[HN Gopher] How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
___________________________________________________________________
How the BIC Cristal ballpoint pen became ubiquitous
Author : janandonly
Score : 60 points
Date : 2025-06-16 10:06 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.openculture.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.openculture.com)
| Bluestein wrote:
| Love BIC!
|
| From pens to ChatGPT. What a ride.-
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| It's a service not a product.
| Bluestein wrote:
| Just thinking out loud - in terms of adoption might be up
| there regardless. But, fair point.-
| irjustin wrote:
| It's not an apples-apples comparison. Logistics and
| physical sales is a massive barrier.
| Bluestein wrote:
| Granted granted ...
| shit_game wrote:
| Not to mention, ownership.
| arccy wrote:
| Every feature Google / Apple releases gets millions of users in
| days. ChatGPT is but a fad that has no moat.
| Bluestein wrote:
| A fad valuated in the billions ...
| stockerta wrote:
| For now...
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Plenty of overvalued fads during bubbles (see the dotcom
| bubble).
| bgnn wrote:
| Current valuation is not relevant in the context of
| history, yet.
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| ...Apple sold less than a million Apple Visions.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Ah, I see you edited your original comment which read something
| like "ChatGPT might be the most successful product, millions of
| users in only a few days".
| Traubenfuchs wrote:
| It's not very comfortable, its hard edges are unpleasant for the
| fingers and it feels too thin.
|
| The flimsy cap gets lost easy and there is an endless amount of
| ballpoint pens you can click, that don't even need a cap in the
| first place.
|
| Average clicking ballpoint pens have a plastic that's more
| comfortable to suck, lick and bite.
|
| I always hated them.
| dmd wrote:
| agreed, agreed, ... wait what
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| You never bit on your pen? Especially back in the school
| days?
|
| Ballpoint pens are the OG stress relief / concentration /
| "fidget spinner" toys. Except the BIC ones, those would
| easily shatter; suddenly finding your mouth to be full of
| sharp, orange or translucent shards of plastic, is the
| opposite of calm and focus.
| ziml77 wrote:
| I've never done that because pens end up in the dirtiest
| places. People aren't washing their hands before using
| them, they gets tossed in a bag and sit in the crevices
| alongside all sorts of dust and dirt, they get set on dirty
| desks and will even hit the floor sometimes. All-in-all,
| super gross.
| SeanDav wrote:
| 100 Billion sales means there are some things to like ...
| garbagewoman wrote:
| Ok, and? Coke bottles have sold more than that
| southernplaces7 wrote:
| Because they're useful in so many ways too. Have you not
| seen "The Gods Must be Crazy"?
| ndsipa_pomu wrote:
| Also useful for picking some tubular locks
|
| https://postureinfohub.com/how-to-pick-a-tubular-lock-with-a...
| crtasm wrote:
| Yes, though this link is AI slop.
| randomcarbloke wrote:
| and for disassembling the gamecube (in the days before easy
| access to non-standard screwdrivers)
| roelschroeven wrote:
| And for rewinding cassette tapes.
| codedokode wrote:
| I use gel pens, because they leave thinner and more black trace.
| I think ballpoint pen belongs to history.
| kreco wrote:
| I don't think ballpoint pen belongs to history only because you
| don't use them.
|
| I use BIC ballpoint because they are the only ones who don't
| die when I carry them in my backpack. All others just cease to
| function for unknown reason or leak.
| abtinf wrote:
| Try a Uni-Ball Jetsream, especially the capped version.
|
| It's a ballpoint, with all of the advantages, that writes
| smoother than any gel.
|
| There is a bit of a learning curve as it glides so freely
| across paper.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > It's a ballpoint, with all of the advantages, that writes
| smoother than any gel.
|
| Gel pens are ballpoints. What do you mean by "ballpoint"
| here?
|
| > Try a Uni-Ball Jetsream
|
| I would never choose to use one of those, since they aren't
| available in 0.5mm. 0.7mm is too thick.
| jackstraw14 wrote:
| Jetstreams come in a lot of forms, including 0.5mm and
| 0.38mm I believe.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| Not according to Uniball's official website they don't.
|
| https://www.unibrands.co/collections/jetstream?filter.v.o
| pti...
