26 Excellent Everyday Pens - Best 5 

This review was so in-depth and beautifully curated. From one pen snob to another, thank you.

Why am I so obsessed with pens??

My favorites are Uni-ball Signo 307 and TUL needle point medium. Both really smooth, comfortable and never skip!

Great review! I really admire your style and how you describe pens as tools for creation!

Great selection of pens, here are a few brands that I think are also worth considering: - Stilform - Namisu - Rotring - Zebra - Faber Castell - Bastion - Cross - Waterman - Machine Era - The James Brand Going more expensive (but absolutely worth the money IMO): - Tactile Turn - Smooth Precision Pens (formerly Urban Survival Gear) - Bigidesign - Nottingham Tactical - Fellhoelter - Wingback - Billetspin

Chase, One of my favorites is the Uniball Signo 207. Beautiful writing instrument. Nice to hold. It is disposable but it is lovely to use.

This was exactly what I was looking for. Nice job!

Oh goodness. I just watched your 30+ minute notebook video and now here I am watching you deep dive into pens. My credit card is going to start crying in a couple of minutes…

great list . love the recommendations. Two of my favs are the Pentel Energel 0.7 RTX and the Zebra Sarasa 0.7 and Gelly Roll for art journaling or artwork.

Im a airline pilot an when a fill my flight plan, I love to do it with a Sarasa from Zebra, the smoothness is something special for my writing. Thanks for the great review Chase kudos for you !!

Great video! Btw, the Lamy Safari is the standard pen German schoolchildren use (at least it was when I went to school). That's also what it's built for: it's a workhorse first and a fine writing tool second.

I recently got my first "expensive" pen and pencil from Tactile Turn. Something satisfying about using a writing utensil with some weight. I have enjoyed using them and now I just need to get over the anxiety of losing them. Bellroy Pencil Pouch FTW to keep them safe :)

Love how you're watching a video about pens or bags or whatever and then toward the end Chase drops some life wisdom, just cuz.

I always carry an Parket Jotter XL monochrome with black gel ink and a parker Mechanical Pencil. So happy with this setup

My favorite pen so far is the Staples Retractable ballpoint pen. Nice grip, ink isn't too wet or too dry and easy to grip.

What has my life come to lmao😂😂

I wad pleasantly surprised when I saw this upload. Your recent videos have some of your pens laid out on the table and I've been curious about your collection

Fun story behind the brand Caran D'Ache - in Turkish, pencil (functionally, not literally) is kara tash. In Russian, karandash. A French cartoonist took that and came up with Caran D'Ache as his moniker, and the brand was named after him in 1924.

Loved this video! I seriously forwarded this video to friends I know who would appreciate it. Why have we not thought to look into this sooner?

Always been a fan of Parker jotter, can’t beat that classic feel/look

Great video! Love to geek out with pen reviews 🤣 Can you please tell me what the notebook you are using is? Love how it lays flat and is dotted.

I picked up a few TiBolts by Fellhoelter. They are my favorite pens, I love the bolt action. Definitely something to pass down at some point. Great video.

Great review. You would love the Lamy Safary Rollerball. Same chunkyness as the fountain pen but with a smooth, reliable easyflow (similar to the Retro 51) pen refill.

A long time fountain pen user here, I enjoyed your video. The Lamy Safari is the Tonka truck of the fountain pen world. You really have to purposely want to break it to actually break it. I have several. The Studio was actually too heavy for me to use. A nice compromise between the two is the Lamy Al Star. It’s in the shape of the Safari but the barrel and cap are made of aluminum and the grip (section) is smoked transparent plastic to let you see your ink.

Hey chase, great video! I have used lamy safari all through university and i can assure you that it is reliable. Replacement nibs are cheap (at least here in Italy) even if I have never had to use them and you can also use an insert to suck the ink from a bottle so as not to use the plastic cartridges and have less waste. This way you can choose the ink you want and a world opens up for you. But i agree you need more space to writhe with it

I'm so picky with pens. I can't wait to watch this entire review. Thanks so much for making it.

I love the U Brands Monterey ballpoint pen--cheap but a great feel, smooth, and refillable. For extra cheap, the Bic Clic Stick and Skilcraft government-issue pen are AMAZING options.

Try Schnider One Hybrid C. Great disposable rollerball. I am left handed and it dries quickly. The best rollerball I have ever used.

My everyday work horse pen that exceeds my expectations in comfort and writing smoothness is the Pentel Energel liquid gel ink in 0.7 (medium) and 0.5 (fine). My next favorite go to pen is the Uni Ball Vision Elite capped pen. smooth, comfortable and ink flow is amazing. 0.7 (medium) The gold standard of pens (which I'm surprised didn't even make your list) is the Pilot G-2 click pen. 0.7 (medium). It's not my preferred pen due to how large my hands are but it's quality is undeniably great. Great video. thanks for all the pens you did review. may have to check out one or two of them.

