While talking with a pal last week, she pulled out a couple Pilot Precise V5 RT pens which she confessed being her favorites. I’ve always loved the Pilot Precise V5 pens and I often admit that, along with the Marvy Le Pen, were my gateway pens into the pen world when I was a kid. I was pretty excited to see this office supply classic getting a design refresh.
The RT (retractable) design is new to me and the model my friend had was the fancy “Precise Floral Collection” with printed leaves and daisies on the barrel. I was entranced and decided to buy a few Pilot Precise V5 RT pens and give them another try.
I wasn’t able to find the Floral Collection when I purchased mine but found out (after mine arrived) how to acquire the decorative ones — shop at Walmart. I purchased one set from Target (8-color set for $12.99) and the other from JetPens (7-Color Set A for $18.60). Never let it be said I do anything halfway. I went from not one Pilot Precise V5 in years to having 15. Of course, in my enthusiasm, I now have 2 pens in pink, 2 in turquoise, 2 in purple and 2 in black. Luckily, these are colors I really like so I will let the duplicates live in my backpack so I always have a spare pen.
The Colors:
The colors I have, between the two sets, are Black, Navy, Blue, Turquoise, Light Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, Pink, Burgundy and Purple — a total of eleven different colors. If they had a 12-color set, I am hoping for a brown, grey or dark green to round out the offerings.
I liked most of the colors except the Yellow which is too light to use in most situations. Maybe, it could be used to underline text but mostly I think it is a waste of a pen. the rest of the colors are bright and vivid and 100% rainbow fun. Being a goth at heart, my faves were the Burgundy, Black and Purple with a touch of the Light Green.
The most unusual color options are the Burgundy and Navy (blue black) in the 7-Color Set. If I hadn’t wanted the Light Green, I probably would recommend the 7-Color set over the 8-color.
The Pen Build Quality:
The only big change from the original Pilot Precise V5 is the retractable mechanism and a silicone grip section. While I always appreciated the simplicity of the original Precise V5 with the flat ends and capped design, for a carry-around, everyday pen, the retractable model is definitely a good option. The knock is easy to operate and not too noisy.
The RT models do include a clip which is adequate for clipping onto the cover of a book or shirt pocket though I’d be hesitant to put a retractable pen with liquid ink into a shirt pocket on the offhand chance that the tip remains out. We all have a story of Retro 51 rollerball left in a pocket, non? Same result, I suspect.
One of my favorite aspects of the Precise V5 pens is the needle tip. For essentially a rollerball pen, it is one of the finest options available in the American market at big box retailers. Sure, I can usually find G2s and Frixion and a couple other options but the 0.5mm tips usually write much broader or are only available in 0.7mm or wider. If you’re trying to write in 5mm grid paper or the smaller Hobonichi (and the like) grid papers, 0.7mm and wider are never gonna fit in the space available. But a Pilot Precise V5 might.
The Paper Tests:
I was hoping to use the Pilot Precise V5 RTs with some of my everyday pocket notebooks like my B7 Semi from Mark’s EDiT (restock due next week!) or my Field Notes EDC set-up. I’ve been trying to use up Field Notes and find pens that work in these notebooks (more on that later). The Pilot Precise V5 RTs look good on the Mark’s EDiT paper (called NEO AGENDA for EDiT) but there was some showthrough and an almost hint at bleedthrough on the back of the page. The NEO AGENDA paper is quite thin so I’m okay with the performance but was hoping for less showthrough.
On Tomoe River 68 gsm paper, the overall writing quality was good but the dry time seemed excessive for this overwriting left-hander. There was average showthrough for TR68gsm and no bleedthrough (I forgot to photograph the reverse but it was fine) so right handers and under-writing lefites should be fine.
I also wanted to see what would happen with Iroful and the liquid ink of the Precise V5 was similar to experiences I have with fountain pens — the line weights increase on Iroful. Its not feathering, just much wider strokes than on other paper. The Blue ink did sheen a little on Iroful so if you are a regular user and lover of Iroful paper, I think the Precise V5s would be great. Also, there was ZERO showthrough or bleedthrough.
Finally, I tested the Precise V5s on Field Notes standard paper to see how it performed and I am said to say it was the worst of the lot though not really surprising.
The line weights didn’t change but there is a hint of feathering around the edge of each stroke and the reverse of the paper shows some showthrough and dots of bleedthrough. I mean, for Field Notes, its not terrible but its also not great.
When put altogether, I think I like the quality of the pens on the Mark’s EDiT the best and the Tomoe River 68 gsm the next best (not shown above because that big A5 hogged the photo!).
Conclusion:
Overall, I love the colors of the Pilot Precise V5s and I love the convenience of the retractable design but I definitely need to match the pens to specific papers. I already do that with my fountain pens so this just gives me the opportunity to find a notebook that loves these Precise V5s and pair them together.
Do you use Pilot Precise V5s? Love them or hate them? If you use them, what’s your favorite paper to pair with the pens? Let me know in the comments!
DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
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