Pen wanted

Continuing with what appears to be a theme of posts about my favorite things, this post is about my favorite pen. I found it on the ground…somewhere…a couple of years ago. It is unusual in most respects, particularly compared to most pens that I’ve ever used. First and foremost, it has a nib width of 0.4 mm. Yes, you read that correctly, and I did not make a typo. Outside of specialty pigment pens and imported pens, the smallest nib you can find here in the U.S. is 0.5 mm. The narrower and more precise line is what made this particular pen the favorite of all of my writing utensils. (Before finding this pen, I was partial to an aluminum-body, 0.5 mm Zebra mechanical pencil.)

However, it probably wasn’t the functional product of this pen that first endeared me to it. Frankly, it was cute, and I LOVE cute things. (Give me a break, I’m a girl. I’m allowed.) The style of the design on the barrel of the pen looks Japanese. And let’s face it, the Japanese made an amazing discovery that you can put a face on just about ANY inanimate object and automatically make it cute and endearing. I mean, really…if they can do it with poo, they can do it with anything. But I digress. This pen has a happy-looking little coffee mug and equally happy-looking to-go coffee cups. It also has a bear that looks a lot like the San-X Happy Memorial Sky Bear character, though I don’t know if the pen came from that line, as I have not been able to find anything that looks even remotely like this pen, which brings me to the point of this post.

The ink in this pen ran out about a year ago. I found a technical replacement — a Zebra Technoline 0.4 mm retractable ballpoint pen from Jetpens.com — but aesthetically, it’s a boring pen compared to the cappuccino pen. What I’d love is if I could find a proper-sized refill for it. However, I’d be satisfied if I could either find a pen that takes the same refills or even an identical pen. Throughout this post, there are images of what the pen looks like (that link to larger versions), with measurments and identifying information on the pen visible. The pen in a retractable ballpoint pen, about 14 cm long. The pen refill is about 10.5 cm long and has a 0.4 mm nib. The top of the pen is shiny silver plastic molded to look like the top of a soda can, which is yet another detail that I find really endearing about this pen. (All other details aside, if I could find more pens just with this little detail, that’d be really cool.) Below are some detail/measurement shots of the pen body and the refill:

If anyone recognizes this type of pen, if you know what kind of refills this pen would take (and where to get them), or if you know where I can find a pen like it, please leave a comment!