Sometimes it’s nice to shop your own pen stash. I pulled out my assorted collection of Japanese gel multi-pens and realized a couple needed new gel refills so I did a little testing and reorganizing of which refills were in which pen barrel.
My favorite models are Pilot Coleto multi-pens which use the Pilot Hi-Tec C refills — the gel pens that started so many of back into our love of pens so many years ago — and the Pentel i+ multi-pens that uses the Pentel Slicci refills.
I like these for the color variety and the option for VERY fine tips (as small as 0.25mm). Since I started collecting these pens, both manufacturers have added metallic color options which adds some extra zing.
I filled one Coleto multi-pen with all metallics: Gold, Silver and Metallic Purple. The metallic purple just looks like silver on dark paper but on light paper, more of the purple shows through. The gold and silver are fun on both light and dark papers and the 0.4mm is one of the smallest tip size available for metallic gel pens which means the metallic particles must be super tiny. In years past, the smallest size for metallic gel pens was 1mm so this is awesome for me!
Overall, multi-pen gel pens are great ways to carry a bunch of colors with you to work, school or travel with minimal space needed. I even added a mechanical pencil to one of the Coletos. These are just fun to build your own color collection, tip size and even if you want gel pens, pencil, or an eraser! If you haven’t given a Japanese multi-pen a try yet, now is the time. You can easily build a 3-, 4-, or even 5-color variety with the barrel for under $20.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
I only recently discovered the Coleto and I’m such a huge fan. I have three, two that I keep wildly colorful and one that is monochrome with black, white, and silver inks, a pencil, and an eraser. (I love the little eraser!) I got the 0.4 mm refills, since they had the most color options, but I might switch my black ones to 0.3 mm next time I stock up. Is it smoother than the Hi-Tec-C 0.25 mm pen? I have one but it has more feedback than I prefer for a gel pen. Granted, I’m not usually using nice paper either.
The 0.3mm tips have a little feedback on some papers but are a little less pointy than those micro 0.25mm tips! The 0.4mm is probably a good compromise especially if you have to write on rougher papers.