Opinion: The Best Pens

Believe it or not I kind of have a pen fetish. Every year or so I get a new pen. For that year I will use just that pen and, if I can help it, no others. I have had several Cross pens, a Sensa pen and a bunch of other no-name pens I thought were cool.

When it comes to a good pen I have a few things I’m looking for... it must have blue ball point ink, it must be a solid pen (no cheapo plastic) and it must fit in my fingers well.

I like blue ink because to me it denotes a true ink signature. Black ink can be photo copied. Some state laws specify that signatures need to be in black ink. In fact, in some states not signing an official document in black ink and result in a class C felony. I don’t get this but oh well. As my brother will often say “they can bite me...” As I say, “if they want my money, then they can deal with blue...”

I have to have a solid feeling pen. I’m hard on pens. I flip them, drop them, sit on them and even throw them... Cross pens seem to hold up for about a year and then the clip will break or the twist will get too loose.

For some reason I push really hard when I write. My middle finger has a callus on it because I push so hard. I like the pens with soft, but not too soft, grips. The pen must fit just right or I will toss it in my drawer with a hundred other pens that didn’t cut it...

Sense I’ve been in the bishopric I’ve had to fill out many temple recommends so I’ve need to use a very fine tipped pen to fill out the little fields on the rec. The hardest part of doing temple recommends is not going through the questions. The hardest part is writing legibly enough press through the 3 carbon copies. Actually, on second thought, the hardest part is not filling rec’s out it’s tearing out the two top copies out of the recommend book without ripping the other blank recommends. The bishopric has to account for all the rec’s in the book so you have to void any torn ones.

The pen I’ve settled on as of late is a Pilot G2 0.5mm with blue Gel ink. I’m using a Pilot Dr. Grip with the above mentioned Pilot G2 cartridge. So far it’s a great pen. It seems to go through ink quickly but it writes smoothly without smudging. The standard ink cartridge for the pen is the 0.7mm. I need a finer point – hence the 0.5...
I'm always on the look out for a good pen. If you have any favorites, let me know.