I might as well be the one to break this to people. The Monteverde Mega Ink Ball has arrived and in my opinion has blown away the Vanishing Point as a fat, comfortable, excellent, aesthetic pen.

Packaging: Gorgeous, solid black with a flip top that unveils a velvet cover inscribed with the Monte Verde logo. That lifts up to show a foam cover for all but the black Monte Verde Ink Bottle. Finally we get to the white interior which shows the color pen with 4 nibs in toto (3 extra and 1 with the body), and an owner's manual w/ all pertinent information. Overall, this is the kind of ultramodern packaging that you could display in your room without feeling embarrassed, somewhat like the Graf Von Faber-Castell line.

Nib: The much touted nib. Really decimates the rest of the FP crowd. Each nib is good for (reportedly) 1 km of writing. It features the obligatory rollerball but an airy section around it for ink suction. Solid construction that features an integrated, screwed in converter to prevent coming out accidentally, as happened with my erstwhile Phileas. Superficially, this does not differ much from what one would see on a rollerball or BP. However, the writing parts wheat from chaff.

Writing: I thought the VP was the standard for control when it came to Fountain Pens, or much else that sucked ink. When one uses the Mega Ink Ball, it flows with more control than what VP users are wont to. At the same time, it has none of the skittishness that accompanies FP's, nor the trouble starting that plagues BP's (not the oil company). It is a remarkably moderate writing experience where one does not have to force the writing. One can simply move the arm primarily and the hand secondarily to get an even flow. Since the pen does not slim down to anorexic proportions like the VP, I do not cramp my hands when writing for 5 odd minutes at a stretch. This would be perfect for those with arthritis. The thickness of the pen is as sturdy as the writing.

Pen itself: The pen comes in two shades of a dark chocolate black or light cherry. Naturally, I chose red because black has too much of a slimming effect. From the photos that Norman has provided, it looks rather dinky, like potatoes in a platinum dinner setting. But when considered with the packaging and all else, it achieves a good degree of style. Though some will complain about the fact that it must be unscrewed to be opened as opposed to lower end fountain pens which sometimes snap, retract, or be prompted with a button (a la VP), anyone who uses more than a reptilian brain when writing will not object to a capping system that is quite tight and not lacking in the least. I can find very few faults with the coloring or the MV logo on the end cap. The pen implies very dressed down tastes as well as a compromise. I believe that this pen will become a kind of belwether for the industry and may force everyone to re-evaluate what a true fountain pen, let alone rollerball is.

In conclusion the pen is like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs: Smoke, thunder, shock waves, and all left to re-adjust to a radically different world.

I will post writing samples quickly and in a subsequent post.

Thanks for your review. I have been waiting to try one.

Why 3 Rollerball nibs?

They seem to have given three extra rollerball, if you can call them that, nibs as well because it will be enough to tide a user over until they can offer refills. I really can only speculate because it seems strange to me that they would not already be offering replacement heads. Perhaps they are waiting to see consumer reaction, and also trying to find a number that is both sufficient as well as economical for all parties. I hope they do offer extra nibs without buying an extra pen. That would seem very calculating as well as money grubbing. But I will withhold judgement until further down the road.

Hmm. So do you think Man-In-Need kinda likes the new pen?

Thanks for the enthusiastic review! I'll look forward to the writing samples and the "in-progress" reports.

Petra

I apologize if the reviews seem rather fawning, but I write extemporaneously and I was wrapped up in the spirit of eulogizing the pen. In spite of all my inflated language, I still regard the pen as the best I have yet tried. I am trying to upload the photos from the Kodak digital camera, but the computer won't recognize the connection. When that happens, I will upload the photos. If anyone asks, say that my computer is suffering from a disease: Windows. I shall advise others to take up this pen and comment. The writing I have done so far has avoided the Jackson Pollock effect that occurs with a usual FP nib. HisNibs himself has praised it as a smooth write. I hope to hear other reactions.