Some objects that we might use daily are worth a little effort to find the style and comfort that you enjoy using. Keyboard, mouse, pocket knife (scissors, opening boxes etc), watch or clock and both pen and pencil. With pens (ball point) it is all down to the refills - I use Schmidt P900 G2 (Parker style) for colour choice, thickness and not blotting. I use vintage Parker ball pens (Jotter) and Inoxcrom (that don't even show up on eBay). that I was given. I carry a Fisher Space Pen (bullet) in my sling/backpack but the refills bloats - least in black, red, green and purple a lot. I have a Rotring click action technical drawing pencil and OHTO Super Promecha Pencil PM-1500P because the pencil tip completely retracts.

I'm currently a big fan of the TRU RED ballpoints. Super simple. What do you think of those sun glasses? They advertise constantly to me but can't justify the price.

Sweet video. Love pens. That was a Baron Fig Squire.

Don’t know if you would read this but get a Lamy roller pen, just like the safari but a roller. Same body, same texture, same clip, lots of colors and one of the greatest writing experiences out there for sure. The default refills write soooo smooth and so well. Also the ink dries instantly so that’s a plus

My favorite is still Parker Jotter, still using that since 2019

Yur hats is fire 🔥 links ? Or where you got it from ???

the safari have a roller version, with just a spring you can put g2 gel refills in it. the kaweko can use parker refills.

Rollerballs came out after ballpoint biros but before gel pens. They run on wet, water based, ink; like a fountain pen. My favourite is the Uni-ball Eye 'Ocean Care' 0.5 and 0.7mm. My favourite gel pen is the Pentel Energel range. Pentel Energel X is a great, affordable, retractable with rubberised grip. So great I've ordered some Energel Pure so I can just give them away to people I know, too.

I cant get enough of the Pilot G2. Writes really well, comfy for long time use and you can find them every where. Also the Zebra G301 is a smooth operator as well. Just a little too thin for long use.

You need to identify different tip sizes of the same pen. 0.28, 0.38, 0.5, 0.7mm and 1.0mm are some of the tip sizes (ball diameters) in ballpoint, gel and liquid roller ball pens.

Nice, love the round-up videos, and real pens are completely underappreciated these days. Those glasses are still cracking me up. This is the first time I noticed that the frames were camo. Kinda has that "I'm going to the shooting range later" look and further makes me wonder how (to my knowledge) you've not owned a van yet.

I found this enlightening . I prefer the funky flow of fountain pens to be my go to pen. but if I had a choice the pilot G2 pen in .07 would be my favorite cheep pen. Right now I have a solid brass with a piston trigger that is super cool! oh and I have both of those fountain pens its delightful. The graphite Lamy safari is not inked up right now, I like to rotate my pens for day to day adventures

Notebooks? Pens? you are speaking my language! I journal with the Sharpie Pen , but it’s in an Archer and Olive dot grid journal with 160 gsm paper so there is no bleed through. My everyday pen at work is the Pilot B2P fine point in black. It’s dependable, smooth, has a click and a clip and I can buy them by the box. I’ll definitely be checking out your favorites, though.

The Zebra Sarasa comes in finer points that aren't so "gooey". The 0.3 is my personal favorite for journal writing. And Micron has thicker ones. Copic is another favorite of mine, very similar to Micron, but aluminum chassis and somewhat modular. Pilot's G2 and Frixion lines are also fantastic. Frixion is another erasable, and I highly recommend for school work. Been using these for mechanical design work for the last 3 years. I keep a Sarasa and a few colors of Frixion in my bag at all times. And Zebra Delguard are the best mechanical pencils by far.

The MUJI erasable is my absolute fav., but I use it for drawing and not for writing. As a matter of fact, one MUJI worker told me that they were changing the model so I bought a lot of cartridges, like 15-20, so I'm good for some more years

Chase is back, nice.

Paper Mate's Write Bros has become one of my personal favorites. Among one of the smoothest ballpoints I've come across.

I'm a fan of .5mm or .38mm. Been using pilot signo and juice up pens forwver. I recently bought tombow mono graph, real smooth.

I use precise v5 all the time. It's my favorite pen, hands down. I get a box of all purple pens. The only drawback is that they run out of ink very quickly. But it's worth it to me. I don't like the retractable version because the tip is different. If you want a super smooth writing experience, go with this pen.

