I have fond memories of working with Higgins inks throughout my childhood. My high school kept large quantities of Black Magic on hand. When I went to college I bought jars of it. I used it with dip pens and even *GASP* Look away if you are faint of heart, put it into fountain pens. (Do not do this, it will ruin them over time, maybe put it in a Preppy.) It is a nice dark ink that is pretty good in an ink wash set up and doesn’t budge once dry. It’s not a straight up true India ink, but some sort of hybrid. It dries matte on most surfaces.

All that is to say that when I walked past the display of art supplies in my closest Staples I saw the little blister packed marker and was hit with a wave of nostalgia. So despite it being priced at a whopping $4.99 I bought it.

So you get a little fiber tipped marker that needs to be shaken REALLY well before you first use it. The sediment pools at the base of the marker with the shaker balls in the pigment. It took a lot of shaking and leaving the pen on its side overnight to get this shaken properly. If you use it without a good proper shake the ink will be watery and grey colored. It’ll seem pretty disappointing.

One you get it shaken and primed properly it’ll be a deep dark black that is matte on most paper and works pretty well with most paper. I did find that there was some pretty deep penetration on my surfaces- it bled through the crappy sketchbook I use at work. It looked great on my bright white cardstock but was deeply absorbed. It doesn’t lift much when I erase which is always nice.

On fibery and even some smooth papers this fiber tip is aggressive. I used a light hand and this tip lifted fibers every time. Even on smooth cardstock, I was surprised to see little trails of fibers as well as lifted and bunched fibers on the page when I was done drawing. I think if you mash the tip it’ll be softer, but who wants to purposefully do that?

Like many pump style fiber tipped pens, this one is likely pretty easily refillable. When I get to that point I’ll post a tutorial. If you know how to take apart a paint pen you will probably be able to use that same technique here.

This is a bold line, no fine lines at all here. The tip is at least 1 mm if not 2mm in diameter. You won’t be doing fine line work, but you can pretend you’re Aaron Draplin and doodle some THICC lines.

Given the cheapness of Higgins Black Magic ink it’s difficult to think about shelling out $5 for a single pen, when you can buy an entire 1 ounce (33ml) bottle from $3 to $5. If it is refillable, and easily so, then the $5 is not a bad price at all. Continue reading →

I’m going to start with this rather bold statement, I wanted to hate this pen from the moment I opened it’s blister package. But I don’t, not entirely.

The Gelocity is an inexpensive pen, a 4-pack costs $3 at Walgreen’s and less if you look for a sale. They are sold in a blister pack ready to hang on a peg. There is nothing particularly eye catching with the package or the pen. As far as packaging goes, it is as standard as one can get.

What caught my eye was the 50% off sale offer. Except I didn’t read the fine print, I needed to buy 2 Bic products, one at regular price and the second lower priced item at 50%. Well, crap. Still at $3 these aren’t breaking the bank.

Once the package is open, you see that you get what you pay for. As far as gel pens are concerned you aren’t getting much with the Gelocity. The pens look cheap and feel cheaper. The clear plastic is adorned with concentric circle blob things that look like doodles on might make in a design program when first learning. The end cap removes but you can’t take the refill out from the end cap end, nope only from the point end.

The cap itself is removed and posts with a satisfying click. The clip does not look like it will survive a day in a classroom let alone the amount of time it will last in use. The nose/tip is made of plastic, the whole pen is made entirely of plastic, except for the tip of the refill. This makes the pen ultra lightweight. It is also very narrow.

Which brings me to the grip. There is a silicone sleeve with some grooves molded into it. It sits above the area where the cap clips. It is too high for my hand grip, so my fingers grip the hard plastic of the cap clipping area. Which I found uncomfortable but not painful.

So the pen is not great in the feels department.

The refill though, if you like a narrow line feels and looks more like a 0.38mm to me. It isn’t dry but has that narrow point scratchy feel of a 0.38mm on the paper. The gel ink isn’t stingy it has good flow and is nicely black. The narrowness of the line is nice for some tiny doodling and sketching, allowing for some nice cross hatching and building up of darkness. I have not tested it for lightfastness. It does seem to have some water resistance but is not waterproof, so not a great sketching gel for anyone interested in using watercolors.

If you are in need of a bunch of pens for cheap this isn’t the worst choice. If you are looking for a multi use pen that allows you to write and sketch with perhaps a bit of watercolor work added, this isn’t it. 

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I regularly use an A5 Lihit Labs Bag-in-Bag to contain my notebook and journaling supplies. I also use a large sized to contain my laptop and cords and cables. I love the simple slim packaging of these cases and how I can look into my bag, select the right case with the right stuff. The Guardian Pro enters an already crowded arena of things that do a similar job.

