I thought I’d give you all a change of pace– a post without a single notebook in it! Instead, I’ll talk a little bit about the pens I use with my notebooks, for the tests I do in reviews, and for day to day use.

My most frequently used pens tend to be Uniball Signo RT 0.38s, in black and blue-black. I find these comfortable to hold, and they provide a super-smooth, sharp fine line on pretty much any paper. I write notes and journal entries with them, and often use them for sketching too (though they aren’t waterproof [UPDATE: these ARE claimed to be waterproof by the manufacturer.]). They almost never bleed or show through much on Moleskine paper. And they’re cheap!

I also have a thing for multi-pens. I’ve tried a few from Uniball (including the MF-3 below), Pilot, and Zebra but my favorite is the Uniball Style Fit Meister 5-color. I have it filled with a pencil insert, and black, red, brown, and blue-black 0.38 pen inserts. I love the convenience and the smooth fine line, but find the fatter body a little less comfortable to hold while writing.

I’ve gotten a lot more into fountain pens and ink in the past year, and my favorites are my Lamy Safari (fine nib, currently inked with Sailor Seaweed Indigo), and two Pilot Metropolitans with Fine nibs (holding Diamine Oxblood and Pilot Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku). I can use the Metropolitans in Moleskines without much bleed-through, but otherwise I use my fountain pens mostly for some doodling, sketching, and handwriting practice in a Hobonichi Techo and for notes in my Nolty 2018 planner. I really love the way the Metropolitans write, but my hand gets a little cramped on the grip. The Lamy has a wonderfully comfortable grip, but the F nib is a little too wide for my usual handwriting size. I want to try an extra-fine Lamy nib to see if that’s a better fit for me. (Santa? Are you listening?) The other pens pictured are Platinum Preppies in M, F, and EF nibs. The finer nibs are a bit scratchy but the M nib, paired with Noodler’s Apache Sunset, is quite fun!

And here’s all the pens I use for tests in reviews, some of which I’ve had for many years. Some of my favorites are the Marvy Technical Drawing pen, the Platinum Carbon Pen, and the Pilot Varsity fountain pen, which is shockingly good given its extremely low price:

In addition, I tend to use Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens for sketching, and I’ve been playing around with Pilot Parallel pens for some attempted calligraphy doodles. I also use Pigma Microns and a few other assorted pens for drawing.

And of course I also use pencils for drawing, only a tiny fraction of which are pictured here! You can see how various pencils (regular ones, colored pencils, water-soluble graphite, charcoal, etc.) have made some of my pens rather dirty from being stored in the same case along with a sharpener and eraser! I have tons of drawing pencils, many that I’ve had since college and rarely use.

All in all, I really have no excuse for ever buying any new supplies for writing or art… but I probably will anyway! What are your favorite pens?