I believe they buy the writing points from Borghini. Borghini invented the fountain pen ink rollerball. You can buy Borghini pens with the same writing point: in the U.S. they are known as Borghini Ink-O-Sphere pens.
They are very inexpensive and the writing experience is the same.....

Mega™ Inkball™ point: The world's first fountain pen with a rollerball tip and tungsten carbide ball. Worldwide patents pending. They are not the first rollerball to use fountain pen ink. If they bought the points from Borghini then I don't think they would be applying for patents.

Each Inkball™ point will last about one kilometer of writing! Sounds like they wear out rather quickly

color matched jewelry-grade chromium What does color matched mean?

a bottle of highest quality MonteVerde™ ink MonteVerde has never offered bottles to my knowledge. They only offer cartridges on their web site.

Hi Giovanni,

I hope this note finds you well. Your statement above is not quite correct. YAFA is the North American distributor of Borghini. Neither the filling system nor the writing experience are the same. Jerry Greenberg, the president of YAFA/Monteverde, assures me that the technology used is in the Mega*Ball and the Ink-O-Sphere are totally different. Monteverde spent 2 years developing the technology -- patents pending -- for the Mega luxury pens. He's on a plane flight as we speak, but gave me permission -- through his Blackberry before they closed the aircraft doors to quote him directly:

"Yafa is the exclusive North American distributor of Borghini. However the Mega Pen is not based on the Borghini system."

Hopefully this will clear up any confusion, but feel free to contact Monteverde directly at 1-800-YAFA-PEN if you have additional questions.

Regards,

Norman Haase
His Nibs.com
www.hisnibs.com
Blog: http://hisnibs.blogspot.com

Dear Norman,
far from me the wish to start a controversy.
As you know, I also import Borghini pens. My information is different from Jerry's. Perhaps my information is inaccurate, in which case, I apologise for the confusion. In any event, the tips are similar and provide a similar writing experience. Take care,
Giovanni

Hi Giovanni,

No problem. You and Yair will have to compare patent filings and have a 'write-off'

Thanks, Norm.
As always, you are a gentleman. I would like to make a statement for our FPN friends: I bought pens from Norm, his service is superb and the pens he sells are well made, interesting and excellent writers. I have some great Duke pens that I bought from hisnibs.com and I really enjoy them.
Highly recommended!

So I checked out Monteverde's web site after reading this review. Pardon my ignorance but I still feel confused. So the Mega Ink Ball pen is...a rollerball? That emulates a fountain pen? And comes with several "nibs" in case the rollerball points wear out?

How is this different from the rollerball pens that take fountain pen cartridges, like Pelikan's? I'm not raining on your parade; I'm curious because it sounds like a cool pen.

Hi Giovanni,

This could get embarrassing , but I've purchased from Gio in the past too, both for personal use and on behalf of my customers. As everybody knows, he's the best! Now, let's send each other pens in celebration of our mutual-appreciation society! The only bone I have to pick with you Gio, is that you copied me by marrying a beauty from the Far East . Teresa and I just had our 14th wedding anniversary this week (I'll send everyone our address so that you can forward expensive gifts)!

Hi Sonnet,

The wonderful and enthusiastic customer review that started this thread caused a little confusion with the word 'nib'.

I've hopefully explained it clearly on my website, but basically Monteverde refers to this as a fountain pen with a rollerball tip, in that it will not only take ink cartridges, but the included piston converter can be filled by drawing up bottled ink right through the tip, as in a 'nibbed' fountain pen. That's one of the ways it differs from the Borghini Ink-O-Sphere as I understand it (I've never seen the Borghini -- but I know that Giovanni will correct me if that's in error).

This bit of ad copy from Monteverde will hopefully clarify things further:



A fuller explanation is on my website.

AM I confused in assuming that the front end of this pen will wear out over time and need to be replaced?

Monteverde states that each tip will write for at least a kilometer (I hope they translate that into something a little more meaningful....I rarely use an odometer when I write). A total of four tips come with the pen -- largely so that one can use different ink colors without having to rinse out more than the converter, or just to be able to switch if using cartridges.

