Brown Pen Battle

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at geminica.com.

 It can be hard to find a good brown pen for sketching.  While there are a lot of beautiful brown fountain pen inks, they aren't waterproof (with perhaps one or two rare exceptions).  When buying a disposable brown pen, it can be hard to predict the color - they range from rusty orange to ashy sepia, and the color on the label or even the pen cap is often no clue to the tone of the ink.

While my collection is by no means exhaustive, this examination includes several of the most common and most recommended brown pen options.  

The Candidates

• Pilot Hi-Tec-C .03 Brown


• Uni-Ball Signo DX Brown Black


• Zebra Sarasa Clip Tea Brown


• Copic Multiliner Sepia


• Pigma Micron Brown 05 (product site) 


• Pigma Micron Sepia 05 (see above)
  

Visual Comparison

In the line tests above, I pressed harder for the bottom three lines - you can see it clearly in the case of the Pigma Micron 05 Sepia.  Note that some pens showed no variation based on pressure.

Like many Pen Addict readers, I'm a big fan of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C despite it seeming to be waterproof only on certain papers.  At least when it runs, it runs in an attractive way which is usable for art.  Note that the almost purplish hue of the Hi-Tec-C brown turns to something like burnt sienna when wet. I love these colors, though of course since it isn't waterproof I often don't choose it for sketching.  Also see Pen Addict's Hi-Tec-C review for a writing sample in blue-black.

The Zebra Sarasa had some conspicuous problems while I was making the comparison chart above - it wasn't giving a consistent line.  Since Pen Addict's reviews show good consistency with this pen,  it may have been a rare glitch.  I went through several test pages before it worked itself out, but now that it has I like this pen a lot and it allows for more line variation than most of the other options.  I drew the more distant towers here lightly to imply distance - it's subtle but you can see the difference.

  

The Zebra Sarasa also does very well with water - I'd say it's totally waterproof. The "tea brown" color is nice and rich. All in all, a very good pen for sketching.

The Uni-Ball Signo DX in Brown Black is very consistent, has good ink flow, and is also almost but not entirely waterproof.  On some papers, a little surface ink can pick up when the ink is still relatively fresh; you can see a slight cast here as I went over it with a waterbrush.  The line isn't pressure sensitive at all, but like I said... consistent.  I really like this one as a writing pen, actually.  Without pressure sensitivity or a particularly rich tone it's not my favorite for sketching but is a fine pen albeit with some body issues (I agree with Pen Addict's assessment).

I had trouble with the Copic Multiliner in sepia.  It's very pale, and the tone isn't strong or beautiful enough for me to want to use it for adding color.  I really want to like it, since the Copic Multiliner is built to last - metal body, replacable tip, refillable - what's not to love? The Pen Addict agrees.   This sepia (which is far from what I would call sepia) is the weak link in their collection, and I look forward to reviewing some of their other colors here soon - I've enjoyed those much more.

The Pigma Micron in brown performed very well though I've only found it in their 05 size, which is larger than I'd like, and I prefer less of a yellow cast. Still, totally waterproof and a good pen.

The Pigma Micron in sepia is much darker, but it's a tone I found very visually pleasant.  It's a shame that once again I only had a larger tip (05) available for testing.  See Pen Addict's thoughts on the smaller 03 size.  

The Final Verdict

If it were even halfway waterproof, the Hi-Tec-C would have made it to the top due to its lovely purple-leaning tone and versatile line.  Instead it is relegated to "special use" but can't be a primary tool. The Pigma Micron in sepia serves well as a warmer substitute to a black line.  As a truly brown pen, the nice rich tone of the tea brown Zarasa won me over - that's the pen I'm grabbing when I'm laying down a brown line with some watercolors and want the line to sing.

Review: Pilot Penmanship Fountain Pen

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at geminica.com.

It's not easy to find a budget fountain pen with a very fine nib, so I was eager to receive the Pilot Penmanship despite some inconsistent reviews.  Besides, it's a cute pen, and comes in transparent as well!

I was worried there would be no flex to the nib, but there's a little - enough to make me happy.   The demo above shows the effect of pressing harder towards the middle of the line.  On a toothy paper a feather light touch is possible.

The nib is acceptably smooth on the paper, not buttery but not bad (see addendum, however). The line is very fine - comparable to the Pilot Hi-Tec-C .4!

The ink included with the pen is not waterproof, which limited its usefulness for me.  Some folks report using this pen as an eyedropper, lining the threads with silicone and filling the body with ink.  I was very nervous to do this - I travel with these pens and would not be able to relax with that much ink in my handbag! - so ordered the converter cartridge.

