Foreign-Cookie-2871 t1_jee895s wrote on March 31, 2023 at 11:36 AM

The BIFL pen they gifted me is... useless for me. I appreciate the concept, but it's a ballpoint and I write exclusively in gel / water resistant ink. So a pen is a good thing to gift, but you might need to first know what people use to write with.

Also, the pen they gifted me is a Parker, but it writes worse than most BICs I ever used (from the day they gifted it to me). IDK how they managed this.

zombienudist t1_jefe9ae wrote on March 31, 2023 at 4:43 PM

I was just going to say that in my post. For people that care they likely have what they like. For those that don't they will think an expensive pen is a strange thing to get. There is so much variations in something like that this that anyone that writes a lot will have figured this out. Someone who write a lot will likely have tried different options. SO they have already figured out what they like. Someone with minimal understadning thinks a pen is a pen. They don't understand different ink types or that it is very specific as what I like you won't and vice versa.

That all being said I grabbed a parker jotter with a gel refill in it and it writes really nice. I ended up putting it in my Rotring 600 for a bit to test it out. But again this is where personal preference comes in. My wife didn't like it as she likes a finer pen and I don't. I am a fan of something like the Pentel Energel in feel and thickness and the 0.7mm version of the parker jotter gel feels and looks a lot like that if you have used one.