I love click erasers. I enjoy their plastic housing that holds a cylinder of wobbly eraser safe while I use the knock to ease out just a small amount of eraser. Inside the plastic housing the eraser stays clean, ready to clean up my drawings. Mostly, these click erasers work really well but are not all that easy to use to clean up detail areas. That is, until I picked up the Tombow Mono Zero rectangular ultra fine click eraser. This thing has a tiny slip of eraser, it’s 2.5×0.5mm in size (3/8×1/8 inches). In other words tiny.

The housing is also small. It’s black with a small tip of metal at the business end. The knock pushes out 0.7 mm of eraser per click. The eraser is Tombow elastomer eraser. It’s white plastic and the “crumbs” stick to one another and ever so slightly, the page, eliminating a lot of eraser mess. The crumbs can then be swept away with a soft brush or the side of a hand, depending on your preference. (A perfect use for those useless fan brushes IMO.) (This eraser also comes in a stainless steel or shiny metal looking body.)

This isn’t going to be the eraser you use to clean up large areas of page, rather this is going to be the eraser you use to clean the whites of the eyes in portraits, or reflections on glass. This is the eraser you’ll use to take care of the details. It might also be the eraser you use as an everyday carry with your pocket journal. This has been my use for this diminutive eraser. Because it is incredibly small and light weight I’ve been clipping it to the cover of my pocket journal and using it combined with a 2B mechanical pencil for sketching. The little eraser has been quite a workhorse for me. Cleanly removing pencil from the pages of my Field Notes and BanditApple Carnet. For small pocket sketching it’s been top notch.

As for cleanliness of the erasing, it does well on smooth paper. In Field Notes and BanditApple carnet minimal ghosting was apparent. However on rougher paper, like the Staples sticky note, which is quite rough, ghosting is apparent. Is it bad enough to not get one of these erasers? I don’t know. If you work on rough paper with graphite you might want to go with a rougher eraser, like the Papermate Tough Stuff  Eraser Stick.

While we’re at it, let’s talk price. I was able to pick up my eraser at Artist & Craftman for $5. I also bought a pack of refills for a few bucks, bringing my total to about $7. That’s pretty pricey, but I had been eyeing this eraser for a few months and in 2 weeks of frequent use I’ve used a very small amount of the eraser, about 2mm. The eraser is also available from JetPens for about $6 and Amazon for the same. Refills range in price from $2 at A&C to $5 on Amazon. Any way you look at it, it’s not a huge value, but it does a damn good job for what it is. In this case the function of this eraser makes it a worthwhile investment.

Over all, the minute form factor of this eraser is what really makes it worth the cash. Most other click erasers are encased in so much plastic that they are ten times thicker than the eraser encased inside. If you are putting together a pocket sketching and journaling kit, size matters.

A few months ago I won a Retro 51 Hex-o-Matic retractable pen. The pen is perfect for sketching while I’m on the T. With all the lurching and sudden stops of the T, I’m afraid I’ll jam a fountain pen and break the nib, so rollerball pens work best. I managed to burn through the refill in a short amount of time. After looking around online I realized I needed to look at the refills to figure out what would fit the pen. Basically, I learned it takes standard Parker type refills which are available just about anywhere. I headed into Bob Slate Stationers in Cambridge, Mass to look at their rack of refills and figure out what I liked.

I ended up buying a package of Parker Quink gel refills and a package of Quink Flow roller ball refills. I’ve not yet tested the Quink Flow refills but the initial testing of the Gel Ink has been quite favorable.

First the ink is very black. The tip lays down a very even line of ink. There is very little skipping. The only skipping I found was when I was writing at an extreme angle and over areas where there were fingerprints on certain paper. It wrote flawlessly in my Field Notes, Staples composition notebooks, and on scrap paper. The only paper it skipped on was my BanditApple Carnet and that only occurred in areas where I’d held the paper in place while drawing, so over my fingerprints. There was some light skipping over pencil line, and only the softer pencil. It wrote well over H and even HB pencil but not well over 2B or 4B.

Once on paper, the ink is relatively waterproof. I was able to lift a small amount with a waterbrush to get some light shading. Which is really cool but it also means that watercolor washes will lift and be “dirtied” by the ink. I have to say that the ink is neutral black and won’t dirty watercolor that much. I really like the idea of adding a thin waterbrush to my on-the-go kit.

