Zebra F-701 Ballpoint Stainless Steel Retractable Pen

You're in high school. Your pencil case is full of the mismatched assortment of pens without caps and mechanical pencils with half a stick of lead each that you've found on those familiar tiled floors. In fact, you can't even remember the last time you actually bought a pack or pens or pencils (besides of course, a week before the first day of school to avoid detention for not having the obligatory 3 red pens, a hilighter, and whatever else was on the syllabus). On your way to third period, daydreaming about that warm sunny schoolyard on the other side of those wide windows, walking on autopilot, you kick something and hear that familiar rolling sound. You look down, snapped out of your daydream state, praying that you happened to kick the pen just right, and not into the opposite lane of hurried kids. Your eye lands on the silver pen, and you quickly squat down to pick up your prize. Upon picking it up, you stuff it into your pocket, and make your way to third period. When you reach the classroom, you take out the newest addition to your collection of adopted writing utensils, and quickly pen your name across the top right of the handout placed on your desk. You feel a twinge of disappointment as the pen leaves nothing but a slight indent on the paper. Your hand moves to the bottom left of the handout, and you scribble a couple circles to see if the pen has any life left whatsoever. Success! A trail of black ink follows the point of your pen, and you pen your name again in the top right, only this time the results of your penmanship stare back at you in jet black. You complete the handout in around 20 minutes, then turn your head to the homework board, and begin to write down the assigned chapters of The Scarlett Letter that you'll read on the bus this afternoon. As you use the instrument again, you notice how it feels in your hand. It's not heavy, but it's not light as a feather either; it's a kind of heft that makes the pen feel like a quality piece of metal. You observe that this pen's clip looks and feels surprisingly strong, and as you pack up your things in preparation for that long awaited bell, you introduce the pen to it's new family of writing utensils in your pencil case. For the rest of the day, you notice that every time you grab a pen, you feel around for the silver pen each time without even thinking. You like that pen; it's strong yet springy clip, it's smooth rolling action, it's easy hold grip, even the way it clicks open and closed is just different from any other pen you can recall using. It feels like a real writing tool, not some cheap black plastic value pack pen. Days go by, and weeks go by. You've forgotten what your old pens felt like, you've grown fully accustomed to the smooth action of your acquisition. One day while writing a couple paragraphs on the ending of The Scarlett Letter, your pen starts to grow a bit faint. Your hand moves once again to the bottom left of your packet, and you scribble a couple circles into the page. Nothing. Another dead pen doesn't mean much, and you were finished with your response anyway, so you tuck the pen back into your pocket and head to your next class. You walk right past the garbage can without thinking, and after realizing this, you simply take the pen out of your pocket and drop it on the ground from whence it came. You arrive at fifth period and unzip your backpack to take a pen from your trusty stash. You pick a simple black plastic pen, placing it on the left side of your desk. After the teacher demonstrates the topic of the day, you are presented with a worksheet to complete by the end of class. You reach for your pen, remove the cap, and place the cap to the left of your worksheet. You write your name, and realize something is wrong. Instead of gliding smoothly on the surface of the paper, your pen poorly etches black lines. You feel that slight resistance, that friction of pen on paper that you haven't felt in weeks. You're back to the same pen everyone else uses, the uniform standard, the unimaginative piece of black plastic that you've used for the last decade of your life. For the rest of the day you feel a bit off, but you don't understand why, and eventually brush it off after you walk off the bus onto your driveway. The next day, and the day after, you use the same pen, until eventually it too runs dry of ink. You take another black plastic pen from the pile to replace it, and feel no difference from the switch this time. You once again grow used to the friction, the slightly too tight plastic cap, and the lack of any sort of grip that all come standard with every plain black plastic pen. Days go by, weeks go by, years go by. You use pens daily in your work, but you've never thought about stepping outside of that plain, unimaginative uniform standard. One day at work, you roll your chair a bit too far to the side, and roll over your mobile charger. You go on Amazon to buy a new one, and knowing not to buy cheap bulk chargers that charge slow and break quickly, you settle on a $15 charger with $3 shipping. You see that shipping is free if you spend more than $25, and so you think; what is an item that we use daily, but never really think to upgrade? You search for pens on Amazon, below $15, and come across a familiar writing utensil. It's the silver pen! It's been so long that you didn't even remember the brand name, but you could recognize that pen anywhere. You place it in your cart, and both ship to your house within the week. You open the package, slip the pen out of the cardboard back of it's protective plastic bubble, and clip it to your pocket. The next day, you put your lunch in the fridge at work, and grab a post it note to tag it with your name. As you take your pen off your pocket, you click it and feel that perfect amount of resistance. You feel the sturdy grip, the hefty weight in your hand, and begin to pen your name. The pen smoothly glides across the yellow paper square, and you clip the pen to your pocket once more.Yes, it's a $10 pen. Zebra pens are worth it. Absolutely worth it.

