Disposable Ballpoint Pen History: Pennies on the Dollar | Hacker News Reader

Disposable Ballpoint Pen History: Pennies on the Dollar

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54 pointsprostoalex44 comments

If you haven't used a fountain pen recently you're really missing out. They aren't expensive and it really helps clarity.

Pilot Varsity pens are plastic disposable fountain pens, sell for $2-3 each in a pack.

Pilot Metropolitans are ~$12 but feel really expensive. They are metal and have replaceable cartridges. You can get a italic nib which I love.

Lamy pens are great too, they suit me because they're larger even if they aren't metal.

When I write with ballpoints it looks terrible in comparison.

I just saw this sampler, which looks great https://www.jetpens.com/JetPens-Beginner-Fountain-Pen-Sample...

> They aren't expensive.

Well, they aren't all expensive.

I highly recommend the Pilot Kakuno for a first fountain pen; it's not luxurious by any means, but the nib is excellent for the price. The Wing Sung 698 is also really excellent, for ~$15.

I also highly recommend the Twisbi Eco - more expensive (I think 30 dollars), but piston filled, which means you can buy any fountain-pen inks from anywhere and use them.

I've had mine for... I don't know, maybe a year? I love it.

It's difficult to articulate, but it makes writing feel more pleasurable somehow - not just because it writes well (although it does), but because the entire experience feels less "disposable", if that makes any sense. It feels good to fill it with ink from a glass bottle, even something as simple as unscrewing the cap and posting it is just a really tiny joy. I like that I can see the ink splashing around in it.

I'm sure millage would vary on this, but I've also found that because I enjoy writing more with it, my handwriting and attention to detail has also become better. My cursive has gotten much better over the past year.

If you use ballpoint pens, then you don't know what you're missing out on. If you use decent rollerball pens, you still might enjoy a fountain pen more. It's such a frivolous, unnecessary purchase - but it's still pretty high up on my list of things that I'm routinely glad I bought.

The Eco is wonderful. It carries a stupid amount of ink.

I never realized how quickly you can run out of ink until I started on pens with small "converters" – refillable reservoirs for liquid ink. The TWSBI Eco's piston-filling reservoir is massive.

As a counterpoint, even with Lamy fountain pens I had constant problems with ink leaking and nibs drying out. I gave up on them in favor of high-quality ball pens some time ago.

Turns out the ink is really important for your experience with fountain pens. I used to use noodlers ink but that'd dry in the nib if you left it alone for half a second. These days I switched to lamy brand ink and I can leave my pen lying around for weeks without it drying up.

Another one to check out is the Pilot Kaküno. It's billed as a beginner fountain pen, but old hands like it, too. https://www.gouletpens.com/collections/pilot-kakuno-fountain...

> Pilot Metropolitans are ~$12 but feel really expensive. They are metal and have replaceable cartridges. You can get a italic nib which I love.

To expand on this, you can also get converters that allow you to use bottled ink. I use Pilot Metropolitans and a Pilot Prera daily. The reservoir converters really open up a lot of possibilities for ink color choices.

Personally, I am a big fan of Pilot Petit 1[1], which you can buy in packs of 12 with multiple-color ink. Always amazes others as well.

Ergonomically, they are great; they don't take much space - and they are easy and pleasant to write with. They don't have a character (like some of my other pens do) - they just write.

They are nearly indestructible - I've left one in a shirt pocket and did the laundry, and both the shirt and the pen were fine - and cheap, at $2-$3, depending on where you buy them.

The only problem with them is that getting the ink cartridges is harder than getting these pens (the Pilot cartridges are incompatible with Pelikan, which is the most popular standard, as well as the popular-in-the-US Sheaffer). But at $2 a pen, their economics are approaching the ballpoint pens - easier to buy a new one than refill at times.

[1]https://www.tokyopenshop.com/fountain-pens-c-51/petit-1-foun...

