The Copic Multiliner SP is a drawing pen similar to the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner and the Sakura Pigma Micron. What makes the Multiliner special is that it has replaceable nibs and ink. The Multiliner comes in 10 nib sizes and 13 colors (including black). It is worth noting that the black pen comes in all 10 nib sizes whiles the color Multiliners come in two. The color refills fit in the black pen so if you want a specific nib size you might be better off buying a black one and a color ink cartridge.
The pen writes really well. The 0.35mm tip glides nicely across the paper and lays down a crisp black line. The tip does have some give but is not as soft as other fineliner type drawing pens.
The body is aluminum and while it feels nice it has too much writing on the barrel for my taste. This pen was designed to be a tool and serves its purpose well. The pigment ink is waterproof. The Copic Multiliner retails for $9.20 and the ink refills cost $2.30; it’s not cheap (the refills are almost two times the price of the Staedtler) but the high quality writing experience is easily worth it. I was surprised by how much I like this pen. I prefer Multiliner to my now former favorite the Staedtler Triplus Fineliner.
Here are some reviews of the Copic Multiliner:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
Montblanc has released two new permanent inks, Permanent Blue and Permanent Black. Both of these new inks are ISO 14145-2 certified; this is the same standard applied to roller ball refills with permanent ink suitable for documents. Montblanc Mightnight Blue was previously formulated as a permanent ink but I do not believe it held this same ISO certification. The new Midnight Blue is no longer permanent. Interestingly, the Permanent Black costs $28 while the Permanent Blue costs $17 (same as the other MB inks). I went for the Blue because the saleswomen couldn’t explain to me why the black was worth an extra $11 (…if someone knows why please let me know).
The branding on the these new permanent inks is a little bit different. The boxes and labels on the bottles are white instead of the normal black with a color fade. The permanent inks use the same great 60ml Montblanc bottle which has a little hump in the middle making it easy to fill your pen when the bottle is low. Montblanc does an all around superb job with their packaging. There is an expiration date on the box and bottle which is a feature I love.
Permanent Blue is a nice true blue color with some shading. Permanent inks tend to write on the dry side and MB Permanent Blue is no exception. The flow was comparable to the R&K Salix (permanent) ink but noticeably dryer than the Waterman Florida Blue. I saw no feathering in my test and the ink had an average dry time on the Maruman Smooth-To-Write paper. I have tested the ink and it is completely waterproof. I dripped water on the word “Waterproof?” and the result is what you see below. Overall I really like this ink. I am going to see how it behaves in my Pilot VP for a couple of weeks and if I don’t run into any issues with clogging as I have with some other permanent inks, I will use it regularly.
J. Herbin is the oldest ink manufacturer in the world and was established in 1670. The J. Herbin roller ball is special because it is designed to use fountain pen ink. It takes short standard international cartridges which gives you a very wide variety of inks to choose from. I have been able to fit a Monteverde mini ink converter and now the ink possibilities are endless.
When I received the pen the first thing I noticed was that it was quite small at 4.5″ capped and about 5.5″ posted. The translucent demonstrator body is decently made. If you look closely you can see some seams but you cannot feel them. The metal clip feels pretty sturdy. I don’t like the “J. HERBIN” in red along the cap; I would have preferred something more subtle. There are three little holes on the bottom of the body so this pen could not be used as an eyedropper. The cap snaps on to the body to close and posts securely. Due to the small size of the pen, some people will need to post the cap to use this pen comfortably.
I filled the pen with Diamine Turquoise and the roller ball wrote quite well. Nice clean lines no skipping or any other bad behavior to report. It is not as smooth as a hybrid gel ink roller ball but that is to be expected. The line is about a medium width. The Monteverde mini converter does not hold a lot of ink so the standard international cartridge may be a better choice for some.
Overall I really like this little pen; it’s well-made, a good writer and can use all my favorite inks but if you are willing to put up with the hassle of fountain pen ink and cleaning the feed when changing colors why wouldn’t you use a fountain pen instead? I can’t come up with any reasons.
Here are some great reviews of the J. Herbin Roller Ball:
The Yasutomo Y&C Gel Stylist is an ugly and cheap refillable gel pen. The rubber gel grip is short on one side and long on the other, ending at a bump that prevents the pen from rolling on a flat surface. There are two big ugly seams that run the length of the pen. The chromed plastic tip unscrews allowing you to change out the refill. I found an unusually amount of resistance on the paper with this pen which made it hard to write in my messy cursive-esque hand. The ink like most gel inks is bright and vibrant. At $1.30 there are a lot better gel pens out there like the Pentel EngerGel X and the Sakura Gelly Roll.
