The Great Pen Debate: Click-Tops vs. Caps

by Kimberly | post a comment

Cap vs. Knock

In Japan, the clicky-top style of pen (favorite of nervous people everywhere) goes by a different name: Knock Type. Knock type pens have a spring mechanism, a button, and a release of some kind. This allows the user to extend the nose of the pen from the barrel for writing, and retract it back in when finished. Simple, no? Cap pens however, are even simpler. A cap, sometimes with a clip attached, snaps onto the the pen barrel covering the nose of the pen when not in use.

Caps are king for the ultra cheap pens. If you buy a box of twenty pens for less than a 20 oz of diet cherry 7-up, you are almost certainly getting pens with caps. This is because springs and mechanisms are more expensive than just a plastic cap.

In the realm of quality pens, however, the question of cap versus knock type is a little more complicated. Knock type pens protect against accidental marks by retracting the pen nose out of harm's way. Pen caps provide this benefit while also protecting the pen's ink from drying out. For this reason, gel pens are more likely to have caps (gel ink substrate is more susceptible to drying) and oil pens are more likely to have knock type mechanisms.

Other things to consider when choosing caps vs knock:
- Do you lose your pen caps?
- Do you appreciate the satisfying *click* a cap makes?
- Do you like taking your pens apart to see how they work?

post a comment

You might also be interested in:

• Tokyo Pen Shop is pleased to stock Nomadic!
• Join us on Facebook for buying trip updates
• Tokyo Pen Shop Goes To Tokyo
• Choosing Your Daily Pen
• The Lacking and Lackluster Erasable Pen
• Kuru Toga Sweeps the Blogosphere
• Can Highlighting Outshine the Underline?
• The Apica Twin Ring Notebook, Most Advanced Quality
• Creative uses for Uncommon Colors of Ink
• The Redemption of the Feared Red Pen
• Not All Hi Tec C Pens are Created Equal
• The Crimes of Correction Fluid