Sitting on my sick bed after a particularly nasty fall, I longed for something to take my mind of the aches & pains. Armed with a Staedtler Triplus Roller I found the ideal distraction in a code reader puzzle. As I set to work on the puzzle I found that the roller wrote a smooth line, the black dry safe ink was dark & free flowing.
The Staedtler Triplus range have triangular shaped barrels. It is claimed that the ergonomic design promotes fatigue free writing. Ergonomic pens aim to reduce discomfort & stress placed on the bones & muscles in the fingers & hands but this pen was not something I found particularly comfortable to write with.
Although the surface is slip resistant it doesn’t have a soft grip section to which I’ve grown accustomed. Whilst in use the triangular barrel twisted & spun between my fingers. I found myself unconsciously tightening my grip. Luckily I’m only filling in a few little boxes, as I can envisage getting a very tired hand in a short space of time if writing anything else, so much for fatigue free writing!
Recalling a review of the Staedtler Triplus ball pen I seem to remember having had a couple of issues with the cap, not the case here this roller’s cap clipped on & off with ease with none of annoying rattles apparent with the ballpen when posted.
Staedtler say this roller writes a 0.4mm line, it’s available in10 colours including yellow, aqua blue & pink. I have to say that IMO there are both positives & negatives with the performance of this rollerball. On the positive side I love the strong black ink & sturdy metal tip, which feels like it would stand quite a few knocks. It is also claimed that the dry safe ink, having been tested to ISO 554 standard will not dry out for days if left uncapped. I confess I didn’t have days to spare for this experiment but I did leave it for a good few hours & the ink still flows well. On the downside unfortunately the lack of comfort was a definite negative. To conclude the old saying you pay your money & make your choice comes to mind.