The Lihit Lab Aqua Drops notebook employs an unique ring style binding that on the surface looks similar to your standard spiral ring notebook. The plastic rings are held together with two metal spines separated by a spring. This unique binding system allows you to open the rings so that you can remove and add paper to the notebook as necessary. The Aqua Drops comes with 30 sheets of B5 size paper with a 6mm rule. The covers are made of a translucent plastic and come in multiple colors; I got the Indigo Blue cover. The Aqua Drops logo is inset in black into the cover. There are also these little inset dots that are intended to look the rain drops.
In the picture you can see all of this ugly text / instructions at the bottom left corner of the notebook. This text is the first page of the notebook it is not actually on the cover of the notebook. After taking the picture I pulled the page out.
The pages have room at the top for a title and there are little notches on the top and bottom lines with a thicker halfway notch in the middle. On each page in faint grey “PULL OPEN” with a circle and an arrow is printed to show you which direction to pull to open the binding. The paper is smooth and fountain pen friendly. I only saw some slight bleed with the Visconti Van Gogh and the Noodler’s Konrad. There is some very minor feathering, but not enough to bother me. I have no problem writing on both sides as the paper is relatively thick.
A couple of negative points for me. First, the 6mm rule while nice and crisp is darker than I would prefer. Second, the Aqua Drops notebook only comes in a B5 size unless you want a top bound memo pad.
I really love the binding system on this notebook; it is top notch. If it came in more appealing sizes I would consider replacing my Maruman notebooks with Aqua Drops. At $9.35 for a 30 page notebook and $7.15 for a package of 30 loose leaf sheets the Lihit Lab Aqua Drops is on the expensive side. If the B5 size works for you this notebook is definitely worth a try.
The Shachihata Artline Ergoline (I am amazed they could only fit “line” into the name twice) is an affordable disposable roller ball pen with a large plastic body and an ergonomic grip. The pen uses a water-based ink with a ceramic ball. I compared it against the Pentel EnerGel Euro and was surprised that the Ergoline moved across the paper with less resistance, despite this fact, the tip feels scratchy…it’s a weird combination.
The Ergoline is one of the fatter disposable pens I have come across at nearly half an inch thick at its widest point. It’s length is pretty standard at 5.5″ long capped and 6.25″ posted. I like the matte plastic black body and inset gold lettering which gives the Ergoline an air of quality. The cap has a nicely integrated clip.
Unfortunately, once you take of the cap and see the shiny black plastic grip section with two large seams the quality look goes out the window. The ergonomic grip felt cheap in hand and took a bit to get used to.
Apart from the grip I like this pen for $2; it has a nice clean look to it and writes relatively well. The Ergoline comes in black, blue, red, and green ink with a 0.5mm tip.
Shinola is a Detroit based company that manufactures high quality American made watches, bicycles, leather products, and journals. The paper cover journals are sold in packs of two and come in three sizes and in multiple colors. The one I will be reviewing is the middle size measuring 5.25″ x 8.25″. Each notebook contains 144 pages (72 leaves) of blank paper…the cardboard packaging says “ruled paper” so finding blank pages was a bit of a disappointment. The acid free paper is a nice thick 60lb weight and comes from sustainably managed North American forests. Shinola’s notebooks are made by Edwards Brothers Malloy in Michigan. The cardboard packaging features a triangle ruler and a coaster (not sure why anyone would want a cardboard coaster).
Inside the cardboard packaging.
The notebooks look and feel very nice. I really like the clean design; there are no markings on the journal apart from “SHINOLA DETROIT” on the back cover. These books do not lay flat and the spine is slightly less flexible than a cloth bound Clairefontaine journal.
The paper is very smooth and quite nice to write on. I did notice some feathering with the Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang and J. Herbin Eclat de Saphir. There is bleed through from the Visconti but this particular pen and ink combination causes bleed even in Clairefonatine notebooks. The thick line from my semi-flexible Conway Stewart did not bleed. There is some ghosting but it isn’t bad enough to prevent me from writing on the other side of the page. The dry time for this paper is quite fast with most of the inks I tested drying under 10 seconds.
