Ah, the Notebooker’s conundrum.  You get a new pen (or pencil) and can’t wait to get to scribbling!  Then the old creeping, fearful questions appear: “Will this work in my notebook?”  “Should I try this on other/ cheaper paper first?”  “How do I know if this is good in the first place?”  “Why can’t I remember what I had for breakfast?”

Well, we can’t help with that last one, but we might be able to offer some insight on the others.

When I get a new writing implement the first place I write is in my current notebook.  There’s a few reasons for this but the main reason is that I want to see how it does in my notebook!  It, obviously, doesn’t help me to start on a legal pad which, usually, has terrible paper.  Since I want to know how it will do on good paper, I try it on good paper.

So, what to write?  I used to write that old familiar sentence about an acrobatic fox and a sedentary dog¹.  While that sentence is great at its intended purpose (testing typewriters) it doesn’t really help me with a pen (or pencil).  Additionally, if I’ve got a lot of new things to test my Notebook begins to resemble a crazy fox obsessed person’s activity log!

The first and most important thing to write is the make and model of your writing implement.  That’s important data.  If you want to remember what you were writing with, write down what you were writing with.  After that, write whatever you want.  If you want to see how it responds to your handwriting, write words.  If you want to focus on feel, squiggles and loops free up your concentration for paying attention to the feel.  The key here is to write enough.  Write until you have enough to know the new pen (or pencil).  It usually takes me at least a page to really get to know the implement in question but if it takes longer that’s fine too.

That’s about it, honestly.  If, however, you’re not quite sure what you are looking for or what to pay attention to, here’s a few things we tend to focus on when testing.

Pens ballpoint:

• Whether or not the pen skips  This is when, as you’re writing, the pen stops writing mid letter and then begins writing leaving a small portion of the letter blank.  This is super annoying.  We’ve found that this happens on pens or cartridges that are either low quality or simply old.
• Color and tonal quality  There are a lot of colors of ink out there and making sure it performs the way you want on the paper you choose is important.  There’s even a huge amount of variance between different blues or blacks.
• Feel  Gone are the days when a ballpoint pen worked really but felt sticky.  Even the Bic Cristal feels pretty great but there are some really bad feeling ballpoints out there
• Ink Blob  One of the nicest things about ballpoint pens, for a lefty like me, is that the ink dries immediately so there’s no chance of smudging.  Unfortunately, some bad ballpoint systems leave a blob of ink when you start writing with them.  This blob seems to never dry and it’s the worst.

Gel pens or other roller ball:

• Ink drying time  While they’ve gotten really great, some gel pens might as well be fountain pens!  If you’re right handed and only write one line a day this is fine.  Otherwise, it’s a good idea to pay attention.
• Bleed through  If you’re using a particularly thin paper or a bold pen you might find that you can see an image of what you wrote on the other side of the page.  Depending on how pronounced this effect is, it could render the page useless.
• Color and tonal quality Same here as above only more so.  The number of different colors available with gel pens is staggering.
• Feel  Gel pens are often smooth as glass and some people really like that while other’s find that level of smoothness detrimental to good handwriting.  It’s your preference.

Fountain Pen:

• I have no idea.  I’m not a fountain pen person.  The good news is that if you find a fountain pen person they will happily talk to you for several hours on this very subject…whether you want them to or not.

Pencil:

• Point retention  Sometimes called Point Durability, this is basically how long the point stays sharp for.  This can depend on a lot of factors such as the hardness of the graphite core, the tooth of your chosen paper, your writing style, and the type of point your pencil is sharpened to.  The main thing to pay attention to is how often you sharpen your pencil and whether or not you consider it to be too much.  Personally, I love sharpening pencils (it’s satisfying!) and if I didn’t I’d probably use a Kuru Toga Advance mechanical pencil and be done with it.
• Smudging  Also a result of paper, core and writing style.  Some pencils/paper combinations seem so smudge resistant that it’s like you’re writing in pen while others feel like your hand could erase them entirely.
• Tonal quality  Since there are many grades of pencil and there is no industry standard for those grades, there is a huge difference in tonal quality among pencils.
• Ghosting/ Talk back This is where the writing on one page will transfer to the opposite page once your notebook is closed.  If your pencil/notebook combination is good and smudge resistant it won’t be a problem.

We hope this will give you the tools you need to find your favorite writing implement.

Is there something we missed?  Are there other factors you consider?  Let us know in the comments!

1. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.