| altairprime wrote:
| The Jetstream Edge pen uses the same SXR refill size as
| the 4 colors of refills for the SXE3/MSXE5 multicolor
| pens; while their website only lists 0.28mm and 0.38mm
| refills as compatible, the SXR-80-05 refills are also
| compatible. But I suspect the reason they're not formally
| listing 0.5mm support is because the lower-capacity SXR
| runs out of ink too rapidly when used in single-color
| 0.5mm, and so that's why they cap the pen at 0.38mm.
| Recommend avoiding these as an option.
|
| However!
|
| The SXN-150 and SXN-155 lines deliver normal capacity
| 0.5mm Jetstream pens; and their SXR-5 refills deliver
| single-color 0.5mm Jetstream through the SXR-5 refills.
|
| https://www.mp-uni.com/vn/en/product/jetstream-sport-
| sxn-155...
|
| https://www.mp-uni.com/sg/product/refill-sxr-5/
|
| You can search for the often-dehyphenated SXR-5 refill
| compatibility to see what pens they fit besides the
| official SXN-150 options (like, for example, the Pentel
| Energel); MP's own website isn't listing the options
| properly on the refill page -- they only list the
| SXN-155/S and not the SXN-150/C, for example -- so some
| footwork would remain to identify precisely which
| official model numbers are associated with the 0.5mm
| refill -- e.g. the SXN-150 and SXN-157 bodies sold at
| JetPens are all 0.7mm/1.0mm but accept any SXR-# refill
| for # in { 38, 5, 7, 10 }. I suspect any SXN-xxx* body
| where x >= 150 is compatible with any SXR-y refill, since
| the discontinued SXN-100 seems not to be and the
| SXN-189DS seems to be.
|
| Note that I found it rather difficult to locate the
| SXN-155 body by model number for shipping to the United
| States; the UPCs for whichever models you want, e.g.
| 4902778040737, were much more efficient in locating
| options.
|
| TLDR: Yes, there are official Jetstream 0.5mm pens and
| refills, in addition to modding any SXR-refillable
| Jetstream with 0.5mm yourself.
| wffurr wrote:
| 0.5mm: https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-Jetstream-Lite-Touch-
| Ink-Ballpoi...
|
| "Gel pens" are technically ballpoints, true, but when one
| says "ballpoint" it's usually taken to refer to an oil
| based ballpoint like a Bic, whereas gel ink writes quite
| differently.
| toss1 wrote:
| Just checked, their website lists 0.28 mm, 0.38, 0.5, 0.7,
| and 1.0 mm, with examples of each. [0]
|
| What pens do you find best and what is your use-case?
|
| [0] https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Uni-Jetstream-A-
| Comprehensive-G...
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Just checked, their website lists 0.28 mm, 0.38, 0.5,
| 0.7, and 1.0 mm, with examples of each. [0]
|
| Except that you forgot to check their website. Jetpens is
| a reseller.
|
| Uniball only acknowledges 0.5mm for Jetstream pens that
| include multiple ink tubes in one cylinder.
|
| My use case is that I carry a pen around in my pocket in
| case I need to write something down. More rarely, I might
| actually write something down. I don't like writing in
| thick lines.
|
| The pen I'm currently carrying is one of these: https://i
| mg.alicdn.com/imgextra/i3/682114580/O1CN01nP4t8J1jh...
| williamdclt wrote:
| > Except that you forgot to check their website. Jetpens
| is a reseller.
|
| I'm not sure what's your point. Uniball doesn't sell
| 0.5mm on their website, fine, but jetpens does. Is your
| point that Jetpens are selling fakes? Seems pretty
| unlikely.
| serf wrote:
| >Except that you forgot to check their website. Jetpens
| is a reseller.
|
| if you're dead set on making sure brand sites match the
| actual brand offerings then I hope you have the luck to
| avoid most obscure engineering brands in your life.
|
| it's absolutely the norm in say, hydraulic pumps, that
| when an offering isn't available on the website you call
| the company and they say 'Oh yeah, we have those --
| theyre not on the site because no one wants one.."
| soupfordummies wrote:
| They're so good. I was always a pilot g2 guy but I picked up
| one of the jetstreams at a 7-11 in Japan for like a buck and
| it's just the perfect pen.
