Ink over time

Recently I started writing with a fountain pen again. The appetite for fountain pens has been ignited by the cheap Preppy. The sensation was quite nice switching from ballpoint to fountain pen. But the fact that ink is soluble into water made me contemplate on the resistance of ink over time. You can find on the Internet and on the forums good UV tests of different inks. But I wanted a test of my own to see how my inks work in my situation, so your  mileage may vary. I live in a place with moderate sunlight. I tried to replicate what would happen to your ink writings left on a table on which you get a fair share of sunlight.
The test is not very scientific as i used different fountain pens and the exposure to light was different as i did not used all the inks in the test from the begining but still the results are interesting.

Inks used: platinum blue black, Faber Castell royal blue, Faber Castell permanent black, Pelikan 4001 royal blue, Pelikan 4001 black, Pelikan 4001 personal mix 1:1 royal blue and black, Koh I Noor Blue

The test was conducted for a period of 4 months from March until June.

Results:
Koh I Noor blue with the least time exposed to sunlight is almost invisible
Faber Castell royal blue is very hard to read even though it received a similar amount of sun with Pelikan 4001 royal blue
The blacks from Pelikan and Faber Castell look similar after sun exposure.
The winner of the test I would say is the Platinum blue black
The ink was not the only one affected by the sun the paper that was exposed obtain a yellowish tint

Also see: Platinum Preppy

Review Faber Castell Grip 1345 mechanical pencil

Faber Castell 1345 Grip II, 0.5 mm in blue

Faber Castell Grip 1345 is one very nice mechanical pencil. It is made in Japan, and it comes in 2 lead sizes. The 1345 is a 0.5 mm and the 1347 is 0.7 mm.
There are 14 available barrel colors to pick from. The Faber Castell green, a traditional burgundy, dark blue, black and other very nice pastel colors.
I have, and will review the Faber Castell Grip II model, 1345 (that is 0.5 mm) color blue.

Because the pencil is made out of plastic, it is a light mechanical pencil, but it does feel good and solid in the hand.
Faber Castell has put thought into the pencils design. The barrel is made out of a glossy plastic. On the barrel, it is embossed with gold like paint GRIP 1345 0.5 the Faber-Castell logo and name.
After more wear and tear, I will say how the writing is holding up.
The top part of the barrel is brushed, so it has a matte finish to it. This makes the pencil more interesting and shows that someone has put thought about the design of the pencil.
The clip is metallic, elegant and feels secure.

The clicking mechanism holds a very long twist eraser. The plastic seems soft to the touch and has a chromed trim near the eraser. The advantage of this system is the long eraser, and the fact you twist to reveal it, so you do not risk losing the cap. The eraser has 3 cm of usable length, so it will last. Even this is a cool feature to have, and the implementation is nice I will not give it extra points, as I am one of those guys who don't like using the erasers on the mechanical pencils. Not because they are rubbish, but because I do not like the worn look, it makes the pen less appealing.
This way I enjoy a "brand new" pencil everyday.
The downside because of this long eraser is the feeling system. Because this eraser section is so long, it is harder to put the leads in.