I'd like to plug Big Idea Design - I have their Pocket Pro, and I'm about to get a Bolt Action for my desk. The pens are well made, and they can accept basically any refill on the planet (they have a list of over 100). Note: the Caran d'ache Chase mentions is not one of them. I bought one, however, and it works...you just have to push the tip back in when you retract it due to the thickness of the refill. Note 2: My favorite refill (not mentioned here) is the UMR-83 from Uniball Signo line. The disposable pens are the Signo RT - it's a nice .38mm line (damn fine), but the flow is great. No stuttering at all.

Can you please update this review with this pen "Pilot synergy frixion" review? or a separate review on ultra fine point pens 0.5mm or 0.3mm

Could you do a video on Multifunction Pens.. I think I like having only one pen in my purse takes up less space, lol. I recently had the Skilcraft- B3 Aviator Multifunction pen, but I found it to be too small and heavy when writing. New to the pen world, lol!! I love this video!!!

Ink types - quick overview: Ballpoint: oil-based ink, comes in the old school thick and skippy/gloppy variety and the newer low-viscosity ballpoint inks (Uni Jetstream, Pilot Acro, etc.), which really nice to write with. At some point Parker started using low-viscosity ballpoint ink in their refills, and they're like a whole different writing experience now vs. what I remember as a kid. Also, the Caran d'Ache (pronounced like "karen dash") refill has a low-viscosity ink in it as well. Gel: water-based ink but still thick. Very smooth, tends to come in a wider range of tip sizes. My favorite is the Pilot Juice Up - it has a semi-conical tip that comes to a needle-ish point, and the ink is glorious. The Juice Up refills are the same size and shape as the Pilot G2 refills (which is different from the Parker G2 refill - IDK whyyyyy they both call it "G2") FYI - the Zebra Sarasa is a gel ink pen. Rollerball: water-based, liquid ink, very much like fountain pen ink but less prone to feathering and bleeding. (In fact, you can buy a rollerball pen body that comes with a converter you can fill from a bottle, which means you have virtually limitless ink possibilities.) Fountain Pen: water-based, liquid ink. Comes in cartridges or bottles; there's a wide range of different filling systems for using bottled ink - converter, piston-fill, vac-fill, and eyedropper fill (you literally fill the body of the pen with an eyedropper). There are even more varieties of filling systems when you get into vintage fountain pens - that's a huge rabbit hole. IMO fountain pens offer the best writing experience of all, though it's not great for every situation. You need better paper for most fountain pen inks. If you have tried a fountain pen and hated it, it's probably because you used it on paper that's fountain pen unfriendly - the ink will feather and bleed and the nib might also grab fibers from the paper surface. FP ink also takes more time to dry, and sometimes you will get ink on your hands. In my experience it's totally worth it, but YMMV. Markers / Fineliners / etc: I don't know very much about these because I don't enjoy using them. I think the main distinction is between dye-based alcohol inks and pigment-based non-alcohol inks, but don't quote me.

I have tried a lot of pens, and I do mean a lot. All varying in price range, ink type, brand, fountain, rollerball, ballpoint, etc. and for some reason I continue you to go back to the pilot precise v5. Just writes so smooth, ink lasts for ever, and pretty cost efficient.

I’m looking for a really good pen for auto mechanic got any ideas

Sharpie S-gel pen 0.38. No smear. It’s amazing.

The Retro 51 was my entry to this market as well and I have gone a little crazy. I have all colors of the Everyman pens, and am now fixated on bolt action pens. The all have to accept the Space Pen inserts as that is my ink of choice currently.

Love that you are doing pens please do notebooks too in future that would be great too!!!

I would say cooed pens are great for bags, but clickers are usually ordered for students (faster, especially if you like to switch colors)

not really a fan of girthy pens but some are just exceptional, i prefer the feel of a standard slim Pilot though especially because i have a very pressured strong firm grip when i write

I see that your group of "cheap rollerballs" are actually mostly gel pens, rather than liquid ink. Those are my personal favorite. The Sarasa you showed is the 1.0 which is the very bold point, that's why it's so gooey. The .5 or .7 are more normal size points, and they are GREAT.

I use lamy safary fountain pen for daily use at work. Its great. You just need the confidence, then its epic. And also interesting for peoples arround...

Zebra Sarasa is what I use when I’m not using my fountain pens- I have a Lamy Al-Star ^^ Zebra makes such good pens and products in general.

I'm a pen freak so this video was a good time. Thanks !

Pental energel 75,my favorite pen, smooth writing, fast dry, great writing experience for fast writers

A Parker Jotter with a Schmidt Easy Flow 9000 ink cartridge. Smooth, easy to write with and classy. Color combinations and a brushed steel look is good anytime.