Those Pilot Petit's look quite neat. I wish there was a supplier of these in the UK. Sadly all the sellers are on ebay and based in Hong Kong.

I've always written and doodled with fountain pens since high school (cough, ahem the early 80's). My go to cheap and cheerful fountain pen has been the Parker Vector[0], it's not expensive and is really nice to use.

I did for a while (12 years) own a Waterman Carene[1] which was gifted to me by colleagues when I moved on to another job. To my great sadness and annoyance I lost it in a house move. That was a really nice writing implement if perhaps a wee bit top heavy if you left the lid on the other end.

After losing that pen I bought another Parker Vector and it's done me just fine ever since.

[0]: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parker-Medium-Vector-Fountain-Blist...

[1]: https://www.penheaven.co.uk/waterman-carene-amber-gold-trim-...

I went through so many years without bothering to find out why I hated some pens and loved some pens, until I decided to dive into the subject a bit. The type of ink and pen affects writing joy so much. I discovered that I was a gel pen kind of person and tried a bunch of different makes, so now and then I buy a big pack of Pilot Super Gel 07, and now I always have pens around that I love writing with. I'm probably going to get one or two quality gel pens too, like Parkers or similar, because now I know what I like.

I highly recommend finding out which kind of ink and pen give you the most writing joy! A simple comparison to get you started can be found on the gel pen Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_pen

Gel pens were amazing when I first tried one.

My path went crappy pens -> Pilot ballpoint -> Pilot gel -> Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen.

Not having to exert pressure makes such a difference to me that my handwriting immediately improved when I started using fountain pens. I've even had friends comment on it. "Wait, I can read your handwriting."

Yeah, the difference in pressure required is a huge part of it! I feel that a lot with gel pens. I also really love the clear, legible lines.

Interesting about your moving on to a fountain pen. Now I feel inspired to look up that local pen expert and go do some more experimenting!

I got so used to fountain pens that ordinary ball pens feel like writing on sand to me. Interestingly, I like my cheapo Pelikan fountain pen better than the Parkers

Same here. My path went crappy pens -> Pilot G2 -> 0.38mm Pilot G2 mini, imported via Amazon -> fountain pens -> completely obsessed with vintage writing instruments.

Sitting in a hammock beside the river, hacking on a Pyramid app, I have four fountain pens on my person - a Kaweco Lilliput, a Pilot Stargazer, a Pilot Falcon, and a Pilot Vanishing Point.

Fountain pens make the experience much different for me, and I actively dislike using someone else's pen now.

My favorites for note taking have been felt tip pens, after that Pilot gel pens. When i had very little money I’d still try to get some papermate felt tips, though i like staedtlers just for the better grip.

Back in 1994 I went to Kenya with my family as a child. One of the items that my father had been suggested to bring en masse in our bags was disposable pens. We took tons of them. As it turns out, they were an incredible haggling tool.

I still have on my shelf at home a soapstone carved lion that I got for 3 bic pens. That interaction of supply and demand has stuck with me.

> 1949. The year that the retractable pen was first introduced.

That's not precisely true.

There were many retractible fountain pens, modern refinements of which are still sold today. The Boston Safety Pen, for instance, requires the user to retract the nib into the body before it may be capped. It was made from about 1904 to 1917: http://www.vintagepens.com/safety_pens.shtml

It might have been the first capless retractable pen, though. I can't think of anything that came before it that didn't also have a cap.

The article mentions "promotional" pens, pens with logos on them. One of the things I never understood about promotional pens is how they're almost always really junky pens. So they go in the garbage.

If it was a nice pen, I'd use it for awhile, and perhaps it would eventually move on to someone else. I'd think that if you were spending X dollars on promotional items, it would be worth spending 2 or 3*X dollars for items that lasted longer and also made a more favorable impression.

