After this wonderful article from Real Simple that brought out my inner pen dork, I decided to do a pen test. I haven’t had a particular pen that I call my favorite in a while, mostly because I think I’ve lost most of them. {Probably took them home to enter the Black Hole of Things}

Here are the pens I tried:

1. Paper Mate Ink Joy 700RT 1.0M
2. 0.5 I don’t know what this is. Has Chinese writing on it. An international student must have left it in my office.
3. Sharpie Pen Fine
4. Pilot Precise V5 Rolling Ball Extra Fine
5. Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip

So first I tried writing sentences to see which felt good, looked good etc.

I found the Bic to be the easiest flow in terms of cursive writing. There was no resistance at all. The Sharpie gave me the most control over my writing which I definitely liked. The Chinese pen gave me the least control. I just liked using the Pilot Precise, kinda feels like using an old times quill pen.

Next I did my signature:

This time I still liked the control the Sharpie gave me. It was the only one that let me get the “I” in Keegin flawlessly considering my handwriting style and the way that I write my name although at times I feel like I push fairly hard into the paper and felt like I was going to break the tip which I don’t feel with any of the others. This time the Bic was too fast and loose. I liked the flow of the PaperMate which actually made me over flourish.

My best handwriting is when I write on the board or make a poster. I have fantastic kindergarten, poster writing. But when writing fast in cursive or scribbling notes, I have a harder time making it look as good. I guess I’m still searching for the perfect everyday kind of pen, but I do like the Sharpie for extra effort when I’m trying to make my handwriting very legible and the Precise V5 for other uses. I think I just need to bump up to regular fine, not extra fine.

So tell me – what’s YOUR favorite pen? There are a lot of them out there that I didn’t test. Just used what I had here at the office.