Replacement tips (which include the whole front section) will be available in 3-packs in the future, at $30.00 retail, and I'm sure discounted from that price through regular dealers.






Here's a close-up of the tip, my camera and my hand

Is Monteverde saying that the rollerball will write at least a kilometer per fill? I think Parker claims their ballpoints will write a mile.

No, to quote them directly:

Mega™ Inkball™ point: The world's first fountain pen with a rollerball tip and tungsten carbide ball. The Mega™ Inkball™ writing system gives you the ink flow of a fountain pen with the convenience and control of a rollerball. Each Inkball™ point will last about one kilometer of writing!

:doh: I remembered reading that. Who turned my brain off when I wasn't looking?

I am still confused as to whether the pen will write 1 km a fill or after that amount of writing the tip is trashed and you need a replacement. Your statement about using different tips is nice but why would replacement tips need to be sold?


K

I am certainly interested in this pen (very beautiful!); however, I'm going to hold-off to hear the final verdict after it's been used for a while. My concern is the replaceable front-end sections. From an economic standpoint, what's least expensive: traditional rollerball refill or the Monteverde unit? Other than my parker rollerballs, which **can be** the most scratchy, others I use are smooth-as-silk. That said, the use of "fountain pen ink" provides only some additional benefit.

Again, certainly a wonderful looking pen.

Paul

I sent an email to Yafa/Monteverde asking them to clarify the one kilometer life of the Inkball. I will post the reply as soon as I get it.

I don't get Monteverde's claim to be the first fountain pen with a rollerball point and their pending patents. I haven't seen GB Borghini's nor Monteverde's patents, so there may be something technical that distinguishes the difference between the Ink-O-Sphere and the Mega Ink Ball. I'll leave that alone for now though.

Based on the description the Ink-O-Sphere is a rollerball that uses fountain pen ink and the Mega Ink Ball is a fountain pen with a rollerball point.

First of all, let me say that I think that this is a very cool pen, and I'm definitely considering picking one of these up. (I have to write on triplicate forms at work, so FP's are not an option for me.) However, I am a bit unclear as to what the advantage of this pen is versus a conventional rollerball pen:

Is it just that the pen can be filled via a converter with standard fountain pen ink? Or is there something about the rollerball writing mechanism that is different from other writing systems?

Being able to write with my favorite FP ink, (currently Waterman Florida Blue,) is certainly an advantage. But as far as the writing experience, I guess I'm not seeing how this will be that much different than other good rollerball pens, (Waterman and Pelikan.)

TMann

Hey Tytyvyllus,
From what I've read online, its sounds like each point will be trashed after 1km, which really aint all that much writing! And even if the replacement tips are only $15 for a pack of 3, that's still a lot, considering that 1km of writing is probably in the less than 15 pages range (actually, this figure is total speculation ) The pen sounds cool, and could certainly be useful in certain situations (such as TManns) but ... I'm a FP man .

Hmm...

1km = 1,000,000mm, right?

My uppercase letters are roughly 5mm, lowercase roughly 3mm, so let's call the average character 7mm (does that seem fair?) once you get through all the twists and turns. In a large moleskine I average roughly 40 characters per line, 30 lines per page, giving us about 8400mm of text per page.

So mayhap we can guesstimate 1km = roughly 119 pages of text in my hand in a large lined 240 page moleskine.

A few more than 15 pages, but your point is still definitely well taken. Perhaps not so cost effective if their ad copy can be taken literally.

Ryan.

I guess I'm looking at near $200 for a pen who's tips need to be replaced. I guess it is closer to a rollerball than it is to a fountain pen. Interesting concept sort of like the J Herbib and Daniel Hechter pens that I've seen for sale.

K

From a cost point of view, most rollerballs are rather expensive to write with compared to an FP that fills from an ink bottle. **A standard Parker rollerball or gell refill costs $4 and $5, respectively. A Pelikan rollerball costs $6.60. A Waterman rollerball is $5.50. I don't know how many refills it would take any of these pens to write for 4 kilometers, but I would guess that the cost would be more than the cost of the Ink Ball's replaceable tips + ink.