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| I agree that gel writes better but you are wrong about
| ballpoints. It's like saying i don't write spanish so that
| means it's useless.
|
| Thick gel pens soak through the paper so they're not great and
| the thinner nibs break easily or they pierce the paper.
|
| Most times you pick up a pen it's to jot down a quick note or
| number, a ballpoint makes more sense for that.
| mushroomba wrote:
| Gel pens smear when used left-handed. They are unusable for 10%
| of the population.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| My uniball Jetstreams don't smear, I don't even know if they
| are gel or not but they've been perfect. I'm left-handed too
| if it wasn't obvious :)
| mushroomba wrote:
| I'll give them a try, thank you for the advice.
| beAbU wrote:
| <10%.
|
| Not all lefties write with that weird over-rotated grip. I
| can write with a fountain pen without fear of smearing.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| They also smear when used in low temperature. Learned that
| the hard way when making notes outdoors, at sub-zero degree
| Celsius temps.
|
| Other than that, gel pens are perfect to me.
| crq-yml wrote:
| Quick-dry gel formulas are the new wave of gel pen and they
| are pretty easy to use as a lefty. Bic actually has my
| favorite of them, the Gelocity. It's very good if you like
| the Bic ballpoint's oily rolling action and want that as a
| gel.
| jjice wrote:
| I like a regular Bic because I never deal with bleed-through on
| the low quality paper I use. I just got a generic gel pen
| literally yesterday to give it a go and I immediately had to
| shelf it after I tried it due to the bleed.
| pmg101 wrote:
| It's the perfect product. I pick it up, I use it, it functions
| perfectly without thought.
|
| It's a lifelong mission to find any such tech product.
| WillAdams wrote:
| My Newton MessagePad was like that --- just the friction of
| charging/replacing the batteries and the physical friction of
| the resistive stylus got to be too much for me --- I'd give a
| lot for its functionality on my (stylus-equipped) phone.
| Bluestein wrote:
| I used to have one of those - so so way ahead of its time.-
|
| PS Also, the handwriting recognition was way ahead of the
| game.-
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Newtons were enormous, having to lug it around was awkward,
| so I stopped bringing mine everywhere.
| Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
| Ever tried writing a few pages with it?
|
| It requires too much pressure compared with gel pens,
| rollerball pens, let alone fountain pens (although the latter
| are not for everyone). It soon creates fatigue. And at least in
| my case I also make uglier handwriting with them that with gel
| pens, rollerball pens, let alone fountain pens.
|
| It's an extremely reliable product to do what it does, as well
| as extremely cheap, but far from perfect IMO. I see it more as
| a last resort if nothing else is available.
| Spartan-S63 wrote:
| So true. I hated using BIC ballpoint pens for this reason. I
| found the Pilot Rollerballs are my favorites to use. The
| 0.5mm size writes really smoothly.
|
| I picked up a couple bolt action pens for some more heft and
| put the Pilot rollerball fillers into the pen to get a really
| pleasant writing experience.
| jonhohle wrote:
| Did you know the inserts would fit prior to buying the
| pens? I love the Pilot V5 RT, but constantly have stains
| around my pockets from them deploying as I move. I don't
| carry Precise V5s because I've had one too many explosions
| with them.
| labseven wrote:
| This, and the ergonomics of a lighter pen, is the reason
| I prefer the capped Pilot Precise BeGreen pen, which
| accepts the same V5 cartridges. I'm surprised how
| relatively rare these have stayed when the retractable
| V5s are everywhere.
| paradox460 wrote:
| I used to put some pilot pens in some Geocaches I maintain.
| No longer, they always get stolen. It's now pencils cut in
| half. Used to be Dixon, but I'm looking for a new pencil
| maker
| chrismatheson wrote:
| `man cat` don't think i've ever been upset at its functionality
| (or ever read the manual to be fair)
| wiredfool wrote:
| I like them. Don't use pens much, used to be a bit picky,
| either fountain pens or roller balls or gel, but they'd always
| leak or be dry or not be ready to roll when I needed them.
