Story
As a designer and sketching guy, I cannot live without a Pen and Ruler. After my first Kickstarter project - Hexagonal Ruler (please click here to find out more), I have been searching for a well-designed, refillable, buy-for-life mechanical pencil that equipped with ruler functions. Therefore, Yuan creates a new pen right from the scratch, every meticulous detail is well thought-out to bring you a unique writing experience.
T stands for Triangle while P² means Pen and Pencil. TP² is an aluminium pen that is compatible with ballpoint refill and mechanical pencil. Writers can switch the writing instrument from pen to pencil within steps. The cap is designed for TP² to stand, hold pen in another way, measure and draw lines. Bring TP² along with your notebook, you can write and sketch anytime, anywhere.
Concept
The design of TP² is derived from simple geometric patterns. Triangle and Hexagon comprise shaft of the pen and Isosceles triangle serves as the stand. It is not hard to see that I used many symmetric shapes in TP², because symmetry patterns create balance, and balance in design creates harmony, order, and aesthetically pleasing results. The simplest symmetry is ubiquitous in nature, geometric patterns and mathematics elements like shadows in our living, like snowflake and honeycomb. Thus, Yuan would like to bring the beauty of geometry to your daily life.
When TP² is put on the pen stand, you may observe a slight tilt, a 10-degree lean, results floating illusion and interesting imbalances. This idea comes from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, known worldwide for its nearly four-degree lean, is a beautiful architectural accident. That’s make TP² become a timeless writing utensil.
Features
As far as we know, TP² is the one and only all-metal made aluminium writing instrument in the market that compatible with ballpoint and mechanical pencil refills. The pen consists of four main components: main shaft, cap, pen stand and ink/pencil cartridge.
There are 2 tips made for TP², one for the ballpoint and one for the mechanical pencil. You can simply screw the tip of the pen to change from ink cartridge to pencil, or vice versa.
The cap plays as a normal ruler and two-way-grip of the pen:
1. Write without the cap - 8.85mm diameter barrel, make you feel extremely smooth and light in hand.
2. Write with the cap - for the people who likes wider barrel, the hexagon shape cap simulates the pencil grip that we used in childhood. It reduces writing fatigue and enables us to write easier.
Both ways sit comfortably in your hand to reduce writing fatigue while the satisfying weight of its materials encourages more time to be taken with every pen stroke.
Material & Color
TP² is machined from a solid block of 6061 aluminium, a high strength, lightweight and good corrosion resistance metal. The surface is anodized in Matte Black and Grey, with light grey contrasting laser engraving graduations. Sketching tools with darker hue makes your work sharper on the white paper.
Refill
TP² is equipped with my favourite ink cartridge, the ZEBRA JF-0.5 Black. This fascinated cartridge is designed for a multi-color pen system; the ink flows smoothly and dries quickly. Zebra's Rapid Ink Technology literally dries in less than a second on all common writing surfaces, producing lines and penmanship that are smear-free and making it perfect for left-handed guy like me. You may check out more with the following link: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/zebra-sarasa-a-comprehensive-guide/pt/652.
For the mechanical pencil - PILOT HI-TEC-C COLETO, it is compatible with 0.3 and 0.5 mm leads. 0.5 lead is a very versatile tool, and being used by many people for all sorts of styles, so the parts for 0.5 mm lead will be shipped with TP². For detailed drawing, you might want to consider the 0.3 lead, please make a remark on the survey if you want to choose the 0.3 version.
To refill lead, pull out the tip (where the plastic meets the metal) and refill lead into the metal tube, then assemble the component back together.
Both refills are the best pen that I have ever used and they are sold at reasonable price and can be found easily. There are other options for cartridge that our pen will be compatible, like the Muji pen (click here for details: https://www.muji.us/store/stationery/pen-pencils/capped-gel-ink.html). We will continue to update you the other options throughout the project.
Precise manufacturing tolerances stop any unwanted nib wobble
11cm and 4.5Inch ruler engraved on 2 sides of the cap
Every pen stand is shipped with the traceless reusable adhesive tape, you can place your TP² anywhere you like. The tape made from PU gel, with durable, no residue, removable and washable feature will not leave any traces on your table. You can just run it under warm water and lightly massage the dirt and grime off. Once done, leave it to air-dry and you can use it again.