TMann

**Prices from Pendemonium.com

Here is the reply to the email that I sent to Monteverde:

Hmm. Interesting.

Seems like a very reasonable, honest reply. I wish that the smaller pen in black, though... :doh:

TMann

Thanks Sidney. And thanks for doing the math drifting - its seems my totally speculative figure was indeed off the mark, especially if its 3km instead of 1!

Just a couple of additional facts from Monteverde....the point on the Mega is .7mm and replacement front sections/tips are available individually for $10.00 retail (it's no longer required to purchase a 3-pack).

I've stressed with them that it's necessary to come up with a write-out figure for the tips that isn't measured in kilometers . I'll post that information when I receive it.

Yes but if you really want the feel of a RB with FP ink then get a stylo tip in vintage or one of the Visconti modern versions. These don't have to be replaced after use.

K

This is all very interesting as I have been using a Kaweco Ink Roller for a few months, off and on, and found it an enjoyable writing experience.


This discussion peaked my interest so I stopped by the local Office Max and purchased a YAFA ink roller (Yellow plastic barrel and brushed chrome cap). The pen is struck "Italy" and "YAFA" on the clip and sold for ten USD with seven (7) international short cartridges in various colors. From the system point it seems to function well but I have not used it enough to form an opinion on it. I am pretty sure given the price that this YAFA, like the Kaweco, is a disposable. Once the ball is gone, the pen goes to the parts box. It will be interesting to see how long they last and if the YAFA's smoothness improves to that of the Kaweco when I switch to Pelikcan or Herbin cartridges.

I bought a Levenger inkball pen five or six years ago, and a package of four replacement points that appear to be fine, medium, and large (two are marked "5", one is marked "12" and the other is marked "15", visually it looks like the 5s are the smallest and the 15 is the largest, but I really don't know -- there are no other markings on the points). The pen is a cartridge fill only. Levenger expressly stated that the points would wear out, and that's what the replacements were for.

I have no idea who made the pens for Levenger, or what the provenance of the idea may be. I do, however, know from experience that the inkball points wear out over time. I'm actually still on the original point, and it has gradually become "rougher." It now sometimes leaks a little ink around the ball, so I'm about to replace it. When I run out of points, the pen goes in the trash (Levenger no longer offers the pen, and I have no idea where to find replacements). I rotate all my pens, and write with a light touch. If all the balls last as long as the first one, the remaining four may just last longer than I will. No idea how many kilometers, miles, furlongs, or pages the current point has written. I do know I've gone through at least a couple of dozen Levenger "large" cartridges with this one point, and a lot of Notabilia and Circa pages.

I also own a Kaweco rollerball, modified to be an "eyedropper inkball pen" by Nathan Tardiff. It uses Noodler's American Eel ink, per Nathan's recommendation. The lubrication seems to help, and maybe it will make for a longer life for the point. The Kaweco rollerballs do not come with replacement tips, and on the other hand, they are not especially expensive. My Kaweco rollerball came from Chuck Swisher, for what it's worth -- I believe he has an exclusive on them, although I hear you can buy a Kaweco rollerball anywhere they are sold and do the modifications yourself.

YMMV, but my opinion is that you should enjoy the experience of writing with one of these inkball pens for howsoever long it lasts, and not worry overmuch about having a rollerball that will last as long as a fountain pen (ain't going to happen as long as rollerballs have that moving part up there on the part of the pen that is under most pressure when in use).

I'm not moved to buy the Monteverde. The economics are not to my liking and I have lots of really nice fountain pens (plus two inkballs and some Parker and Lamy rollerballs) in the rotation.

(Edited to get all the facts about the Levenger right.)

Great review and thread, thanks guys!

RE: Monteverde Mega Ink Ball, Kaweco Sport eydropper, Borghini Ink-O-Sphere/Yafa cartridge rollerball.

