The TUL line of pens is proprietary to Office Depot, a store I don’t visit often. I was in picking up a printer ink refill several months ago and ran across a four pack of these needle point pens, which intrigued me. As far as gel pens are concerned, I’m a big fan of needle point, as opposed to conical tips. To me they are more precise, and leave cleaner lines. I prefer the Pilot Hi-Tec-C to the Uniball Signo DX, and also enjoy pens like the Pentel Energel in needle point form. This TUL pen is no different, and ended up being quite a pleasant surprise. The pen leaves very sharp lines, and I’m really enjoying the dark blue ink. The body is nothing spectacular, but is functional. The nock rattles and the clip does not feel very substantial, but then again, these are intended to compete with office supply-cabinet pens like the Pilot G-2 and the Zebra Sarasa. Viewed from that perspective, the TUL line compares very favorably to the Pentel Energel. While the refill appears to be close to the same size as the Pilot G-2 refill, it’s ever-so-slightly longer, and unfortunately doesn’t fit in my Tactile Turn Mover or my G-2 Karas Customs Bolt. Oh well. It’s a nice refill that would be fun to use in a more substantial pen body; I’ll have to explore other Kickstarter options to find this pen a new home.
Close-up shot of the TUL Needle Point.
Very dark blue ink that leaves a very clean line. The ink is almost a blue-black, which I like.
I did not try the TUL ballpoint, but I did buy a pack of the marker pens in black, blue, and red. The tip size is a little broad for my taste, but I’m nevertheless enjoying those. The store close to my house stocked the ballpoint only in the broader tip sizes, which eliminated it as an option for my writing style, and I've not heard good things about those pens anyway.
You can purchase this pen at Amazon, if you don’t have an Office Depot near you or are a Prime customer who wants to take advantage of the “free” expedited shipping (which sometimes makes sense if, like me, you place dozens of orders annually for pens and stationery). I’ve included some links to the blue and the black TUL pens, and tried to find the overall best deals in terms of price/Prime shipping availabiity. No guarantees that there aren't better deals out there, so you may want to hunt a bit. I will say that this pen appears to be a better buy when purchased as a dozen as opposed to by the four-pack, and the .5mm tip size is a little pricier than the broader width.