Are Rollerballs Taking Over From Ballpoints?

[beluga]

Firstly, you might consider me an "Old Fart"; I was brought up using fountain pens in school, have accepted ballpoints early on, am happy to use mechanical pencils and developed a love-hate relationship with rollerballs.

 

I have adopted to the fact that many manufacturers like Pelikan, MB, Lamy, Omas - with the notable exception of Faber-Castell - are more likely to include a rollerball version in their model range than a mechanical pencil.

 

 

But now it appears that some manufacturers are even more likely to offer a rollerball than a ballpoint pen.

 

 

What is your preference, if using a fountain pen is not an option?

Edited May 5, 2012 by beluga

[ddustinn]

I use rollerballs pretty frequently. I would love to see more refillable rollerball pens out there.

[coloradogps]

I would like to see a Parker 51 modded to use a rollerball.

 

[robofkent]

I have a couple of Lamy Al-Star/Safari rollerballs for those times when a FP isn't appropriate - but as that is not very often they tend to stay in my desk drawer.

 

Let's face it - ballpoints themselves are old technology now but unlike fountain pens they do not have the collector following that Fps do, so I could understand why rollerballs are taking more market share.

 

Rollerball technology seems to be advancing all the time with new models and smoother ink flow systems and although I don't like them as much as Fps they are still smoother and easier on the hand than using a ballpoint!

Edited May 5, 2012 by robofkent

[JohnS-MI]

If I can't use a fountain pen, I MUCH prefer a rollerball (or gel pen) to a ballpoint -- I hate ballpoints. I use Pilot G2 pens; they describe themselves as gel ink, rolling ball pens. Compared to ballpoint, a darker line with less force, and less likely to leave blotches of goopy ink on the paper.

 

 

 

Second choice is mechanical pencil if I need to be able to erase. I use BIC mechanical pencils because they are dirt cheap and it doesn't matter if they get lost between uses.

Probably 80% fountain pen, 15% Pilot G2, 5% BIC mech. pencil.

[danahn17]

If not a fountain pen, I'm partial to gel pens or pencils

[P.A.R.]

ddustin: There is such a pen - Noodler's made a piston filled Konrad Rollerball that takes FP ink. I have one and like it quite a bit. Smoother than some fountain pens I've used, and a comfortable size. Removing the felt wick from inside the rollerball tip yields some nice wet flow. I believe the Goulet's still have a dozen or so in stock along with the replacement tips.

 

It has become my dedicated black ink pen (Noodler's Black) as it makes sense to me to have black ink, although one of my lesser used colors, in a fine point pen that can be used for forms and signing, or lent without fear of damage to a FP nib.

 

As for the OP's question, I would use a rollerball because of my Konrad. I have used some rollerball pens in the past that I liked but they often bled through the paper. The Konrad isn't too much of a jump from FPs - especially since you can use your favorite FP ink.

 

I have a Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil I like very much, but for extended writing even the 2B lead I use is a bit light for later reading and doesn't look as permanent or... "professional" as a good FP ink. Ballpoints just don't seem put enough ink on the page even if you apply enough pressure, and even gel pens seem a little dry and drag on the page sometimes (though I do have a preference for wetter FPs.)

 

You might add felt tipped pens to the list of choices.

Edited May 6, 2012 by P.A.R.

[Scrawler]

I will happily use any pen that does not have a disposable writing tip. The one exception to this are pencils, which by their nature wear the tip away as you use them. I am really pleased to see the move towards cartridge and converter filled rollerball pens, and rollerball conversions for lever filled pens. I an thinking of getting one to convert an Esterbrook.

[bicfan]

Sometimes, the paper requires a ballpoint.

 

Indeed, rollerball technology is increasing, but so too is ballpoint technology. Witness the Bic Easy Glide Ink Technology (now standard in all their pens), the Papermate Ink Joy (now standard), and the Parker QuinkFLOW ink (which has also replaced the old Quink ballpoint ink).

 

For writing on glossy paper, Christmas labels, plastic, and other difficult types of paper, the ballpoint is still king.

 

We are even seeing the lines blurred between rollerballs and gel pens, as the Jetstream is a hybrid rollerball/gel ink, and boy is it ever smooth. Smoothest pen I've used.

[daniel0731ex]

Sometimes, the paper requires a ballpoint.

 

Indeed, rollerball technology is increasing, but so too is ballpoint technology. Witness the Bic Easy Glide Ink Technology (now standard in all their pens), the Papermate Ink Joy (now standard), and the Parker QuinkFLOW ink (which has also replaced the old Quink ballpoint ink).

