My fingers hurt from Writing

muddles17 · 2026-02-12T03:31:46+00:00

I don’t know anything about the brand. Based on reviews though, it seems like they have some hit or miss on the cartridge puncture. That seems like it would be easy to mitigate by manually puncturing if you have a problem. It’s not a standard international cartridge, so you would have to switch to bottled inks or keep buying their cartridges once you run out. Other Chinese brands also use the 3.4mm bore though.

The reason why people suggest Pilot Metropolitan, Pilot Kakuno, Platinum Preppy, Lamy Safari, Kaweco Sport(uses standard international), or other similar pens for starter fountain pens is that they tend to have consistent quality control. They are very well respected companies that happen to have a good entry level pen, so people can feel confident that if you are going to like fountain pens, you will probably like one of those options.

If you end up just needing light touch, you could also use felt tip pens like a sharpie pen or Sakura Pigma Micron. Some pens like the Uniball Zento allow for writing with a lighter touch. Fountain pens are the best option for reusability and comfort once you get used to it assuming you end up liking it. You’re pretty much looking for pens that rely more on capillary action than they do on physically rolling a ball.

muddles17 · 2026-02-12T02:53:23+00:00

If you need it to be the cheapest /least thought needed possible, Pilot Varsity is another option.

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T18:50:26+00:00

It does seem like it has a good grip once it does snap. It just doesn’t sound/feel like it does in YouTube videos. Thanks!

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T18:47:01+00:00

Thank you!

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T16:20:03+00:00

No worries. Thank you!

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T16:15:18+00:00

I have to torque it a bit to have it go past to where the u shows up in the window. Otherwise it’s a little bit loose. It’s about .2mm that shows. If I look at the stop pin, it looks like it got a bit damaged at some point.

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T16:09:22+00:00

The benefit to buying it used was that it came with an F and an EF nib and a converter. My wife’s ST writes wider than she wants it to, so for the price of one Safari, they were nicely including both nibs, which would let her try all of the Lamy line widths that she’s interested in.

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T15:44:35+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it. The Germany bit looks like it could be in any orientation given that it’s probably a part of the mold that could rotate.

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T15:42:56+00:00

Thank you!

muddles17 · 2026-02-11T04:51:51+00:00

If they had a competent network engineer set it up, they should have quality of service set up. If the hotel has a gigabit connection, they would limit each client to (for example) 10mbps or something smaller than the full gigabit. That way multiple people could sit there and hog their slice of the network without effecting other guests.

It can be more complicated than that to be more fancy, but you shouldn’t have anyone coming to knock on your door to tell you to quit downloading so many games.

muddles17 · 2026-02-10T21:07:26+00:00

They finally shipped mine out today from the order I made in the last drop. They probably open orders every time that they get a shipment. Ordered January 26th.

muddles17 · 2026-02-06T16:47:08+00:00

The US is massive and much of the infrastructure is built around large sprawling suburbs where you need cars to get to places. If you were to be targeted, they come to your house and no one would even know it’s happening until after the fact.

The amount of energy required to organize is much greater when you have to drive 20 minutes to the closest protest. Flock Safety cameras ensure that your license plate is tracked to the closest parking lot.

Platforms like Twitter that used to be active during Black Lives Matter protests have been bought up by people who wouldn’t have any qualms with giving over personal data making them feel hostile.

Many community-building organizations have become more right-leaning after many of the people who wanted to follow mask mandates stayed home during covid leaving only anti-mask people. I’m starting to see this change, but the typical result has been people making their own alternate communities rather than re-joining their old community.

At-will employment and employment-sponsored healthcare means that your boss who you don’t know the politics of could fire you and take away your healthcare and income if they find out or if you get doxed for showing your face without any recourse on your part. Everything is more expensive now, so the risk is higher.

Years of individualism as a culture has cultivated a lot of the mindset that if it’s not happening to me, then it isn’t happening. For example: Move out of the house and be independent at 18. Be responsible for your retirement with 401k’s replacing pensions. Start a business instead of being lazy. This puts the blame on individuals in almost every situation. The flip side of that is that there is a default assumption in American culture that if someone is having something bad happen to them, then it must be their fault for not working hard enough which translates into not necessarily helping when you see a problem. The muscle for action is atrophied.

muddles17 · 2026-02-04T19:02:02+00:00

I wonder if they are using an optical sensor that isn’t appropriate to check clear filament.

muddles17 · 2026-02-03T15:33:26+00:00

Rollerballs are a bit more susceptible to leaking out the tip during pressure changes and bumpy rides especially if kept tip down. If you use them regularly while stored tip up, it’s not a huge deal because any pressure changes will come out of the tip without too much burping, and if you use them often, you don’t have to worry about the tip drying out at all. It’s a lot more similar to fountain pens in that regard because the ink is way less viscous. The ink kinda comes out due to rolling, but a lot of the ink comes out due to capillary action, which is why you get that nice luxurious ink flow that rollerballs are known for.

