The Ultimate Pen Showdown - Ballpoint Hybrids

  Introduction Tramol is a company that started off making inks in China. I never tried the inks but they seem reasonably popular. The company introduced a frosted eyedropper pen that looked very similar to an Opus 88 a few years ago, but continued to focus on the inks. After finding out that they just released a vac filler, I was interested. Quick Review I'm going to do this review in quick bullet points based on first impressions. The good: Feels like very high quality construction and materials Nice springy clip Good looks Smooth vac fill (one pump fills it halfway) Bock nib has an interesting finish (something between black and chrome) $35 price tag (plus shipping) Comfortable to old The rest: Cap doesn't post 2.5+ turns to unscrew the cap Nib is mediocre (but the #6 size should be easy to replace), has a dull feel Generic plastic feed In conclusion I don't have any regrets buying it. The pen is good value - they've managed to make a quality product at an affordable

Introduction to the Artis This is a pen that had been on my mind for a couple years, but was released (and subsequently discontinued) some years before that. The exact history of the Uni Artis is a mystery, but it was only ever available in Japan. The particular model number of the ballpoint version in my review is the SS1400AS-P07 and the colour variant of this one is the 1P.26. At the time this caught my interest, it was because I was looking at the Uni pens with the pressurized refills (of which there are only a handful) to test out. Uni made a couple types of pressurized refills which I've written about before. One type is a plastic refill encased in a pressurized suit, and the other is a pressurized metal refill (like a Fisher). All of the pressurized refill pens were from a series called the "Power Tank", of which there were several grades, from their basic SN series, to their metal bodied pen with metal refill, fittingly called the "High Grade". Outside o

 Today I picked up the new Ohto GS02 (GS02-G5-KK). This seems like quite a year for new pens and refills. Lots of new stuff from Uni, Tombow, and Ohto. The other week I went to my local stationery shop and they had this GS02, which made me curious. I was not a huge fan of the GS01 in terms of design, but it had a really unique click (very mechanical, and you can hear all the metal pieces moving into place) and a decent refill, so I was intrigued about the GS02 because it was much better looking. I didn't buy it right away, because there was no demo model at the shop to try it out - I went home and did a bit of research, and found that Ohto had introduced a new gel refill for it! It was also in the Parker G2 size (as with their former gel refills), which is very convenient. I decided I want to try it, and I looked online to see if I could get a better price, but it was sold out everywhere. So I called the shop and told them to put it on hold for me, and I came by to pick it up today

It's been a few months since I wrote any reviews, and I'm overdue. Sadly I'm short on time these days, so I'll be keeping this quick, but if anyone wants me to expand on any particular pen, please do let me know! Let me start by listing the pens and refills I've received over these months: Aurora Wagon Ballpoint refill Schmidt EasyFlow 9000 Schmidt P900 B - black Schmidt P900 M - turquoise Pelikan 337B Faber Castell Refill Tombow 0.5mm/BR-ZKE33, 0.7mm/BR-ZK33 ballpoint (new models) Tombow 0.5mm/BN-ZKE gel refill (new model) Pilot Acro Evo Faber Castell Basic mother of pearl with GvFC Tamitio nib Tombow Zoom C1 (new model) Majohn A2 Asvine V126 Aurora Wagon Ballpoint Over a year ago I received a delivery of 1960s Aurora Primula ballpoint pens and a couple modern Aurora pens (which I've reviewed before). I wasn't too impressed with the modern Auroras because they felt cheap and plasticky, but the refill that came with it was very good. On the other hand, the P

I was at my local pen shop this evening checking the latest stock, and came across this piece I had never heard of: the Ohto CR01. Ohto gets mixed reviews, and I too have mixed feelings about the other Ohto pens I've seen. I applaud their drive to innovate though, with their interesting needle tip gel pens and ceramic rollerballs. I like the feeling of the mechanisms on their click pens, which are very unique, solid, and different even between Ohto models, and different from other brands in general. However, they never really had a pen that speaks to me in terms of design, until now. I couldn't wait to get home before taking photos. The pen came in two different camo colours, as well as solid black. The material feels very ceramic (I'm guessing it's a thick coat of paint on metal). The snap cap is very secure, and the clip is nice and springy. I'm not a fan of the rubber grip section, because out here in the tropics those can degrade and become sticky (it's remo