has to be roller ball pens or felt tip pens. ]

Please tell how the conversion can be done! I comverted a few Townsends. Best of both worlds. I love the Itoya gel refills to replace Parker gels!

My favorite non-FP is Porsche yecflex BP with Itoya gel, these days.

After all these pages of replies to the query I notice that no one has extolled the virtues of the lowly Papermate Sharpwriter #2. This plastic mechanical pencil is cheap in both senses, but never mind. They are oh so functional for one purpose: CROSSWORD PUZZLES.

I know of several puzzlers who have discovered this pencil's aptitude for just the right amount of controllable blackness and fine line, so that one may change entries readily and make them solid when surely decided. They don't need sharpening, just roll the lead out as needed and keep on lettering in those tiny boxes.

Buy 'em by the box-full. Lose them? Who cares. The plastic clip breaks off. Who cares? Reach for a new one, or one of the myriad lying about the house in forgotten places.

And the eraser! Perfect for cleaning off entries on soft newspaper. Sort of like the old Pink Pearl erasers we used to use as "the engineer's friend." For a time the manufacturer substituted a hard eraser that quickly slicked up and would smudge instead of erase. The new ones seem to be fine once again.

Its almost blasphemous that my first post on the Fountain Pen Network is going to be about pens that I love that are non-fountain.

• Parker 25 Ballpoint with gel M refills
• Zebra F-701
• Pilot DR Drawing Pen
• Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V5
• Pilot G2
• Faber-Castell Pitt artists pen

But the top spot goes to CA1 Finer Tech 0.4 graphic pens

All kinds of pencils - 3H to 8B, dip pens and the wireless keyboard.
My favourite pencil is the 0.7 mm MB on the picture below.



Best, Achim.

My 2 cents for this thread.

Next to fountain pens, pencils feel best:
- Lamy 2000 0.5 mm mechanical pencil
- Caran d'Ache 2mm Fixpencil
- Faber-Castell Grip 2001 pencils

In some cases, ballpoints are convenient, e.g., when travelling or when writing on lists hanging out at my children's school:
- Lamy 2000 4-colour ballpoint
- Caran d'Ache 849

Did I mention that I do like matching sets? :-)

best regards,
Johan

Pilot g2 with a Montblanc refill.

Although I use a keyboard I do not count that as a writing instrument. I use a fountain pen 5 out of 7 days a week. There are times when I have to use a ballpoint or rollerball.

My nicest (to look at) non fountain pen, is a Cartier Rollerball but I must admit I do not realy use this one. It is my favorite non fountain pen.

The nicest pen to write with is the Cross Ball point (in various pens including the Century). The Cross ION Rolerball for convenience as it is always in my pocket. The spacepen for reliability but for novelty and an unusual pen to write with, I sometimes use the Satin Executive YOROPEN Vanguard ZII.

I like a charcoal pencil, made from the burned bones of my foes...

Does anyone know anything about the Pentel Pula Man? (Not easy to read the name so I may have it slightly wrong)

Closed ink reservoir - throw away pen
The nib is made of white plastic and has a black overfeed and black underfeed too.

I don't know where this one I've been using came from but I like it very much
Does anyone recoognise that description?

As far as I can see it seems to have a feedhole right through the white plastic nib

Its an unusual pen it writes beautifully and I would like more

Solitaire

I recently found a Staedtler 925 series 0.3mm Mechanical Pencil that I have come to like very much. Inexpensive but not cheap and it does for my engineering homework what my XF-nibbed FPs have done for my handwriting in general. It's so nice to write with!

Well, don't have any fountain pens yet but my favorite cheapies are Uniball rollers in .5mm and the Pilot DrGrip ballpoint
Neither are perfect
The DrGrip is comfortable to hold but has typical slimy ballpoint ink
The Uniballs have great ink it seems but are skinny
NoNonsense pens were the best back in the day

The G2 sure gets rave reviews. I've honestly never tried it. I'll have to try one to see what the fuss is about.

errr a dip pen.

My round barreled, non-transparent yellow, Scripto MP with 1.1mm lead. It's old, takes a very long lead that rarey breaks, never had a jam, eraser is handy and is avaliable w/o having to do anything except turn it around, and generates some comments from others when used. The latter typically, "I used to have something like that." from 40+ year olds.

Before using fountain pens, i've pretty much been using pilot v7's for the past three years, definately my favourite non-fountain pen. The pilot v5 comes close though, cleaner lines and more economical with the ink, but no where near as smooth.

I've found that my Fisher space pen goes everywhere with me but the Cleo S. wooden lead holder I got for xmas a few years ago stays within easy reach.

My Pentel P205 pencil.

I loathe writing with a ballpoint pen now.

Caran D Ache metal collection ballpoint with parker gel refill, Retro 51 pencil and Sailor brush pen.

Caran d'Ache 849 ballpoint, not too expensive and smooth for a ballpoint and the Rotring Tikky pencil

I'm a service advisor at a Dodge dealership, so I do alot of writing/note taking(at least it seems like alot to me. I'm sure someone else's job does more). One hand on the phone/keyboard the other hand reaching for my pen. No time to remove a cap, so out comes my trusty Zebra F-701.
I tried the gel Zebra pens, and really liked the ink flow, but they lasted about 2 weeks. The Zebra ballpoint refills last about 6 weeks. If I had the cash, I'd use something else.

Today, I was at Maido and saw the Uniball α-Gel pencil. Sweet, 0.3mm lead in an not-drafting-pencil body. The section is so plushy, it reminds me of those Sensa pens and their gel grips. Naturally I had to take advantage of the store’s 20% off sale.

