The Morning Glory, Mach 3 was one of the first pens that presented itself when I went digging in my stash. The one I have is an emerald green that lays down the same color ink. It has a nice form factor, with a decent balance and is somewhat reminiscent of a semi-skeleton or semi-demonstrator fountain pen. It is, however, a liquid ink rollerball. That means it has a body filled with ink and dispenses it through a ball mechanism on the tip.
The Mach 3 Pen Stats
Model: Mach 3
Make: Morning Glory
Type: Liquid Ink Rollerball
Tip Size: 0.38mm
Body Material: Plastic
Tested On: Kokuyo Lined, Rhodia Dotted & Staples Lined Paper
The Pictures
You’ll have to excuse my terrible photography skills. I haven’t done anything photography related in almost a decade. I’ve tried to get the nicest, clearest and decently lit photos I could!
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Tip
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Staples Lined
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Rhodia Dotted
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Kokuyo Lined
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Cap Off
Morning Glory, Mach 3, Body
Review of the Mach 3 Pen
The Morning Glory, Mach 3 pen has a nice glide for the most part. It dispenses a consistent line the majority of the time and the emerald green is vibrant and pleasant. One of the reasons why I test on lower quality lined paper as well as the higher quality papers is because some of these pens might end up surprising me in a write test. The Mach 3 is one such pen.
It laid the most even line on the Staples Lined Paper, and struggled a little bit on the Rhodia. It was mostly consistent on the Kokuyo, but I have to admit that its best and most consistent test came out on the lowest quality paper I tested it on, which just so happens to be the Staples. Happily, the chances of most people writing their notes on Rhodia or Kokuyo are less than people writing their notes on a sheet of Hillroy or Staples brand. The pictures above will show how it did on the Rhodia, you can see it struggled on ‘achieved’, ‘know’ and the loops, the Kokuyo went mostly well until it got to ‘that’, the loops and ‘fastly’.
The pen is a little tiring to hold if your grip has it resting on your middle digit. This only happens to me at around the half hour mark though. It’s a full plastic body, and the grip is of the same material. The sizing and weight are fine, tending to be a little lighter than most of the pens I have. Something about the grip doesn’t allow it to be comfortable in my hand. Though, I’m always of the opinion that what feels good to me might not be true for someone else, so always take my grip impressions with a grain of salt until you try it yourself.
I’m overall pleased with the Mach 3. It’s a nice feeling writer that’s mostly consistent and the line quality is pretty good. Generally what I noticed with these liquid ink pens is that if you don’t have a very quick writing speed, the lines will tend to be more consistent and you won’t experience any skipping as you go. Another thing that I might be experiencing here is the slant at which I tend to hold my pens, if you angle the pen so that it’s a bit more perpendicular to the paper, you might get a better consistency in line quality.
I love the color of the emerald green I have and this line comes in black, blue, green, lime green, red, orange, pink light blue, purple and more. The color selection alone is a winner in my book. Mach 3s sell for $2.00 each so you can freely experiment with colors or even get one to try out and see if it will fit your writing style. At the moment, I’m unaware of the Morning Glory, Mach 3 pen having any other tip size than 0.38mm, which most people would consider to be a fine line.
Available On:
Amazon, Morning Glory Mach 3 Roller Ball Pen – 0.38 mm-Fine Point Tip (Pack of 12)
Jet Pens, Selection of Morning Glory Mach 3 Rollerball Pens