(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
Fineliners have been a staple in my stationery inventory ever since I stumbled across the Staedtler Triplus line when I was in college and hanging out with cool art majors. It didn't take long to discover that there were many better alternatives to the Staedtler staple, which led to lots of buying sprees and experimenting with different brands and sizes.
After realizing how quickly the tips degrade when using these pens for regular writing, I stopped spending as much time with them. But, they're still a solid pen that I love using from time to time when the urge hits. I'm not an artist, but I still get a lot of enjoyment out of fineliners.
The Uni Pin is a fineliner that I discovered through JetPen's fineliner sampler pack. I was recently reminded of the Pin in episode 609 of the Pen Addict Podcast where Brad and Myke talked about a recent bracket-style voting championship that Uni USA hosted on their Instagram account. The surprising winner over the other well-known ballpoint, gel, and rollerball pens was the Pin.
While I personally don't rank the Pin over any of my Jetstreams or Signos, it definitely made me want to take the Pin for another spin.
The Pin is a felt-tipped pen with a pigmented ink that is water-proof, acid free, and fade-resistant. In terms of archival quality, this is a fantastic choice. The ink is incredibly dark and consistent in color. The edges of the lines are sharp and controlled. There isn't any signs of feathering when you're writing with this pen, even on papers that tend to cause inks to bleed a bit.
One of the main reasons I personally turn to a fineliner is for the deep, saturated ink color and crisp lines. The Uni Pin fits this bill perfectly. Comparing it to the ubiquitous Staedtler Triplus, the Pin ink is so much darker, and the writing experience is much smoother. While the Pin isn't a "wet" writer by any means, it feels smooth and buttery when writing, where the Staedtler feels dry and scratchy.
Comparing the Pin to other Japanese pens in the same realm is a bit harder to do since they're all great. Probably the most popular fineliner is the Sakura Pigma Micron, and I personally find it difficult to find much of a difference between the Sakura and Uni. The main difference is price, where the Uni Pin is about 30% cheaper. When you're buying a lot of these pens in different sizes, that small price difference adds up quickly.
The 03 model of the Pin in this review is a 0.38mm tip. There are many other sizes to choose from, and the 01 (0.28mm) is another favorite of mine. Sizes range from 0.03mm up to 0.8mm. There are also other colors, though not a crazy amount. Just the basics: black, blue, red. You can also get gray and brown in some of the tip sizes as well.
If there's one thing that Uni's Instagram championship told us, it's that the Pin fans are out there in great numbers. That representation is a great reminder and testament to this humble little fineliner. This is something every pen drawer needs on hand for those precise and archival-ready tasks.
The Uni Pin fineliner is $1.75 per pen, so stock up on some different sizes and colors!
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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