I own three VP's and love writing with them. They're just so ... practical. In my job as a consultant I do a lot of note taking/writing. Last week, after a busy day, my thumb felt a little sore: it felt almost as if a blister was beginning to form. I did not pay any attention to it and kind of wondered where this irritation (pain is too big a word) came from. On the second evening, my thumb was really hurting. Only then did I make the association with the writing I had been doing with the VP. I grabbed my pen and kind of checked out where this irritation came from. I found that it is not the clip that caused it, but the seam between the body and the nib section is the culprit. Mind you, I still love these pens, but for me they are not ideal for extended periods of intensive writing.