Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pen Review

A bit of extra disclosure as we get into my review of the new Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pen. I have a friend that works at Pentel of America, and the story of my first experience with the GlideWrite involves him directly.

It was at the 2019 San Francisco Pen Show, and my friend mentioned he had a game he wanted to me to play called the GlideWrite Challenge. The idea was a simple one - it was a blind writing test to pick the smoothest ballpoint pen. He loaded up several generic barrels with popular refills. Pentel’s GlideWrite and RSVP were included, along with the Uni-ball Jetstream, Pilot Acroball, and I think maybe the Fisher Space Pen. All refills were 1.0 mm black refills to make them as comparable as possible.

I took the handful of pens, broke out a Nock Co. note card, and began scribbling. Since I’m telling you this story, you likely already guessed how it ends. Yes, I blindly picked the GlideWrite as the smoothest pen out of this group. And if memory serves, only the Jetstream was even close. The rest were clearly down the smoothness list.

Now, smoothness alone does not make for a great pen. It’s mandatory to start there - a scratchy pen will immediately be dismissed - but in this market, it can’t end there. Are there additional properties in the ink that set it apart? Is the barrel well built, and comfortable to use? In the case of the GlideWrite, the answer is yes to both of those questions.

Pentel markets this ink as TechniFlo, which is a way to describe its low-viscosity properties. This makes the GlideWrite ink thinner than traditional ballpoint inks, which is a good thing. Thick ballpoint inks make a mess on the page, and on the tip of the pen. There are no such problems here.

The barrel itself is solidly built, and comfortable to hold. There is no rattle in the knock, or at the tip of the pen, and the grip feels good between your fingers. Now, is this design my style? Not particularly, but I also understand that this pen isn’t designed just for me. This is a mass market pen which will appear on retail and big box store shelves around the world, and I think it is perfectly designed for that.

Writing-wise, I’d be hard pressed to ask for more. The lines are smooth, clean, and consistent - with one exception I’ll mention below. What’s interesting is that in the sample packs Pentel sent me, there were no basic black, blue, or red colors included. That’s awesome! Good quality, easily accessible, out of the norm, ballpoint ink colors are hard to find. As best as I can tell, Pentel will be bringing out a cool dozen colors in the GlideWrite lineup, with additional barrel styles for standard black and blue.

My pack contained Purple, Pink, Sky Blue, and Green ballpoint pens. Out of that group, I found the Pink and Sky Blue lines to be the most solid and consistent. Purple was close, but did show a fraction more white space in the line than the previous two, possibly because it is darker. Green was the clear outlier, and not on the good side. It was almost like it was a different ink than the rest, in that it was far lighter (less saturated) and had much more white space in its lines. My expectation is that it should be in the ballpark as the others, and it wasn’t. This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this with a green ballpoint pen, so maybe its just difficult to get that color right.

At around $1.50 each, the price is right for Pentel to be able to gain some shelf space at the office supply store. They have a huge challenge going up directly against the Uni-ball Jetstream, but the GlideWrite at least gives them a chance they never truly had with the RSVP. I hope it works well for them, because nothing is better for us as consumers than a little competition in the marketplace.

(Pentel of America provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Fisher Cap-O-Matic Black EMS Edition Ballpoint Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

In a year that's been punctuated by one atrocity after another, I can't even imagine being among the front lines of our national defenses against a pandemic. The health care industry has had a rough year, but they haven't given up. For that, they deserve our thanks and everlasting gratitude. In this particular special edition, Fisher is tipping their hat to those in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) sector. When I think of EMS, the first persona I visualize is a tireless EMT riding in the back of an ambulance with a patient, ensuring they survive the ride to the local hospital. I didn't know this before reading about this special edition pen, but EMS professionals are represented by the Thin White Line. As such, this special edition Cap-O-Matic features a single white line printed down the side of the matte black barrel. It's a minimal but striking design, and I've really enjoyed carrying it around on my (infrequent) trips outside the house.

This is my first foray into the Cap-O-Matic line, and I've been surprised by how convenient the retractable format is. Sure, it's not as small as the iconic Bullet, but it's still small enough to be pocketable and easy to stow away when not in use. When writing, it's just long enough to be comfortable and easy to control since the end of the pen rests on the area of my hand between my thumb and index finger. The included Fisher PR4 refill isn't my favorite, but it's hard to beat the ruggedness and "can-do" attitude of this refill. You can write with it anywhere, regardless of the conditions. Seems like a fitting refill for EMTs! The medium black refill tends to be anything but crisp and dark, but it makes marks on the page reliably. The trade-off of crisp, dark ink for the ability to write in wet conditions or upside down are manageable.