Zebra products are just well made and the right size for me. Fits great in the hand and the ink flow is perfect every time. I don't use a pen everyday, but when I do I have my trusty Zebra near me, just in case! This model is my favorite so far.

Love these pens, I work EMS, and at times things get messey, plastic and rubber coated pens get nasty and the cleaners even peroxide will break down the coatings. These are stainless, so they clean easily and are refillable. I have dropped them on the tip which would kill most pens, but not these.

Repeat customer. Now I’m giving three out to friends and family who like the pen after using mine. All it takes is one signature and they are hooked

My favorite pens

Do you want to make this into a "REAL PEN" ? Do you ? . . . then read on . . .Hyperbole ? You bet . . . but I am so frustrated with the vendor I am attempting to buy a bold enough refill from that I took the matter by the horns, and time by the forelock.They went with the cheapest shipping possible AND made the classic fatal rookie error of using the USPS. That means they ship my package all over the USA back and forth to take artificially long and make all concerned wish they had used the next shipping rate up. I have received many orders AFTER I placed that one including my pen.OKThe problem is this nice pen comes with a fine/"medium" ink point which is not too bad but for some reason on the whacky (cheep) printer paper we use at work for the forms it turns out writing scratchy and like a very fine point. Too wimpy for those of us who like to "live LARGE".So . . . out of pure frustration I took the pen that I have that actually writes well and smooth on this clown paper, aBIC Velocity Bold Ball Pen, 1.6mm, Black, 12ct (VLGB11-Blk) . . . and removed the cartridge (nose cone unscrews) and got it to fit in the Zebra pen by trimming some off the end of the ink cartridge.You need to leave it a little longer than the Zebra which is fatter than the one from the Velocity.I just started cutting off 1/8" bits until it fit just in case a bit longer than the Zebra cartridge was better (and because I feared runing into the area of the tube that had ink in it. I didn't cut it so short ink came out. Wheeeyuou !The Velocity pens are great and you may want to just write with them. Super cheep and write super smooth and all. It's just that I am into this knurled pen thing right now and prefer it to the fatter rubber grip on the Velocity. Also the rubber grip has the slightest triangulation to it which makes me stop and reposition my fingers so they fit right and that bugs me. I would rather have the rubber part just round though when I look at it it is round with this three area pattern but it doesn't feel round and so it goes.In addition, as recommended by others here, I bought the cheeper F401 to take apart to get the metal clip/top but have not been able to get it apart yet. I have not really focused on that yet because the black plastic end and clicker with it feels and works just fine. Time will tell. For now though , and on the paper I am forced to write on at work the original Zebra refill and the larger 1.0mm one that I ordered with it (still waiting on the Zebra Gel larger one) feels dry and scratchy. On real paper, even basic old envelopes sent to me by junk mail, the Zebra is pretty nice and the line is wide enough.These Velocity ball points ARE what they say they are . . . very smooth and free wheeling.Time will tell if I regret cutting the end offandtime will tell if I ever get my gel refills in the bold point from the land of the lost. Hey . . . Dr. Rick Marshall . . . have you seen my refill package ? Er . . . no thanks . . . I'll pass on the Dinosaur camouflage but you go right ahead. Say hi to grumpy : )

Thanks a lot! Can connect all my alexa devices now and not worry about my captive portal.

Fast ship and LOVE these pens