Please Explain Which Is Best, Ball Point, Hybrid Or Gel Refills

[Bo Bo Olson]

When I left ball points, gel re-fills had just come in, and having some 200 'free' ball points (good ones sold at a flea markets; others dumped) had not thought of spending 'real' money on the 'new' gel re-fills, and found Parker regular ball point refill cartridge still too expensive for a worker....just as as it has ever been....even back in the days when my family couldn't afford the new color TV's.

With luck one could get a ten package refill sticks for other pens for 10 cents. Like fountain pen cartridges the Parker Jotter refills gobbled up an allowance.

 

Having come over here for a Pelikan 450 Mechanical Pencil, soon slid into trying to make sense of the new refills for ball point pens..............we had kept the best, had various Lamy ball points thrust upon us.

 

I found we had 7 good ball points (not counting the old Jotters....(just remembered have some steel Parker Flighters somewhere else), and a hand full of cheap give aways.....some with rubber padding would have been world shaking in the '60-70's. The rest quite good enough for my wife to take to work.

Only had five or six real throw aways.

 

I have to confess my wife is a ball point user.....not that she takes the good ones to work.....and I still have a couple of empty Jotters in my to repair box of many small drawers.

 

My pharmacist had a cheap give away, with a non-marked gel refill....wrote well, out side it needed to sit before the big index knuckle.....and I can't adjust to that................so am also looking for one that would write when held like a fountain pen....45-40 degrees.

 

 

Please explain which is best and why and or why some are not all that good; (New) ball point, hybrid or gel refills...and exactly what hybrid is supposed to do.

 

If you think I'm behind the power curve here....you should see me wallow in the ignorance of the new golf balls ....having quit some 25 years ago when I went to work for the Germans....except if I go on vacation.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[flatline]

They're all "good enough" now. Find good examples of each, use them for a while, and then decide what you like best.

 

I tend to avoid the hybrids (Zmulsion, Jetstream, etc), but use everything else (ball points, roller balls, and gels). That's just my preference.

 

--flatline

[Sasha Royale]

Which is BETTER ? I prefer gel over ballpoint. Which is BEST ? Parker 51 fountain pen.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I really don't want to spend a fortune on finding out....in basically I want to give my wife her best writing experience, in she's the ball point user in the family.

 

I have some 60 fountain pens...and use a ball point pen when the moon is green...which is more seldom than a blue moon.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[SteveE]

My own favorite is the Pilot G2 gel pen. I find these to be smooth-writing and reliable, while being fairly inexpensive. I have also fitted the G2 refills to a number of my capped rollerball pens (Taccia, Sheaffer, Conklin, Bexley, etc.) so that I can have a comfortable-writing pen when an FP is not appropriate.

 

Sometimes I can get the refills cheaply at Wal-Mart. If not, I can usually get multi-packs of the pens cheaper at Wal-Mart than I can buy plain refills on the internet (once you add shipping, etc.).

[Bo Bo Olson]

As 'noobie' I'm of course interested in 'butter smooth' super vibrant...... ...........no wishy washy ...light inks.

 

How odd it is to see finally where that sort of questions are coming from.

[MYU]

It all comes down to expectations on: reliability, water resistance, feel, and cost

• Gels write best... they've got a kind of "wet" quality to them. And some new compositions have come out that resist drying out, so they can be used in capless pens. BUT... they have a shelf life of about 1 to 2 years. Even when stored.
• Ballpoint inks have come a long way. In fact, there are some that come close to gel quality, with much greater resistance to drying out than gels.
• Hybrids... I'm not sure what you mean. Ink-ball? Like the rollerballs that take liquid ink?

Edited April 20, 2017 by MYU

[Bo Bo Olson]

Hybrids??? Are just a mystery I read about in the threads...'the new thing'.

Something that don't drip gel goo...but supposed to be better than the new ball point inks.

[Mike 59]

Hi, Hybrid inks are used in Uni Jetstream, Pentel Vicuna, Pilot Acroball, Zebra and Schneider 'Slider' pens.

The ink is solid colour, dries quickly, and the refills last a good amount of time.

If I understand this correctly, the most well-known hybrid ink is in the QuinkFlow refills.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Mike 59

[milkb0at]

Sadly for you, there isn't a "best" since tastes are different. For every recommendation of a favourite pen there will be someone who don't likes it. Some (most?) hate ballpoints, whereas I prefer them to standard liquid ink rollerballs which are, in theory, most similar to fountain pens.

 

Gel inks are rollerballs with more viscous and pigmented ink. I think the Pilot G-2 is my favourite, since it's nice to write with and makes a lovely black line.

 

Hybrid inks like the Uni Jetstream fit in between ballpoint and gel pens (I think they're water-based but with wax pigments). They're good, but can be too smooth and slippery so I'm not a massive fan.

 

Just try a few when you're next in a stationery store to see what works best for you or for your wife. Then either grab some cheap disposables, or get some nice refills in, say, a Retro 51 Tornado.

 

Depending on use case, though, your wife might prefer a Fisher Space Pen (or a refill) since they write pretty much anywhere.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Living in Germany my options are a bit limited....or so appear.

 

At a department store I saw Parker refill don't know for which, going for E5.50, Schneider or Schmidt for E2.50...and to Gump....that's all I know about thaaat.***

 

For Parker's at E5.50 it defiantly has to walk on wine.

 

***I did see the ball point cartridge (metal) making machines at Lamy during my factory tour....and I thought them real old fashioned,...'60's or so, my wife who's a mechanical draftsman thought so also.

[milkb0at]

I'm in the UK so perhaps it's different in Germany, but as well as the pre-packaged refills you have boxes of single pens, usually the cheap disposable Bic Crystals and the like, plus a pad of paper for you to test them on. That's where I test my Pilot G-2s, Jetstreams, Schneider Sliders and the like, for free.

[sciumbasci]

Try the Inkjoy Gel, everyone seems to praise these for their smooth experience and vibrant colours availability. I am not sure how well they resist to ageing papers (ie archival quality) and water spills tho.

 

Otherwise, I had the best results with Pelikan Stick Pro: cheap office look, but great colours (blue and red are quite bright compared to BiC) and very smooth.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ah, Ha, """the most well-known hybrid ink is in the QuinkFlow refills""" That's in my wife's Parker ll U...so marked (10X loupe), did look up and the IM is what it looks like. That refill is lots better than the old ball point refill, smother by far.

 

Don't quite write well enough behind the big knuckle...the way I prefer to hold a pen now....but my wife holds it like it's the ball point it is.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Bo Bo Olson

[tgoto]

Anything that uses Goliath ballpoint...my favorite is Caran d'Ache 849 medium point.

Goliath is very smooth.

[Mike 59]

Hi, Here's a list of most of my ballpoint type of pens, hope this helps.

[sciumbasci]

I can't really see difference between oil and hybrid ink

[Mike 59]

Hi, I agree some of them do look very similar, but the hybrid inks have much less drag as you write, and they are bolder and richer inks. The gel inks do give a far darker, and wider line, I have 0.7mm only, but it would be interesting to try 0.5mm, but I buy my pens from local shops, where 0.7mm is the main 'stock' width.

Edited April 25, 2017 by Mike 59

[dgcom]

Hi, Here's a list of most of my ballpoint type of pens, hope this helps.

 

Very nice comparison! Bolder hybrids are darker and finer gels are lighter, obviously...

Visibly, hybrid is closer to oil than gel, but still a bit more intense under normal light. And obviously much, much smoother.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Mike, thanks for the list.