If you are looking for an ink refill that is a sheer joy to write with, this is a go to refill. I’ve been using it for note taking in my graduate classes. It’s smoothness glides over the paper without skipping or slowing me down. If the Zebra Sarasa is my go to gel ink pen, this is one step behind it. (I’ve recently found Zebra Sarasa refills on Amazon, so I’m now stuffing those into every pen body I own. Sadly, they don’t fit into my hex-o-matic.) I’ve found myself reaching for my hex-o-matic over my fountain pens for the last few weeks, that should tell you how great this ink is for writing.

Anyway, these refills are quite nice, very affordable, and available just about anywhere.

Now you just need to pick a  decent pen to put them in, they will fit into a great number of pens. The classic Parker Jotter, the Retro 51 Hex-o-Matic, and a great number of other pens. I could go on and on about how wonderful it is to have a refillable pen and how much better it is for the environment.

I reviewed Scribal's Siren Blue ink a few months back. I used this ink almost exclusively in my recent grad school class. Except when my pen wouldn't write because it had dried out.

This is a perfectly colored ink, PERFECT. I would buy this ink in a quart size if only it's flow and lubrication were better. This ink makes my normally smooth pens feel scratchy and like I'm wearing off the tipping. It also makes my wet pens feel like they flow erratically and slowly, making them dry writers. It also makes every pen I've had it in a hard starter, even the pens with air tight caps. Pens that I've never had starting issues with, start hard, and often need water added to the nib to get them going. Frustrating.

Here are a few thigns I've tried:
5ml ink + 10 drops water (poor)
5ml ink + 2 drops dish soap (poor)
Decant 5ml of ink into a small container, add .5ml distilled water and 2 drops dish soap.(winner) This last option makes the ink flow much better but has worse performance on bad paper- more feathering and bleed. But it starts better, though not well or perfectly.

I am considering adding 1ml Camlin turq to 5ml Siren or 1 ml blue quink to 5ml Siren to see what I get. As is, nothing can flow as bad as the Siren on it's own.

I love this ink's color and qualities but damn if I can't keep my pens writing in grad school I'm screwed!

***UPDATE***
Immediately after writing this I mixed 1ml camlin turq + 1ml Quink blue + 5ml Siren. The color is indistinguishable from the original and the flow is better, dry out is gone, and my pens no longer feel like they are being sandpapered. Winner. I immediately mixed up 30ml of this blend. It iwll be my go to ink for school. Now I need another bottle of Siren.

I like composition books. A throw back to simplier rtimes I hated them as a kid becuase I could only find wide rule and I prefer college rule. As an adult I'm more likely to ignore the lines and just write where I feel like. I like to have one in the garage for my bike notes and to do lists. I keep them all over the house. (Not sure how C feels about this.) They have many uses doodles, sketching and writing. They are also dirt cheap. This time of year you can get them in Staples for $1 each and Walmart has some for 50 cents. The real question for me is , "How do all these comp books stack up against one another?"

A few weeks back I reviewed to much dismay the Staples Sustainable Earth comp book. It was a bummer because I really enjnoy the brown lines, the feel of the paper, and overall the quality of the book, but not being able ot use fountain pens with it makes it a deal killer. I won't buy another one.

So I'm searching out compbooks that work with my fountain pens. I've done a lot of reading that you need to keep an eye on where they are made, with Brazil as the best country of origin.

Let's start out with the rank and horrible.

Mead Five Star College Ruled with the plastic covers.
The paper feels nice, pens glide but feather and bleed like writing on TP. No country of origin listed. Was more expensive than the rest.

Mead Wide Ruled Fasion Pattern Covers Made in Vietnam
nice stiff covers in a variety of funky patterns, also available college ruled. Some inks did horribly on this paper others did well. Bleed through was intolerable but feathering was okay.

Norcom Fashion Pattern Covers Wide Rule Made in USA Walmart
Covers are flimsy but nice patterns. Paper feels smooth and nice but feathers and bleeds like crazy. even well bahaved inks don't do well on it. It's too bad I'd like to buy made in the US paper. These were on sale at Walmart for 50 cents.

Norcom Original Covers College Rule Made in USA Walmart
Covers are flimsy. Paper feels smooth and nice but
feathers and bleeds like crazy. even well bahaved inks don't do well on
it. It's too bad I'd like to buy made in the US paper. These were on sale at Walmart for 50 cents.

Now let's talk about the acceptable and good.

Staples Quad Comp Graph Rule Made in Egypt
Okay covers. Paper feels nice. Pens like it. Slight feathering with some inks but most fair better than average. Plenty of bleed through, making only one side of the paper usable. On sale at Staples for $1.

