I’ve written before that I like my pens to be pleasant to look at. It’s just as well that pens have come a long way since the early ballpoints or biros as many of us still refer to, regardless of the brand. Today we can find a whole array of pens in a range of colours & sizes to choose between.
Rollerballs made an appearance in 1963 & have liquid or gel ink. This Stabilo Worker Medium has a 0.5 tip & has what its makers call progressive liquid ink technology.
Appearance
With its colourful bright orange body there is nothing grey about this worker, it will surely stand out from the crowd. Although traditionalist may not consider it be ideal in every business environment, some feeling it better suited to a design studio than accountants office for instance.
The barrel of the pen is made of a rubberised material, whilst this makes it comfortable to hold it can attract dirt. My desk had the remains of a vigorous attempt to erase pencil marks from a page of my notebook, the worker picked them up, whilst it saved me a cleaning job it didn’t do much for the pen. There is a small raised dot at the centre of the barrel, this ensures that the pen won’t roll around, even if its being used on an uneven surface.
Performance
The dark black liquid ink glides across the page, it is not particularly quick drying, so lefties beware. My research highlighted a lot of comments regarding the tip size, although liquid ink pens do apparently produce a wider line than say a ballpoint, many think the text is more the size you’d expect from 0.7mm tip. The heavy duty tip is described as indestructible, I don’t know about that but it certainly felt strong with no sign of bending, even under heavy a duty scribbling session.
Stabilo’s target group are “professionals with high requirements” as mentioned I did find this pen comfortable, my grip was relaxed enabling long spells of writing without getting tired hands so I’d probably agree with that. These rollerballs are available with black, blue, green & red ink, but it was disappointing to find they are not refillable & a retractable version would be nice.
