Pen Review: Morning Glory Mach 3 Liquid Ink Rollerball

I enjoy the fine, precise line that a needle-tip pen offers, especially when I'm annotating legal documents at work and (1) need to write very small or (2) need to write on crappy paper. Sometimes both. I've previously preferred the Pilot Hi-Tec-C, which is my go-to needle-tip gel pen, but that pen can be finicky and tends to skip and hard-start more than I like. Apart from my Coleto multi pens, I find myself using the Hi-Tec-C less and less. After one particularly frustrating experience in which I had to throw out an orange .4mm Hi-Tec-C that, for whatever reason, I simply couldn't get to write, I took a flier and ordered a few of the Morning Glory .38mm liquid ink rollerballs in blue and orange. Now I might have found a great all-around needle-tip pen that works for me. 

View fullsize

The textured grip of the Morning Glory Mach 3 prevents the pen from becoming too slippery. 

Before reading this review of the Mach 3 over at The Pen Addict several years ago, I'd never heard of the brand "Morning Glory." The pens have received positive reviews, but liquid ink rollerballs generally aren't my thing. They can feather and bleed just as badly as fountain pens (and sometimes worse) on "office quality" paper once you get above the .5mm tip size. Would a .38mm tip be the sweet spot for this type of pen? 

View fullsize

So far, yes. The Mach 3 may become one of my standard "office pens," and it will certainly make its way into my "highly recommended" category. I've test driven the Morning Glory for the past two weeks, and I've reached for this pen nearly every time over the Uniball Vision Elite, which simply can't write the extremely fine line that I often need.  And while the Morning Glory may not be quite as smooth or vibrant as the Hi-Tec-C, I've found it more reliable. (No skipping!) 

Takeaways and Where to Buy

If you're a fan of needle-tip pens, or wish that your liquid-ink Vision Elite or Pilot Precise V5 wrote a finer line, then you should check out the Morning Glory Mach 3. I'm not aware of another liquid ink pen that comes in a .38mm tip size. Though it's relatively inexpensive, the Mach 3 can be hard to find. Jet Pens will sell you single pens in more uncommon colors (like the orange one shown here) for around $2.50 per pen. If you're a fan of the more conservative blue, black, or red (and Morning Glory's blue is great), you can purchase packs of a dozen at a much lower cost via Amazon. 

Disclaimer: I purchased the pens featured in this review with my own funds, for my own use.