The Grog Metal Head steel tip graffiti marker is proclaimed by its makers over at Grog
to be the war hammer! They claim that it will write where other markers will fail!
And i think it is time that we call grog out on that claim and take a look at the grog
metal head steel tip graffiti marker in a full tagging test
and, more importantly, a surface test to really see if this thing can write on concrete,
wet surfaces, rust, and the like as they proclaim so prominently. So, let's get right to it!
All right guys, it is time to meet the grog metal head here. I'm just going to tell you the stuff
that you need to know now before we head over to our surface testing area and start throwing some
tags up, and then i'll fill you in on the rest while we start to see this grog metal head here
in action on all the different surfaces i mentioned before. And here is what is important
about it: The grog metal head comes with a four mm steel tip ball point and it comes with a 60 ml
reservoir here to hold the paint. The reservoir is squeezable beyond belief. Right on the grog site
it says "don't be afraid to squeeze this marker" and that is exactly what we are going to do my
friends. It's about as carriable as just about any 60 ml marker. In my experience it fits well
enough in a sort of loose jeans pocket but it's certainly a lot nicer to carry around in say like
a jacket pocket, something like that. If you're wondering about the paint in these bad boys, YES,
the answer is yes, this is the very best smelling paint you've ever smelled. Oh wait... that wasn't
that wasn't what you were wondering? Oh... that's weird, huh. But more seriously,
it comes filled with the ruff stuff paint. It's an ultra thick paint by grog that comes
in 11 different colours. You could get the grog metal head itself in any of those colours or
refills in 120 ml bottles. There is plenty more about the grog metal head that i will
tell you about but we're gonna wait and do that in a more practical setting while we start to tag up
some subscribers names who have asked me for a hit off in a video, here on the channel. If you
want all the important info though on these grog metal heads, the pros, the cons, how they compare
to some other metal heads, i do have a video talking about the best metal heads that i have
ever used where i compare quite a few of the steel tip graffiti markers, like this one, based on my
experiences with them. Stay tuned; i'll link you to that video later, but for now let's get to it.
Okay so we are going to start off right on this nice smooth
surface with these grog metal heads and get progressively rougher, in terms of the surfaces.
Ss we go today, you're gonna see some tags done in foundry orange, lamborghini yellow and a mix
of slimer green and the foundry orange at some point. But after we have done plenty of tags
with the grog metal heads here, since i have used this product for over five years now and since we
really do try and keep these reviews completely honest here on the channel, you guys know that,
i'll be able to tell you afterwards my experiences with the grog metal heads and the ruff stuff
paint. How are they going to hold up in the street and freight environment? Will this grog
metal head break down? Will the ruff stuff paint fade. What are the cons of it? All that kind of
stuff we will cover and i'll be able to give you definite answers to those because i have so much
data basically from using this over a long long period of time. And if you do appreciate
the honesty i try and inject into these reviews, feel free to hit the subscribe button. It helps me
sustain the content on this channel and it gives a much better chance of appearing on your youtube
homepage for you to watch, if you're interested. But, like i said we'll start off on the smooth
surface here and we will move to the rougher ones as we go. So, let's get to the tags!
So where to start with this grog metal head. Well, the first thing you need to know is just it is the
supreme leader of squeezability here in terms of at least metal heads. You can tell how much
I'm squeezing, i'm squeezing it right in half, especially with some of the tags that i'm doing
when it's getting a little low. In terms of how squeezable it is, just to give you guys an idea,
if you've ever used like the otr soul tip 004 or the 003, this is about the same as one of those.
I described the soultip 003 in my review of it as more like a sack of paint rather than a mop,
and this is a very similar situation. And they need to do that with this specifically because
the ruff stuff paint inside it is so thick you can tell there's not too many drips on
any of these tags I'm writing. And you should be able to see exactly how much i am squeezing. So
it's not like i'm not giving it the opportunity to drip. It's just that paint is so thick. It
just sticks to itself. The binder in it must be super super heavy duty or something like that;
i don't know. But that's just the kind of paint it is and personally i think it's a great choice
of paint that grog has made for this particular type of marker. I think it works quite well. So,
obviously you get that nice three dimensionality in your lines and drips with a thicker paint like
you would with any. What you might not expect that is something super super standout-ish
about the grog metal head here is with the ruff stuff paint it's actually one of the glossiest
paints you will get. I'll try and show you some good shots that i got of it, but it's
just glossy beyond belief. Even after it dries it's still quite glossy. And how that gloss holds
up over time? Well, we'll talk about that later when i'm talking about my experiences with it.
In terms of the ball bearing, on smooth surfaces this rolls like a dream, partly because the ball
bearing is a bit of a bigger one, that helps out of course, but the other part of that is because
the spring is so loose which just gives it an extra bit of - it's almost like if you if you're
driving a huge pickup truck with huge suspension instead of a tiny little car. The ball bearing
while it's rolling across whatever surface it just has that extra give to make it nice and
smooth. The paint itself: nice and vibrant. When you combine colours like i sort of did, you know
you get a bit of a dirtier looking colour, but it maintains that shininess and that to me is not
unexpected, but it's really nice to see still. I know i'm talking a lot about the paint and usually
i don't do that in these reviews so much because you can fill these with just about anything,
but specifically for this metal head this paint itself is so specialized that i do feel sort of
compelled to comment on it a little more than i would if we were taking a look at something else.
