Zebra Sarasa Clip in Brown Gray

When Zebra added 5 new “vintage” colors to their popular line of Sarasa Clip gel pens last month, I was most excited about the color Brown Gray and immediately bought it when Tokyo Pen Shop started carrying it. Of course, being a fan of brown inks, I had to compare this new color with my other gray-ish brown gel pens, and do a quick follow-up to the previous Kurikawa vs. Coffee Brown post. This will be another color comparison post (and not a thorough review of the Zebra Sarasa Clip pen as a whole), where I will compare these 3 gel pens:

• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5 mm in Brown Gray (currently only available in 0.5 mm)
• Pilot Juice 0.38 mm in Coffee Brown
• Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4 mm in Kurikawa (Chestnut brown)

View fullsize

View fullsize

What do you think? To my eyes, Sarasa Clip’s Brown Gray looks ever so slightly lighter and more muted than the other two. Less “red” undertone, if you will. I’d say Coffee Brown has the warmest undertone, and that Brown Gray is “grayer” than Kurikawa but with a hint of a little more yellow. Again, on a casual glance, you might not see the difference, but when you put larger shaded areas side by side, you will be able to see the nuances of each color.

View fullsize

From left: Coffee Brown, Kurikawa, and Brown Gray.

I don’t usually like the “standard” brown colors found in many gel pen lines, so a soft brown like this Brown Gray has been a welcome addition to my pen cup. I really love the color, and I hope they never discontinue it. Good thing it’s different enough from Kurikawa and Coffee Brown, too!

View fullsize

Related Links

In case you’re wondering, the Sarasa Clip in vintage colors is identical to the Sarasa Clip in “regular” colors, except that the barrel is opaque and the label on the clip has changed slightly and is printed in gold. It’s a solid, dependable writer that I’ve been using for years now, and this particular color “Brown Gray” seems no different in terms of ink flow and performance. For reviews of the pen itself, here are some links:

• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm Review — The Finer Point
• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.5mm Review — The Pen Addict (by Jeff Abbott)
• Pen Review: Zebra Sarasa Clip — The Gentleman Stationer
• Review: Zebra Sarasa Clip, Gel Ink, 0.5mm | Pens and Junk

View fullsize

Updated Goal and Housekeeping #20161008

This post is to announce that I will be readjusting my goal here at Three Staples. I started this site more than 2 years ago with the goal of writing about every Field Notes COLORS edition in my possession. It sounded so simple. But what I didn’t realize then is that every season would bring a new edition that gets added to the to-do list, and that I wouldn’t write fast enough to reach that point where the only quarterly edition I’d have to cover is the newest one. I’ve been “catching up” by covering several old editions in between the newer ones, but I admit I’ve been feeling like I’m falling behind every quarter and guilty that I’m not “done” yet. That’s no fun. So I decided to draw the line somewhere.

That line is between Sweet Tooth (Spring 2016) and Byline (Summer 2016). My goal now will be to cover all COLORS editions that I have, up to and including Sweet Tooth, but excluding Expedition. I guess you can say Byline cemented my decision, as I simply couldn’t see myself writing about it any time soon, for lack of enthusiasm for it. While at it, I decided to throw in (out?) Expedition, too, for the same reason.

This doesn’t mean that I won’t be covering the newest quarterly editions. I enjoy writing about Field Notes, if you couldn’t tell by now, especially the ones I like. That’s why I set myself such a lofty goal in the first place. (Who knows, maybe one day I’ll change my mind and get to Byline and Expedition, too). But my first priority will be to finish everything up to Sweet Tooth. As it stands now, these editions are what's left: Just Below Zero, Mackinaw Autumn, Shelterwood, and Cold Horizon. Considering I wrote 7 FNC posts in 2015 and 5 so far this year (with a rough average of 18 hours per post), I project I'll be “done” some time early next year? 😅

Anyway, that’s what I'll be working on. In the meantime, here are some smaller updates to Three Staples:

• I updated my Field Notes rankings and added Lunacy to my collection gallery here. Byline isn’t ranked since I think it’s unfair to compare it to the rest of the COLORS editions. It’s in my gallery though, since that section is more of a visual reference and I’m being arbitrary.
• I’ve been updating the Field Notes by Theme page whenever I can, although it will be never be “complete”. Take a look in case you’ve never seen that corner of the site. I use it as a reference all the time.
• The FN item numbers post has also been updated with several new items, e.g. L.L. Bean, Chicago, Portland 3-packs, and Lunacy.

Hope you have a good and safe weekend, especially if you’re in the coastal areas.
♡ Jinnie