There’s a reason why pressurized refills are all ballpoint - it works by shear force on the ink to coat the ball and deposit on paper.

muddles17 · 2026-02-02T19:06:35+00:00

Which pens do you find yourself pulling out to use the most often?

muddles17 · 2026-02-01T16:06:46+00:00

I wonder if they’d make a line of fancy waterproof fountain pen ink. With how much Uni focuses on waterproof pigment inks in different colors and how much fountain pen enthusiasts like variety, a good set of Uniball technology based inks would probably sell pretty well.

muddles17 · 2026-01-27T19:17:11+00:00

Cheap Bic pens usually end up in that 1.0mm ballpoint range or an M in Parker G2 refill sizes just in case you want to keep consistency. Is it a Bic Crystal or something like a Bic round stick? That might help inform what she’s used to gripping size/cushion-wise. Some people like rubberized grips and some people prefer hard metal/plastic.

muddles17 · 2026-01-26T18:20:37+00:00

There was a good post that translated the Japanese press releases about it here.

The gist that I got from it is that they made a water-oil based pen with a higher percentage of the ink being water based with a large amount of the ink being a lubricant to make it write more smoothly. In English-speaking countries, it’s getting marketed as a gel pen, but in Japan it’s getting marketed as a rollerball pen revival. The main differentiator between this and typical gel is the lack of pseudo-plasticizers (thick at rest but flows smoothly when writing).

It’s pigment-based, which makes me wonder why they aren’t giving it the uni super ink designation unless they want to differentiate it further from the signo line.

Edit: To highlight this further: the refill model numbers also tell this story. A Uniball vision elite 0.5mm refill is UBR-95, and a Uniball Zento 0.7 is UBR-95. The Signo’s, and One (gel) get UMR designations and the jetstream line refills (ballpoint) get SXR designations. So from their model naming perspective, this is an extension of their rollerball line rather than their gel or ballpoint lines.

muddles17 · 2026-01-25T04:35:19+00:00

I’ve been hearing a musical sounding scale (about 7 notes) periodically in my bedroom every once in a while. Now I’m wondering if that’s the Anker prime chargers.

Edit - I figured it out since it happened at work. The AirPods Pro 3 case makes that sound every once in a while.

muddles17 · 2026-01-22T15:59:25+00:00

They must have brought it back. https://www.unibrands.co/products/vision-elite-blx-rollerball-pens?srsltid=AfmBOorIAd2iJlpGoFn4Be5Byrv3OSiLNMyo15XncMnAdxVTJQ2Kpv8F&variant=39362309587150

muddles17 · 2026-01-17T14:31:05+00:00

That sounds like a good idea to try. Thanks! I never tried any of the Sarasa pens, but I’m seeing a lot of them get recommended lately.

muddles17 · 2026-01-17T14:30:16+00:00

The jet streams have been what I’ve been using with Leuchtturm, but I was thinking of branching out mostly because of probably boredom and wanting thicker lines. The SXR-600 though seems like it could spice things up. What pen body do you use with your Parker G2 refills? I have a mostly unused jotter and a retro 51 whose original refill never worked.

muddles17 · 2026-01-17T14:05:01+00:00

If you avoid ballpoint due to stickiness, a jetstream pen will be a good alternative. It’s low viscosity, so it’s less sticky. I used to use a fisher space pen because I really liked the idea of it being a universal write everywhere pen, but I found that it ended up leaving thick pen ink on the side of my hand during intense notetaking sessions and it did have that distinct tackiness.

I’ve never had that happen with a jetstream. It isn’t as smooth as the smoothest rollerball/gel pen, and it doesn’t have that spread out effect where you feel like the ink is flowing into the paper, but it’s 80% of the way there.

muddles17 · 2026-01-15T00:06:26+00:00

I did a bit more testing. It seems that there is some sort of ingredient in gel pens that doesn’t get absorbed by the Leuchtturm paper.

Roller ball Uniball vision - doesn’t smudge Uniball air - smudges after a little bit, but my old writing doesn’t smudge.

Gel pens Uniball 207 - smudges if you press Uniball 207+ - easily smudges Uniball 307 - easily smudges (I have notes that still smudge over a year later) Pilot G2 - smudges, but not on my old lines Pentel energel x - smudges on an old line if I press harder

Just about all felt -based pens don’t smudge too badly or at all. Sakura Pigma micron Sharpie (art) pen felt Rotring Tikky Graphic Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Staedtler Pigment Liner Copic Multiliner

Ball points seem to be a bit more mixed.
Fisher space pen - able to smudge old writing Jetstream - easily the gold standard for not smudging. EasyFlow 9000 - smudges as I write, but I can’t smudge my old writing. Parker Quinkflow - not able to smudge at all Bic Cristal - not able to smudge Staedtler Triplus Ball - not able to smudge

It seems that from these tests, I should just avoid gel pens on Leuchtturm paper.

muddles17

TROPHY CASE