Pen(s) #33.
Uni-Ball Style Fit Single Color Bodies + Gel Refills

While I was looking around JetPens the other day, trying to find a couple items to get me over the $25 hump (free shipping after $25), I spotted that Uni-Ball had made a line of multi-pens, the Style Fit series. Even more to my surprise and utter joy, they offered refills in gel ink! And not only in gel ink, but in XX-Fine points! I started to order one of the multi-pens, but then I noticed that they also offered a single body as well (and at only $.75, I could get three of them for less than the price of one multi, although the multi is on my list of items to get next time, as well as more refills).

Having added three of the single body styles to my cart, – a black one, blue one, and white one- I quickly started looking for ink cartridges. I quickly picked out a black gel refill in 0.28mm point size, a blue gel refill in 0.38mm point size, and a brown-black gel refill in 0.5mm point size. JetPens offers 0.28mm, 0.38mm, and 0.5mm gel refills, 0.7mm and 1.0mm ballpoint refills, as well as a 0.5mm mechanical pencil component. After assembling the pens, then came the true test.

The pens are very slim (perhaps even slimmer than a Pentel Slicci, and are slightly reminiscent of how a chopstick feels in your hand. There’s no type of clip or anything (a slight downside, but not one I would quibble over) and the overall design is sleek! While some complain that they are actually too small, I enjoy the simplistic and tiny design and find that they are not all that uncomfortable to write with. There’s really no grip, per se, but this is one pen that I actually didn’t have any trouble hanging on to. My fingers don’t have the tendency to slide down the tip and there’s even a small bump  near where the pen screws together that my finger comes to rest on (although I believe it’s actually to help you unscrew the pen).

How does it write? Well, each of the cartridges is different. The 0.28mm black gel is actually almost too fine for my taste. There’s a lot of scratchiness when you write, from where the pen tip actually gets stuck in the paper fibers, but it still lays down ink in a nice, thin visible line. The 0.38mm blue gel is better in this regard and writes very smoothly and lays down a nice readable ink line as well. The 0.5mm brown-black gel really shines, partially because of it’s color (who doesn’t love brown pens) and also for smoothness. This refill just seems to glide over the paper, laying down beautiful dark brown ink with absolutely no scratchiness or catching. The 0.5mm tips will definitely be my refill of choice next time I order…

Top: Black 0.28mm, Middle: Blue 0.38mm, Bottom: Brown-Black 0.5mm

Another neat feature is that the clear barrel allows you to easily see what ink color you’re using as well as the point size (which is nicely printed in silver on the barrel of the refill).

So, how to rate these…

Pen Body: 5 out of 5 stars!
Black 0.28mm Gel Refill: 4 out of 5 stars…
Blue 0.38mm Gel Refill: 4.5 out of 5 stars…
Brown-Black 0.5mm Gel Refill: 5 out of 5 stars!

Another winner from JetPens.com!

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