Parker Jotter Mechanical Pencil

Parker Jotter remains one of the most popular entry level pens for anyone wishing to have a non-disposable pen. They are readily available nearly everywhere – I’ve seen them in chemists, newsagency, the post office, Target etc and there’s bound to be a colour that works for you.

I’ve never owned a pen version of the Parker Jotter, but I purchased this Mechanical Pencil version when I wanted a pencil that was a bit more sleek and professional looking but was still reasonably priced. I think this was only about $5, so it fit the bill perfectly.

The Jotter pencil takes a 0.5mm pencil lead, which is pretty standard and readily available and is refilled by pulling off the top button, similar to many other mechanical pencils. The pencil itself is pretty basic – it propels the lead – that’s about it. I’ve been a bit spoilt by the fanciness of the Uniball Kuru Toga, which rotates the lead as you use it, to provide a consistent line. The jotter doesn’t do this, so I manually rotated the pencil as I used it.

The pen body is typical of the Parker Jotter series, although I find it a little slippery in this stainless steel version. I gripped it quite tightly to write the review here, so its not too comfortable for longer writing sessions as a result. This would most likely not be an issue with the plastic body editions which has a little bit less slip to it.

Overall, if you need a basic, professional looking pencil, you really can’t walk past this one – its great value for money, well built and will last forever. Even if it doesn’t, it won’t cost you too much to replace it.