 

For writing on glossy paper, Christmas labels, plastic, and other difficult types of paper, the ballpoint is still king.

 

We are even seeing the lines blurred between rollerballs and gel pens, as the Jetstream is a hybrid rollerball/gel ink, and boy is it ever smooth. Smoothest pen I've used.

 

I believe the Jetstream is classified as ballpoint; IRC it's one of those emulsified ballpoint ink formula.

Edited May 6, 2012 by daniel0731ex

[ddustinn]

ddustin: There is such a pen - Noodler's made a piston filled Konrad Rollerball that takes FP ink. I have one and like it quite a bit. Smoother than some fountain pens I've used, and a comfortable size. Removing the felt wick from inside the rollerball tip yields some nice wet flow. I believe the Goulet's still have a dozen or so in stock along with the replacement tips.

 

It has become my dedicated black ink pen (Noodler's Black) as it makes sense to me to have black ink, although one of my lesser used colors, in a fine point pen that can be used for forms and signing, or lent without fear of damage to a FP nib.

 

I actually have the Noodler's Nib Creaper rollerball and plan to get the Konrad rollerball. I have also heard of J. Herbin cartridge-fill rollerball. I simply meant that I wish more companies would jump on that bandwagon.

 

Are there any other companies that make rollerballs that use FP ink?

[Scrawler]

Sometimes, the paper requires a ballpoint.

 

Indeed, rollerball technology is increasing, but so too is ballpoint technology. Witness the Bic Easy Glide Ink Technology (now standard in all their pens), the Papermate Ink Joy (now standard), and the Parker QuinkFLOW ink (which has also replaced the old Quink ballpoint ink).

 

For writing on glossy paper, Christmas labels, plastic, and other difficult types of paper, the ballpoint is still king.

 

We are even seeing the lines blurred between rollerballs and gel pens, as the Jetstream is a hybrid rollerball/gel ink, and boy is it ever smooth. Smoothest pen I've used.

Yes you are quite right, there are incremental improvements in all of these mass market writing technologies. That Quinkflow is definitely an improvement. But they still have not solved the problem of the disposable writing tip.

[pencils+pens]

My writing instrument of choice has for years been a mechanical pencil, I own 93 so I have a lot to choose from. My job requires me to sign a lot of papers, many mulitple forms, and a ballpoint is required by the company for that. I have recently begun writing all of my home and casual writing with FPs, partly to improve my penmanship. Unless required, I try to avoid ballpoints, rollerballs and gel pens. I tried rollerballs and gel pens early on and I found they smudged a lot. The rollerballs and gel pens have improved and I find that I now use them them more then ballpoints. I think that is due to my greater use of fountain pens. Gel pens and rollerballs work with a lot less pressure, close to fountain pens, then ballpoints do. So the feel of the intrument in my hand, while writing, is similar to the fountain pen.

 

I think that so long as people will have to sign or write on multiple copies of documents, the ballpoint will hold sway in a work environment.

[XiaoMG]

I know the site is called the Fountain Pen Network, but it still bothers me a little bit that other writing utensils must for some reason be assumed secondary or tertiary options. There is a deep reluctance to admit that occasionally a fountain pen is an inferior tool. I have been struggling to justify fountain pens ever since I began accumulating them. Proprietary refill dependency is probably the only practical reason I can come up with. Ultimately, the hundreds of dollars I've spent are justified with little more than "nibs are kinda cool-looking" and "I like a little shading sometimes".

 

When I have work to do, I sometimes pull out a fountain pen despite its impracticality, but that's largely because I feel even more like a fool if I don't at least TRY to use my expensive toys. However, if nobody's looking and I've already used a fountain pen that day, out come the gel pens, ballpoints, and pencils. Liquid rollers are just diet fountain pens, so I tend to ignore them (though they can produce some shading, which for me is half the reason to use a fountain pen).

 

As a result, I do not know what to choose in the poll.

[Mercian]

That Quinkflow is definitely an improvement. But they still have not solved the problem of the disposable writing tip.

 

I dislike the idea of throwing away ballpoints, but I dislike the waste inherent in throwing away rollerball refills even more.

An enclosed aluminium ink reservoir, attached to a captive ball-bearing held in more aluminium, with a plastic sleeve covering the ink-feed mechanism. Look at all the oil and energy that went into making it. And I have to throw it away after just one usage cycle? What a waste!

