Office Supply Shopping Time!!!!! OH, YEAH!!!!

I have an addiction. An addiction not yet recognized by the medical community but perhaps someday it will be and its name might be, Officium Copia Addiction Disorder. That is Office Supply Addiction Disorder or OSAD for short. A person with OSAD cannot pass a ream of paper without feeling it to see how smooth it is or cannot walk pass a pen on display without picking it up to try it out. OSAD patients are known by name in their local office supply store and are even sometimes given discounts just because they buy so much product. Someone with this affliction can literally spend hours in the pen aisle with their friend discussing the benefits of one pen over another.

For people with OSAD the best time of year is back to school. Why? Sales! Sales! Sales! That means that the stores will have large bins of paper on sale for 17 cents, new pens and pencils will be out, folders will be abundant, and planners will be on every end cap.  It is harvest festival time and a new year celebration all in one. As a part of my festivities this year I have bought a number of office supplies. In fact I have two new packages of gel pens both by different manufacturers and I wish to tell you all about them.

The first of these pens is the fine tip G2 Gel pen by Pilot. I bought a package of four with four different inks (pink, purple, blue, and mauve.) This pen has a comfort grip, claims it is super smooth, refillable, and last 2x longer than other gel brands.

First the comfort grip. The comfort grip on this pen does not have a lot of cushion to it.  While it is better than grabbing onto the plastic barrel the pen is made of it is still rather hard with not a lot of give.  Although, I do like that the comfort grip is smooth with only a few lines embedded into it for slip proofing your writing. The embedded lines do not make the pen uncomfortable for fingers to press on.

When writting with this pen the manufacturer claims that it is super smooth. The ink does not clump, bleed, or smear so that is good but I find the tip to feel scratchy when writing. Super smooth in my opinion should mean a very effortless motion with the tip where your fingers should not feel the friction between ink and paper. I will mention that these are fine tipped pens and that perhaps I put a lot of pressure on the tip when writing so that it is possible this is not a problem with the pen but the writer needing a bolder tip.

The last two claims about being refillable and lasting 2x longer than other brands is yet to be seen. I haven’t had time to use the pens up yet so we shall see. However, the pen does come apart very easily and the ink cartridge comes out simply and reassembling the pen is not a problem after the fact.

I give this pen 3 out 5 ink pots.

The second package of pens I bought are the fine tip Signo 207 BLX Gel Pen by Uniball.  This package of pens came with four colors (mauve, green, blue, and purple) but not just any colors these are color infused black ink. The package claims that the colors are richer because of the infused colors and that the textured grip provides superior writing control.  There is no claim that these pens are refillable or last longer than any other marketed pens. It is probably good that they do not claim they are refillable because I took one apart and made a mess trying to put it back together again.

The writing action of this pen I find to be better than the G2 Pilot. I think the tip writes smoother but I am not sure how much richer the ink appears than other brands. I have an EnerGel fine tip by Pentel that I think has a richer appearance on paper but that is just how my eyes see it.  I think the colors are prettier than the G2 pen but not necessarily richer. Also, the ink does not clump, smear, or bleed.

The grip on this pen is kinda irritating for my fingers. The whole comfort grip area is textured with little bumps and when I wrtite I can really feel them pushing on my fingers.  If I look carefully after writing I can see the pattern of the texture on the skin of fingers. Maybe there are too many bumps or maybe I use too much pressure for this pen when I write. Again, perhaps it is the writer and not the writing utensil.

I give this pen a 3 out of 5 ink pots.

It is important to note that both pens where quite light weight and did not cause fatigue on my hand.  I will probably use these pens at some point but the question is should they go into the storage container or the use now basket of pens? Hmm..to be determined!

Watch for my next feature on notebook paper. That is sure to be a thriller!

This post is dedicated to Michelle M. and you know why!

Feature Image is Pens by J. Baker