The Perfect Pen For Your Journal

I imagine since you are here reading this you are someone like me who is obsessed with pens and paper.  You’ve likely tried out most of the pens at regular stores like Officemax trying to find the best pen for journaling.  You’ve probably purchased several others on your way to finding your ideal pen.

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The best pen for your journal featuring the BIGiDESIGN Ti Arto EDC that holds over 750 different insertsI’ve recently found my new favorite pen for bullet journaling!  It is called the Ti Arto. It is not the most pretty pen in the world.  In fact, I almost didn’t purchase it because of how it looks, but the features are pretty neat so I couldn’t help but buy it and I LOVE IT.  I’ve even decorated it in a way that made it pretty. (I purchased the stonewashed version if you are curious)

The Perfect Pen

Finding the perfect pen has become a bit of a mission for me.  I injured my arm about 10 years ago and have had a bit of a hard time with extended writing sessions which totally sucks since I like journaling so much.  I have tried a lot of different pens on my way to figuring out pens that work for me.

I have a ton of criteria.  The pen has to feel good in hand, write well, have a smooth dark line, and work well with my journals.   

The struggle is real.

Have you ever found a pen that you like the looks of but that writes like crap or that feels awful in hand?  

How about one that feels great in hand but writes terribly?  I’ve found all of this. BigiDesign Ti Arto EDC pen decorated with washi tape and bow decals

I even have collected 50 or so of a certain really pretty pen that I hate writing with (dumb).  

Actually it is my quest to make that pen work that ultimately led me to my favorite pen!

This pen fits all of my criteria  It feels good in hand, it writes well, and the color lends itself to looking cute with the decorations I put on it.  Not only that but it has one very cool feature that makes it a must buy!

This pen can fit pretty much any insert you put into it!  It has been tested with over 750 inserts and has worked with them.  This means you can use this pen with all the different pen inserts you like.  This is life changing (for a pen nerd like me).

How Does It Fit Over 750 Types of Pen Inserts?

This is the game changer for me.  This pen uses the same functionality that a drill uses to hold drill bits.  Essentially you twist it to tighten the mechanism around the insert. Along with that, the pen can be lengthened or shortened based on how big the insert itself is.  

I’ve tried a short insert and a long insert and the pen feels good in hand in both cases.  

This is so cool.  I keep putting different inserts into it so I can try writing with different ones 🙂

The BIGiDESIGN Ti Arto EDC Pen uses a mechanism that holds over 750 different types of pen inserts 

Why Is This Cool?

Have you found any pens that write really well but that hurt your hand?  The pen is too heavy, too thick, too thin, too whatever? What a huge bummer!  Well, no more my friend. If you find this pen as comfortable as I do you can take the insert out of the ouch pen and put it into this one.  

I often see people on social media trying to find pens that write like the Inkjoy pens by Papermate.  People love the way these pens write.  Well, I can open up an Inkjoy pen and put the insert in my favorite pen.  This pen holds whichever inserts you want it to.

I can write for hours with my pen, but could never do so with an actual Inkjoy.  It just doesn’t work for me because my hands easily hurt. But they write very smoothly so it is nice to be able to use their inserts if I wish to.  

The BIGiDESIGN Ti Arto EDC Pen decorated with washi laying open

Summary 

Just to sum up the features of this pen or at least my experience of this pen, here you go:  

Pros:  

  • Feels great in hand.  I can write with this pen for hours.
  • Can use 750+ different types of inserts (this is amazing!)
  • Seems pretty sturdy, can take a beating by use as an everyday pen.  

Cons:

  • It’s a bit pricey, though not terrible if you’re a pen nerd like me.  (I’ve spent way more)
  • Some don’t like that the cap is screw on rather than snap on and off.  
  • It isn’t very pretty (though I’ve prettied mine up with some washi and nail decals).  

My Verdict

My verdict is go buy this pen!  If you’ve ever struggled to find a pen that you love writing with, this is it. The reason is you can put any insert you want in there and it just works.

Insert Suggestions

If you like the same kinds of pens as me…those that write a dark smooth line without skipping or annoying blobs, I’m going to give you some excellent suggestions:

The first one is the insert that came in my pen when I ordered it.  I had to do a little searching to find this but found it on ebay for a decent price.  I ordered two packs right away.  This is a gel ink that comes out smooth, wet, and very dark.  This is my favorite so far.

Another pen insert I’ve found and fell in love with are these by Parker.  When I found these I didn’t think I’d find anything better, but the ebay ones are SO GREAT.  If the ebay auction is gone or you aren’t comfortable with ebay, you can’t go wrong with these Parker pen inserts.  They also have a nice, dark line and write smoothly.  I think the line is just a bit less wet than the Schneiders.   Pen Test of Pen Inserts by Schneider, Parker, and Inkjoy

Obviously the Inkjoy inserts are also great.  These give both the Schneider and the Parker inserts a run for their money.  It’s a bit cheaper to buy a pack of pens and take the inserts out of them rather than purchasing inserts by themselves in this case though (but that feels a little wasteful).  

A True Pen Nerd

As a true pen nerd, I have multiples of each of these inserts.  I can change them out at any time. I’m excited to find a pen I truly love.  You can buy it on Amazon.  I have the stonewashed version of this pen which is kind of like a muted grey.  It is just a metal pen and looks kind of industrial to me, but I added some pink washi and little metallic bows to it and now I think it is pretty cute.  

I use pen loops on all of my notebooks and it is a bit of a fight to get the pen in there but it does fit.  

I hope you enjoy the pen.  Let me know what you think of it if you purchase it.  I love mine and just want to write and write with it. That makes it a bit hard to get things done on my blog haha.  

I’m very excited about this pen if you can’t tell haha.