Smoothest Writing Ballpoint...

[kaissa]

Parker Gel pen refills are smooth and write similar to a ball point, but feel like a rollerball. (I know, sounds crazy, but give it a try). The best part is that Parker refills can be used in Parker, Pelikan, Aurora and Dunhill ballpoints.

 

First determine the refill type and then find a pen for it. I have used Parker compatibles (g2 size) and Cross compatibles; these are easiest to find for me. Parker types offer the widest variety so after trying, reading I found my love in a Visconti gel refill B. Some like gel, some ballpoint, some B, some F. That is up to you. The pen was the easy part.

 

Gels are smoother than ballpoints, but if you insist on a ballpoint, I find Parker Quinkflow to be the smoothest oil-based ballpoint refil.

 

Although Cross size is widely available there are not that many choices for them.

 

Regards,

[superfreeka]

The answer is Schmidt Easy Flow 9000 refills. They fit all pens that take Parker refills. Don't take my word for it: give one a try.

[Deb T]

Parker Gel pen refills are smooth and write similar to a ball point, but feel like a rollerball. (I know, sounds crazy, but give it a try). The best part is that Parker refills can be used in Parker, Pelikan, Aurora and Dunhill ballpoints.

 

First determine the refill type and then find a pen for it. I have used Parker compatibles (g2 size) and Cross compatibles; these are easiest to find for me. Parker types offer the widest variety so after trying, reading I found my love in a Visconti gel refill B. Some like gel, some ballpoint, some B, some F. That is up to you. The pen was the easy part.

 

Gels are smoother than ballpoints, but if you insist on a ballpoint, I find Parker Quinkflow to be the smoothest oil-based ballpoint refil.

 

Although Cross size is widely available there are not that many choices for them.

 

Regards,

 

 

Also, I found instructions online to fit a Montblanc gel pen refill into a Pilot G2. Essentially you just nip the end about 1/8 of an inch. I just lined them up and nipped off the extra length from the Montblanc. Writes like a dream.

[luvpens]

This is utterly fabulous to write with..

 

 

.......My link

[miatapaul]

I just recently tried the Schneider Slider XB for Extra Bold. They are great and there is a Slider memo XB that is a touch thicker and covered with rubber. I really like them and they start at under $2 at Office Depot. I even gave one away to a friend and he complained that it wrote too nice, as his wife took it! It is by far the smoothest ballpoint I have tried and does wonders on carbon-less copies. Really the only reason for me to use a ballpoint, except that they use really bad paper at work and I fill out forms all day.

[Mike Schutz]

I've always liked Cross ballpoints. But lately, more of their product has been outsourced from China and there has been a perceptable drop in quality. Parker products are also good. But if you're looking for an inexpensive pen that is good, I've found the Zebra pens, both the ball points and the gel pens to be very acceptable. Unless I know the person knows how to use a fountain pen, they do not touch my pens, no matter what the cost of the pen is. If a person has never used a fountain pen, they try writing like it is a ball point and you're enviting a disaster.

[Turnpike]

If I had to have just one pen to write with, for all occasions, the one I would choose would be the humble Sheaffer Sentinel ball point pen. It's got just the right weight (I've got the chrome version), and the barrel thickness is about right for my hands. And it's not very expensive. So my recommendation would be the Sheaffer Sentinel.

[Cliff O]

Parker Gel pen refills are smooth and write similar to a ball point, but feel like a rollerball. (I know, sounds crazy, but give it a try). The best part is that Parker refills can be used in Parker, Pelikan, Aurora and Dunhill ballpoints.

I use them in a Delta as well. Indeed they are very smooth for a non-FP.

[rminj]

Parker Gel pen refills are smooth and write similar to a ball point, but feel like a rollerball. (I know, sounds crazy, but give it a try). The best part is that Parker refills can be used in Parker, Pelikan, Aurora and Dunhill ballpoints.

I use them in a Delta as well. Indeed they are very smooth for a non-FP.

 

 

My favorite Blue refill..really the smoothest..a nice Manhattan blue color. But I continue to look for a Gel in the Parker style that is not so water precarious.

[kalali]

You guys may find this hard to believe but the smoothest ballpoint pen I've ever used is the BIC Cristal with broad (1.0mm) "nib". You can tell the difference from the "regular" Cristals by the slightly tinted gray barrel. I don't know how long they've been around but I just discovered them in Walmart. They come in package of ten in eight different colors all for the hefty price of 97 cents. It makes most rollerballs and/or gel pens feel scratchy in comparison. Simply amazing.

[plumeau]

You guys may find this hard to believe but the smoothest ballpoint pen I've ever used is the BIC Cristal with broad (1.0mm) "nib". You can tell the difference from the "regular" Cristals by the slightly tinted gray barrel. I don't know how long they've been around but I just discovered them in Walmart. They come in package of ten in eight different colors all for the hefty price of 97 cents. It makes most rollerballs and/or gel pens feel scratchy in comparison. Simply amazing.

 

New Parker quinkflow

[Robs_wife]

My husband would say the smoothest would be Pelikan. My favorite is my 70s Parker Big Red. With its new gel refill, it is even better.

 

For budget pens, I like the Pilot Precise V7.

[mhphoto]

Here's a very interesting thread with some other suggestions. The Bic Cristal seems to be pretty popular.

[Ethereal Winter Wind]

The smoothest ballpoint pen I have ever used is the "Mitsubishi Uniball's Jetstream". It literally glides along the paper, that I had a hard time getting used to how easy it was to write with. Though it's not to my taste, as in Australia they only sell the 1.0mm version which is not suited to my handwriting and I much prefer Japanese finer point tips like the Uniball Signo DX 0.28mm, but those pens are not as smooth as the Jetstream.

