Uni-Ball Jetstream RT BLX 12 Pack, 1.0mm Medium Blue/Black, Wirecutter Best Pen, Ballpoint Pens, Ballpoint Ink Pens | Office Supplies, Ballpoint Pen, Colored Pens, Fine Point, Smooth Writing Pens

I really do love these pens. They write beautifully and use every last drop of ink. These 2 tones ones are pretty and just plain fun to use. These are getting harder to find. It took a while to receive from the seller, but worth the wait. The pen itself is very comfortable to use and worth every penny. I have been using the Uniball Jetstream RT pens for years because of the comfort. I write all day at work and other pens start to hurt. These never do. I highly recommend them. You won't be disappointed.

My new favorite pen. I love the bold-yet-subtle darkish colors, and the smooth 1.0 mm point.The ink doesn't bleed much, which you might think is always a good thing, but one downside of non-bleeding ink is that it can reveal imperfections in your paper. For instance I noticed few seeming "skips" when writing on post-it notes. And I thought, "Why should this good-quality pen skip?"But upon microscopic inspection, I could see that the gaps were caused by places where the paper had imperfections caused by a large wood pulp fiber. Smoother paper looks better under this pen.

I have used this brand of pens for years, as they work especially well for me, as a left handed writer. I had never gotten the blue-black, but it is a nice color. Since I purchased them, at least two of the pens have dried out or skipped (write one minute and not the next). For the price, I would think that these should work each and every time until the ink is gone!Update: I have revised my original rating to one star. As I try to use more of the pens from this order, they are dry straight out of the box. I guess I should have tried them all when they were delivered. I will never buy from this seller again.

The uni-ball Jetstream RT BLX Retractable Ballpoint Pen writes smoothly, with no skips, drags, or splats of ink. Using the pen feels more like gliding than writing. The ink dries quickly and once dry, I have not had any smudges. When I was stocking up on uni-ball Jetstream ballpoints, I decided to try the blue/black color ink ("BLX"). The more I use the pen, the less I like the ink color. It looks blue, which is fine with me, but I expected the ink to look a dark or deeply hued blue because of the addition of black ink. To my eye, the blue looks more faded than dark. I could picture, however, some people seeing the color as more antique than faded, and may find that look appealing.

I use pens a lot and I surveyed friends for their favorite flowing pen, especially for ones that dry fast so that I don't get the lefty smear across the page (and on my hand). These Uniball Jetstreams were the top ones recommended and I've been using them ever since. They do write more smoothly than most ball points I've tried--in fact, it's hard to go back to other pens after these. The ink dries fast enough that I don't smear it usually. I like that I can buy refills, but wish they had easily accessible refills in more colors (it's hard to find any but blue or black). What usually happens is that I usually go through a couple refills per pen until the pen clip breaks off (from clipping it on folders), leaving a very sharp metal edge, which I put tape around to keep from cutting myself. Eventually I am tired of the crumbling tape and just order a new pack of pens instead of refills. I'd rather just buy the refills and save money and minimize garbage, but the clip needs to be stronger for that. The photo shows pens in these two stages, and includes the same pen in the capped version of this pen, which is less convenient than the clicker kind, and also seems to flow a bit less smoothly for lefties, who are pushing, rather than pulling, the pen from left to right. Overall, it's my first choice--even better than some fancy-pricey pens I was gifted--for most writing tasks.

UPDATE: Only 2 out of twelve pens were functional. I attribute this to the vendor, not the maker. I've stored many Jetstream pens for more than a year and never had then dry out, so these were undoubtedly mishandled and sold non-functional. I won't try another box, but I still love Jetstreams in general, and use the refills in nice pens.Original Review: I love Jetstreams, and the BLX colors are terrific. I especially love the blue-black, in Jetstream as well as Signo 207 gel, so I snatched up a full box of the Jetstreams to avoid being left in the proverbial lurch if they were to discontinue them.Unfortunately, the first one I tried out of the box was dried out and would not respond to typical measures I've used to get old pens working. I have not tried all of them, because that would involve taking off the wax protector nub, which would only make them age more poorly going forward. The next two started okay after a little scrap scribbling, so fingers crossed.Jetstreams write wonderfully in general, really I haven't found anything quite like them in terms of gel-like opacity with the ability of ballpoint ink to bond to the face of the page, even with cheaper paper, without soaking through and running the reverse side of the sheet. But they do have an occasional tendency to stutter a bit. Not quite like skipping you experience with ballpoints or fountain pens where it just thins out and then comes back to full line width. It just cuts out completely for a second, and then with the least bit of scribbling, comes right back full strength.This was the first time I've experienced a Jetstream that just limped out a weak stream of ink persistently. It performed like one running out of ink, but the refill is clearly full and undamaged.One bad pen out of twelve mitigates the value somewhat. If more fail, it becomes a coin toss whether they're worth purchasing by the case. I love the color enough to see how it goes with this case.