Prosthetic Conscience

Pens

Aas part of my ongoing effort to get myself organized, I have been using a hipster PDA, and have bought myself some pens to use along with it, my fountain pen being MIA. I haven’t been able to find a cheap fountain pen to replace it, so I’ve tried a few different disposable pens.

The first is a Uniball Signo 207, a cheap gel pen. It is an 0.7mm point, and writes like a gel pen should — smooth, almost as smooth as a fountain pen. The ink is satisfyingly black, and the lines are fairly bold. For a cheap pen, it is pretty satisfactory.

The other pen is, by coincidence, also a Uni, the Uni Power Tank. This is a ballpoint pen with a nitogen-pressurised reservoir, the same technology as the Fisher Space Pen. It was suggested on a 43 folders comment as a substitute for the widely-praised space pen. Unfortunately, the writing experience with this pen was not to my taste. I guess the best way to describe it is to say that it writes like a ballpoint. although it is a 1.0mm bold point, the actual writing is less bold than the 0.7mm Signo. I think the ink is not as black as the gel ink in the Signo, as well, and no comparison to black fountain pen ink. It does, however, write upside down and so forth. It probably even writes underwater and “through a pat of rich creamery butter.” But how often do you really need to do those things? It seems to me to be sacrificing average quality and pleasure of use for the ability to function under extreme conditions.

I had a look for my fountain pen and my dip pen, just for a contrast. Didn’t find the fountain pen, but did find the dip pen and played with it for a while. It is hard to argue with its simplicity, and it’s a real pleasure to write with liquid ink. The flow is a little hard to get right, however, as it is more pressure-sensitive than my missing fountain pen. If I can’t find it, I’ll probably get another cheap-ish fountain pen, like the Parker Vector, or the Waterman Phileas. The Vector is cheaper, and I had one for several years and know it writes well, but it’s a bit skinny for my tastes. The Phileas is more expensive, but comes with a converter, which is good – I’d have to pay another $5 for a converter for the Vector. It’s a good shape but a slightly gaudy finish.

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