Uni-ball Signo UM-151 Gel Ink Pen Black, 0.28 mm, 3 pens per Pack (japan import) [Komainu-Dou Original Package]

All three of these pens wrote smoothly right out of the package. Not at all scratchy. One important detail--they are NOT as pictured or described! They aren't the ones sold in Japan (which are the ones in the seller's picture). They are the ones sold elsewhere. The pen clip says "uni-ball Signo DX" instead of "uni-ball Signo", and the tip of the pen says "0.28" instead of both the Japanese characters AND "0.28". As another reviewer noted, they appear blue in the seller's picture, but are indeed black as described.And I don't know what they mean by "original packaging", but they came as pictured in my photo, with the Amazon label on the other side (maybe they were referring to the sticker with the barcode that is on each individual pen?).So I gave the pen 5 stars because it's a fantastic pen, and because it was what I was looking for. But if you are specifically looking for the Japanese version, then DO NOT BUY.

These are very similar to technical pens. .28 is a very small nib and most people would not be used to writing with this size. I personally like a very fine line for writing in my calendar. I would not use these for drafting a long document, however. My beef is that the photo shows blue pens and the description is for black. I wanted the blue and did not catch the discrepancy. So, 5 for the pens, 3 for the wrong photo.

I purchased these pens for my sketching as I like drawing in my sketchbooks with a real fine line. I own the micron pens and sometimes you just need a real pen instead of a permanent felt-tipped "marker" when sketching/writing on thinner paper so it won't bleed. I opted for these pens instead of the MoMa MUJI pens of the same size because of the price and the great reviews. I do feel that the ink flow could be better, but considering the ball of this pen is so fine, it does a great job if you take your time with your writing/drawing instead of going real fast. I just love how fine this point is. The tip is like a needle. It's truly superior to any pen you pick up at Walmart or the drug store. I recommend this more for sketching than for writing as writing tends to be a lot faster and you may run into more problems with the flow of the ink.

These are so great for superfine work--and have a ballpoint instead of the felt Micron tip. Absolutely wonderful on paper and especially Mix Media paper. Did I mention how superfine the lines are? Fantastic.

One of the pens stopped writing after a week of use. I would return them but Amazon says they are not returnable. I got a 3 pack so hopefully the other two last longer.

Not a smooth flow at all. Over-rated and over priced in my opinion. I love uni-ball pens, but these are a miss in my book. Unfortunately, I couldn't return these for a refund. They're terrible.

I am currently a graduate student studying statistical inference, and these pens are perfect for having to deal with subscripts in exponents (along with summations and product bounds). I always scan my notes into my computer with my iPhone and these pens are perfect for fitting a lot of information per page and have a very nice thickness when scanned.Furthermore, you rarely get the ink buildup if you stop writing for a few seconds which is always nice to not have an exp() function completely smudged by an ink blot.

Will order more