Since all of these pens have been mentioned in this thread and since I own all of them, I thought I would comment on my experiences with them.

The Bottom Line: Where the rollerball hits the paper, they are all essentially the same. The rest (which is nothing to scoff at) is aesthetics, filling mechanics, and overall writing experience. Why do I say this? Consider this: The Kaweco Sport and the Ink-0-Sphere are both about fifteen bucks, and the Mega Ball replacement head runs about ten bucks. So despite the initial price difference, at the point of contact, you're getting about the same level of financial investment from manufacturer and purchaser. One may reasonably conclude, then, that you are getting about the same level of quality.

That said, I would not give up my Mega Ball, and none of the pictures do this pen justice. It is just beautiful, big, and comfortable. Plus, it is a better overall writing experience than the other two. All of which makes it worth the higher price IMHO.

Some particulars:

1. The Borghini Ink-O-Sphere is about sixteen bucks. You can get the same pen from Office Depot (with the Yafa name on the clip) for about eleven, but your color choices are limited. I ordered mine from Parkville Pen; the service was excellent. This pen is very well-designed and well manufactured. Nothing rattles on it, and it snaps closed well and posts fine. The body is plastic; the cap is brushed steel. Aesthetically, a very nice pen. What impressed me about the design is that the body has a steel band near the tail, so posting will not scar the plastic of the body. Due to the steel cap, it has good heft to it, especially when posted. It is a very well balanced pen and comfortable to write with. I would say that it is a medium-sized pen in length and girth, about the size of a Pelikan 600. It takes cartridges, and the body holds a spare cartridge, which puts a little pressure on the 'loaded' cartridge keeping it secure, but the spare does not rattle around in the body like some other pens that allow one to carry a spare. Perhaps somebody out there has figured out a converter that would work in this pen – you’d have to fill the converter before putting it in the pen, though, which is doable. In short, I just love this pen for short writing burst of less than a paragraph (anymore than that, and I'm using a fountain pen). Left uncapped, it does not dry out. It is a great, unobtrusive daily user.

2. I purchased my Kaweco Sport eyedropper from Swisher Pens. I believe they have the exclusive on the eyedropper version. The idea of an eyedropper pen for a rollerball is just cool. It also takes cartridges. The writing experience of this pen reminds me of the Parker rollerballs. It just feels the same. However, this pen is too light and too small for me to really love it. It would be smaller than a Pelikan 200. Furthermore, it looks like a pen for a child in school, so I avoid using it in public (not wanting to impugn my manhood!). But it is well designed and fun to write with, and, of course, it holds a ton of ink. It does not dry out, even after being uncapped for a long time. I use it for very short burst of writing and text underlining. It would be a good bang around pen for a bookbag or a pants pocket.

3. The Mega Ink Ball: I love this pen because I love big fat oversized pens, and because it does what it says it will do. With style. It just is a beautiful pen to look at, pleasurable to hold, and very well designed. Plus, a rollerball that draws ink from a bottle is pretty cool. Of the three, this is the most comfortable to write with not only because of the size, weight, and balance of the body but also because the rollerball tip seems to have a bit of 'cushion' to it, which I think is due to the mechanism (a rubberish gasket around the tip of the pen) that allows it to draw ink from a bottle. There is no need to post the Mega Ball because the cap is small and the pen on its own is big enough. This pen is too big to be a pocket pen, although it will impress others in a meeting or elsewhere. Mine never leaves the desk since I have yet to find an adequate carrying case. Also, the ink flows a bit better with the Mega Ball than with the others. But make no mistake, none of these pens can compare to a wet-writing fountain pen for overall comfort (IMHO). But as far as rollerballs go, it does not get much better than this. Like the others, this writes instantly after being left uncapped, even for long periods.

My advice for anyone who, like I was, is on the fence about whether or not to purchase the Mega Ball: Try the Borghini or the Kaweco to get a sense of what the Mega Ball is like when the point touches paper. I say this with the caveat that the Mega Ball will be a better overall writing experience – both aesthetically and functionally – than both.

