When I first heard the news that Sharpie was going to be making a liquid pencil I was interested immediately. I press very firmly when I write, so when using traditional pencils or mechanical pencils I would break the tip quite often. It's a cool idea and something that sounds like it's out of the future.  It sounds like something a robot would use to take a math test.  Sadly the Sharpie Liquid Pencil does not live up to its futuristic sounding coolness.  It has the potential to be a great product, but just isn't there yet.

The body of the Sharpie Liquid pencil is nothing extraordinary.  It has a simple design that looks good but not great.  The top 1/4 of the pencil is actually used to deploy the tip of the pen/pencil/cool metal thing refill that writes with the liquid pencil ink.  This makes the design a bit more unified but causes a bigger problem.  When deployed the top 1/4 of the pencil rattles constantly while being used.  This might not bother some people, but it drives me crazy.  Other than this there are no real problems with the body of the Liquid Pencil.  The design is simple but uninteresting.

The other major problem with the Sharpie Liquid Pencil is the way it writes.  To be blunt, it writes badly.  It skips, leaves a ton of white space, and requires a ton of pressure to produce a mark on the paper. It leaves a lot to be desired.


Once again it is a cool idea, and I like thinking about robots taking tests with this.  But until Sharpie makes some tweaks to this product, which I think they will do, I won't be using it very often.  Cool can only get you so far.





5 out of 10 mummies

Today we are starting a weekly post where we will link to other blogs that have interesting things we have been reading.  We weren't sure whether or not to name it something serious or to try and make a pun.  We decided on the pun, so it's PEN + INTELLIGENCE = PENTELIGENCE.

Montblanc Starwalker Red Gold-Plated Fountain Pen  on Gear Patrol

Ohto Graphic Liner Needle Point Drawing Pen 03 Review on The Pen Addict

Moleskine Monday: Great Lakes Writing Set on Etsy on Notebook Stories

Monteverde Artista Crystal Fountain Pen Medium Nib Transparent Turquoise Body on No Pen Intended 

Review: Pentel EnerGel-X Gel Ink Pens - 0.7mm on Gourmet Pens

Pentel Hybrid Technica 0.5 on The Well Appointed Desk 

Fortnightly Inkings #5  at On Fountain Pens 

How to Write a Letter to a New Penpal on The Blog of the European Paper Company 

Every Day Carry on the JetPens Blog

Carnival of Pen, Pencil Paper at Comfortable Shoe Studio

 

 

On lunch break the other day I decided to take a stroll through my campus store. I came across a fantastic deal on what seemed like a pretty solid notebook. I picked up a few.

During my recent trip to New York I stopped at the Muji Store.  I bought a lot of assorted stationary at the store.  The first thing I saw was this nifty little Blue Passport Pocket Notebook.  I love pocket notebooks and this was a really smart looking book so I picked it up.

The Passport notebook has no info written inside of it about the type of paper used, and I couldn't find it on the Muji website.  There are 24 pages of unlined cream colored glossy paper.  The cover is a faux leather-ish material in navy blue, reminiscent of the cover of a passport.  The book is a bit smaller than other notebooks in the pocket category.  It is 4 3/4 inches long and 3 1/4 inches wide. 

The paper in the book is average at best.  It's a glossy type paper comparable to the paper in a Moleskine.  There is a lot of showthrough for most pens.  Every pen except for the sub .5mm gel pens showed through so don't get used to writing with heavy flowing pens.  The wide nib fountain pens bled through a very little bit but this isn't the type of notebook you would normally be using a calligraphy pen in anyway. 


Overall the book is a quality little pocket notebook that will be a good company on your everyday note taking missions.  The paper isn't super high quality, but if you have .5mm or smaller tips for your pens you should be fine when it comes to showthrough. This notebook was around $2.50 so you really can't beat it for the price.

7 out of 10 mummies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Winner of the Muji Notebook is Melissa Winner of the personal letter is Chris Lo Winner of the poorly drawn postcard is Ira F. Stone email or direct message us your mailing address and we will ship your prizes out as soon as possible. Thanks everybody for participating in our first ever giveaway here at #penswag. You can expect more throughout the year.