Saturday, March 13, 2010

Kohinoor Nexus Light Sepia Pen

Whoa, I mean like wow. What a pen.

I know I've been touting the Uniball Vision Micro (0.5) for quite sometime. I love the fact that I can use it for everyday writing, sketching, and use in my work journal. It's waterproof, smearproof, and archival, that is, it doesn't fade. (If you think none of this stuff is important, think again.  Take a look at the disaster sketch I did back when I didn't understand this stuff.  See related link below "I bought a pen today.)

One of the reasons I like the Uniball so much is that I can buy several different pen widths all of which use the same great waterproof ink. The Uniballs come in 1.0, 0.8, 0.7, 0.5 needle and regular tipped. The waterproof ink enables me to watercolor right over my sketchy lines and make a decent illustrated page.  They are also non-porous tipped. In other words instead of a felt-like tip they are a rollerball. That means that I can leave them uncapped at my desk all day without fear of drying out. (I know of one woman that runs a art workshop who spends most of her time running around capping porous point pens the  students leave uncapped.) Fugetaboutit, life it too short. Get a non-porous tipped pen.

They also come in red, blue, pink, green, and my favorite black. But alas there is no brown or sepia color.

So I went hunting. My needs are simple:

1) non-porous tip
2) waterproof, smearproof and archival
3) lasts a while (lots of ink)
4) not too ugly
5) sepia (or brown)

I walked into a Dick Blick store today and found this Kohinoor Nexus pen. It made my #4 criteria above . . . it's not too ugly. It's cool and retro in a mother-could-only-love sort of way. When I popped the cap off I was pleased to discover a rollerball tip. I scribbled in my Moleskine Sketchbook pocket journal. (I always carry one, especially to the art store, so I can try out all kinds of pens and paints in it.)

Of course, it's waterproof and smearproof and archival.  I wouldn't have even picked it up if it were not all of those.  But here is the  unexpected feature:  It will write way past all the other pens.  It claims to write for 1.2 miles!  Whoa, I don't even think I could run that far.  That's quite a distance.

Two months ago I used up one of my Uniball Vision Micro in a month.  I'm not sure how many feet or yards or miles it wrote but it seemed too short to me.  I was actually surprised I was reaching into my bag for another pen so soon.

So, from this point forward, I'll be using my new pen.  I love the feel, it's smooth. I love the sepia color, it's way cool. I like the tech-look, it's mostly me.

I'll check in with my results in a future post.

...dave
The pen is the tongue of the mind. - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Theoretically Related Post

[You might have noticed that the links take you to Amazon.  And yes, I make a few pennies if you buy from the link.  But you wouldn't deny me a little cash for this wonderful review, right? No? Rats.]

2 comments:

Pam Johnson Brickell said...

Like the info here. Had to re-read as I went to the store today and couldn't remember the exact wording of the pen names. Came home with a Uni-ball Sigmo.
Works like the Pentel Sign Pen as water does effect it. I have to laugh as the packaging says fade and water resistant.

I've written the names you've suggest down this time.
Now not to forget my note :)

daveterry said...

Pam: Those are also good pens, not sure about the water resistant thing though. You might have to try it with a water brush.

The uni-ball Vision micro (regular or needle tip) are the best. I've learned that the pen above is everything except thin. The thick body sets me off. Rats, it was almost perfect. I do wish that the good folks at uni-ball would produce a light brown ink.

...dave