You heard me right. Say hello to the Papermate Profile Stainless Steel pen.
This has a fully stainless steel barrel, metal button, clip, and tip. While yes, there is plastic on the grip section and inside the barrel, the amount of metal construction for $2 surprised me.
In fact, this pen as a whole surprised me. I was planning on just using a gel refill on the pen. But when I made those first strokes, I realized something. This was no ordinary ballpoint. This was… smooth. It was genuinely comparable to the energel! Although it is 0.5 vs 1.0mm, for a ballpoint this was shocking. And, it took very little effort to write. If you didn’t tell me this was a ballpoint, I would have told you it was a gel pen. It is surprising.
Very few pens nowadays surprise me, because with pilot g2 and pentel energel, I feel I reached grail for cheap pens. But the fact that this is actually comparable, has a nearly full metal body, including stainless steel, widely available, AND is extremely affordable? I am genuinely impressed, and it’s something I would actually recommend.