The disposable ballpoint pens that hotel chains typically provide (along with a small notepad, next to the telephone in your room) are a bit different than the sort that are available in office-supply stores. I prefer the hotel ones, as they feel better in your hand (due to the nicer texture of the plastic, I think). The one I happen to have in my pocket at the moment is from Marriott; looking in my laptop case, there's one from Hampton Inns, and another from the Chambers Hotel (which isn't even a chain). They are all more translucent than the Bics I have lying around, and the branding is ink-only, with no embossing (unlike the Bics, which also help hand-feel). I've been casually looking to buy this sort of ballpoint for years, rather than having to pilfer them piecemeal, but haven't found them anywhere (brick-and-morter / on-line, low-end / high-end, and even various suppliers of branded promotional tchotchkes that are given out at trade shows). Anybody out there know what the story is on this? Who actually makes them, and why won't they sell me any?

If I were you, I'd try to ask someone at Canary or another swag producer to see if they can find a source for them as part of a larger order. Or see if there's a swag coordinator at the company where you work who has a relationship with a supplier who can get them from all the manufacturers. You can usually get a really wide range of obscure makes and models that way.

These are normally sold by shady telemarketing companies located in San Diego. :)

Seriously. They really are. They're something like 1,000 for $189 or so ...

If you jawbone them, they will come down in price like 3 or 4 times. Of course, you will have to talk to some of the slimiest salespeople for 15-20 minutes...

Check the office-supply stores like Office Depot / Staples. Show them one of those pens - they generally have something like those, in a 10 or 20 pack.

Interesting history!

As a left-hander fountain pens are more trouble and mess than they are worth. My handwriting sucks anyway.

My current favorite ballpoint is the Zebra F-701. I've replaced the ink several times and the pen is still as good as new. It has a nice solid feed and the knurled barrel is also good for small desktop sanding and grinding tasks :-).

I do my best to possess exactly one pen at a time, and do not have any spares laying around. This forces me to take care not to lose my trusty F-701.

> As a left-hander fountain pens are more trouble and mess than they are worth. My handwriting sucks anyway.

They don't have to be! Try turning your paper 90 degrees and writing top-to-bottom instead of left to right. It takes some getting used to but it basically eliminates smudging of any kind.

In addition to that there are "left handed" inks for fountain pens that dry crazy crazy quick.

> In addition to that there are "left handed" inks for fountain pens that dry crazy crazy quick.

How's the feel with the quick-drying fountain pen inks? In the ballpoint arena, they just seem less enjoyable to write with -- just my opinion, though.

> My current favorite ballpoint is the Zebra F-701

Another lefty here. I like the general look of the F-701 but the plastic click mechanism bothered me. I replaced it with the click mechanism from an F-402. I also used the F-402's clip because it's plain metal without any branding. It seems to be a fairly popular mod: there are even guides online [1].

I'm not the biggest fan of the ink, though. It's not terrible, but I much prefer Uni-Ball JetStream ink. I used SXR-7 refills but had to mod each one.

I really wish I could find a nice understated pen body that takes JetStream refills. The Ti Arto is the closest thing I've found, but I'm not totally in love with how it looks and I'd like to be for >$50.

I switched back to just using Uni-Ball JetStream 101s because I write a lot and it was a hassle to mod each refill. They don't feel as nice as the 701 and they certainly look a bit cheap. On the upside, I don't worry about losing them, though.

[1] https://clickypost.com/blog/2015/2/1/how-to-hack-the-zebra-f...

Mechanical pencils haven't been mentioned. They follow a similar history. The Sharp electronics company was founded to make pencils in 1915. Their Ever-Sharp pencil was a big success.

When I did business with them a number of years ago they gave me (and probably every other visitor) a replica of the original pencil.

>Most pens get thrown out or forgotten about long before they’re anywhere near their expiration date.

Has anyone ever actually run a pen out of ink before losing it? I came close (like ~3/4" of ink left) a few times in college but those pens are probably lost in a desk drawer somewhere.