I see you decided to lump rollerballs, which have wet, water based, ink like a fountain pen and came out before gel pens, in with actual gel pens and categorise them both as rollerballs. My favourite rollerball, so far, is the Uni-ball Eye (the 'Ocean Care' line, in particular) and my favourite gel pens are the Pentel Energels. So far I've only tried the Energel X, which is a great cheapie, all plastic, with rubberised grip. It was so good I've ordered Energel 'Pure' which is a bit nicer and more premium with plastic and metal parts and a metal nose cone and gave the Energel X to my mom to let her see how amazing they write. When the Pures come, I'll offer my mom a swap back, just so I have both models. Got a new Pilot 'Juice Up' and a Zebra G-301 coming, too.

26:40 oddly enough I am trying to find the perfect pen to go with my fancy lyric book and I actually needed to hear this.

Loved the video 😊 Nice breakdown but .... Funny how we disagree on everything. 😆 1. Haaate ball point. liquid ink not practical for me. Love gel. 2. Prefer retractable especially on the move. I'm more likely to loose a pen cover than to accidentally click my pen. 3. Never clip my pen on my bookcover (I use a pen loop or ring of a spiral book ). 4. I find fat pens really uncomfortable. Most multipens are too fat for me. Also you didn't seem to consider many of those pens are available in different nib sizes which can affect how scratchy it feels. My cheap workhorse is the pilot G2 0.5.

Lamy also make some awesome rollerballs and ballpoints. They have a great clip and the same thick barrel.

The Caran d'Ache refill should fit into a Ballograf Epoca P

My go to pens can be put into two categories, disposable and refillable... my disposable category i like the Pilot G2 05 and the Uniball Vision. Refillable I use the Parker Jotter, Fisher cap-o-matic, bullet, and original space pen all with the Fisher PR4F fine boack refills. I do want to try a Cross Townsend and or Century II roller pens but the color optiona I want of those Cross pens are a bit spendy for me. I have been told I am very utilitarian when it comes to my choice of pens.

Papermate Inkjoy is one of my favorite rollerballs, the only thing i dislike about this pen is the poor quality on the clip. very easy to break off

Can you link your glasses?

I've been a long time Zebra fan, for both pencils and pens. I'm never without a supply of the Zebra Z-grips and some 301 pencils.

My favourite is the uniball vision elite .8 in black

Might I recommend the TWSBI Eco. It’s a bigger fountain pen, but my favorite pen to write with, sketch with, EVER.

Pilot Precise V7 needs to be on your list.

nice work

Try inks from Noodler and J.Herbin. The Noodler Black is waterproof and J. Herbin has the coolest colors... like ox blood

Lamy nibs are very very sturdy. Have owned them for 20+ years and never had anything happen to the nib. Another cheap cheap fountain pen alternative: Pilot Varsity.

TUL is my go to for cheap pens.

Uniball Vision Elite has been my choice for decades and never disappoints. I cannot use click pens because they all eventually leak, in my experience.

Yes, the Schneider Viscoglide is a good hybrid ink.

For Lefties or Gel-Pen fans I can reccomend the Stabilo "Fatty" pointVisco, the Gel brother to the pointBall

This proves I'm old. Had a pen once and can't remember it (clear generic pen with chinese/Japanese writing on the label) that someone at work ordered and it was the best writing pen I've ever had. Now I'm here looking at pen videos.

When it comes to fountain pens I prefer to use them as a desk rather than a pocket pen. Sitting down in a comfortable but not too comfortable chair with a nice sheet of paper or a premium notebook in front of me on a clean writing space and time to reflect is one of life’s guilty pleasures. It’s also where I prefer to focus and do my writing whenever possible. :-)

Did you ever look into fisher space pen, those are quite popular pens.

Thank you

That mark one looks like itll revitalize my want to write

I’ve sworn by my zebras for years. A perfect medium rare amount of gel coming of of the pen to how hard I push. Liking to spice things up though

I wish there was a multipoint pen with an eraser. Kind of defeats the point of having pencil function to me. What pen would you recommend for a mechanic?

I’m surprised you missed the Pilot Razor Point under the fiber tip category. That’s my goto.

No love for Bolt Action pen in Titanium? Like Refyne, BigIdea Design or the amazing Tactile Turn?

“Now, make a choice and move on with your life”. I felt that 🥹

"Got a nice girthy grip size and it responds well to pressure" Yep!

The Kaweco reads, “kamiko” on the show notes. I’d recommend the AL sport, also…

Schneider Viscoglide is the best ballpoint ink. Uni-ball Jetstream comes in second. Faber-Castell Speedx, Paper Mate InkJoy and Pentel iZee are also good. Sharpie and Paper Mate gel pens are fast drying and good. Schneider One Business is for the best signatures. Uni-ball Air and Signo Gelstick are also good. Rotring Tikky Roller Point is among my favourites.

the Pentel Energel 0.5 BLP-75 w/ that black and gold body is something i would daily use if i can

This is so helpful and also feels a bit like a Portlandia skit.

Still need to know where to find this hat!