still have one, too. 😉 ) Remember the ads? ‘Keep you hands off my Parker!’
Now my favourite is a Levenger Schaeffer fountain pen with a gold and steel fine-point nib. It’s one of their ‘Mediterranian’ series. Aegean? Something like that. It has a translucent blue barrel with gold bands and clip. I use bottled blue ink, sometimes my own mixture of blue and black.
Before I got this pen my favourite was a Waterman Philleas. Its barrel is marbelled blue with gold bands and clip. It’s a nice pen, and reasonably priced. (I think it was like a third the cost of the Levenger.) Only its ‘fine’ nib isn’t as fine as I really like.
Since fountain pens are not suited to some uses I tend to use a Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine or a Uni-Ball Micro when I can’t use a fountain pen.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/4 "2005-10-15T17:10:17Z")
Parker Duofold [Centennial](http://www.penopoly.com/assets/parker/pkr1022.jpg) FP, #21 nib, given me at my college graduation in 1989.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/5 "2005-10-15T17:18:55Z")
I don’t remember the model name, but it is a Cross fountain pen with a titanium barrel and a 18kt plated nib. I use it for journal entries and general correspondence as well as a weighted placeholder and pointer when reading. For general use I carry a silver Parker retractable ballpoint. It’s a decent pen, and pretty cheap, but sharp looking and a good writer.
I can’t standmost disposable pens; shitty ink and poor tolerance tips that start hemmoraging or binding after the first few pages, but I rather like the Uni-ball Vision Micro pens. I just wish the ink were as waterproof as it claims.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/6 "2005-10-15T17:43:19Z")
Pilot G-2 Gell Ink pen.
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### Author:  [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/7 "2005-10-15T17:43:43Z")
I used to have a set of Uni-ball Vision Exact that I loved, but I can’t find them around these parts anymore. I just bought some new Uni-ball Fusions (you know, the gimmicky kind where the ink changes from clear to colored), and I’m really excited to use them once I’m done with my last turquoise Vision.
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### Author:  [@bitwise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bitwise)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/8 "2005-10-15T17:51:45Z")
> [@bouv](#):
>
> Pilot G-2 Gell Ink pen.
I prefer the [Pilot G2-5](http://www.pilotpen-store.com/product_detail.asp?T1=PIL%20BG2-5%20BLACK)
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### Author:  [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/9 "2005-10-15T19:56:49Z")
uni-ball GEL IMPACT RT
It’s perfect for doing xwords. Nice broad line and so effortless to use.
Disposable wedge pens are fun, too, when you feel like dabbling in calligraphy
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/10 "2005-10-15T20:06:14Z")
When not FP’ing for one reason or another, my pen of choice is the Uni-ball Deluxe fine point. Very smooth - actually smoother than my Parker rollerball, which tends to skip.
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### Author:  [@Lisa\_Ann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa_Ann)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/11 "2005-10-15T20:10:52Z")
Office Depot medium in red with the gray colored barrel. Bastids stopped making them and I only have three left! In the new white barrelled version the ink color is too bright and just feels wrong.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/12 "2005-10-15T20:15:12Z")
**Lisa** , please tell me you don’t write _everything_ in red. Writing in red all the time is sort of like YELLING IN ALL CAPS ON THE INTERNET – it makes people think your every word is a critique.
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### Author:  [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/13 "2005-10-15T20:26:06Z")
[Pentel EnerGel](http://graphics.samsclub.com/images/products/0007251216539_LG.jpg). Needle Tip, 0.5 mm ball. Smooth-writing, long lasting… what more could you want?
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### Author:  [@Lisa\_Ann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa_Ann)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/14 "2005-10-15T20:37:22Z")
**BoD** , I use it at work, because it is necessary to distinguish my office notes from the customer’s and client’s on documents. I have only two co-workers who also use red for the same purpose and I’m not much of a letter writer, in case you’re worried I’m offending family and friends! 🙂
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### Author:  [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/15 "2005-10-15T23:01:02Z")
Rotring Rapidoliner, 0.18mm. It’s a fine-lined pen that writes on damn near everything, and doesn’t bleed measurably. It’s a technical drawing pen, with all the advantages that implies, but it’s cartridge-based, so it has almost none of the disadvantages. A cartridge, for me, lasts about six months.
Sadly, Sanford bought out Rotring recently and discontinued it. I bought as many cartridges as I could to stave off the inevitable, but for this they have earned my undying hatred.
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### Author:  [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/16 "2005-10-15T23:15:47Z")
It depends. For inking pictures, I prefer to use those Japanese Sakura pens of various sizes and weights, according to my needs. For writing, I use a plain BIC 05 pen. The one with the white barrel. I love the smooth way it writes, as I prefer to use a bit more effort in pressing down on the paper.
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### Author:  [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/17 "2005-10-15T23:59:29Z")
It used to be the [Itoya Paperskater](http://www.itoya.com/Catalogs/Itoya_Pen/Itoya_Pen_html/NP12.htm), but when I couldn’t find those anymore, I switched to the Uni-Ball Micro Deluxe. Now those are getting harder to find as well. Maybe I’ll go back to Stabilo, if they still make a decent writing pen. Although I really like the waterproof ink in the Uni-Ball.
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### Author:  [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/18 "2005-10-16T03:00:41Z")
[Rotring ballpoint.](http://www.ashford.com/product/index.asp?GEN5=ASHFRD02FGDFPEN1&pf_id=12940&dept_id=461&md_id=363) I have one at work and one at home and one in my handbag. Love them.
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### Author:  [@TheOnlySaneOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheOnlySaneOne)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/19 "2005-10-16T06:36:11Z")
Either the Pilot G-2 or the Uniball Jetstream.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favourite-pen/326364/20 "2005-10-16T07:04:32Z")
My regular desk pen is an old Sheaffer fountain cartridge pen, the kind you used to be able to buy at any drugstore, stationary store, or department/discount store. They’ve been discontinued. I still use mine for most of my writing, though. I enjoy the feel of it. I carry some gel pens in my purse. I have a new glass dip pen that I haven’t inked yet. I’m still marvelling over its beauty. I’ll probably use it for drawing and journaling, it depends on how it feels.
I used to love the yellow barrelled “accountant fine” pens for everyday writing. I think that Bic made them, but I haven’t seen one in so long, that I’m not sure any more.
I’m afraid that I shouldn’t be allowed in an office supply store without a chaperone. Those great big rainbows of Sharpies? I grab them. Novelty paper clips? Those are snatched up. I adore miniature staplers, and have quite a collection of them. Most of them don’t work, but I still love them and give them space in my desk drawer.
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