|
| I had one Cristal pen that I managed to hold on to and use
| through at least three moves and 8+ years, until I finally ran
| it out of ink. It didn't get lost, destroyed, eaten (by puppies
| or humans), or quit working -- until there was nothing left of
| it. It was a small accomplishment, but one that I'm absurdly
| proud of.
| WillAdams wrote:
| Two articles on it (which probably were part of the source for
| this one):
|
| - https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2016/1/17/bic-cristal-ballpoi...
|
| - https://www.jetpens.com/blog/How-the-Ballpoint-Pen-Changed-t...
|
| a book which has a bit on the usage of this and similar Bic
| models is:
|
| https://www.paulshawletterdesign.com/2012/12/blue-pencil-no-...
|
| (ob. discl., I received a copy (which I gave to my daughter) to
| write the review: http://ftp.tug.org/TUGboat/tb34-2/tb107reviews-
| zapfhallmark....) which has the line:
|
| > Some such details are very humbling, such as the exquisitely
| beautiful design study for Zapfino-like capitals intended for use
| with Firenze shown with the 49 cent Deluxe Fine Point Bic
| ballpoint pen used to render the letters (pg. 43).
| lionkor wrote:
| I bought a pack of 100 of them for super cheap a few years ago,
| and a pack of 200 or so pencils with erasers from amazon basics.
| They carried me through all my exams in university, I have some
| in every backpack, purse, everywhere. Never had to worry about
| not having a pen ready, or a replacement if I lost one the
| morning before the exam. That is truly a buy-it-for-life level
| investment.
| jwagenet wrote:
| I'm not sure I can get behind buying 100 of a disposable pen as
| "buy it for life".
| dehugger wrote:
| Buy _them_ for life?
| lionkor wrote:
| The box (with its contents) will probably outlast me, and
| I've only ever thrown away, like, maybe one of them?
| nancyminusone wrote:
| They are only disposable if you throw them away.
| imtringued wrote:
| I didn't use it for exams, but I once went to a regional
| clothing store known for being extremely cheap and poor quality
| and I bought a 1EUR mechanical pencil there. Surprisingly, that
| mechanical pencil had an amazingly well engineered metal collet
| instead of the usual plastic ones. I've used that pencil for
| years and my only complaint is that if you don't tighten it
| enough, it'll unscrew itself and snap your lead.
| xyzzy123 wrote:
| The bic clic (not cristal) is the iconic pen of my childhood.
|
| It's hard to explain how popular they were in NZ, if you asked
| kids to draw a pen that's what they'd draw.
| Anarch157a wrote:
| It's such a versatile product. I bet everyone here who's older
| than 45/50 have at least once used a Bic pen to rewind a cassete
| tape.
|
| I also used the plastic clip as a stapler remover.
|
| There were many other uses for it, for sure.
| luismedel wrote:
| The clip is also a superb stress-reliever by biting it :-)
| cogogo wrote:
| Never tried myself but I know they were used to defeat older U
| locks for bikes.
| creaturemachine wrote:
| For that job you needed one of the opaque round ones with a
| more flexible plastic. It had to friction fit over the centre
| of the keyway so it could deliver some torque as you were
| working the tumblers.
| brunoarueira wrote:
| I'm not that older, but I had learned this trick, mainly when
| the device goes wrong and we need to fix the tape :)
| QuercusMax wrote:
| I always just used a pencil.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| I usually had neither on me when needed, so I just used my
| pinkie.
| QuercusMax wrote:
| That worked too, was just a bit more uncomfortable.
| williamdclt wrote:
| cassettes were still popular 20y ago, you can probably take 15y
| off your estimate!
| ghc wrote:
| At least in my area, cassettes were still popular 30 years
| ago during the transition to CDs, but by 20 years ago we were
| in the midst of the transition from CD to iPod. I don't
| remember seeing new tapes for sale anywhere after about 2000,
| and we were definitely burning CDs full of MP3s before then
| instead of making mixtapes. Personally, I bought my last
| cassette around 1995. Your point still stands, however...I
| think cutting 10-15y off the estimate would be reasonable.
| prmoustache wrote:
| In my own case CD's, MP3 and cassette use have overlapped.
