In feature

Review: Kuretake Fudegokochi Extra Fine Brush Pen

Author AnaPosted on 2 Comments

Kuretake Fudegokochi Fine Brush Pen

Brad challenged me to try the Kuretake Fudegokochi Super Fine Brush Pen last week on The Pen Addict Podcast so I went ahead and ordered it. I’ve been on a brush pen kick lately so I saw no reason not to give this pen a try. He described it as being fine enough for writing so I was definitely intrigued.

Kuretake Fudegokochi Fine Brush Pen

The Kuretake Fudegokochi Extra Fine Brush Pen (try saying that five times fast!) is a relatively nondescript-looking pen. It has a smooth, ivory-colored barrel and a simple, metal clip on the cap. The grip area is a smooth clear plastic that lets the ink capillary fins to be visible. The tip is a very small felt/fiber tip which is quite firm. Aesthetically, it reminds me of the Pilot Precise V5 pens with slightly rounded ends.

Kuretake Fudegokochi Fine Brush Pen Writing Sample

Writing with the Kuretake Fudegokochi Extra Fine Brush Pen was an unusual experience. I tend to use a different grip and writing technique with brush pens than writing tools but this was so fine that I ended up using it like I would a regular felt tip pen or marker. It gave my writing some thicks and thins which was kind of fun. I wondered if the pen’s purpose was as a signature/sign pen for documents so I tested the waterproofiness. It ended up being a little water resistant but not waterproof so I think it would probably work for signing most things. It certainly made writing my grocery list a little more fun than the usual assortment of reject pens I normally leave in the kitchen. The gray wash that resulted from the waterproof test might be appealing to artists for loose pen sketching too.

The Kuretake Fudegokochi Extra Fine Brush Pen is $3.50 per pen. There is a wider regular version available as well as a gray version.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

In feature

Out Of Pages Notebook Subscription Service

Author AnaPosted on

Out of Pages Notebook Subscription Service

Out of Pages is a subscription service that will send you a new notebook on a specified schedule — every month, or every 2,3,4, or six months or once a year. They break up the costs for the more frequent delivery to an initial fee plus a monthly charge spreading out the costs of the notebooks throughout the year.

They have a limited selection of notebooks: just Moleskines and Field Notes at present but if either of these are your notebook of choice, then this is a great way to keep a fresh one coming as you need it.

You can get a fresh kraft paper Field Notes sent to you every month for $4.20/month. Or a large (5″x8″) Moleskine hardcover can be delivered quarterly for $12.80 up front and $5.60/month. Or get a combination of notebooks on differing schedules.

I love the idea of subscription delivery of items you use regularly, be it socks or notebooks so I think there’s a lot of appeal to this. I hope Out Of Pages will add some other notebook options like Rhodia Webbies or Doane pocket notebooks for a greater variety or options in the near future.

Would you subscribe to a service like this?

In feature

Review: Pilot Super Gel 0.5mm Green

Author AnaPosted on 4 Comments

Pilot Super Gel 0.5mm

In my endless quest to own all the green pens in the world, I stumbled across the Pilot Super Gel 0.5mm. At a whopping $1.35 I couldn’t resist picking it up. But I had to wonder…. “What’s makes it so super?”

It turns out that instead of being a slender refill inside a plastic pen body like the Pilot G-2 and other similar gel pens, the whole pen body is full of ink. Think of it as the eye dropper version of a plastic gel pen. Then there’s a roller ball tip in the end of it and a cap on the back. That’s it.

The overall design is basically no design. Its a capped, clear plastic pen. The body is a rounded hexagonal shape until you get to the grip area which is round with smooth plastic ridges to create a grippable area. There’s no silicone or rubber added for comfort and the width of the pen is similar to a round pencil.

There are both up sides and down sides to this pen. On the up side, there’s a lot more ink in this pen than a Pilot Hi-Tec C or the G-2. As well as the considerably discounted price.

On the down side, there’s the potential to break the plastic pen and have ink seeping out everywhere, think of high school and exploding ballpoint pens. The other down side is the Super Gel is a totally disposable pen. Once the ink is used, there is no way to refill it.

Pilot Super Gel 0.5mm writing sample

In the plus column, I found that it wrote well, especially at such a bargain price. It has a little more friction than some of the higher priced gel pens but not so much as to be unpleasant. In fact, if you generally find that gel pens are too slippery for your taste, this little budget pen might be appealing to you.

Finally, if you are likely to have a jar full of communal pens in your work space or home that have a tendency to walk away, this may be a great option. Its not so stylish that someone would be inclined to walk away with it while not being an unpleasant experience to use.

I know that Brad reviewed this pen several years ago and panned it but I hope that this will convince you try it and let me know what you think.

The Pilot Super Gel is also available in more traditional blue, black and red in the 0.5mm size and if you hunt around, other widths and colors may be available.

In video

Video: David Rees Artisanal Pencil Sharpener

Author AnaPosted on

David Rees of Artisanal Pencil Sharpening sharpens Blackwing Pencils using an array of tools including a box knife, a Classroom Friendly Sharpener and the El Casco. Is it ridiculous? A little bit, but in his ostentatiousness he gets to the heart of it: anyone can use a pencil and sharpen it with little more than a knife or pocket sharpener.

(via Art Directors Club)

In link

Link Love

Author AnaPosted on

Link Love Link Mascot

I know my Link Love lists look ridiculously long but this is pared down from the over 200 individual posts I read since the last Link Love. There’s a lot of chatter this week about how and why people are writing things down and a resurgence of interest in an assortment of budget tools. Picking one favorite article each week is a new tradition and this week had so many it was hard to pick just one. But anytime someone uses an SUV in their testing process is when you get bumped to the top of the list.

Article of the week:

Notebooks:

Pens:

Ink:

Pencils:

Other Stuff:


(Video of calligraphy by Leigh Reyes)