I've included a scan of all three pens in action (plus a couple of my favorite disposable rollerballs) for point-size comparisons. I would say that they are all about a .7. I'll post a picture (in order to assess relative size) of all three later. Note: The scan is pretty washed out. The inks all look much lighter than they really are, but you get the idea of point size. (This post was edited for accuracy of the information.)

I think we can do this for ourselves:

- A letter takes about 1 cm of ink
- A word is 5 letters
- So 1 metre of ink is 20 words, and a kilometre is 20,000 words... call this 100 pages of handwritten A4.

To finish out my mini-review of these pens, this picture shows the relative size of the pens compared to other pens you might be familiar with. (I apologize for the poor quality of the picture.)

From left to right: Monteverde Mega Ink Ball, Dani Trio Takumi (it’s the same size as a MB 149), Borghini Ink-O-Sphere, Pelikan M600 (from the very early 90’s, so I believe it is smaller than current production M600s), and, finally, the Kaweco Sport.

You can see that the Mega Ink Ball truly is Mega. But it is very comfortable to write with. Also, seeing it here, the Borghini is a bit larger than I thought.

That was a good exposure of facts in your review Sazerac, thanks for it.. and yes the Mega is really too mega...

I guess that the definition of 'writing' might even vary. Instead of trying to figure out the actual length of path travelled by the pen tip - I assumed that when someone spoke of a Km of writing, he meant 1 Km of script. So, taking similar figures to yours 30 lines per page, 6" per line I ended up with 15' per page, and approximately 218 pages per Km.

Since the pens might run up to three times that, one could guess 200 - 600 pages for the lifetime of the tips.

Not FP performance (at least not an Iridium point), but not quite disposable.

Note that the calculations assume a rather full page. Unusual for most people on the average.

Regards,

Gerry

Sunday's electronic edition of the paper is now available, containing the article "A Flowing Compromise With a Nod to Elegance", linked below (this might require free registration to view -- I'm not sure as I *am* registered smile.gif ).

For those who get the physical paper, the article is in the Business Section, 'Your Money' subsection, and under the column 'Novelties' by Anne Eisenberg.

Link to New York Times article

I own 3 Daniel Hechter Inkrollers and 2 Herbin stylo-rollers.

I bought replacement heads for the Hechter ink rollers when I bought them. After many years of use on very rought paper, I'm still using the original head of my first Hecter. I just bought the Herbin.

The Hechter's inkrollers are painted metal, beautiful pens. The Herbin's are light plastic easier to carry around without fearing denting them.

I do plan to buy the Ink O Sphere as well, probably in a fun color to use with a matching color ink.

I use the Hechter with Waterman Florida Blue and I recommend ink with nice flowing properties for all fountain pen ink rollers.

I fill the converter and put it in the pen then I give a small turn to make sure the ink is flowing in the roller mechanism. (Do this over the sink or a stack of paper towel)

I have yet to replace the traditional rollerball refill on my Lamy Safari but I think that replacing traditonnal rollerballs with cartridge/converters inkrollers is much more economical.

I tried to hold of the Monteverde Mega Ink Ball at the D.C. pen show, but I was like doing weight for my fingers.

The vendor was nice enought to cup his hand under mine so I wouldn't drop the very expensive pen.

MONTEVERDE

Check the new MEGA Inkball LE
It is an LE of 1999 pieces with interchangable front nib secitons and caps. In a yellow - black combination.






Understand that the list price is to be $225


More information available on our my website -
www.penseller.com


=
=

I'm still waiting on my Monteverde Mega. It's still on backorder. I love rollerball pens and I'm looking forward to this one.