The tip of the mechanical pencil is conical and made from a chromed metal. It offers a retracting and sliding sleeve, so it makes for a pocket safe mechanical pencil. The retracting and sliding sleeve does not have a wobble to it, when you write it feels just a regular non-retractable sleeve.
Because of the conical tip, it's not a drafting pencil, it is intended for general use. The pencil comes with spring lead protection, meaning if you press harder on the lead, the lead will be cushioned by a spring. This works if you have a more vertical way of holding the pencil.
I like the way the sliding sleeve works (this is a feature also named "automatic" on some mechanical pencils). When the lead is used and the sleeve will hit the paper, and so it will slide back a little bit, revealing the lead. This means you can use the advance system less and the lead will be far less susceptible to break. But not all "automatic" pencils are created equal. Some of the problems this system encounters are: too much pressure to slide the sleeve, sleeves that do not have the right angle and not enough polish making them scratchy. I would give the Faber Castell Grip an 8.5/10 score for this feature. It works almost perfect.
The advance mechanism makes a nice clicky sound when pressed. The lead advancement is on the low side. 5 clicks will offer 3 mm of lead. In comparison, the Rotring Tikky (version 3) puts out 4.5 mm.
The grip section is made out of soft rubber. It is very comfortable and nicely integrated into the barrel, but I suspect it will have a relatively short life. It seems a bit soft, and it moves a bit under pressure, I think with time it will become looser. This is the drawback of the rubber grips. They are comfortable but not durable, and can be annoying to feel it move in hand. Other problems that might appear over time with rubber grips are: the hardening of the grip to the point it is uncomfortable, it cracks, or the rubber becomes sticky.

All this makes the Faber Castell Grip 1345 a very nice mechanical pencil, that I am happy to use as my daily writer.

Erasers: Faber Castell vs Rotring vs Factis & Pelikan

A lot of people praise the performance of the Faber Castell erasers. The stores also seem to like the Faber Castell brand. So I have put them to the test two Faber Castell against the Rotring Tikky and some other brands Factis and Pelikan.

In the green corner is Faber Castell PVC Free and the 187121 Dust free. In the red corner is an old Rotring Tikky 20. In the benchmark corner is Pelikan and Factis 36R.

I have put them against Rotring HB lead, cheap lead 2B which is more prone to smearing and a regular HB pencil.
The performance is quite similar between all of them. The Rotring lead was erased well by all of the erasers in the group. But it was more difficult to erase the cheap 2B lead and even harder to erase the HB pencil.
The best performance all around was delivered by .. all

On longer erasing sessions Pelican was the worst, Factis did a good job but creates a lot of dust. Rotring compared to Faber Castell is made from a harder material, it requires some extra passes but you don't risk making creases on the paper. The Faber Castell Pvc Free is the softest and grips the paper more. The Faber Castell Dust Free is more balanced.
The FC Dust Free does what it says, it does not leave dust on the paper, and I understand why it is considered one of the best erasers. Second place goes to the Rotring which produces larger dust crumbles that are not sticky, they can be cleaned with ease from the paper. The Pvc Free is a little bit better than Pelikan. Factis creates the most dust.

You can't go wrong with any of the erasers, but I would choose the Faber Castell Dust Free or the Rotring Tikky

After taking into account the ease of erasing, the dust left behind and the chance of making creases in the paper this is my pick.

* mention, Rotring Tikky almost came as equal for the first place if it had performed a hair better on the erase test. Also it needs to be mentioned that Rotring is around 10 years old eraser. This might decrease the erasing performance.

Penac Chubby and Faber Castell Grip Plus

Two different brands of stationary, same mechanical pencil.

Faber Castell Grip Plus:

The mechanical pencil comes in a plastic body with 4 available colors (green metallic, blue metallic, black metallic, red metallic). It has a triangular rubber grip and a twist eraser. The clip is plastic similar to that on the Grip Matic.

As the mechanical pencil is for general writing purpose you have the option of 0.7 mm lead. Also, there is a less common 1.4 mm lead size version. It has a slide back sleeve and spring lead protection, for when you push too hard on the pencil.

Penac Chubby 10:

Penac is a Japanese brand produced by the Kotobuki & Co Ltd. Chubby 10 is a large grip, "jumbo" by the producer standards. The pencil has a plastic body. You can choose between 0.7 and 0.5 lead. Available colors are blue for the 0.7 mm and black for the 0.5 mm.

It has a twist eraser, PVC free the same as the Faber Castell. It features cushioned lead and a sliding sleeve, the same as the Faber Castell.

The only thing that seems to differ is the clip. The grip is slightly different also, but not much.

The real difference comes in price though, where the Penac is half the price of the Faber Castell.