Overall I really like these journals and I consider them to be fountain pen friendly. I have been using this journal side by side with a Clairefontaine cloth bound journal and I definitely prefer the Shinola. They run $9 for a two pack which is about the same cost as one similarly sized 192 page Clairefontaine journal. In the future I am going to give Shinola’s more expensive soft and hard linen cover journals a try.
The Pentel EnerGel Euro uses a liquid gel ink that writes very smoothly and dries quickly. The line is crisp and a true 0.5mm. The pen has a blue almost metallic-looking body made of partially recycled plastic. The body has a lot writing on it as well as a bar code which make the pen ugly and generic looking. The latex free grip is quite comfortable and I like translucent blue plastic between the grip and the metal tip; it has these unusual faceted points. The cap also snaps onto the body when posted which is a feature I love.
The EnerGel Euro comes in black, blue, and red as well as four tip sizes 0.35mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm and 1.0mm. The EnerGel Euro costs $2.75 and is not refillable. This is an excellent pen and if you don’t mind the generic looks I highly recommend it.
Here are some great reviews of the Pentel EnerGel Euro:
I have been hearing about this supernatural Tomoe River paper for a while but I could not find it in a format that I liked. Through The Fountain Pen Network I saw that is was available in notebook form from PaperForFountainPens.com (no affiliation).
Tomoe River Notebooks
Tomoe River paper is ultra light weight at 52 gsm with a very smooth texture. This paper has been getting a lot of praise in the fountain pen community for its ability to handle fountain pen ink. I have been playing with this paper the last few days and it is amazing. There is virtually no bleed through. With some abuse I did get it to bleed in one spot. I used my Rohrer & Klinger glass dip pen without removing the excess ink first and the only point of bleed through is where the bottom of the “g” made contact with the “a” in “Scabiosa”. The wettest letter though is the first “R” in “Rohrer” which had zero bleed through. There is no feathering to mention and ink looks beautiful on this paper. The paper is fragile and easily crinkles; to me this is just part of the charm of the paper. Dry times are comparable to Rhodia and Clairefontaine papers.
Loose leaf cream Tomoe River PaperA good amount of ghosting but virtually no bleed through.
I did abuse the paper a bit more. I tried a drop Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang on the paper. There was no bleed through for about the first hour. Here is the result after 3 hours:
Noodler’s Qin Shi Huang (notorious for feathering) still wet after 3 hours.Bleed through after 3 hours.
The results are very impressive. I let the ink sit overnight and the ink finally bled through all the way. The ink did not spread at all and if you use the widest and juiciest of pens with blotter paper you should experience no bleed. This is an excellent paper for fountain pens.
The notebook contains 320 cream colored pages (160 leaves) that measure 4.9″ x 8″. There is ghosting so I only like to write on one side. It is worth noting that because this paper is so thin you will get ghosting even with a pencil. The notebook is nicely made and lays pretty flat. I am really happy with these notebooks and plan to use them as my primary journal. The price per notebook varies based on how many you order: 1 for $29, 2 for $53 ($26.50 each), and 3 for $75 ($25 each).
The only paper I can compare to the Tomoe River is Smythson’s Featherweight 50 gsm paper. Smythson’s paper handles fountain pen ink just as well but costs an absolute fortune. Think $29 is a lot for a notebook? A 5.5″ x 7.5″ Smythson notebook with 192 leaves (not refillable) costs £135 (approx. $220 USD)! To by fair, Smythson notebooks have beautiful leather covers, blue paper with gilt edges and three real ROYAL WARRANTS. Having been gifted a Smythson’s Panama diary a few years ago I can say that they are easily the nicest notebooks (calendar) I have ever used but for almost 1/10th the price of a Smythson, the Paper For Fountain Pens Tomoe River notebook is a fantastic value. I haven’t been this happy with a notebook in a long time. I highly recommend giving one a try.
The Morning Glory Mach 3 is a disposable roller ball pen with a fine 0.38mm tip. The Mach 3 writes with a crisp and clean line but it is not very smooth. The ink is neither waterproof nor archival safe. There is an ink level window on the pen body and the grip is made of a translucent plastic that lets you see the feed. I like that the cap snaps onto the body when posted. The look of this pen is pretty mediocre and the clip has rough edges that gives an air of cheapness. At $2.00 the Mach 3 is well priced but for a little bit more you can have a much better pen such as the Pilot Hi-Tec-C and the Otho Graphic Liner.
Here are some other reviews of the Mach 3:
(I have no affiliation with the sites linked below)
