What I've been using this week! 11-28-2021 Edition

 I didn't keep any good records of the pens I used this week. I know. 

Bad Mike. 

It was a busy week, though. The end of the semester is here and I'm swamped. Add to that the upcoming Inkvent videos and going out of town for a few days next week, and I'm extra swamped. So, I just have a few pens to share with you today. A couple of new pens that came in this week were inked and used, and a couple of others got some use. And I'll talk about one that I just don't like much. 

First up, this new Esterbrook Estie Scarlet. Kenro Industries sent this one out for review this week, and it's a really good looking pen. I've got a few Esties now, and they're great. This one has a broad JoWo nib, and it writes super well. Kenro also sent along a bottle of Scarlet ink for it, and it's a nice color. It's sort of a light red, but not a pink. Sort of a hothouse tomato color. Pretty interesting. 

This is the other pen I got last week. The Schon DSGN Pocket 6 is another pen that I know I like. We have a few of them, and this new 3D style is outstanding. The black sections are slightly raised over the orange ones, and the finish has a bit of a matte texture. I asked Ian about how this was done, and he told me, but I don't think I entirely understood. Magic!

This next one is a Montblanc that I will need to send home soon. It's the Swift writer's edition, and I have the Swift ink in it right now. This ink has just never been my favorite. I don't know why. I love a murky green, but this one has never done it for me. The pen is great, though. I just don't want to change the ink because I hate wasting ink and piston fillers are a little bit of a pain to clean out. 

This is a pen that a viewer sent me a while ago. It's a Kara's Pen Co Ink, and it's pretty nice. I had one of these pens in their first version, and it was okay. It had a tendency to unscrew its cap on its own, and you didn't really want to trust it in a pocket. This one has been good, and there are a few other differences. For one thing, it's an awesome orange color! The real star here is that ink, though. Kiwi Ink's Quetzalcoatl is a dark red that is loaded with sheen and shimmer. It never fails to provide both of those things when you write, and I haven't had a single issue with it yet. It's really great. 

Okay, last one, and I promised you that I would talk about a pen that I don't like. It's this one. The Zebra Z-Grip Flight is a ballpoint that I picked up at Target (I think). I like lots of Zebra pens, and so I'm usually pretty confident in them. These are a really broad ballpoint with a 1.2mm tip, and I figured I'd give them a try. Broad ballpoints are so hit or miss, though. This one skips and streaks and generally behaves badly. And then I wrote on this paper with it, and it worked pretty perfectly. Maybe it just needs the right paper to work well?

Fine. I'll give it another shot. 

So, until next week: Give those pens and inks that you don't love another chance. You never know!