All the time when I worked as an illustrator. :D

Today I carry a little Muji pen [0] that writes well but has a teeny cartridge I replace every few months. I can think of maybe two times I've used up a proper Bic. They usually dry out or get lost before they run out.

[0] https://www.muji.us/store/wooden-hexagonal-ball-point-pen-0-...

Usually the point ends up failing before running out of ink. I've run a few down to the 15-20% mark but by then they're typically very old and the rollerball stops working.

All the time. I 'lose' my pens all the time, but I only buy the same kind of pen and I buy them in large quantities. So when I "lose" them I'm really just moving them to another place where I spend time. Next time I'm there I 'find' that pen. Eventually some of them do run out of ink, although they've been moved from office to bedroom to car to work to bag and back many times. I have probably 100 or so of these pens saturating my environment.

I mercilessly throw away pens that show up in my workspace but aren't my type of pens. This seems wasteful but I hate random pens of varying quality. You seem to never unexpectedly find high-quality pens. I buy high-quality but ultimately disposable pens that end up costing about $2/ea so if one is ever accidentally stolen it's not a huge deal, plus I can recognize my pens from afar so I just casually grab them back from coworkers.

I buy Pilot Precise v5 pens, and hoard them jealously. If someone wants to borrow a pen, they can have the shitty one I picked up from a bank.

Those are about $1/ea, which is annoying if you're losing them to 'theft' them all the time, but if you end up losing only a few a month and occasionally get them back when you see them on coworkers' desk and ask "hey is that my pen" then it may not be worth the anxiety of hoarding or burden of stocking a pile of shitty loaner-pens.

For all of the numerous faults of my employer, the fact that our office manager only buys the nice Pilot G7 pens in massive bulk makes up for more than I would ever admit to them.

It amazing because no one tries to borrow your good pen because all pens are good pens in our office!

Word to this. It's amazing how much something small like spending an extra $1 on something you use all the time can do to improve the perception of quality and care. I felt so much better about my working-environment once I got rid of cheap tools I didn't like to use and upgraded to things that cost 10% more but are 100% more enjoyable to use.

The V5 and G7s are nice; I have also been pleasantly surprised by the Pentel BL77 rollerball pens we’ve had in the office lately; dirt cheap (otherwise, sigh, we wouldn’t have had them), writes well, long-lasting and even refillable. Comes in loads of different colours.

I mostly bring my own pens to the office, though - my grandfather gave me a Lamy fountain pen when I was a kid, figuring it would learn me to write properly. I’ve been a fountain pen addict ever since.

Yes, it happens often enough. I eventually switched to fountain pens which I could refill from a bottle. I buy a new bottle every couple years and buy a new pen about as often. I also got a few refillable markers.

I don't think I write a lot, especially. I guess I just don't lose pens very often.

Often! I journal daily and use a G2 0.38mm that's kept with it at all times. I'll go through two or three journals a year and three or four of the G2s. Once you get in the habit of keeping the pen clipped to the cover when it's not in use, losing one is quite rare.

I've not lost a pen in five years. The closest I've come is leaving one in a restroom stall at work when I was in a hurry to catch a flight, and I called a coworker to retrieve it for me when I realized that I'd left it behind. It was a Pilot Vanishing Point.

Mitch Hedberg was right - buy an expensive pen, and you won't lose it and not care. That VP was $180 new, so it wasn't as odd of a reaction as it might sound at first.

I lose and then find pens, and when I find them, they seem to be out of ink. Or just dried up, I dunno.

Buying decent pens with your own money will in fact get you to keep them safe until they run out of ink. I probably end up running out of ink and trashing a pen more often than I lose it.

I recently got back to fountain pens. It's been 20 years! If you're looking at really good but affordable ones, start with the Chinese Jinhao brand -

992 - plastic body and very light, decent nibs and easy to write.

The X450 and X750 are metal bodied and have good nibs.

You can then upgrade to Pilots and Lamys.

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