The cartridge is nothing special.  It only wants to get about 70% full and doesn't feel as sturdy and well-made as the Lamy converter. Ah well, it does the job.  After filling the cartridge with Noodler's Bulletproof, this pen became a really great, useful option that I often use when out sketching.

I am now enjoying this pen a lot. However, be aware that the pen might not behave optimally when you first receive it!

My Pilot Penmanship Adventure

Upon receiving the pen, I washed the tip and attached the disposable ink cartridge. Immediately it was apparent that the nib was exceedingly scratchy against paper - really unpleasant. Oh no!  Based on online reviews, it seems like maybe this pen is a gamble - that some people receive a perfect nib, and others don't.  Was I one of the unfortunates?

But wait.  When I tried to use it anyway, it became apparent that something worse was wrong.  The ink wasn't flowing.  The darkest it would get was a middle gray.  I covered several pages with scribble and it didn't improve.

Next steps.  I took out the cartridge and re-attached it.  No go.  Washed it again.  No go.

Since it was scratchy AND not flowing, maybe the tines were misaligned? Following advice online, I inserted a straight razor between the two tines to help straighten them out and ensure they weren't pressed together.  No go - the problems remained.

Then I remembered that my old Rotring calligraphy pens came with an "Arkansas Stone" and "buffering leather" intended to help adjust the nibs.  Well I don't know anything about adjusting nibs but you can't ruin something that's already broke, right?

I carefully slid the pen across the stone several times held at the angle with which I draw, then across the buffering leather at the same angle.  It seemed to make the nib write more smoothly, but STILL the ink wasn't flowing! 

I took the cartridge out again, this time poking around at the plastic.  

Voila - it worked.  All this labor, and it turned out to be a problem with the cartridge.  I've never heard of this happening, so maybe it's a one-in-a-million glitch.  However, there are a fair number of reports of scratchy nibs on the Pilot Penmanship.  They are obviously inconsistent.  I feel lucky that my novice efforts with the sharpening tools improved the nib instead of destroying it.

So this pen is a gamble, and there's no way to know what the chances are.  One thing for sure - your chances are better if you're willing to mess with the nib.  In reward for my labor I got a great pen that is already in active use, and I'm excited to start using it with different ink colors.

More drawings sketched with the Pilot Penmanship...

           

Review: Zig CocoIro LetterPen

This review is by Kalina Wilson, who can also be found at geminica.com.

The Zig CocoIro LetterPen is a fairly new product at JetPens, and I was immediately seduced by the brilliant color barrels and excited to see a variety of refill colors.  However, each color was moving to "sold out" as I watched!  In the end, what I received were this pretty, curvy yellow barrel with ink refills in black and royal blue.  

(The pen bodies and refills appear to be mostly back in stock as of my writing.)

This pen has an unusual design.  The refill is almost a pen in itself, with a solid cap that can be placed back on the refill allowing you to switch back and forth between in-use colors.  The refill is not in itself very comfortable to hold, so it does needs the casing.  When you insert the refill into the casing, the end sticks out the back so you can easily tell which color is currently in the pen.

I like the idea of this pen.  It's in the style of the Tombow Fudenosuke and various fine-tipped Kuretake pens, in that it provides a very fine tip that offers some line variability.

However, while the body is cute and the refill color options alluring, this pen is not as strong as the Fudenosuke.  The greatest fault is that the tip doesn't spring back after writing, so when you rotate the pen the next lines you draw are unpredictable.  You might almost be able to see the slight bend in the uncapped tip in the above photo.

It's possible one could get used to the tip and take advantage of its variability - much in the way that you can cheat a finer line out of a fountain pen by turning the nib upside down.  I ended up using the pen in this way for this drawing of a Victorian woman, but felt timid with it since whenever I rotated the pen to get a thinner line, it wasn't certain what kind of line would result.

It may take a close look, but you can see in this example that some of the lines came out weak or scratchy, or have a little glitch at the beginning as the tip bent into its new angle.

Subsequent water tests demonstrate that the ink is not even remotely waterproof.

A test with the royal blue refill yielded nothing special; the color is a bit ho-hum and the lines are not very smooth.  The tip on this refill actually feels very dry.

While I like the physical appearance of the pen and was able to tease a couple of ok drawings out of it, there's simply nothing but appearance and some alternative ink colors to recommend it over the Tombow Fudenosuke which leaves a more pleasant, reliable, and waterproof mark.