And i actually have a way to prove to you exactly how long ruff stuff paint lasts on a surface,
on a metal outdoor surface, on rusted over metal outdoor surface. So, we'll be taking a look at
that later as well writing on rougher surfaces like cement and stuff like that that are not
finished, they're not this nice glossy smooth testing area surface we have; the more real
surfaces, the ones that most graffiti writers at least are probably going to be writing on
more commonly. You do have to write slow of course and that's the big drawback with these metal heads
that i think turn a lot of writers away from them. Aside from the fact that it's a very very
different feel for mops. I myself, even though i've used these quite a bit throughout the years,
i still feel awkward using them. Like i'd still rather be using a mop and i feel like i can write
better styles with a mop compared to this stuff. But the sort of slowness that you get on those
rougher surfaces is just a consequence of it being a rougher surface, whether you like it or not.
I think the main thing about the rougher surfaces is that this thing still spits the paint out,
which is assisted by how springy that spring is, like i talked about earlier with my really weird
comparison to like a pickup truck versus a little car. So, it allows that paint to really pour out.
And to me personally, i really think there's something sort of beautiful about
how glossy the paint is specifically when you see it on old rusty surfaces or rough concrete,
things like that. It's a very stark contrast that i think works really really well when
you have that sort of three-dimensionality, and it all comes together. That's just my opinion.
I don't know. So, after seeing the grog metal head perform and seeing how it tags, we've got a pretty
good idea of how the grog metalhead can perform at its best. But i still haven't proven to you guys
exactly how long this ruff stuff paint can last in an outdoor environment. And i've
had a chance to revisit some of my old tags that i did with the grog metal head so i can
show you exactly how long the ruff stuff paint lasts and tell you about some of the cons of
this that you want to be aware of if you're looking to pick one of these up for yourself. So,
if you are looking to pick one of these up, it's a good thing you're still watching.
Right now i'm going to do two things. The first of those being i'm going to tell you some of the cons
of this grog metal head that you'll notice only by using it over long periods of time. Secondly,
i'm going to show you exactly how fade resistant and weatherproof the ruff stuff paint that comes
in this grog metal head actually is. That'll sort of put it in perspective if you do want
to try this mop out for yourself, which i will link you to in the description by the way. So,
largely the grog metal head here does everything that grog claims it will do, but there are some
cons to it that you should be aware of. And this is why i find it especially important to sort of
review a lot of times graffiti products that i've been using for a long time, because these
are all problems that you don't notice using it right away, right off the bat, and i think that's
also why a lot of other reviews on youtube of various graffiti products might not necessarily
be the most helpful or necessarily accurate. But the cons of this: First one, the neck
buckling. This is something that you'll notice over time as the plastic starts to give way a
little bit. Every time you take this cap off and put it back on, the cap stays on when it's on,
but it's because it takes that much force to get it on there. And the plastic here is soft enough
and the neck will start to buckle on this marker. With this older one you can see i can push this
right down now and that's very irritating. To combat that, try and keep this little bit clean.
Try and keep the inside of the cap clean. That helps it come on and off much easier. Obviously
it's a bit bulky. That's certainly not a pro, so i should say it now. But now we get to the big con
of these, and that is the ball bearing. The ball bearing will have trouble in three ways. One:
the spring is loose enough that sometimes it'll get jammed under and you actually have to take
it apart and like poke a pen up in there to like resurface the ball bearing. That can be
irritating. It ruins your mop until you can bring it home and fix it. Secondly, the ball bearing on
occasion will chip. On occasion as well it will just completely break and fall out. That's what
happened to this one here. I'm sure i can show you a shot of what it looks like with the ball
bearing being sort of caved in. With regards to the ruff stuff paint like you saw earlier,
those tags that were done on rust were actually done over five years ago! And in a video i did
a while back i revisited those exact tags after five plus years to see how they were holding up
being in normal outdoor weather. If you want to check that video out it compares a whole bunch of
paints and inks and sees exactly how weatherproof they have been over a long period of time. So,
if you don't believe me go and check out how well this has held up over time in that video linked in
the corner or the description. In my opinion it's one of the very best videos i've ever done on this
channel and it never really got any traction on youtube so it's a bit of a hidden gem for those
of you to look at who are still here watching. But, the bottom line is this grog metal head has
a ton of potential, at least i feel it does, but it's important to be aware of those cons that i
was mentioning to help you avoid them if you are gonna use this and help this last longer for you,
and you'll get more out of it. So, hopefully that helps you out. Feel free to check out that video
i mentioned comparing many many many paint in ink formulae in terms of their weatherproofness.
That'll be on screen now. I hope to see you over there quite soon! Until then, peace!