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Bic XXl

What is Your Favourite Pen?

by TonyB on October 9, 2009

What makes for a favourite pen, one of those that you’ll guard jealously and use often for years and years? Is it a comfortable grip, a smooth writing experience, brilliant colours, a sexy shape? Maybe all of the above?

Whatever it is, we each have that one pen that is just right for us, that fits our hand perfectly, that makes clean, beautiful lines and turns our handwriting into a work of art (at least in our own eyes). Well, some have that pen, anyway, and some are still searching.

Here at the Tiger Pens blog, we’re always interested in favourite pens.

Lamy SafariThat’s why this great post at Lifehacker, showcasing readers’ favourite pens, caught our eyes recently.

Not surprisingly, fountain pens were well-represented on the list, from the Lamy Safari to the Namiki Yukari. Also included:

That got us wondering about our favourites around here, so we took a quick poll of the Tiger Pens team to find out what we’re using and why. This is what everyone had to say:

Bob, accounts and administration

Uses a Sheaffer NoNonsense fountain pen that he has had for more than a dozen years. He says it’s “very comfortable to hold and the nib suits my writing style.” Bob uses it for all of his everyday tasks and when he wants to impress. Unfortunately, Sheaffer no longer makes the old-style NoNonsense, so if anything ever happened to his pen, he’d have to go searching for a new one on eBay.

Alex, webmaster

Writes with a Sharpie Pen that he bought just a few weeks after they were first released. He said, “It can write on literally anything, how much cooler can you get? Its portable and guaranteed to work!” His Sharpie gets put to use for “anything that comes in my mind then and there, from jotting down a quick note on the go (it’s attached to my keys) to marking a wall where it needs to be drilled.”

Sharpie Pen

Pete, managing director

Totally old-school with a vintage Parker 51 from the 1950’s that he’s had for about four months. He loves his Parker because, “It is the first fountain pen that I have bought, and I believe that it makes my letters appear more personal when written using my fountain pen.” Pete uses his mostly for writing and signing letters. If he ever lost it, Pete says he wouldn’t “cry over spilt milk” and might try a Pilot Vanishing Point instead because he’s heard they’re good pens, and he likes that they’re retractable.

TonyB, blogger

That’s me. I use a Bic XXL that I’ve had for six months to a year (I can’t remember when I got it, but as with most of my pens, I suspect it was nicked from someone else). The pen simply is the most comfortable I’ve ever come across because the barrel is thick and round, and the grip is a nice, soft cushion of foam. I use it for everything, from taking notes to making grocery lists. Unfortunately, it’s not a smooth writer (actually kind of scratchy) so I’m still on the lookout for a favourite pen. In the meantime, I’m trying out my new UGLee Pen as a replacement desk pen.

Bic_XXL

UGLee Pen

What about you? What is your favourite pen and why? Let us know, and be sure to include a good description, or a photo if you can, and we may feature it in a future article.

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Thick or Thin: Choosing the Right Pen for Your Hand

by TonyB on September 16, 2009

If you’re like most people, comfort is probably one of the deciding factors when you’re trying to choose the right pen. A pen that writes beautifully and reliably isn’t worth much if it’s so uncomfortable to use that you rarely pick it up.

Pen selection is largely a matter of personal preference. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when picking out a new ink pen.

gripFirst is to make sure you know how to hold the pen properly. That might sound silly, but the way you hold your pen can affect both your comfort and the neatness and accuracy of your handwriting.

There are two basic pen postures.

  • Between your index finger and thumb, with your index finger relatively straight along the barrel of the pen. The underside of the pens rests on your middle finger, near the last knuckle. The upper barrel of the pen rests in the “valley” between thumb and forefinger. This puts the pen about a 45 degree angle to the writing surface.
  • Between your index finger and thumb, with the index finger curled and the thumb straight. The underside of the pen rests on your middle finger. The upper barrel rests against the side of your forefinger, midway between the first and second knuckles. This puts the pen closer to a 90 degree angle.

When you write, it should be with a motion of your lower arm, not just your fingers. For more detailed instructions, we highly recommend Dyas Lawson’s excellent article at Paperpenalia.com.

Avoid pinching the tip of the pen tightly between forefinger, middle finger and thumb. If you have an indentation on the inside of your middle finger after writing, you’re not holding the pen correctly.

This is from the Ergonomics Division at the University of California at Los Angeles:

Don’t hold a pen or pencil in a “death grip”. Too much force can cause joint pain, cramps, fatigue and muscle weakness.

Avoid white knuckles, excessive flexion, or hyperextension of the thumb and finger joints.  These postures can cause forearm stain and even elbow tendonitis!

Once you’ve got the grip down, you need to find a pen that will comfortably allow you to maintain that proper hold.

Look for a pen that writes smoothly without requiring a lot of pressure. The pen should glide across the surface of the paper with no stops or skips. Typically, you’ll want a gel or rollerball pen.

It’s important in choosing the right pen that you pick a size that comfortably fits your hand. If the pen is too small or too large, your grip will be off and writing for longer periods may be uncomfortable.

As one health care professional wrote in the British Medical Journal (reg. required):

A fat pen with smooth flowing ink is much less likely to cause trouble than a thin and scratchy ballpoint; the latter almost forces itself to be gripped tightly, and resistance from friction (or drag) between pen and paper increases the intensity of contraction of the intrinsic muscles. This provokes pain and results in loss of control.  Thus I recommend a wide bodied fountain pen or rollerball.

In a small-scale study of pen design at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, researchers found that participants preferred larger pens. However, the same study also revealed that smaller pens produced more drawing and writing accuracy, something to keep in mind when making your selection.

Again from UCLA:

Try different sizes before you settle on one that fits. Use tape, tubing or grips to increase the diameter of existing pens.

It’s also important that the pen you choose have a comfortable, textured grip for your fingers and thumbs. A smooth-barreled pen will allow your fingers to slide down toward the tip, into that pinched grip that makes for cramps and poor handwriting.

If you’re concerned about getting maximum comfort out of your pen, you might consider an ergonomic model. We’ll going into more detail about ergonomic pens in future posts, but for now there are two we can recommend:

Pilot Dr. Grip Gel Ink – It has a soft rubber cushion that makes for a light, easy hold and the gel ink guarantees smooth writing.

Bic XXL – The barrel is even wider than the Dr. Grip and has a thick foam cushion. Does not write as smoothly, though. Sold mainly in the US.

OK, now it’s your turn. We want to hear what you look for when you’re choosing the right ink pen.

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What Pens are Around Your Office?

September 14, 2009

Your Tiger Pens blogger has been taking a lot of notes lately, so this morning I decided to inventory my pen supply. Here is what I found:

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Hands Hurting? Give These Ergonomic Pens a Try

August 19, 2009

Sure, this is the computer age, but we all still use pens for just about every day for everything from taking customer orders to jotting down the grocery list. That can be painful sometimes for people with arthritis or repetitive stress injuries and those in professions that require a lot of writing by hand. Using [...]

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