The Guardian Pro (GP from here) is top notch in what it does and what it does it for. Compared to the Lihit pouches I own it feels both sturdier and more expensive, which is good because it is significantly more expensive. The zipper is smooth and moves effortlessly. Which is good because the GP fits snugly around my Confidant and everything else you will want to shove inside.

The GP pushes you toward minimalism in your tools. It will hold a Confidant, a Vanguard, some Strategist/index cards, and a few refills. The index or pocket notebook pocket will hold a phone, so long as it isn’t in a fat Otterbox Defender with a Linkmount. It holds my work iPhone in it’s ultra slim case just fine. The pen loop at the spine is a great touch. I like how it is both out of the way and in the center of the case. If you are putting a Baronfig Squire in there it is bracketed with yellow stitches that perfectly match the zipper and classic Baronfig ribbons! Such a nice little detail.

I’ve only had the GP for a couple of weeks. So I can’t report to you about the longevity of the case. I can tell you that I haven’t been gentle. It gets shoved into my bag along with my Kindle (I don’t like the Kindle in the front pocket of the GP), my current composition notebook, a thermos, and assorted other things. It has yet to pick up as much dirt as my other bag organizers. I really like the materials Baronfig chose for the exterior and interior. The exterior mimics the Confidant while the inside feels more like a traditional backpack. The slightly  rougher feeling of the exterior has a nice tactile appeal. A step up from many of the other  canvas materials, it feels grippy.

I have to admit that other than pocket notebooks that live in my back pocket I rarely see the need for a case for my hardcover notebooks. The cover does the job of protecting the books well enough for my needs and any damage done is a line in the story of the life of the notebook. So when I have used a notebook in a case like the Lihit Labs (bag in bag) I use the journal separate from the case. I was a bit worried about working in my Confidant inside the GP. I was even more surprised to see that I LIKED IT.

Because I am a notebook and journal agnostic the GP won’t fit all of my notebook case needs all of the time but for the time when I’m using a Confidant it fits them perfectly. It is an investment but the better quality materials and detailed touches like that zipper and stitching really make this case stand out. Overall, the Guardian Pro challenged some of the ways that I use my notebooks– working in a case, use of a case for a hardcover notebook, but it also let me carry just a pen and a few other supplies in a safe way. Since I may end up going back to “Office in a Backpack” this will allow me to bring a level of side hustle to the Backpack Office.*

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Staples had these up with a limited time exclusive sign. I’m not sure if that means that these pencils will only be available at only Staples for a limited period of time or if it means they’ll be available like some of the other exclusives I’ve seen from Ticonderoga where they are available at Target for a limited time period then everywhere later. I’m thinking of the Ticonderoga Stripes in particular, which were sitting next to these on the shelf. I didn’t buy these because they were an exclusive Staples item, rather because they had really pretty shades of metallic paint.

The 10-pack costs $2.99, which is pretty pricey in the land of Norica pencils. At 30 cents each these are among the most expensive Noricas available.

The package is a nice blister pack, though I do wish they were in a simple cardboard box, with a window instead. At least this is a good rigid package. Upon opening the package I found that some of the packaging printing had adhered to the paint of the pencils. I was able to scrape the stuff off with my fingernail and the paint underneath looked great. The lacquer is thinly applied but nicely metallic and glossy. The rough areas of wood are fully visible. The imprint is silver and well done. The ferrule is a simple silver job and on a few pencils had pushed up the paint around its base. Not too awful, but not overly pretty either. The white plastic eraser is nice and works really well.

Inside all that is linden/basswood wrapped around a smooth core. The pencil is very lightweight. I added a silicone gel grip to decrease my urges to death grip the thing. It is not as dark as the previous version but for a 30 cent pencil it is smooth and holds a point well, even on rougher papers.

I’m glad I bought a pack of them and they’ll likely get used, I’m a real sucker for metallics. These would make a great gift for a kid or adult interested in pencils.

These pencils were purchased with  Ko-Fi support!

I like Pentel EnerGel pens. We’ve got a box of the needle tip 0.5 at work and quite a few of them find their way into my desk after a trip to the supply cabinet.* I should do a full review of those too, since I’ve never done it

This is a good bold pen. That is my one quibble with this pen. Where UniBall and Zebra 0.7 tips lean a bit fine, Pentel has determined that their 0.7 tip shall actually be a 0.7 tip. Had I noticed the pack I picked up was 0.7 I’d have swapped it out for a 0.5. The line is fat and rich. The black is DEEPLY black and on the warm side. 