The clip on the Cap-O-Matic is really small but surprisingly strong. Once you clip it to something, it doesn't budge unless you pull the pen straight up in the direction of the clip. It's impressing how grippy it is, but still remains easy to slide onto a pocket or sleeve with no problems.

With any pen that features a barrel design with any sort of barrel-length lines or designs, it can be a little maddening to have these things misalign. My favorite example is the Caran d'Ache 849 fountain pen. All those lovely facets don't line up automatically! In the case of this Fisher, the thin white line aligns properly as long as you picked the right thread to start screwing the pen together. If you end up with the line on opposite sides of the pen, just unscrew it, unscrew it another half turn until you feel the cap drop onto the next thread, and then screw it back down. The line should be aligned at this point. If not, try again! This isn't a Rubik's cube puzzle, but it stumped me a couple times before I got it right.

The Fisher Cap-O-Matic EMS edition is only $17 at Goldspot (normally $25), which is a fantastic deal. This is a rugged pen with a bulletproof refill and will serve you well in any conditions.

It's also great that you can show your support for the EMS community and professionals with this pen, but I think it would be even more awesome if Fisher had some sort of charity set up to donate a portion of the profits from this pen to a worthy cause. It's cool to show support for something with branding, but money is the most universal means of showing support. If you're interested in supported EMS programs, the best way to do so is to donate to your local services. You can quickly find local chapters or programs that operate in your area, and they normally have some way of giving donations or providing other ways that you can help out and show support.

(Goldspot provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Cult Pens x Caran d'Ache 849 Ballpoint Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

The Caran d'Ache 849 ballpoint pen is a classic design that catches nearly everyone's eye. It's prevalent enough to be seen on Amazon, but still difficult to discover unless you happen to be in the right circles with the right browsing and shopping habits for a recommendation to pop up. Once you see one, it's easy to see why they're popular due to the unique barrel shape and vibrant color options. Plus, they're not terribly expensive in terms of premium ballpoint pens.

The 849 I have the pleasure of using today is a custom color provided by Cult Pens. The dark blue on the pen matches their online branding, but it also happens to look particularly handsome on this hexagonal body. Aside from the color, you won't find any other differences on the pen itself to distinguish itself from the regular lineup of color options. But, it does come in a nice case that features a hinge and small magnets that keep it shut. It's satisfying to open and close, and I just couldn't bring myself to throw it out even though I have a pretty ruthless rule of always throwing out or recycling packaging. The case is the only object that has any branding on it, with a prominent "Cult Pens" logo on the top side of the tin.

For the uninitiated, the 849 is a fantastic ballpoint pen, and it also comes in a variety of other formats as well, including mechanical pencil and fountain pen. Across the lineup, the design language is identical. They all feature the sleek hexagonal body with a smooth tapered cone. The body is uniform in color and is one solid piece, so the only accents come from the recognizable clip and the nock on top. In most models, these are a shiny chrome color, but you'll see some slight variance (like a completely black version) in some models. There is some small branding on the body of the pen: a small "SWISS MADE" stamp between the top of the clip and the nock, and a small "849 Caran D'Ache" logo underneath the clip arm. It's easy to miss if you aren't paying attention, and I've always enjoyed the minimal branding on this lineup of writing instruments.

So, if the body is one piece, how does one access the refill? Great question! To swap out the refill, you unscrew the nock. The entire retractable mechanism/assembly comes out and then you can just tilt the pen forward to drop out the refill. Thankfully, the spring inside the body stays in place when gravity would otherwise pull it out of the pen, undoubtedly getting lost on the floor. To reinstall the refill, just drop it into the body, put the retractable assembly back in place, push the nock down and twist slightly to let the threads gain a hold, and then screw it back down until it's tight. It's definitely a unique method for switching refills, but I love it if it means the pen body is one piece!

Speaking of the refill, Caran d'Ache uses their own proprietary refill for these pens — the Caran d'Ache Goliath. It's roughly the same size as a standard Parker-style refill, but it uses a proprietary ink formula. The ink is actually really good, and it's come to be one of my favorites. It always has a little trouble with cold starts after being stored for more than a day, but once it starts writing after a couple of squiggle lines, it's smooth, dark, and consistent. It's one of those dependable refills that never lets you down, and I love it for that. You can swap in a standard Parker-style refill in this pen even though the refills aren't the same length. The Parker ballpoint tip protrudes an extra millimeter or two in this pen, but you could either ignore it, or trim it down fairly easily. This is an easy way to use different types and colors of inks in this pen since Caran d'Ache only offers Fine, Medium, and Bold styles of Black, Blue, Red, and Green ink in their Goliath line.

The Caran d'Ache 849 by Cult Pens is a fantastic ballpoint pen for any occasion. It's a super dependable pen at a great price, and you really can't beat the unique aesthetic the 849 offers.

(Cult Pens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

---

Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!