I’ve always been interested in multi-pens, and I’ve found some pretty cool ones (the Pentel Vicuna suggested to me by Brad Dowdy springs to mind) but my favourite ink is Uni Jetstream by the Mitsubishi Pencil Company, so finding the ideal multi-pen which includes this fantastic ink has been a little mission of mine.
While Uni actually produces a number of Jetstream branded multi-pens, I decided to start using the Style Fit series of pens. These cool Japanese pens allow you to mix and match from a large selection of refills and bodies that they provide. Including the fantastic Jetstream and Signo inks. Oh and they also do a pencil refill, which is pretty handy.
I tried the original 5, 3 and 1 size plastic body components, which were great but felt a little cheap. So I had really high hopes for the Meister 3 – the first of these Style Fit bodies to be made out of metal. Oh and it’s also in a higher price bracket of $16.50 verses $3.30.
I went for the swooby red version, which is looks great with my latest Moleskine diary. The refills I went for were the 1.0 Jetstream in black and red, as well as the 0.5 pencil. It’s so very close to perfect… but not quite there yet.
Pros
- Massive amount of choice for refills
- Much higher quality materials
- Twist to change pens is much nicer than the plungers
- Metal clip is way better than plastic
Cons
- It rattles when you shake it
- Pushing down doesn’t do anything except on the pencil
- No ‘neutral’ position – it’s one pen or another
- The window doesn’t really help you see which pen you have selected
There is one last thing I’d like to mention, and I’m not listing this as a con as there isn’t any way of doing it yet – but I’d really like to have the Kuru Toga mechanism in a multi-pen like this. The current iteration of the Kuru Toga pencils are way too large to fit in something like this. I’m sure it would be possible to create something that worked in a similar way in the future, and I’m looking forward to trying it out.
While this multi-pen is very close to the mark, I’m going to stick to using my Alpha Gel Jetstream pens and my Kuru Toga Roulette pencils as my every day stationery at work and at home.
I’m glad I got this new addition to the Style Fit line, and I’m going to be using this Meister 3 as my go-to portable pen for when I’m travelling, as well as keeping it in my work bag (see What’s in your bag?) until I need it.