There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
To answer your question, when I was in school I gravitated toward technical pens loaded with inks designed for drafting. I've still got a set of Koh-I-Noor pens with some ink still left in the original bottle. The ink dries incredibly quickly, and once dried, is pretty impervious. For drafting, technical illustration, or inking pencil drawings, it means you can erase the pencil lines after inking without smudging anything. For a leftie like me, it means by the time my hand drags over the ink, everything is already dry so nothing smudges.
But they're not without their problems. I live at 2,500' above sea level, but routinely work at 14,000'. The pressure change is enough to make these pens dump ink everywhere. The same thing happens if you take them on an airplane without emptying and cleaning them first. These days I mostly use whatever pen I have in my bag, and smudge away. :/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J5MBKW/ref=asc_df_B001J5MBKW5228989
I see what you mean about the price. Cripes, on Blick it's well over $100USD! I got mine something like thirty years ago for just under half that.
Before getting that set I used to pick them up onesy-twosey from the Texas Art Supply in Houston whenever they'd discontinue a line of pens. I wish I still had those. At one point I picked up a ruby-tipped 2x0 for under $20. I can't remember if it was a Koh-I-Noor or if it was a Staedlter Mars. Fantastic pen, though. Since I only used it for writing, the single width was plenty.
One other pain-in-the-rear about these. At one point I loaned the set to my daughter, who's an artist, with strict instructions to empty and clean them when she wasn't going to use them for a while. Turns out she left them with ink in them for a couple of years, then returned them to me. They were dried solid. I wound up running them through an ultrasonic cleaner for close to eight hours before I got them clean. I love how they write, but to be honest they're pretty needy pens.
How do the Jetstream inserts write? I've had chronic problems with roller-ball pens since they first came out. Some of the newer ones with gel inks work better for me, but the original designs all seemed to not write, or to just gush ink on the page. Not much in between. I think it had something to do with the angle at which I held them, but I could just never get them to work. Are the Jetstream inserts pretty forgiving?
This is a good overall introduction from the same site: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/pens-writing-supplies-for-the-left-handed/pt/891
Note they're all extremely low-cost but are super easy to use. Jetpens is the only Stateside distributor I know of that ships them (otherwise you have to get them in Japan or get an Amazon third-party order--good luck with that).
If you want a really nice pen, they recommend this one from Pilot: https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Custom-912-Fountain-Pen-Black-Body-Waverly-Nib/pd/17586 and I guess this ink is really quick-drying: https://www.jetpens.com/Noodler-s-Bernanke-Black-Ink-3-oz-Bottle/pd/16577
You're right. The Jetstream inserts write incredibly smoothly. No problem with smearing ink under my hand as I write, and I love how easily you can tailor them to the kind of writing you want to do. I'm not 100% happy with the gel insert I have right now (too light for me to read easily), but I've got red for editing, black and blue for writing, and a pencil insert.
This thing has swiftly become my favorite pen. Thanks again!