by Mike Shea on 18 January 2004
For every obsession there's a blog. At least that is how one person refers to Moleskinerie, a blog dedicated to the strange lives of people in love with little faux-leather bound black pocket notebooks. Perhaps the site's author could see the gleam in my greedy eyes when I hold such a notebook in my slightly sweaty hands because he made me a guest author of the site. My first posting, The Moleskine Obsession, can be read on the site.
Thousands of you have emailed me, at least in my mind, about an update on pens. I've picked up close to a dozen fancy pens over the last six months or so but I wish I had only picked up perhaps four. My current favorite is a Rotring Core rollerball and pencil set which runs $20 for the set when purchased at Paradise Pen Company. It looks like something that fell off of Darth Vader but it feels great and writes beautifully. They are a little big for a shirt pocket, however, so I mainly use them at home.
My carry around pens are a Rotring 600 Rollerball and matching pencil. They are not much bigger than normal pens but are made of solid brass. They are very sturdy and write nicely but are a tad expensive. I may have preferred a Rotring Freeway rollerball instead and it runs about $40 less.
Another great $30 pen is the Waterman Phileas rollerball. It's plastic but looks classy. Its not too heavy but is a good size for people who like thicker pens. I prefer Rotrings for their excellent engineering and quality but for $30 the Waterman isn't bad at all.
All of my favorite pens above can use the Pilot G2 archival ink refills.
My next couple of purchases may be a Rotring Freeway rollerball and a Faber-Castell E-Motion 1.4mm pencil. I really don't need them with all of the other fancy pens I have, but they both look nice.
There are a couple of pens I wish I hadn't purchased. The original Sensa Stylist I bought ran $50 and broke when I tried to put the wrong kind of ink in it. I picked up a Sheaffer rollerball at an airport that isn't too bad but isn't as good as the Rotring or Waterman's. I have a Lamy fountain pen that I don't exactly wish I hadn't purchased, but I don't use it very often. I am sure as the days roll on I will probably buy another pen or two that I really don't need. Still, it's cheaper than golf.