| MP3 players were expensive, Discmans were too big to fit in
| a small pocket. So walkmans were still useful. I used to
| record tunes and mixes from the radio at the time too as it
| was super quick to hit record on the ghettoblaster when
| listening to the radio provided you had a tape ready. So
| yes I was still using and listening to cassettes in the
| early 2000's.
| christophilus wrote:
| There are some amazing drawings done with blue Bics.
|
| https://mymodernmet.com/paulus-architect-ballpoint-pen-drawi...
| itomato wrote:
| I smell these.
| realo wrote:
| Also this, with multiple colors:
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Thing_Is_Monster...
|
| Very amazing.
| garbagewoman wrote:
| Such a crappy pen design, guess it proves mediocre designs
| sometimes prevail. The logical backflips that people use to
| justify its success are a little annoying though
| southernplaces7 wrote:
| Care to specify what makes this thing that sold 100 billion
| copies and is instantly, reliably usable in nearly any
| conceivable context so crappy? Why not also explain your
| superior design that you think would work so much better.
| stockerta wrote:
| I guess compared to a "high end" pen its crap, but its like
| saying that the Citroen 2cv is crap compared to a semi truck
| if we talk about cargo capacity.
| pickledoyster wrote:
| Other comments note how it creates fatigue within an hour of
| writing, which is also my experience. Whether that's a result
| of low quality ink holders, tips that force overgripping,
| weight or something else, I do not know.
|
| I have a pen cup for when I need to jot something quickly and
| can't be bothered to get my primary pen from another room,
| and I've noticed that I rarely, if ever, choose the Cristal.
| Granted, it is far from being the worst pen out there, but I
| wince at the thought of using it as my daily pen.
|
| Furthermore, I don't think that selling 100 billion copies of
| a thing is a sign of quality, e.g., see Microsoft's product
| line.
|
| As for superior design in a similar price category (i.e., get
| it free at every conference room), hands down, it's the
| Schneider K15. Solid ink holders, comfortable tip, a nice
| weight balance (albeit I find it too light overall), with an
| imo beautiful modernist design as a cherry on top.
| serf wrote:
| > Other comments note how it creates fatigue within an hour
| of writing
|
| I don't care about pens, but if this argument was made
| elsewhere it'd be argued that the ergonomics and fatigue
| support the concept of seeking rest rather than finding a
| pen that allows for longer work hours.
|
| Example : if I said I was getting fatigued at the keyboard
| in some HN thread I would get 30 replies that told me to
| time my exposure and seek RSI breaks..
| dale_glass wrote:
| I've had a few of those leak ink over a bunch of my school
| stuff over the years.
|
| I think it's just not very solidly built, and in some set of
| circumstances (certainly not always) it's prone to making a
| mess.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| What's the proper name for that other, arguably even more well-
| recognized, BIC pen, that looks like Cristal except its main body
| is opaque orange, and is generally cheap garbage that breaks in
| your hand if you squeeze it it too hard, and doesn't even write
| half the time?
|
| (And yeah, I remember the taste of it, too. I've "eaten" through
| my share of these pens as a kid. It's the one pen you can't bite
| on, unless you like having shards of orange plastic everywhere.)
|
| It's also magical in a big way - it's almost as if it were
| enchanted with a "handwriting: -10" debuff, because that's what
| happens when you try writing with it, relative to anything else
| (including pencils and crayons). To this day, I occasionally
| wonder, how did they manage to achieve that distinct effect.
|
| In my circles, BIC as a brand is basically the stuff you don't
| buy unless as a last resort, whether that's ballpoints or razors
| or anything else.
| dist-epoch wrote:
| BIC Orange fine.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/BIC-Orange-Original-Ballpoint-Point/d...
| williamdclt wrote:
| > made to last with enough ink to write for an average of 3,5
| km
|
| measuring ink capacity in km makes total sense but I find it
| hilarious
| jiscariot wrote:
| The skilcraft US government pen, was spec'd to write 5k in
| -40F to 160F and is also manufactured by the blind. I've
| got a box of them spread out anywhere I need a pen.
|
| https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
| dyn/content/article/2010/0...
