The Pilot G-2 05 (PS. I love you)
My favorite pen is the Pilot G-2 05
If you want a great disposable (you can get refills) pen, the Pilot G-2 05 is excellent. The ink flows smoothly and doesn’t skip. It’s not too heavy and fat, and it’s not too light. It has a rubbery grip for comfort, no cap to lose, and a clip that is strong and doesn’t break easily (also the clip isn’t metal, so I don’t chip my teeth when I find myself chewing on my pen… it’s a long story). Most importantly, I enjoy spinning it.
Of course it comes in blue or black and a variety of other colors. You can also get the pen in the 0.7 mm and 1.0 mm, but for me those are too thick except for when I’m writing my signature.
Have you ever tried the Pilot G-2? When I find others carrying the pen, it’s like we have an instant bond. We’re like a little community. One day, I could see a big Pilot G-2 convention where we all gather together like Trekkies. We’d dress up as our favorite G-2 pen and… Okay, maybe not. But as you can see, I love these pens!
I think I’m done obsessing now… But have I ever told you how much I love the Paper Mate Sharpwriter 0.7mm Mechanical Pencil
yea.. sorry, I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on this one… I love plenty of pens and although I’m a big pen geek, I’ve learned to become more open to many different pens… But the G2 is one pen I will never like… They are all extremely scratchy, and the finer the tip, the more scratchy.. Pretty much all of pilot’s pens are this way… I just stay away from pilot products at this point.. I’ve found that most people who love pilot pens and their G2 model pen just love them because they haven’t discovered any of the better pens out there that are plenty smoother, like uniball.. Hell, I think Bic Crystals and Round Stic’s are smoother than pilot pens! And gel pens are SUPPOSED to be naturally smoother than traditional ball point pens. Anyways, that is just my 2 cents.
Dan:
Thanks for the comments. When I took my bar exam, I started with a Uniball, but found that the grip (or lack thereof) was contributing to my hand cramping. I switched to my G2 and survived the six hours of essays. I’ve not found it to be scratchy at all. In fact, the last Uniball I was using was having that problem. I figure any disposable that is mass produced is going to have a few that are flawed.
I appreciate your comments to the blog, and I’ll keep my eye out for other quality pens.
Thats good to hear! Dad’s also an attorney. So I’m familiar with the torture of the bar exam and law school for that matter! =) I’m assuming you made it through and are successfully practicing now. So a congratulations is in order here! Also, just curious which model Uniball you were using at the time that you disliked?
@Dan:
I absolutely agree with you on Pilot. I also find gel and rollerball pens unpleasant to write with. Although they require less pressure to the paper than ballpoints, I don’t really find them smooth at all, plus they bleed if you stop writing just for a second without lifting the pen from the paper.
The other thing that bothers me with gels and rollers is the varying line width that occurs when your writing speed is not consistent. Any pen that wants to dictate the pace instead of me, is a bad pen.
But there are two ballpoint pens from Pilot (that I know of) that are quite smooth to write with:
Pilot Dr.Grip Equilibrium a.k.a.
Pilot Dr.Grip Center Of Gravity a.k.a.
Pilot Dr.Grip G-Spec
and
Pilot Acroball M a.k.a.
Pilot EasyTouch Pro
They both have hybrid ballpoint ink and a 1mm tip.
I also recommend the Schneider Slider series of hybrid ballpoint pens
(www.schneiderpen.de/en/products/penfinder.html) and my favourite:
Cello Superglide, Cello Liquid Express or any Cello pen that uses the same type of refill. These pens are perfect for me: they don’t bleed at all, they’re cheap and also unbelieveably smooth to write with (http://cellopens.com/superglide.htm).
hmm never heard of the cello before. interesting.. You should let brad over at penaddict.com know about this one so he can review it…
Ballpoints are great because they are so sure-footed. The don’t bleed, or get messy, or feather out like rollers, or have too much ink flow. And they write on pretty much anything and are not affected by rain if the paper gets wet. They write on everything from high gloss paper, to odd carbon copy paper, to even napkins and toilet paper! Most ballpoints will write much longer than gels or rollers before running out of ink.
The down side is that sometimes the rollers and gels look nicer on the right types of paper because they have a much darker vibrant line.
Rollers, and even more so gels, have the added benefit of having many more colors to choose from (and they’re vibrant looking too)
as far as smoothness.. some gels and rollers require less pressure to write with but still give off a scratchy feel, whereas ballpoints may take more energy to get that thick oil based ink moving but they don’t feel scratchy when writing with them.
some of the down sides to rollers and gels are the fact that they bleed out if you stop writing for a sec and leave the tip on the paper, also the ink can have a sort of “feathering” effect when writing on the wrong types of paper if it has strong ink flow. Also, many gels and rollers will not write on many types of paper. High gloss paper comes to mind… The ink just globs up on the surface of the paper and looks like splatter droplets. Also you could never write on tissue paper with a gel or roller pen. And if the paper gets wet in the rain or something, the ink will bleed and run off the page. The ink supply on these are also much more limited and tend to not last as long as ballpoint ink supplies. And finally gels and rollers tend to always be more expensive than ballpoints, even at the economic level such as pens offered at wal-mart or staples.
Another company I stay away from besides Pilot is papermate… Papermate probably has the worse quality control of any pen company I’ve ever seen. Their ink cartridges have splattered ink all over the outside of the cartridge, and they don’t trim the edges and smooth out and finish off the pens, leaving excess plastic from the molds on the pens.. And their pens don’t lay down consistent lines making it look like the ink is always starting to dry up, or as if the ink is old.. And finally, everyone I know who uses lots of papermate products has had them blow up on them many times causing quite the mess.
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@Peter Pencollector…. I am with you. I fell in LOVE with the Cello Superglide pen. The only problem I have now, is I cannot find a company locally that sales them! Where did you find yours?
Well, the Cello company is from India.
I’m from Europe (Slovenia) and I can get them at Office 1 Superstore. Maybe one is near you: http://www.office1international.com/findastore.php
I can also get them at E.Leclerc: http://www.e-leclerc.com/c2k/portail/storelocator/etranger.asp
and also some local suppliers. Good luck!
Oh, yes, other people say that certain Cello pens can also be found at:
-Walmart
-Big Lots
-Office Depot
Hi Monica,
I live in Ca, and have been able to find the Cello Superglide pen, in black ink. Let me know if you are still unable to find them and I will send you some. I am a pen addict also and it makes me happy to be able to give people pen’s they are looking for