Posts filed under Pentel

Pentel Dual Metallic Brush Pen Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

Between the glitter, the buttons, and the real brush tip, the Pentel Dual Metallic Brush Pens are some of the most playful pens I've ever used. They're very fun, and perfect for use in greeting cards or planners.

Unlike most brush pens, these have actual paintbrush tips instead of the foamy or felt tips I'm used to seeing. The tip is clean, at first--just white plastic fibers. To load the brush with paint, you press a button on the back of the pen, which releases some of the pigment into the tip. It takes a few presses and a small wait to saturate all the bristles, but you can see the paint working its way down, so you can tell when it's ready to use.

Once the tip is saturated, it works just like a paintbrush, ready to do some painting or fancy lettering. I'm not particularly skilled at either, but I enjoyed making swoops very much. Because this pen uses bristles instead of a felt tip, there is a feathering effect to the lines it creates when individual fibers stray from the path. It's a nice effect, unless you're particular about crisp lines.

As with a paintbrush, the pigment in the tip doesn't last long before you'll need to press the button for more. Each press of the button gives you another dollop of paint, but it can be difficult to gauge how much you're getting. Consequently, sometimes my lines felt dry and other times they were oversaturated. It may be something I'd get used to with more extended use, but I do get the sense that there is not as much control over brush saturation as there would be using an actual paintbrush. Also, considering how often I found myself needing to press the button for more paint, I'm not sure how long each pen will last. I also noticed the bristles becoming more frayed as I worked with them, as any plastic-bristled paintbrush would.

But dry or gloopy, the paint from these pens is always very glittery. The sparkle effect delivers! And the pigment did not bleed through my notebook paper, which was a pleasant surprise.

Overall, these are a treat to use, and I think they'll be the perfect thing to address my Valentines this year. They're definitely better suited to being used for a small flourish, rather than a larger project, and I don't think they're the right tool for artists who value precision, but they're wonderful for anyone who needs to efficiently apply some glitter.

(JetPens 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!

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Sarah Read and filed under Brush Pen, Pentel, Pen Reviews.

Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pen Giveaway

Continuing on yesterday’s theme, I have a six-pack of the new Pentel GlideWrite Ballpoint Pens to give away, courtesy of Pentel of America. Read the rules below, and enter away!

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Pentel, Giveaways.

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.)

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