Kuretake Zig Millennium Drawing Pen Review
11 April 2016Kuretake make a wide range of pens for art and calligraphy. Many have a good reputation and I have a Kuretake brush pen that’s pretty good. How does the Millennium drawing pen hold up?
I was able to get this pen at a discount thanks to Cult Pens’ support of the site. These are my own honest opinions.
Price: £1.80
Tip size options: 005, 01, 02, 03, 05, 08
Barrel options: horrible grey plastic
Ink type: lightfast, waterproof, in black, brown, blue, green, pink, red, violet, yellow
The barrel of the Millennium is a cheap grey plastic absolutely covered in writing telling you everything you ever wanted to know about the pen but don’t necessarily want to see every time you pick it up. It is a truly ugly barrel that looks cheap.
The clip, however, is metal and reasonably robust. The cap pushes closed and pushes on to post securely.
A horrible looking pen can always redeem itself through exceptional performance. Unfortunately, while this pen is exceptional, it’s exceptionally bad. The line is too dry to be usable. It was like this when I first got the pen and extended use hasn’t improved things. If I give it a good shake I might get an inch or two of decent flow before it dries up again.
This Kuretake Zig Millennium pen is the worst drawing pen I’ve found. It’s in no way usable.
It may be that I ended up with a faulty pen (Ana over at The Well-Appointed Desk had a much more positive experience with the pens she tried) but I can only review what’s in front of me. If this pen was amazing I wouldn’t buy a second one just to make sure and I’m not about to spend more of my money on something that’s terrible. I’d rather spend it on something else.
Have you tried one of these pens? How did you find it?
Pros
Doesn’t cost very much
Reasonable clip
Cons
Looks horrible
Terrible ink flow
Blimey your sample tells it all, very poor pen or indeed that particular one. I have been using the OHTO Graphic liner Ballpoint on your recommendation and have to say I really enjoy it and can’t understand why it doesn’t get much press? So the OHTO is a keeper for me and have taken the place of my trusty Faber Castell PITT pens that I have used for years. Great review, thanks.
Simon
I agree about the OHTO Graphic Liner. It was the pen most responsible for this blog. When I discovered them, via the Pen Addict podcast, I was so excited about how much better pens could be that I had to tell people about them.