2 Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen - 0.4 mm - Tea Brown Review

(Image Courtesy of JetPens.com)

First of all, I just wanted to say that I am addicted to pens. There, I've admitted it. It's a very new addiction for me; one that I don't think will go away as easily as some of my other addictions (like making my own notebooks, which lasted... 2 notebooks.) Pens are used in everyday life and there's nothing comparable to the joy of having a great smooth pen to write your notes with.

Shown above is the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen with a 0.4mm tip in Tea Brown. I never thought that I'd ever like a brown colored pen since it reminds me of less pleasant brown things that you are very likely to step on when walking the streets of NYC. However, I really like this color -  it's somewhat hard to describe, but it's somewhat like tree bark but with a little bit of gray and red mixed in. Viewing in the image on my computer, I can tell that the hint of red doesn't come through, which is a pity because the red gives the ink a very nice warm feeling.

The pen skips a little, but I haven't encountered too much blobbing. For a 0.4mm tip, it's not very scratchy, unlike my Signo DX's (0.38mm), which is really great. I wrote up the review (which I'm not currently following...) on my new (!) Moleskine Large Ruled Notebook and I noticed that if I run my fingers over the ink a couple (5...? actually that's a lot) of lines later, the ink still smudges, meaning that the drying time is pretty high. However, it's not something that you would normally notice though, unless you were actually looking for it. I'm really glad that the ink is so vibrant and yet it doesn't bleed through the page (I've always been hesitant to use pens other than ballpoints since I'm scared to death of seeing bleed-through).

I really like the size and grip of the pen. It feels really solid. One slight problem is that something about the material of the grip attracts dust like crazy. =( It's a little annoying, but doesn't detract much from the joy of writing with the pen. The push clip on the pen is one of the things people seem crazy about, but I don't really get it sine I've never felt the need to clip the pen to anything. It's pretty cool how the clip can be pushed and it seems to have a really tight hold on anything I clip it to.

Along with the writing sample, I've also posted a slide from my Quantitative Physiology II class. I really like taking notes with this pen since my professor likes giving us PDFs with 3 slides per page and lines next to it for us to write in. I really hate that format since the lines are so bold and there's no room to write on the slide themselves. However, since the tip of the Sarasa is so small, it's pretty easy to actually write on the slide. I could have written smaller, but I like to see my notes without the use of a magnifying glass. =)

I'd definitely recommend the Sarasa and I'm looking forward to trying the other colors! I also bought one in Viridian Green that I haven't tried yet. You can get these from $1.50-$2.00 (depending on color and tip) from jetpens.com.

Writing sample

Quantitative Physiology II notes - we're learning about neurons