| wildzzz wrote:
| My grandfather had a skillcraft stick pen (the cheapest
| one they make) from his last job before retiring. I'm
| pretty sure that same pen sat in a cup in his kitchen for
| like 30 years and was used daily. Never ran out.
| quietbritishjim wrote:
| The box at your link calls it "Cristal fine Orange", so it's
| still a type of BIC Cristal like a sibling comment says.
| Tsiklon wrote:
| This is the orange Bic Cristal.
| Symbiote wrote:
| It's the fine (thin line) version of the normal one.
|
| I've never noticed any difference other than the line width.
| Either barrel can shatter if you bite hard enough. They both
| seem to survive long periods of little or no use better than
| other brands.
| dole wrote:
| BIC lighters are more of a first resort than a last resort.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| In the same sense their vacuums, if they made them, wouldn't
| suck.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Are you suggesting their lighters are bad? That's certainly
| not my experience. I have a Bic mini that has been packed
| inside my camping stove kit (a small titanium pot
| containing an iso-propane canister, stove, and rag) for
| nearly 15 years. Since I use barely any of its fuel, it
| hasn't run out yet, and I suspect it could continue to work
| as a striker whenever the fuel does run out.
| squigz wrote:
| Yeah, I'm a bit confused if GP is saying their lighters
| are bad. Every single person I know who uses a lighter
| many times a day generally uses a Bic[0] - if they're
| not, it's one of these cheap plastic ones[1], very
| similar to the pens GP is referring to. A few of them
| have Zippos, but those are relatively rare among people I
| know, at least for everyday use.
|
| [0] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/
| a/ae/BI...
|
| [1] https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61TNMUaoFrL.jpg
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| Yeah, when I was a smoker (thankfully many years in the
| past now), I really only ever used bics. I went through
| phases with Zippos or butane lighters, but they were
| always maintenance heavy, unreliable and too expensive
| for something so comonly shared with others. On the flip
| side, no-name gas station lighters didn't last and were
| generally unreliable. Bics hit a huge sweet spot of being
| long lasting, reliable, _and_ cheap enough to be treated
| as disposable even though they weren't in practice.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Those cheap transparent ones in your second picture are
| infamously unreliable. I swear I've had ones that quit
| after a dozen strikes.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| I don't know; a) I haven't seen a _good_ lighter in my
| life (other than on TV, i.e. whatever it was that Admiral
| Adama carried in BSG, because that was, by definition, _a
| good lighter_ ); and b) in context of the whole
| subthread, I assumed the parent was being sarcastic.
| quickthrowman wrote:
| BIC lighters are extremely reliable, when I smoked I went
| thru hundreds and the fuel always ran out before the flint
| did.
| mikestew wrote:
| _...whether that 's ballpoints or razors or anything else._
|
| Oh, man, those crap razors. I'm in Whitehorse, Yukon, and the
| only disposable razors the drug store carries are BIC. I
| remember that they're crap, but obviously people must still buy
| them, how bad could they be?
|
| I would have had fewer nicks and cuts if I'd used my pocket
| knife.
| Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
| In Spain it's just called "Bic Naranja" ("Bic Orange") and
| those of us over 40 or so typically remember the ad slogan
| which perfectly described their different functionality: "Bic
| Naranja escribe fino, Bic Cristal escribe normal" (Bic Orange
| writes thin, Bic Cristal writes normal). Rather lame but to the
| point and memorable :)
| crq-yml wrote:
| For most pens, it's really all about the quality of the writing
| surface, and blame is incorrectly attributed to the pen when
| it's taken outside its design limits. Paper that is overly thin
| or rough with a hard backing(like most school desks) tends to
| be less forgiving and ballpoints become likely to clog more
| easily because the ball will roll without good contact - for
| those, dry media, marker or brush will do the best. But smooth,
| heavy papers backed by kraft board will be very sympathetic to
| all pens.
| ubermonkey wrote:
| The Cristal is the front-runner in my brain for "most iconic
| consumer product of the 20th century."
|
| That said, it's weird how they've completely vanished from my
| personal landscape. The opaque white Biros are more common now.
| But I think I'll go seek out a Cristal later today, just for
| nostalgia's sake.
