Ask Slashdot: The Search For the Ultimate Engineer's Pen

First time accepted submitter Laser Dan writes "I'm an engineer (robotics) who can't seem to find a pen that satisfies me. Most of my writing is just temporary "thinking notes" on random bits of paper, like diagrams, flowcharts, equations etc, but pens always seem to have one or more of the following issues:

1. They write too thickly — I write very small, and when I start adding extra details to diagrams it gets even smaller. A line width of about 0.2-0.4mm would be good.

2. The ink bleeds, making the lines thick and unclear.

3. The ink is slow to dry or the tip grows blobs of ink, causing smudges everywhere.

4. The first line drawn is not fully dark, as the ink takes a short distance to get going.

5. The lines drawn are faint unless you press hard (I don't).

I have been given several fancy pens (Parker etc) over the years but they all suffered from problems 1, 3 (blobs), 4 and 5. I'm considering trying a Fisher space pen, but it looks like even the fine cartridge writes rather thickly. Have any fellow Slashdotters found their ultimate pen?"

Comments

Re:Yes

[flyneye]

Get a gross of Bic Sticks so you have a pen anywhere you need one. Then go see a counselling psychologist about that obsessive relationship with pens used just for taking notes. Buddy if you can read your own writing, mission accomplished. Todays pen is called an "editor" anyway.

O.K. now for the answer to an obsessive mans quest for the ultimate pen.
1. select fine woods of your choice. Chuck a blank up in a lathe and turn the pen to the curves that your hand enjoys.
2. Go purchase every kind of promising pen refill you see. By process of elimination select the refill of your dreams and load it into the pen of your dreams.
3. Write on, brother.