Stabilo Bionic Worker Roller Ball Pen – 0.3 mm – Black Ink

It is theoretically possible that one day, I will find a rollerball I like as much as I like the Jetstream ballpoint that I’ll go around championing. But today is not that day.

One of these days, maybe I’ll learn to stop trying rollerball pens. We just don’t work well together, me and rollerball pens, but resisting such a brightly colored new arrival proved impossible (thanks to JetPens for providing this sample!).

Good for Halloween, and for public safety cone emergency replacements

I’m all over this design. Bright minimal-industrialist, the curves, the dots—and it looks great next to a Rhodia notebook.

Maybe it’s the sleep deprivation talking, but zoom in on this picture—doesn’t it look like there’s a black bird standing on the S, dropping a dot on the T? Maybe it’s just the sleep deprivation.

It’s got the little touches that are nice to see on an industrial pen, like the unobtrusive little bump there to keep the pen from rolling off when uncapped, metal clip, and a cap that posts and secures nicely. The rubberized body, though it has a mild propensity to gather a few cat hairs, has nice traction (because I assume all industrialized environments more or less involve working in three feet of oil).

Labeling can sometimes be used to great design effect. EXCEPT WHEN IT’S COVERED IN LIES

I know that a European fine is thicker than a Japanese fine, but there is nowhere on this planet where a 0.3mm tip pen should make a line this thick and be called a “fine.” This is not fine. This is very unfine. You should be fined for making something so unrefined, Stabilo.

shhhh the sleep deprivation is talking

Maybe German workers have no need for fine things. Maybe other people like pens that don’t write consistently clean, crisp lines. I don’t know. All I know is I have a cool looking pen here that I’m not particularly drawn to write with.

Fuzzy writing on majority of papers is a pretty constant problem for me and rollerballs though, so don’t blame Stabilo too badly for that.

I might try to see if I can hack the Stabilo ink insert out and put something else in, and if it works I’ll report back. Otherwise, unless you really need something to match a Rhodia Notebook, or you collect all the rollerball pens, or you have better luck than me with these mercurial liquid ink sticks, I’d pass on this pen.

Stabilo Bionic Worker Roller Ball Pen – 0.3 mm – Black Ink at JetPens

Stabilo ‘s Move Easy Left Handed Pen

Ergonomic grips: the fastest way to make your handwriting look as terrible as possible

This pen dates from way back when in 2008, before I’d even heard of JetPens. I was studying abroad in Venice, and discovered the office supply wonders of the nearest Testolini. That’s where I first saw this:

THIS BASTION OF COOLNESS

in multiple colors, but all were right-handed models. I was not confident enough to hazard my own translation to ask “Do you have the left handed model of this pen? Could you order it for me?”, preferring instead to drown my sorrows in wine and to visit Testolini often, in the hopes that the pen fairy would see fit to take pity on my situation.

Things the pen fairy did not do: exist; take pity on my situation.

It wasn’t until over a month later that I finally found the left-handed model I wanted in some office supply shop in Paris.  Was I delighted? I was so delighted, I didn’t even know what language to use to say thank you. Or maybe that wasn’t delight; maybe that was wine…

Strangely not hypermagnetized to attract debris

I can say that even after almost 3 years, this pen still looks pretty good. It has withstood abuse well. It feels great to hold, curves in all the right places. Of course, I apparently grip my pens in the most ergonomically unsound way possible, so holding the pen and writing with it aren’t precisely the same story, but I think that’s more a function of me than the pen.

Another pen cap that makes me think of a squid

My biggest unfounded concern with this pen was the cap. I figured there would be no way this thing would still be with me after any appreciable length of time. But there it is before your very computer screens. I appreciate the consideration Stabilo put into the cap. It pushes on and/or screws on to close, unscrews to open, and snaps firmly onto the end to post. Doesn’t pull off when it’s shut, doesn’t unscrew by itself, and despite my best efforts, cannot be accidentally knocked off the end when posted.

Place for your name, again in this magical fantasy world where all the children have cool pens

And can we just stop for a moment and admire this minimalist design? It may be a child’s pen, but (at least with this color scheme) it’s far from childish.

Mine came with 3 ink refills, and probably more than one nameplate sticker and laminate sticker cover in case I screwed my name up

In spite of my ergonomic-defying gripping tendencies, I still enjoy writing with this pen, even if my handwriting doesn’t look as good because my mastery of the “ideal” pliers grip is on par with a first grader. There is a kind of velvety smoothness to this rollerball—tactile, smooth but not buttery smooth, deliberate but not in a way that feels like I’m getting resistance. It writes well and consistently from almost every angle, except when I attempt a very unnatural-feeling 90-degree perpendicular approach to the page (at that angle, the ink is thinner, lighter, and there is resistance).

Gimmicky? No, gimmexcellent.

The good news: I like this pen. The bad news: one, I don’t think this particular model is sold anymore? It has been slightly redesigned, with an aesthetically-challenged  snub-nosed cap. Two: I have no recollection of how much this pen cost, especially since I bought it in another currency, at a time when I was pretending that the euro and the dollar were equivalent (because otherwise, I wouldn’t have spent any money at all, because I would have thought everything to be far too expensive). Three: I don’t know a good site to link to for you to buy this pen! Here‘s the current iteration of this pen at Stabilo’s website, but if any of you reading this know of / are a site selling this pen, let me know and I’ll add a link!