 

At least with disposable ballpoints one *could* (in theory) sell plastic tubes of ink that one had to attach to the actual ballpoint writing tip (I swapped ink fills on Bic ballpoints a couple of times at school, when either the ball tip or the ink tube got damaged). Of course, I recognise that humans are lazy beasts, and so this idea would never make money in modern world

 

So I'm intrigued by the idea of the Noodler's Konrad Rollerball that one can fill with FP ink

 

Off to look for it now....

 

Cheers,

M.

[bicfan]

Sometimes, the paper requires a ballpoint.

 

Indeed, rollerball technology is increasing, but so too is ballpoint technology. Witness the Bic Easy Glide Ink Technology (now standard in all their pens), the Papermate Ink Joy (now standard), and the Parker QuinkFLOW ink (which has also replaced the old Quink ballpoint ink).

 

For writing on glossy paper, Christmas labels, plastic, and other difficult types of paper, the ballpoint is still king.

 

We are even seeing the lines blurred between rollerballs and gel pens, as the Jetstream is a hybrid rollerball/gel ink, and boy is it ever smooth. Smoothest pen I've used.

 

I believe the Jetstream is classified as ballpoint; IRC it's one of those emulsified ballpoint ink formula.

I watched a video on this straight from Uni-ball. They said it's a hybrid rollerball/gel ink that needs very little friction to liquify the gel.

 

In general, I find that gel pens (with the exception of the Hi-Tec C)require much more pressure than ballpoints. When I use my usual light touch to write cursive, I get an unreadable result. I base this on Pilot G-2 and Cross Selectip Gel Rollingball refills. Interestingly, the last three Cross refils I bought were so bad I threw them out. Same with the Parker gels. Have not had good experiences with either.

 

Have had excellent experience with the Uni-ball Jetstream, the Bic (new Easy Glide), Parker QuinkFlow (not as good as Bic, as it still takes a stroke or two to prime up), and Papermate (Ink Joy, has started on the first stroke every time so far).

 

Bic (Easy Glide) $2 for 12. Papermate (Ink Joy) $1.87 for 10. Jetstream $4 for 3. There are amazing writing utensils available for very little nowadays. These are not the bad old days where you can get only nasty dry ballpoints and blobby rollerballs.

 

Makes it hard to justify using a fountain pen.

 

I like fountain pens for:

 

-aesthetics

-the wet, glistening ink line going down on the paper

 

So, in other words, entirely non-practical reasons.

 

The best ballpoints/rollerballs/hybrids are as smooth, or smoother, imo, than any fountain pen.

 

There's really no practical reason for anyone to use a fountain pen today. There are tonnes of pens that write with no pressure nowadays. Anyway, nobody actually writes with zero pressure. There is always a little. My hands will not cramp with a Pilot V5 or a Uni-ball Jetstream, or even a Bic (and I spent 12 years in university using Uni-ball Vision Elite, writing hours and hours a day).

Edited May 6, 2012 by bicfan

[XiaoMG]

There's really no practical reason for anyone to use a fountain pen today. There are tonnes of pens that write with no pressure nowadays. Anyway, nobody actually writes with zero pressure. There is always a little. My hands will not cramp with a Pilot V5 or a Uni-ball Jetstream, or even a Bic (and I spent 12 years in university using Uni-ball Vision Elite, writing hours and hours a day).

Yeah, lots of pens can write with extremely little pressure.

 

Forgive the very poor video quality, hope the scribble demo is useful anyway...

 

http://youtu.be/AuCRAlpcPcQ?hd=1

Edited May 6, 2012 by XiaoMG

[Ad_Astra]

Count me as another person who uses fountain pens 'just because'; there are tons of fantastic non-fountain pens/pencils/markers/etc out there, and I love using them all. I use FPs mostly because I like playing with and tinkering with them, not because they're actually that much better.

 

Also, trying to see how quickly I can empty an ink bottle is kinda cool, even if it does take a while.

[bicfan]

There's really no practical reason for anyone to use a fountain pen today. There are tonnes of pens that write with no pressure nowadays. Anyway, nobody actually writes with zero pressure. There is always a little. My hands will not cramp with a Pilot V5 or a Uni-ball Jetstream, or even a Bic (and I spent 12 years in university using Uni-ball Vision Elite, writing hours and hours a day).

Yeah, lots of pens can write with extremely little pressure.

 

Forgive the very poor video quality, hope the scribble demo is useful anyway...

 

http://youtu.be/AuCRAlpcPcQ?hd=1

 

Good demonstration. Is that a Uni-Ball Signo?

[XiaoMG]

Good demonstration. Is that a Uni-Ball Signo?

 

Yep, Uni Signo DX 0.38mm light blue. Color reminds me of Kon-Peki, and it's waterproof.