Pens for Lettra

Today we had a great question come to us via twitter from Kelani Irene (@KIFN) about which pens are best for writing on Crane Lettra. At Backyard we are frequent users of ball point pens and have typically used them - like thousands, if not millions of others - to write on our letterpressed card with no real issue (other than them dying on us mid-word). So,to try and help Kelani out, we gathered up a small sample of pens with different tips and nibs to showcase potential differences of their inky impressions on lettra cotton rag.

Here are the writing candidates (right to left in photo):
1) Straedtler Norica 132 46 HB2 pencil - freshly sharpened.
2) Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip - our daily user
3) Uni Jetstream - our secondary daily user
4) Straedtler Pigment Liner 0.3
5) Sharpie twin tip - fine tip used here
6) Prismacolour 005
7) Bic Velocity 
8) Pentel Brush pen

Sorry no fountain pen on hand - but maybe we'll update this list to include it in the future.
And here are the results:

As you can see most of the pens we had on hand wrote very well on the smooth cotton surface of the lettra. The Straedtler Pigment Liner 0.3 (4th line "a test of pens"), Sharpie twin tip (6th line "on lettra"), and Pentel Brush pen (last line "what fun!") appeared to have more 'bleeding' into the paper, but nothing to make the writing incomprehensible. The lettra seems to absorb these felt tip, more ink saturated pen types.

Our personal choice is the old fashion trusted ball point, like the Bic Ultra Round Stic Grip and Uni Jetstream, or the Straedtler Pigment Liner for a deeper black . However, saying that, we have by no means presented an exhaustive list of pens. If you have any suggestions of pens (or other writing implements for that matter) to try out we are happy oblige. So send us an email with your pen suggestions. Ultimately though it's not what you use to write with, rather the sentiments written that will hit the mark.

Hope we guided you a little Kelani in choosing a pen for your lettra letterpress paper needs.
Happy letterpressing!!