Pilot G2 .38

We all know the Pilot G2. This clickable gel pen is a go-to pen for (I'm guessing here) hundreds of millions of people. I'd be shocked if there are people in the developed world who haven't used a G2 at some point. I know I've been using them almost as far back as I can remember. The typical G2 is a .7mm pen. That's a pretty average width, and it's suitable for most of your common office and school uses. It's gel ink flows reliably, and it doesn't smear once it's dried. But what if .7mm is too thick? It might just be too wide for people who really want to write precisely or write between the lines when they're grading papers or making notes in margins. "What do I do then?" you might ask.

Well, get your hands on some G2s in the .38 width.

The .38 is about the smallest width that I'm comfortable using. I was initially worried about gel ink working in a pen this fine, but it seems to flow perfectly well from that tiny point.

The pen itself is the same size as the .7mm version, but you can tell them apart by the clear barrel on the .38. Of course, there's also the "0.38" marking on the clip, and the text is in white instead of gold, but when I'm reaching into my pen cup or backpack I like the distinctly clear barrel as a way to tell them apart.

One of the benefits of the .38 is that you won't get the ink blobs that you occasionally get from the larger width gel pens. As you can see in the pic to the left, the lines that I wrote with the .7 have an ink blob every so often, but the line from the .38 doesn't. I'm not sure why, but it probably has to do with the very fine point on the .38. The pictures above (of the pen's tips) show a bit of blue on the tip of the .7, but no ink at all on the tips of the .38 pens. They'd all been used recently, so it's not the case that they were too new.

This lack of a blob in the .38's line might make it a better pen for a lefty. I don't have any leftys handy to ask, but perhaps one of you can let me know.

The only time I wouldn't use one of these is when I was writing carbon copies. I haven't tried it, but I have a feeling that it might have a tenancy to tear through.

These pens don't cost any more than their larger cousins, but they perform a bit better, and they are going to be suitable for most of your needs. Pick some up.




**I've actually just noticed that they also come in 1.0 and .5 sizes. I have quite a few of these G2s and I don't have any in those sizes. **