3Sixteen+ 721BSP Jeans

Black is the new black. Headbangers have always rocked the black. Punk rockers wear black leather, black All-Stars, and black makeup. Metallica's "commercial breakthrough" album? The black one. (OK, put the Metallica fan club pitchforks down, I know that their black album is considered to be a sellout album, and I personally prefer And Justice for All, Master of Puppets, and Ride the Lightning better, but this post ain't about Metallica's back catalog and, besides, The Unforgiven, Nothing Else Matters, and My Friend of Misery are pretty epic songs from the black album; admit it).

Back to black: last year I acquired a pair of raw black denim jeans. More specifically, I bought a pair of the 721BSP jeans, made in Japan by the brand 3Sixteen+ (which happens to be based in the United States, go figure). These jeans are made from super heavy material . . . 18 ounce denim to be exact. I believe that 18 ounces refers to the weight of one yard of the raw material, but that fact in and of itself is meaningless unless you know the width of the material. Whatever. So, I'm told that this black denim material is also unsanforized, unsinged, uncalendared, low viscosity sulfur dyed, and low tension slack weaved. I know that "unsanforized" is roughly equivalent to "shrink-to-fit", but I'm too lazy to look up any of those other terms. I do know that the 721BSP jeans were very black when new, and that they have held their color quite well since I purchased them. As Nigel Tufnel (lead guitarist for Spinal Tap) said: "There's something about this that's so black, it's like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black." Exactly.

These jeans have some interesting details that most people won't notice: gray stitching (see the picture above); six belt loops instead of the traditional five; leather patch without stitching on the vertical edges (which allows a belt to be passed under the patch); black stealth colored donut hardware for the button fly; and red + sparkly gold thread used in the selvedge.

The selvedge detail is intriguing. Although I don't usually cuff my jeans, I think you are supposed to roll them up to show off the awesome selvedge seams. Note that there is also a little piece of the same selvedge material in the coin pocket material. Nice touch.

Anyway, these jeans are very comfortable even though they are made from heavyweight denim. Although marketed as a slim fit, they are roomy enough in the "top block" (a new term I've recently learned) and are not too skinny in the legs. I probably should have gotten a size 30 instead of 31, but oh well.

I haven't worn these long enough or in enough extreme conditions to develop any interesting fading patterns or contrasting characteristics. I may follow up with some additional pictures if and when there is something interesting to show.

Mont Blanc + G2 Hack: Use With Caution

I learned about the Mont Blanc + G2 hack soon after I became interested in pens and other writing instruments. This hack is very popular, has been around for years, and many others have written about it (see, for example, here and here). I succumbed to the peer pressure and tried a black Mont Blanc rollerball refill (fine) in a Pilot G-Knock body, and a blue Mont Blanc rollerball refill (medium) in a Pilot G2 body.

Mechanically, both pens worked as advertised. I especially liked the feel of the additional weight of the Mont Blanc refill. Initially, both pens worked well and wrote smoothly, and I really liked the color of the blue refill. The medium blue refill was actually a little too wet for my liking; it would bleed through my standard office paper. Both pens performed in an awesome manner for a couple of weeks.

Why am I using the past tense here? Past tense is appropriate because both refills are no longer with me - they both started to dry out and skip on me after about two weeks. I admit that I didn't use the pens on a daily basis, or even regularly. That may be why they both started to dry out. I don't own a real Mont Blanc pen, but I suspect that they are capped to prevent the rollerball refills from clogging. I seriously doubt that both refills actually ran out of ink . . . my theory is that the tips just got all gunked up due to lack of use.

I enjoyed the pens while they lasted, but I won't be buying more Mont Blanc refills unless I can use them in a capped pen. I'm not certain that they were designed to be used in a retractable pen that leaves the tip open to the air.

All of that said, if you only use one pen at a time on a regular basis, then the Mont Blanc + G2 combo might work well for you. If not, then proceed with caution!