The good ol’ gel pen
May 16th, 2010 • general
Well this is a post about something very common, the gel pen. Yesterday, i bought yet another one of them and i should say that my affair with them continues. It all goes back to school, at least in India when i started writing with an “adult” pen it was a messy ink pen, definitely something that would not lend itself to rough handling. Then the discovery of new lands in the form of the ball pen happened, in around 1997 there was a whole range of cool new pen which arrived one of them was the Mitsubishi ball point, one fine pen it was [still is]. I used that consistently for 4 years, after which things became a bit murky !
The last ten years have been the decade of the gel pen in my opinion, it has been something that has become brand independent and possibly helped thousands of kid access writing in some form. It is cheap and still gives the performance of an ink pen within some constraints. Some of the brands that i have used are
- Reynolds
- ADD – No idea what that stands for
- Cello
In very simple terms, there are too many of these brands trying to sell the same stuff. Lets have a look at what problems the gel pen has if any !
- There is a temperature range to its functioning, the stopper which is a liquid of higher viscosity sometimes drains away giving you the complete ink pen experience.
- The ink gets consumed very quickly!
Those are the only problems that i experienced ! What about you …..
About me!
aah.. i think i missed out completely on the gel pen era. When I was in school, it was ink pens and then ballpoint pens.
After many years I ‘wanted’ to write with my hands again. so bought a hero chinese fountain pen. Now carry it around. just rs 40 and works like a charm