Multipens

Last updated - November 19, 2024

While studying Japanese, I want to be able to easily mark new vocab and other items in red and maybe do some other color coding here and there.

The other criteria was that it has to be a nice thin line since I am often writing furigana as well.

I have now bought a bunch of multipens at different price points to mess with (usually from Amazon or Yoseka Stationary). Because I am not monetizing anything, here are my purely subjective assessments of the pens, but not the refills.

  1. Lamy 2000 with Jetstream 0.5 ballpoint - 8/10
  2. Rhodia Multi 3-in-1 Script with Jetstream 0.5 ballpoint - 7/10
  3. Uni Jetstream Prime with Jetstream 0.5 ballpoint - 6/10
  4. Pilot Coleto 1000 with Coletto 0.3 gel refills - 5/10
  5. Uni Style Fit Meister with Uniball Style Fit 0.38 gel refills - 1/10

Lamy 2000 - 8/10

This is a gravity based system, so you rotate the pen so that the designated color is up top and then just click the back. No pencil option, which I prefer since I like my pencils to be separate.

The action is nice and not too scratchy. I am not a huge fan of the Lamy 2000 shape, but it is tolerable, I much prefer flat sided polygons. It rattles a little bit when you shake it, maybe from the gravity mechanism but otherwise feels solid if a bit lightweight.

I wish the color markers were modular so you weren’t confined to the four designated ones and I wish they were a bit more obvious, but it is still better than the barely colored Jetstream tip markers. The gravity mechanism is nice in that it is easily one handed.

The included ink refills are absolutely terrible. Just budget in replacements.

Rhodia Script MultiPen - 7/10

Visual impressions are good. It is a handsome looking pen.

You pick it up and it feels a bit light, and it does rattle slightly if you shake it as the parts move about.

Writing though is pretty wonderful. The stock 0.5s ballpoints write pretty thinly and the pencil has a good action and line.

Negatives are few:

  1. There is no indicator at all of which tip you are on except they banded the tip of the red pen.

  2. The rotary action to select tips is really rough and unrefined. Like really unpleasant to switch between. One day I might take it apart and see if it can be lubricated and cleaned up.

  3. Honestly I don’t love integrated pencils, I’d rather have another color ink. I will have to see if the pencil module can be exchanged for a blue ink at some point.

Uniball Jetstream Prime 3&1 - 6/10

I like this pen but don’t love it. It works fine, the mechanism is kind of smooth and the barrel size isn’t too big. The dots for colors and pencil are hard to see and tiny. It feels nice but not solid. Perfectly competent is where this lands.

Pilot Coleto - 5/10

This pen hits the level of being perfectly average in build quality. But it has some interesting things:

  1. The refills are designed with color tabs on the top so the selection levers match the ink color. This is brilliant. I don’t love the push down tabs since they are always so ugly, but pragmatically they are better than the rotary systems.
  2. Loading it is a bit weird since you flip open the top and load them downwards. It feels a bit flimsy.
  3. The detente is decent and easier to get a selection to stick.

The ink refills are similar to the Hi-Tec C, so solid if not Signo level.

Uni Style Fit Meister - 1/10

This can hold five different refills. It is a long barrel that gets somewhat thinner up top and has a clear window at the bottom to see which ink you have in which slot. I loaded all of mine in rainbow order starting with black and then ROYGBIV.

The problems are numerous.

  1. The body is a bit too thick for me
  2. The body feels ridiculously cheap. Like way below the standard of the cheapest pen you have ever bought. No think cheaper. Thin flexy plastic that is very smooth and doesn’t provide good grip at all
  3. The window is covered by your hands when you are writing, so changing colors is tedious. Eventually I would expect to memorize what is where… if I was going to actually use this thing.
  4. The detente on the ink selection levers are weak and hard to get to lock in. They release if you look at them funny.
  5. The clip is one of the levers, which means it feels wobbly and flimsy all the time.
  6. The amount of spring in the tip is distracting. They don’t feel locked into place very well as all

Writing is pretty much the same as my favorite Signo 0.38. So the ink is top notch. But this pen absolutely sucks to use. I hate it. Like absolutele hate it.

I may just buy a Style Fit single body just to use up the inks or 3d print something. Just absolutely awful pen.