Although they do have a FP version of this pen, I love my rollerball version. I love the way it looks and writes, although it is not the best pen for lengthy periods of writing, at least not for me. The size of the pen in my hand causes a slight bit of fatigue. The refills for these write really nice, but they are a little bit difficult to find sometimes.

The first one is the maple wood version which I own, but I also really like the looks of the others, I just have a hard time buying the same pen in different colors.

Pencils. I can't live without them. For daily use, I like Mongols, which are inexpensive and excellent. But German and Japanese pencils are sheer pleasure---expensive, though! For unbelievably smooth, rich dark leads, try Japanese Pentel 999 or the HB's from Craft Design Technology (which are manufactured by Pentel).

Officesupplygeek, I have tried Spaulding mechanical pencils and fountain pens. It is an underrated brand. The mini-fp's and mini-pencils are great for travel. The larger maple-wood pencil is a beauty, but its fp counterpart, while having the usual smooth Spaulding nib and flow, did have one problem: the section became loose or unscrewed with extended writing.

From "loves" to "usually avoids": a brush (for drawing, my Chinese calligraphy sucks), wooden pencils, felt tip pens, ball point.

Adair...you probably just saved me $33.00 with that last comment because I was getting close to just sucking it up and buying the FP version anyway. I've got too many other pens that I'd prefer to buy, not to mention a few vintage baseball cards (my other addiction) that I have my eye on that I need in order to complete a set I've been working on for 2 years now...so thanks for giving me a reason not to buy that one.

I agree with you though, they do seem to be underrated, although I also don't see them around many places, so it may just be a victim of its own scarcity.

Pentel SIDE FX 0.5mm mech. pencil.
Lead advances from a button on the barrel.
Eraser is long and advances via a screw mechanism at the top.
This used to be my fav. crossword puzzle writing instrument until
FPs overwhelmed my interest. Now I just write smaller, x-out
mistakes, and fill in the correction in a corner of the box.
-j

If you need to use a ballpoint often, I'd recommend Diplomat's 'easy flow' refill. I recently whacked one in my GvFC guilloche BP and damn, it has to be the smoothest BP i've ever used.

They make non fountain pens???

I recently picked up a Lamy Safari pencil that I like a lot. It's lighter and more comfortable to use than my old drafting pencils.

I don't know the model names, I love mechanical pencils as well. My favorites are a pink and black plastic Pilot mechanical pencil and a plain matte black fat Parker Vector mechanical pencil that costs ten times as much as the Pilot one. Both write very well and are very reliable, but I love the fat barrel of the Vector pen. I thought it would be heavy or unwieldy (I have small hands and fingers), but it's so ergonomically designed!

Pilot Precise V5 rollerballs. Nothing fancy. They're what I use to take notes in class, because I've yet to take any of my fountain pens out of the house. I know, I know, that is a terrible thing to admit, but it's true.

Kids in Minnesota love to write with their tongues in the snow. But don't try to write on flagpoles, 'cause you'll stick!

a stainless steel Parker ball-point pen. It is tough and robust.
I have tried many brand of ball-point refill and end up at Parker.
It writes smooth and clean. No spot. No dirty fingers. The colour stay the same from the beginning till the end of life of the refill.
I use black and sometimes blue refills.

Cross gel rollerball
Lamy Safari rollerball
Pelikan 800 rollerball with their new broad tip
Paper Mate liquid expresso
Uni-ball Jetstream rollerball
Parker 100 rollerball

a Parker Jotter ball-point pen in stainless steel has been my loyal back-up pen for many years.


oops! I already posted one reply.
Sorry. I don't know how to delete it.

The Mitsubishi UB-150 UNI-BALL EYE Micro
Beautifully fine 0.3-mm
liquid ink
waterproof and fadeproof

This is Portugal - maybe it bears a different name where you live. But it's a very fine example of high-tech for a cheap price (2.19 Euros here)

Did I say all this before? - if so forgive me, it's a measure of my enthusiasm.

Have a wonderful New Year everyone!!!

Solitaire

I like my yellow, 0.9mm Pilot mechanical pencil. That thing is nice, simple and light.

Pencils with hard wood and soft lead, mechanical or regular. I sometimes write with drawing pencils. I also like old Parker jotters. I have one from the early 1970s that is really nice. The new ones aren't much better than disposables. Am currently enjoying my Leonardt dipping pen.

Probably a pencil for me. However, since converting over to a fountain pen I've stopped using ball points, roller balls, felt tips, etc.

I love my Fisher Space Pen. Smooth for a ballpoint, extremely portable, and writes in all kinds of conditions that other pens won't even consider. It also looks pretty slick (I have the matte black bullet pen).

I also really like my Tombow Object rollerball - it's very smooth and the casing is a very eye-catching (or is that eye-searing?) purple. I'm hoping to dig up the FP version of same at some point but the North American distributor doesn't carry the FPs anymore.

Probably my laptop, considering how much collaborative writing I do online.

But if we're talking handwriting, I prefer gel pens, mainly for the same reason I like fountain pens: I like the saturated wetness of the writing as opposed to ballpoint ink.

Add another vote for Pilot V5s.

The new Sharpie pens are OK. For markers, I prefer VWR. You guys that like Sharpies should try them, if you can get them. Waaaaay more permanent.

A real 2B pencil has its uses, as long as it's super sharp. Mechanical pencils of any stripe are not my thing.

My black Zig double-tip Writer. The Germans and Japanese make the best things.