Elephant Pen

Recently, due to the gracious kindness of others, we received a monetary wedding anniversary gift which we turned into a nice digital camera! While I am still getting the hang of taking quality pics with it I gots real antsy 'bout bloggin', see? So I decided to try a little whimsy and take some test shots of my Elephant Pen and due a little write up about it. So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, may I present yo you, the Elephant Pen!

A few years ago, while at a local Arts and Craft Fair, my lovely wife and I were looking around at all the great arts and craft stuff when we came upon a booth where the man running said booth made things out of, all things, plumbers putty. This was a self hardening gray putty that he used by adding paint to to it to color it. He also added depth to some objects, like the elephant's face, by painting the surface of the putty once dry. As you can see in the close up of the elephant's face the artist did not sand down the putty once hardened. All more the charm. The eyes of the elephant are google eyes, the kind sold in craft stores. Sort of gives the fellow a certain charm about him, don't you think?

The artist, a local man, used, as most polymer clay artists due, a standard Bic round stick pen as the basis for the pen. You can see the brand name Bic right on the tip of the pen. It's a good thing
that he did because the original refill died of old age and lack of use some time ago! So let that be a lesson to you of the younger generation. Use it or lose it! I think the original ink color was blue, but the Ole Elephant writes black now! Anyway he covered the plastic barrel in putty, sort of a tanish woodish-looking color, and shaped it over the pen body, which he also failed to sand down. Maybe he was short on sand paper having spent all his money on plumber's putty and all those pretty colors of paint!

There is a lanyard loop on the back end of the pen. That's it there in bright yellow. Just above the violet bead thingy that's just above the bright hot pint coil thingy. Anyway I tried to wear it as a necklace at one time but people kept staring at me so I stopped. It doesn't do ones fragile ego any good to have people gawk at you. So I ask my lovely wife to stop! Thankfully she did. For whatever reason, some artistic thing I guess, the artist put a tiny green stone in a bed of bright blue putty right in the middle of the pen! That's it down below. Pretty, huh? I have no idea what the stone is, so don't ask.

As you can also see by the lanyard hole, that the artist wasn't too careful with the paint from the colored putty. Also I think that he must have been using his finger print ridge detail as some sort of texture tool, judging by the lovely texture on the blue mound holding the green stone! What do you think?

One of the nicest pieces on the pen is the leaf. A banana leaf, perhaps? Who knows, seeing the whimsy of the artist it could be a banana leaf! Anyway, there it is over there on the right, sort of added as an after though kinda thing. OK, OK! I had a better shot of it but I cropped it out of the pic and didn't save it! Whadda 'cpect? It's a new thing for me to be shooting and editing my own pics! I'm used to using pics from JetPens! Give me a break will ya?... What's that?... You're not complaining?!... Eh, yea! As I was saying, nice leaf, huh?

How does it write? It's a Bic for cryin' out loud! It writes like a Bic! Ya wanna know what a Bic writes like then spend a buck at WalMart for a dozen and find out for yourself! Do I have to do everything for ya?

Well I hope that you have enjoyed my little whimsy! The pics look better on the blog than they did during editing! So maybe I'm a little better at taking pics than I thought, hey? And as a final note, despite my criticism of the artists technique, The Elephant pen really is a gem and it was the only thing the man had that I could afford!

Frakenpen: Pentel EnerGel/uni-ball 207 Micro Refill

If you are looking for a review of the Pentel EnerGel Liquid Gel Pen then you should look somewhere else. This "review" is of the Pentel Energel body and the Mitsubishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill. This type of set up is commonly called a "Frakenpen".

While reading the JetPens Forum I ran across a write up about the Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT and was intrigued. So I went to Staples looking for one, just to have a look. Well I saw one but didn't buy it. I was still intrigued though, wondering just how heavy the pen was. But I didn't want to spend the money on a pen that I might not like and one that I knew that I was going to replace the refill in straight away anyway. Still intrigued I went to the check out with my purchase (see my post "Staedtler Liquid point 7") and there at the counter was a display of pens on sale, with, to my surprise, a plastic Energel Liquid Gel Pen on sale for a buck! How convenient for me! Needless to say, I bought one.

Once I got my prize home I did just what I knew I was going to do. The JetPens post had read that the EnerGel would take a Mitsubishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill so that's exactly what I put into it. It fit like it was made for it. So now I have another, yet non Mitsubishi, container for my beloved Signo 207 Micro refills. So why write up a "Frakenpen"...? Because I'm it's creator, Ha! Ha! Ha!... Eh, I mean, because someone might find it interesting.

The pen body is attractive being chrome, silver, black and black rubber. I think that the only metal on the pen is part of the pocket clip, the rest of the pen I believe is plastic. A common combination nowadays. The pen is 147.6mm long retracted and 11.1mm in diameter. The body is pretty much a straight line with a little flair on the rubber grip at the point where it joins the chromed tip. The screw joint is at the point where the grip and upper body meet. Once apart the grip slips off the back end of the chromed barrel. The push button is lightly sprung so it is always at the upper most position. When clicked the distinct sound of the spring in the push button can be heard compressing and uncompressing.

The Pen is very light, just how light I don't know as I don't have a gram scale and it's too darn late to scurry off to the Post Office to try and use their scale. Just take my word for it, it's light. But what should one expect from a plastic pen? Actually the pen is top heavy, I guess because of the metal pocket clip. But the rubber grip is more than adequate to hold the pen comfortably being a thin non-squishy rubber sleeve over a hard surface. This is the kind of rubber grip that I really like. Those clear, squishy silicone grips are just wrong on so many levels. There is also enough of the grip to allow for either a low or high hold. The pen is easy to control, partially because of the well designed grip.

The Signo 207 Micro refill speaks for it self (not really, because if it could I'd be on a TV talk show making millions!). It has received many write ups on as many blogs and forums so I won't write up anything about it here... Yes I will. I like the Signo 207 Micro refill very much, so much that I've put it into several other pen bodies. Up until now they have all been other Mitsubishi's even though the refill will fit a lot of other pen bodies by other pen makers. But this is not why I like the refill. I like it because it writes smoothly and smaller than the advertised 0.5mm ball size. The manufacturer claims it produces a 0.3mm line but I find it to be closer to a 0.4mm line. And that's just fine by me. It's also a pigmented ink, not a dye ink. This makes it truly waterproof. It is also claimed to be fade proof and acid free. All desirable qualities in a writing pen ink.

So what do I end up with? I end up with an inexpensive, very comfortable, well writing gel pen that if treated right will give me years of writing pleasure. It also gives me the information that I wanted to know: I would enjoy having a Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT, with a Mitsbishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill. And it only cost me a buck.