Whilst my main stationery love is fountain pens, I’ve recently started to expand out into the world of gel pens. In my mind the words ‘gel pen’ conjures up an image of the pens of my school days: cheap, brightly coloured plastic pens, often with glitter, or even scented inks. Those pens are a lot of fun, and I still own some today, but I was surprised to find out recently that gel pens have also gotten fancy! 

My first ventures into the world of fancy gel pens were the Uniball One pens (which I love!), and the Zebra Sarasa Vintage pens.

I adored the muted colour palette of the Vintage Sarasa line, and so when I realised you could get the same pen but with a nicer, metal body, I couldn’t resist. So I bought the Zebra Sarasa Grand Vintage gel pen in Green, with the Green Black 0.5 refill from Amazon for around £10, which seems quite reasonable for such a nice pen. 

In fact, I was really impressed when I took this pen out of the packaging, as it instantly struck me as incredibly classy. I also liked how weighty it was, thanks to the metal body, and how substantial it felt. The deep metallic green colour is eye-catching but not too in your face, and goes nicely with the bright gold of the clip. 

The clip itself is a feature of the Zebra Sarasa line that I really like, as it’s hinged, making it easier to open, and actually use. The Zebra Sarasa Grand is no different, although the clip is a little stiffer than the one on the plastic Sarasa pens. 

The clicking action of the pen is also nice and smooth, as is the writing experience. The pen also has a smooth grip, with just a few vertical indents to distinguish it from the rest of the pen body. But it’s comfortable to hold, and because of the slight matte texture to the pen, it doesn’t feel slippery, which is sometimes a problem I find with metal grips on pens. 

I also love the deep green of the Green Black refill, and how fine the 0.5 size writes. I generally like a really fine gel pen refill, so my favourite is the 0.38 you can get for the Uniball One pens, but I think gel pens with interesting ink colours can benefit from being thicker, so you can appreciate the ink colour better. And it’s still probably about the equivalent of a fine fountain pen nib, which is my preferred size, along with extra fine. 

So overall, I’m a big fan of the Zebra Sarasa Grand Vintage! This is definitely the nicest gel pen I own, and I’m a little tempted now to buy the black one too, as that would go with any colour refill. 

So do you own any Zebra Sarasa gel pens? What do you think of them? What’s your favourite kind of gel pen?