The ink is great.

The body of the pen is okay. It is all plastic with a shaped rubber grip and a chromed plastic tip and knock. The clip is metal. All logos are in silver printing. The pen feels okay. It feels about as substantial as a Pilot G2 or Zebra Sarasa but not quite as put together as the UniBall 207/307. I’m sure that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to anyone who puts the 207/307 above all other gel pens, but it does to me.

This is a doodler and sketcher’s dream pen. The ink bonds to the page and doesn’t lift or move once dry. That is the kicker, it takes between 10 to 15 seconds to dry on good paper (less on absorbent pages) and a good swipe of the heel of your palm over it and it makes a mess. I tested it with a few drops of coffee on an index card and even the hot coffee didn’t lift the ink. I’ve yet to test it with water colors but if coffee won’t lift it, I doubt most watercolors would. I will say if you use any pencil lines on smooth glossy paper that you’ll need to clean up after a drawing is rendered, be prepared to reink some lines. I found that EVERY eraser grayed the ink out immensely. You might be able to see that in some of these images. I’m not sure how well my camera picked up on this.

During a couple of meetings I doodled a composition book pattern onto a nice sheet of cardstock. I did notice a few things. First this was Neenah cardstock with a SMOOTH finish the pen felt great on it but on areas where I scribbled a couple of times the ink would lift itself or skip. I also noticed on areas where I’d used my fingers to fold the page, the ink would skip over my fingerprints. That said, areas where I scribbled, allowed the ink to dry, and then scribbled again, accepted more ink without skipping or hollow lines. I didn’t notice any blobs as I drained this pen dry.

One of the truly great things about this pen is that you can buy refills. They are listed as LRP7 and are $1.65 on Jetpens as of this writing. You can get 12 Energel Pro refills on the ‘Zon for about $13. As far as sketching and doodling pens, these are in my top 5 list for sure. IN terms of smoothness they are up there with the Sharpie SGel and waterproofness with the Unibal Signo. I might’ve ordered a 12-pack of refills right after writing this.

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Dade and I discussed this pen on the last episode of RSVP. We both questioned why it is made of brass and not copper like Lady Liberty herself. While I think a true tribute to Lady Liberty would be copper, this pen is not just about Lady Liberty but the entire concept of Liberty. We also discussed that some people missed that Baronfig is making a donation to Vote.org to help increase voter awareness in this voting cycle and for future votes. I see that as a positive.

Included is a small booklet highlighting important historical moments related to liberty throughout US history. The color scheme is simply black, white, and gold. It pops. Another insert is the Declaration of Liberty, a little piece of paper with a declaration of liberty for the owner of the pen to sign and date. On the back of the box it notes that this pen is made in the USA.
Let me get out of the way, I like Squires y’all know this. I’ve been killing it with an Adrift for months now, and before that used many LE over the course of years.* I love the twist mechanisms and the way they feel in hand. They are great for fidgeting. They are great for writing. They are simply great.

I am a quietly patriotic person, oftentimes the US has made me feel insignificant and less important, and occasionally less human, than others. My rights haven’t been respected. It took years of legal battles for me to get the same rights as others, and still, those rights are threatened. So when I saw a patriotic pen. I waited to say yes to the review. Perhaps this is the least patriotic I’ve felt, but also this is the most important that I’ve felt that the use of my tool of patriotism and liberty, my vote, is important.

I adore the change in packaging. It looks like this is more than the usual Squire LE. The packaging stands out, it doesn’t match the lightness and fun of the previous Squires. No, the Liberty is dead serious. As such opening the package and pulling that pen out of it’s box felt weighty, and perhaps that is why a brass version is better than a copper or patina green anodized pen body, because this pen is weighty. It seems a bit dramatic to say that such a weighty issue deserves a weighty pen, but it does. I really like that the lettering and images are on 2 sides of the pen.

Typically I have dry hands, and generally brass doesn’t make them smell, but WOW does my hand smell like brass today. If you have moist hands you may or may not notice that your pen will patina quickly. I’ll be using mine for a few weeks at least. (You’ll definitely see it in a few more reviews. Hint hint)

This is a terrific pen. You have to like brass and some weight to use this pen. If you like a lightweight pen this might not be the best choice for you. It is well weighted for my hands- I like a pen that is ever so slightly weighted to the front, and this pen seems to fulfill this requirement. This is an investment pen, it clocks in at $80. But again, if you’ve been a reader of this blog for any period of time, you know how I feel about investing in a reusable, refillable pen, do it. 

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