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| It really is great at being a pen. It writes well and doesn't
| break. Shout out to the bic which has 4 colours (rgb&b) for being
| so useful and high quality.
|
| But if you want to know what the best cheap writing pen, it's the
| clear pilot pen. Everyone around me uses it. There is also the
| opaque pilot v5 which was the gold standard when i was in school.
| rsynnott wrote:
| My favourite thing about Bic's origins:
|
| > Marcel Bich bought the patent for the ballpoint pen from
| Hungarian - Argentine inventor Laszlo Biro
|
| Presumably beating his rivals John Pencil and Wolfgang von
| Fountain-Pen to it...
| dcminter wrote:
| I remember a skit in a (terrible) British sketch show a zillion
| years ago where Biro tells the details of his secret invention
| to someone with an aside that there was nobody else in the
| house except "the butler Bic, the housekeeper Pentel, and the
| chauffeur Platignum" :)
| shawabawa3 wrote:
| the word "biro" didn't exist until Biro invented the ballpoint
| pen, which came to be known after its inventor
| fodkodrasz wrote:
| Not in English, but the word biro means judge in Hungarian
| language. The earliest written memory of the word is from the
| year 1306, from a land ownership certificate issued that
| year.
| somewhereoutth wrote:
| My thinking tool, along with a ream of 80gsm blank white printer
| paper.
|
| As well as being ubiquitous, reliable and cheap, you can also
| vary the line weight it produces with pressure. This makes it
| great for sketches and diagrams, as well as straight writing.
| pansa2 wrote:
| > _Cristal became ubiquitous around the world_
|
| Not quite; in New Zealand they're surprisingly rare. I've never
| seen them for sale there, even though they're common in
| Australia.
| jhoechtl wrote:
| My favourite is actually the BIC M10. Fell totally.out of fashion
| but I dislike the idea of detachable cap which gets lost all to
| easy.
|
| https://fr.bic.com/fr/bic-m10-original-stylos-bille-retracta...
| ashton314 wrote:
| There's an old article from The Atlantic [1] that makes the case
| that the ballpoint pen killed cursive: they require much more
| pressure to write with compared to rollerball or fountain pens.
| Like the author, I started using a fountain pen and it makes _so_
| much more sense why you would write in cursive with that thing.
|
| If you like taking analog notes, I highly recommend getting
| yourself a starter fountain pen and some good paper (emphatically
| _not_ Moleskin--those work best with pencils; too much bleed with
| fountain pen ink) and enjoy hand writing as it was _meant_ to be.
| ;)
|
| [1]:
| https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/ballp...
| jerlam wrote:
| They last for so long that it's almost an accomplishment to have
| one run out of ink before they get lost, stolen, or broken.
|
| They could have half the ink capacity and most people would
| barely notice.
| jjice wrote:
| I used these a lot as a kid and always disliked them. Pens and
| pencils are strange because there's su ch a wide range of
| preferences for such a simple thing. Something about them always
| irked me and I honestly don't know what it is.
|
| The BIC Round Stic, however, I love. I bought a box of sixth like
| a decade ago and still have like thirty left. Super simple, super
| cheap, and just great for me.
| dustbunny wrote:
| Just signed a contract with a lawyers pen which was too heavy on
| ink so I got ink all over my hands. Was a pain to put my hat on
| after without getting ink on it. Seriously considered bringing my
| own pen before hand. Guess I will next time.
|
| Not only is this pen ubiquitous, but it's ink flow is usually
| pretty light, which makes it not smear on your hands or the page.
| euroderf wrote:
| I'll tell ya why they took over.
|
| IIRC in the late 70s they sold for nineteen cents each (NE USA).
|
| Ya couldn't beat that with a stick.
| keane wrote:
| The BIC Cristal pen was listed by Jerry Seinfeld as one of his 10
| essential items that he can't live without in an interview with
| GQ. He says he always finishes the pens, never loses them, and
| that he called BIC to (successfully) find out why the cap has a
| hole in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL2sr99Sv18&t=157s
|
| He claims the BIC has quintessence, a quality he says he has been
| devotedly tracking since reading the 1983 book _Quintessence :
| The Quality of Having It_ by Betty Cornfeld and Owen Edwards:
| https://archive.org/details/quintessence00bett
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-06-16 23:01 UTC)