[RMN]

The quality of a ballpoint pen is determined by the refill.

A 1000$ pen will not write better than a 5$ pen with the same refill. The expensive pen will have more style, probably.

 

So normally you would do best to find the refill that suits you and then buy a pen to go with it.

Parker used to have proprietary refills, but many years ago they gave up the patent. Now the Parker-type refill (now called the G2-refill) is made buy numerous companies, many of even better quality than Parker's own. Indeed, declining quality in Parker's refills was my reason to search for other pens, before my FP-days.

 

These days I would stick to the G2-refill, because it has become a bit of a standard, such as the short international cartridge is standard. I have tried some G2-s, not many as I seldom use a BP any more. I prefer the Gel-type. Viscontis are good, Schmidt has some interesting ones also.

 

The other way round would be: I have a great ballpoint shell, I have to find the refill to go with it.

 

For me the choice is easy: I carry a BP primarily for client's use. And as many of my clients are elderly, have rheumatic diseases or similar, I want a pen that is easy for them to hold. For me, that is the Pentel ERGoNoMIX, that has a Pentel refill (so not G2). I use a gel refill for it. The pen body is less than 10$ over here, refills less than 2$. I like writing with it, clients appreciate it. As the name suggests, the pen is ergonomically designed.

 

D.ick

[kaissa]

The smoothest ballpoint pens on the market today are Japanese "hybrid" ballpoints, which are ballpoints with a slightly more gel-like ink. These include:

• Mitsubishi Uniball's Jetstream
• Pilot's Acroball
• Pentel's Vicuna
• Zebra's Surari

There may be others who have jumped on this bandwagon as well, such as Bic. Since I write on the finest end of the scale with these pens, I find the Jetstream to produce the best line. The Vicuna is very smooth, but I have seen them explode and leak too often in product displays to trust them very much. The Acroball is nice, but seems a bit more viscous than the Jetstream so the ink has a bit more skipping. I've only used the Surari a few times, but I have never been very impressed with them, or with any other Zebra pen for that matter.

 

At larger sizes, the game changes a little bit. I've always described the 1mm Jetstream as writing with grease. It really does slip off the paper, though the line is not consistent enough for my liking. One of the others may prove better in that size.

 

Can you explain more about these? I had enjoyed Pilot G2s a lot and decided to try a Jetstream after reading good reviews here. I bought a Jetstream 101, the stick version. Frankly I could not feel a difference compared to a regular ballpoint. I still find Parker Quinkflow to be the smoothest oil based ballpoint refill. Are Jetstream, Acroball and the rest oil based ink? The best for me would be a gel that dried instantly but I guess we are far from it.

 

Regards,

[phrenzy]

I just can't bring myself to use a ballpoint, if there's a reason why a fountain won't work, why not a rollerball? That said before my FP enlightenment I had good experiences with the standard MB BP refil,s in my old busted thrift store MB.

 

I know asking about new board sections is to invite controversy but...do people nit think there is enough traffic across this and other boards to warrant a general "HERETICS" section for all ballpoint /rollerball / brush calligraphy / fingerpaintin / etcetera et al.? A single place for these would at a very cursory glance come close to the mythical 7%...

 

This is a suggestion on a whim, feel free to ignore / slap me /read me standard new board boilerplate (boy am I pimping the toward slashes today).

Edited February 2, 2012 by phrenzy

[Chrontius]

Can you explain more about these? I had enjoyed Pilot G2s a lot and decided to try a Jetstream after reading good reviews here. I bought a Jetstream 101, the stick version. Frankly I could not feel a difference compared to a regular ballpoint. I still find Parker Quinkflow to be the smoothest oil based ballpoint refill. Are Jetstream, Acroball and the rest oil based ink? The best for me would be a gel that dried instantly but I guess we are far from it.

 

Regards,

 

The Pilot G-Tec-C and Hi-Tec-C (same cartridge, different markets) come very close to the instant-drying gel you seek. They're all pretty fine point, though - the 0.4mm tip is the widest one, and it lays down about 0.2mm lines; they go down to 0.25mm balls (implying 0.12mm line thickness!) if you want real hairlines, though. They do something interesting with shear-thinning fluids that let them use a very viscous gel that flows when the ball's rolling, and then goes back to the consistency of rubber when it's stuck to the page - and after that it takes about a second for it to dry.

 

The Uni-Ball Signo 207 offers ink technology similar to Noodlers' bulletproof inks, however. My only experience with them was vaguely positive, and the cartridge may, conveniently, fit into Cross Selectip pens.

[Nashten]

Well, I wouldn't go out for any specific brand on this question, but I did find a nice combo in my school time.

 

We called it "whole wheat" paper because of how it looked. It is more akin to newspaper stuff, but it is mostly recycled paper. If you have a small stack on that, any ballpoint feels and writes so nicely on it.

 

This paper is SUPER absorbent and using a rollerball or a fountain pen on it means that you have to really prepare for bleedthrough 5 pages down your stack, or staining anything under what you're writing on. Yes, it is that absorbent and thin of paper. But writing with a ballpoint on it is just fantastic.

 

My two cents.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Nashten

[DriedUpBob]

I share similar experiences with the OP and find no motivation to have on me anything above a G2 Rollerball to loan out. Most recipients of a G2 even comment "Nice pen"

 

But to support the thread: I think any of the Waterman, Parker, Cross are nice pens and have a good writing experience. Smoother? G-2 as suggested by others.

 

Bob