Tops Brand Standard Marble Cover Wide Rule Made in Vietnam
Flimsy cover. Paper is smooth and feels great under the pen. No feathering, no bleed through. Both side usable with right pen. Regularly priced at 97 cents at Target. (For what it's worth, I've been told I totally lucked out on the Made in Vietnam book being good, usually it's the Made in Brazil Tops that is good. So your mileage may vary on this one.)

Staples "Fashion" Cover Wide Rule Made in Brazil (Item number 19187)
Okay covers, not the most sturdy. Patterns are neat. Paper feels smooth and pens like it. No feathering even with my Ahab. Bleed through is acceptable. On sale for $1.

Staples "Marble" Cover College Rule Made in Brazil (Item number 40451)
Sturdy covers. Paper feels smooth and
pens like it. No feathering even with my Ahab. Bleed through is
acceptable. On sale for $1.

Have you used a composition notebook that you particularly loved? Let me know about it in the comments.

I’ve been doing a lot of doodling. One of my all time favorite cheap-o pens for doodling is the Uni-ball Vision Fine Point. It’s smooth, dark black ink flows well and doesn’t bleed when wet. So I can flood a wash of watercolor over it when I’m done sketching and doodling. It’s a great pen. You can get them just about anywhere for about $1 to $2 per pen. Not a bad deal.

C likes to use a medium point pen versus my needle point pens. She likes a nice smooth point so I usually stick with the Uniball pens, but I happened into Staples and found they had the Zebra Sarasa retractable pens in 0.7 black ink on sale, so I bought a pack of 12. They came in a nice plastic case for storage. It would easily be useful for storing a pen assortment. I believe the sale was for $9.99. With no sale they can be found for about $1 a pen. They are also available in a wide assortment of colors.

Why do I like these pens? First off they are dirt cheap in the arena of waterproof/resistant pens. The ink is dark and doesn’t erase off the page when cleaning up pencil. The pen itself is as comfortable to use as any other clicky ball point, the build and construction is similar to
the Pilot G2, but I find that I get skipping with the G2 but none with the Sarasa. In other words the ink is smooth, dark and flows well when compared to other gel ink pens. Also one of the issues I have with the G2 is that it develops bubbles in the ink and then doesn’t work. The
Sarasa doesn’t seem to suffer from this effect, which is good.

In short a fantastic pen for art purposes, especially given the price.

I’ve
been debating whether or not I should make my own notebooks for school
or if I should just buy them. I decided to pick up a few composition
notebooks to see how the various brands fared with fountain pens. I’ve
been a fan and have used the Staples Sustainable Earth composition
notebooks for around the garage and workbench thinking notebooks for
hacking out designs on my bike builds and other things. I’ve been a big
fan of them for awhile. While out picking up some supplies I grabbed a
new one figuring it was a safe bet for school. It seems that Staples has
changed the composition of the paper just a tad. It’s now 80% bagasse,
or sugarcane. I’m not sure what it was before but this paper has some
major differences. I compared it to a page from an old Sustainable Earth
legal pad.

The
old paper wasn’t super smooth but it was nice and performance with a
fountain pen was awesome. Line width was true to the nib, no feathering,
no soak through but there was show through. It was a great inexpensive
paper that was easy to find anywhere. 100 sheets was $2.49 anywhere in
the US. It was available in legal pads too, which were a favorite of
mine for taking notes while on the phone at work, and now for working on
ideas for classes and my writing. This paper was awesome.

The
new paper is not as smooth as the old paper. I tested both sides of the
page and while one side is slightly smoother than the other, it’s not
as smooth as the old. Line width is not true to the nib size. My medium
pen looks like a bold and my EF a medium. Feathering was rampant with
many inks. Noodler’s Eternal Brown feathered badly. Diamine Chocolate
feathered so much as to be unusable. Private reserve Sonic Blue was a
mess. Soak through was awful, many inks, normally well behaved inks,
soaked through to the page behind, leaving spots on the unused page.
Soak through was as bad as if I had used Sharpies to write. Given my
enjoyment of ink variety this is a deal killer for me.

I
decided to test the paper would with a variety of pencils and pens.
Pencil was great on the paper, it was rough enough to take a nice dark
line with mechanical pencils as well as regular wooden pencils. I tested
out a Zebra Sarasa 0.7 in black ink. It soaked through. Yes, gel ink
soaked through in some spots.

I
deem the new Staples Sustainable Earth Composition Notebook to be the
most useless notebook of the year, unless you use only pencil. Well, I might see if I can cut pages out to use as thin blotter paper, it might be useful like that, but I doubt it would do a good job at that either.