Introduction to Pen Spinning

Welcome to Pen Spinning!

This hobby is as rewarding as it is time-consuming, but this guide aims to help you get your footing and save you some effort.

What to spin

Experienced spinners typically spin Pen Mods, which are usually made from pen parts. They tend to be longer and heavier than regular pens and pencils, with better weight distribution and grips for performing wipers.

Pen Mods are not required to start pen spinning. An unsharpened pencil or regular pen (the longer the better) can be used early on.

Regular pens and pencils

Pentel RSVP Fine black

You'll want a pen with a rounded barrel, with a decent length and weight. Small retractable pens like a Pilot G2 are usually too short, while cheap pens like a Bic Crystal are hexagonal, light and difficult to spin.

The best common pens you can find for spinning are:

• Bic Round Stic (You can make a Bictory from this)
• Pentel RSVP (You can make an RSVP CX or RSVP V2 from this)
• Nitoms Stalogy
• Uni-ball Signo
• Crayola Supertip
• Pentel Hybrid Gel Grip

For pencils, you want an unsharpened round pencil, usually without an Eraser. If you have pencils with erasers, you can remove the eraser from one and place it onto the front of another to make a Double Eraser Mod.

DIY Basic pen mods

A Bictory with grips

If you want a better start, you can make a pen mod to start with. The most common basic mods are the Bictory, RSVP CX and the Paper Mod. The Paper Mod notably handles a lot better than the previous two mods and is surprisingly durable, with the obvious downside that it's made of paper.

You can also devise a pen mod yourself based on some simple rules. You want the pen mod to be at least 17cm long, it should be balanced close towards the center of the barrel, and the weight should be focused on the ends. Common ways to add weight include taping pen tips, screws, ball bearings and small bolts to the ends of the pen. Lastly, you'll probably want grips on the ends to help with wipers, these can be pulled off of many pens, particularly gel pens, and pushed onto your mod.

The simplest way to make any pen mod yourself is to find two identical markers with caps and put a cap on each side. This works for a surprising amount of pens and provides a good base to add weight and grips on the ends. If the caps are insecure you can put some tape under them to squeeze them on tighter.

Factory-made mods

Nope Elements

Most factory mods are of low quality and spin poorly. You'll commonly find screwed in tips and backplugs which are susceptible to rattling, hard grips that decay quickly and bad weight distribution.

There are only a few exceptions to this:

• Nope Element and Nope Field are excellent, pro-quality pens that you can buy for low prices. They tend to break in the middle section if abused too much.
• SpinPros and SpinSticks are decent, if simple.
• Certain FingerDance "ZW" pens are fairly good for their price.

Most factory pens you'll find are made by Zhigao. Zhigao only manufactures one high quality pen, the Zhigao Kay Limited Edition, while the rest are plagued with the issues previously described. They're cheap and marketed towards children in China for only $1-2, it's strongly recommended not to buy them.

Another common pen type is a cheap "stick with grips and tips" that many non-name Chinese manufacturers make. Usually they are too heavy, the grips are cheap pipe and the barrels are of an inferior plastic that may be too center heavy.

If you buy a factory mod with rattling issues, you can try to fix it using teflon tape. Wrapping it around the screw threads before screwing the parts back in prevents the screws coming loose and prevents unpleasant rattling when spinning.

Regular pen mods

The Menowa* VGG or the Ivan Mod are decent choices for beginners, due to their length and weight being significant, but not overwhelming compared to pens further up the scale. In addition, they are also some of the cheapest and simplest mods that can be bought, with high durability. They are sometimes used in tournaments by pro spinners, and are good for a variety of spinning styles.

Historically beginners were recommended lighter mods on a progressive scale towards longer and heavier mods as they became more experienced. This has been largely rejected by the community as there's no evidence for lighter mods helping to build control or learn tricks better. In fact, buying a very light or short mod can make it incredibly difficult to learn new tricks and demotivate newer spinners. Some videos are still up that recommend lighter mods like the RSVP MX and Metallic Comssa.

DON'T BUY A WATERFALL MOD. Or a flying panda for that matter. These two mods are short, have poor weight distribution and are very expensive for what they give you. The reynolds caps are also prone to brittle fractures, causing the signo tips to come free. You are almost always better off getting an Ivan Mod or, if you really can't stand the extra weight, a Hash Comssa. Both of these options are cheaper, more durable and handle much better.