Monteverde One Touch Engage Retractable Ink-Ball

[Scrawler]

One of the reasons that I have not used ball type pens is that I do not like to throw away the writing tip when I change my ink. I have fantasies that in the distant future our descendants will mine old garbage tips for all those platinum balls. Last week I had the opportunity of using a Monteverde One Touch. This uses a cartridge converter so is refillable from an ink bottle. It is the first ball pen I got on with. It does not require being pressed to the paper like most ball points, the weight of the pen is enough. Would it be classified as a "fountain pen"? I found it very smooth. It starts immediately and does not stick. That may be down to the Diamine ink it was filled with. It wrote like a fine point stiff nib. The entire writing assembly retracts, like a conventional ballpoint, into the pen barrel, so no cap is needed. The pen body itself was a handsome grey/black carbon fiber weave encased in thick smooth resin of some sort. Has anyone here had a chance to use one long term? The only difficulties I can imagine at this point is that flushing it to change ink might be more troublesome than with a conventional open nib fountain pen.

[bitflogger]

My use is short-term but my brother who got me the Engage as a gift said he likes it more than others he's got.

 

It will make a squeaky noise that's annoying but it works fine. So far I've used Diamine green/black and Monteverde Horizon Blue. Both inks work well and I think the latter might be quieter. This seems like a good pen if you need something that can press harder than any fountain pen but like the ink flow, ink color options or the ritual of using a fountain pen.