Fountain Pen Ink Rollerball

[OldGriz]

I received my package of repair goodies from Giovanni (Tryphon) today and found an additional goodie in it...

 

It was a nice translucent yellow rollerball pen. I took off the cap and tried to write with it and nothing happened... MMMMM... Giovanni sent me a pen with a bad rollerball filler... Took off the barrel and low and behold an int'l ink cart fell out....

OK, I am not always the brightest bulb in the box... in fact usually not.. but you would think I would look at the pen before I tried to write with it....

 

What I got was a Borghini rollerball pen that uses ink carts.. it will also take a standard converter (I tried it)... This pen writes beautifully. A smooth damp line that is not too wet.... my wife loves it (Wanna guess who claimed it??)....

I wrote with it on and off for part of the afternoon and it never skipped or failed to write. Of course, I had to get used to holding it a bit more upright than my FPs, but that is norm for any rollerball or ballpoint. It is smooth as silk.

 

I have no idea what Giovanni is charging for these pens, but if you are looking for a rollerball you can use with your favorite color ink, this is it and I can virtually guarantee, not at the price of a MonteVerde Mega InkBall.

 

One thing I did notice was that I don't think that changing ink colors is going to be all that easy... the finned feed seems to be a pretty good size and I would think you will have to get all the ink out of the rollerball mechanism...

Of course if these are not all that expensive, just buy a couple of them.

 

I have no financial affiliation with Giovanni or Tryphon... I am a very satisfied customer, however.

Edited March 16, 2006 by OldGriz

[krz]

I bought a Yafa cartridge roller pen that doesn't look as cool as the Borghini. I had trouble with it at 1st skipping, but it finally started behaving.

 

It's a good way to use up the ink cartridges they sometimes send with new pens.

[Goodwhiskers]

It's a good way to use up the ink cartridges they sometimes send with new pens.

:ltcapd:

[Melnicki]

I tried the Kaweco Sport Ink Ball, which is a petite version of the same. Takes fountain pen ink from cartridges. Nathan Tardif has also reported that with Noodler's Black, and converted to an Eyedropper (he makes conversions -- with a rubber O-ring -- for Swisher, I think...) the Kaweco Ink Ball will give the best words-per-volume-ink around... But I've found that it writes with variably wet and dry lines (more than any FP nib I own) on different papers. It was always writing excessively wet lines (yuck!) with the cartridge that came with the pen, but then I got rid of it all, and TRIED to flush it out, and filled a cartridge with Noodler's Golden Brown (which was somewhat dry in a moderately-flowing pen). It is very variable, but sometimes gives a very fine line (though this color ink is a bad idea for very fine lines -- not dark enough to read easily). I am eager to try a different color of ink...

 

But some other caveats: the ball in the roller clicks when I write. It probably needs lubrication, as I think Nathan recommends using the Eel inks...

 

And the plastic feels cheap... It squeaks when you grip it...

 

And it's tiny.

 

I've stopped fussing with it and am currently on the hunt for XF nibs instead.