Barry

Seeing as I have FP's decades old w/o requiring anything other than a flush, this pregnant-looking Mega doesn't impress as a good buy. The Master Renew nibs on my Esterbrook pens continue to serve for a minimal price, and beautifully, too. I use RB's and gel refills in a couple of Parker pens but they don't last that long. I'm grateful to the members for the information on the Mega as I'd been interested. Reminds me of the felt tips that several manufacturers introduced in the 60's, the ones that used conventional cartridges--and the felt tips deteriorated into mush like the early Flair pens did. I write a heck of a lot in the course of my work, and a kilometer doesn't sound like a lot of mileage for $10. I'll wait for the next step in technology; I don't have to have the newest car on the block.

You mentioned in another site that this could topple the FP. Here, you make reference to the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.
You seem to have a gripe against fountain pens, and use the VP as the standard of reference for FP's.
This pen offers a limited ink supply, no line variation, and restricted nib lifespan.
A good fountain pen holds a lot of ink, makes your writing look beautiful, comes in your choice of nib widths, and most nibs last a lifetime.
My standards of reference for this purpose are my 1934 Vac Burgundy Oversize or senior or whatever, with a semi-flex juicy Mottishaw tuned B-Stub nib, and my father's 149, which he has been using for close to 50 years, non-stop.
The VP is certainly not my cup of tea. Uncomfortable to hold, noisy dry-ish nib. Converter.
If you want to go head-to-head with the dinosaurs, go for the big guys, and make sure your meteor is hot. This one is not.

I was disaapointed with the Mega ball on three counts: it seemed to write no better then the Daniel Hector I bought several years ago which uses a cartridge, 2) the use of a converter rather then a regular piston fill system, and 3) it felt like insubstantial akin to a Reform

I think this pen is being miscast- it’s not a fountain pen, nor will it ever be. The similarity is only in the ink- which is not saying much.

Every roller ball wears out. Every one. It’s just that most have a fixed ink supply, and the roller outlasts the ink so you don’t notice. I pay about $5 for Lamy M66 roller refills for my Swift- so all the ink ball has to do is last twice as long as a M66 refill and the cost is the same (presuming ink cost is marginal). Meanwhile, I get to write in my favourite shade.

The smaller and more practical Ink Ball is available for ~115 US from some sources, which is not grossly out of keeping with other nice roller ball bodies- and it’s got some nice perks over a standard roller.

What I’m trying to suggest is that the Inkball isn’t so much more dearly priced than a fine roller ball, and you might like it better. I don’t intend to ever give up my fountains, but sometimes a roller is just more practical!

Lets not compare apples and oranges!

-Ryan

I think the ink-ball is interesting but I agree with many of you who find the fact that the tip/ carbide ball wears out a bit disappointing. How does one know when that time is? Does the pen suddenly discharge its fill of ink on the paper in one huge blob?

I for one like the fact that a FP nib gets better with time/age and that I do not need to worry about it wearing out in my lifetime. Granted, ink sacs and converters do wear out but they are inexpensive and easy to replace.

All that being said I am always fascinated by new things and would be curious to see writing samples and line widths once you have a chance to post them. As always thank you for giving us something to talk and think about!

Best Regards!

I had a very bad experience with the MEGA ink ball pen

I purchased a Yellow limited edition in January 2007. Right out of the box, three out of four writing points did not work - they all were skipping. I called YAFA technical support when I discovered the problem with the first to verufy that I was doing everything correctly. Tried several inks: Monteverde, supplied with the pen, Parker Quink, Noodler's, and cartridges also supplied with the pen; nothing helped.

Had to send the three writing sections for repairs right away. They came back without skipping, but one of those sections - - and I checked them all given my previous experience - now was leaving too much ink on paper; the lines were broader compared to the other sections and the feeling when writing with it was quite different. My impression was that the ball became a bit loose in its socket. That one went right back for repairs.

In the meantime, the only one of the four sections that initially worked started drying out after just several written lines. And that with a very occasional usage. Had to rotate the converter every such occasion to provide more ink. Very frustrating. And when the last section that I sent for repairs came back, it had exactly the same problem, but more severe - it would write just several words before drying out. All of this happened in less than a month from my purchase.

At that point I've had enough of this pen and simply sent it back to the retailer.