The other day, I was discussing favorite types of pens with my colleague Beezmo and came upon a revelation: ink pens are oil-based! I had never really thought about what exactly it was made of, but when we write we are essentially rubbing oil trails onto paper lol.

This led to an entire discussion about the types of writing utensils and what they are made of. Here’s what we determined:

• ink = oil-based paste
• gel = water-based gel
• marker = fibrous tip (usually felt)
• crayon = wax
• pencil = graphite

If you ever take out the tube of an ink pen, you’ll find it’s much thinner than a gel pen. Markers tend to have an even thicker tube since the actual fibers are being soaked, and crayons are even thicker since they are the actual part of the pen you hold.

I’ve always leaned slightly more towards gel pens, but they do take longer to dry so they’re not always the greatest choice. I generally like them because they tend to flow better and don’t get stuck like a lot of ink pens do. I hate when they don’t start dispensing right away or they leave uneven globs. But when I find an ink pen that flows well, those are a treat!

When I was in my teens and twenties, I was really into colorful pen sets and most of those (I never noticed) are gel. I had a phase going through glitter gel pens, metallic ones, milky ones, and scented ones too. There’s something so satisfying about the glide of them and I even like the slight scratch of the ball as I wrote. For awhile I was really into 0.5mm tips for how beautifully thin they are, but now I don’t mind if it’s 1.0mm if it glides well.

Nowadays I just want one that I can keep in any storage situation (position, temperature, time dormant, etc.) without affecting how easily it will start writing when I need to start using it again. A fun color is always a bonus, but a nice (darkish) black or blue ink is just fine too.

What are your preferences when it comes to writing implements?

« Prev：Eternal Love (三生三世十里桃花) review TranScend dancing (my new obsession)：Next »