What's The Better Ball Point Refill, Parker Or Cross?

[Witsius]

I have a Levenger/Rotring retractable ball point pen that belonged to my late father, which is a treasured possession of mine. I use Parker refills in it, but I'm considering getting a Cross ball point pen someday. How do the Cross refills compare with the Parker refills in terms of line quality and smoothness of writing? Which produces the darker, smoother line?

[IvoryParker]

The Levenger/Rotring ballpoint pen that you inherited from Dad sounds amazing! I've been using a parker jotter with quinkflow medium black refill this past week for work. In the evenings I've been using a cross century classic with medium black refill. I use the parker jotter predominantly and here's why: the ink is dark, rich and leaves a vivid line. The writing is smooth. The cross on the other hand is not far behind in my opinion. When using the cross I feel that the line is not as dark as compared to the Parker. This is the reason i prefer the parker

[usk15]

Change the Parker refill with Schmidt Easyfloow 9000, hybrid refill. It's a mix of ballpoint and gel refill, dark, vivid lines plus waterproof and fading exposure proof. Cross ballpoint refill are good, but not even close to this hybrid refills. Other good ballpoint refills are Jetstream, Japanese hybrid from Uni-ball.

[thx1138]

Another vote for easyflow 9000. Great refills and puts down a very smooth solid line.

[Ron Z]

Notice that nobody has made good comments about the Cross refills. They are IMO, and always have been, horrible. Back when Quill was around I used to replace the Cross refills with ones made by Quill. I imagine that the Cross style made by anyone else will likely be better. Mondeverde makes one, and their refills are often pretty decent. Cross refills also don't hold a heck of a lot of ink compared to the Parker/DIN style refills.

[rminj]

Yeah the Cross ballppont refills are horrible. They are the same ink technology from 1970 but they keep changing the packaging so they look new. A while ago they had come out with a satnink refill that had ink more like the Easyflow ink. But they had some problems and they stopped making them. I honestly don't know how they sell any ballpoints..their ballpoint ink is dry and light requiring lots of pressure to write.

 

Their gel select tip refills are nice if you like gel..only one point size though and I found the gel ink smells.

 

Best to stick with parker style refills or get a pen that takes the pilot gels.

Edited November 6, 2016 by rminj

[dadbar]

I prefer my Cross rollerballs to the ballpoints since you can use other types of refills in them, like the Monteverdes.

 

For ballpoints, definitely Parker over Cross, but for rollerballs, the Cross pens are better. The Parker rollerball cartridges are mediocre.

[pajaro]

I like the Parker and Pelikan Parker style refills. I have never found anything wrong with Cross refills. In College I mainly used a Cross Century pen and Cross blue refills. I still use mostly the Cross desk and ballpoint pens around the house. I found the rollerball and gel refills to be expensive to use because of short life. The only good roller seems to be Montblanc.

[flatline]

I don't remember much about the Cross refills I've had other than the fact that I didn't like them as much as the Fisher refills that replaced them.

 

If you don't like Fisher refills, then you probably won't like Cross refills.

 

--flatline

[mr2txaggie]

Witsius,

 

 

I would go with the Easy Flow 9000. Here is my reasoning. First you said that your pen was a Levenger /Rotring. I have a Stylus/ballpoint that is a Levenger. As a refill they sent the 9000, and Schmidt makes all of their nibs & ballpoint refills. I love the Schmidt Easy Flow 9000! It is not only better than the Cross, but better than the Parker!

 

It writes smoother, darker and it has more ink in it. I even read the results that show where it writes more " miles "than the others.

 

I " arrest my case ", just kidding. But the things I stated about the Easy Flow 9000 are true!

[meiers]

Parker's refills are superior to Cross.

Edited November 20, 2016 by meiers

[pgr70]

I prefer Cross refills to Parker. The Cross black fine point is my favourite ballpoint refill (I'm not so keen on the medium or broad versions). The Parker Quinkflow refill has a kind of waxy feel to it that I'm not that keen on.

[dadbar]

I wish Parker made a red rollerball cartridge. What up with that?

[max dog]

I dont find much difference in the ink flow or smoothness between Parker and Cross refills. They are ballpoints. I just pulled out my jotter and century bps that I haven't used for many months and they both feel about the same. A little rough until they get going. I think the more you use a specific refill the better it flows and starts to get smoother the more you write with it. Leave it sitting around for months or years, and they feel rough.

 

Cross refills with the screw in design feel more solid in the pen versus Parker refills that rely on spring pressure to press the refill in place at the tip. When you write fast or hard, Parkers always feel like the refill is a little loose inside, whereas the Cross always feel solid, precise and of a higher quality.

 

Always preferred Cross over Parker and Sheaffer ballpoints for this reason.

Edited December 6, 2016 by max dog

[simar]

Parker Quinkflow is definitely my favourite . I think they may be a hybrid ink/gel , but whatever it is it produced a very smooth dark slightly purplish blue line . Cross come no where near the Quinkflow . I prefer these to the Schneider one mentioned also.

[PAKMAN]

I prefer the Parker refills and love the Parker gels.

[shea2812]

UK manufactured gel refills are better than French made ones. Problem is where I am its not easy to find.

[Mike 59]

The Parker Powerpoint refill, the standard refill for many years before the QuinkFlow type, was very similar in wriitng performance as the Cross refill. I think the QF has richer and smoother ink now.

I think the problem for both of them, is that inks have been improved so much by other companies that there are so many other choices.

A ballpoint has it's uses true enough, I carry a 4 colour, Zebra z-quad, and a Cross Tech 3+ as I need to log in to a touch screen, and my finger tip seems to keep on making mistakes, whereas the Cross' stylus is ideal on screen.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Mike 59

[gammada]

I like the Cross ballpoints better, they feel a tad smoother and even thou the line is not as dark, they're great for shading drawings. As someone observed here before, if you use the pen on a frequent basis, it writes better; the only drawback is that if it sits still for a few days, the refill blotches ink.

 

Got a try the Monteverde refills to see if they're any better. Also, am ordering some vintage refills to see if their performance is better.

[RMN]

UK manufactured gel refills are better than French made ones. Problem is where I am its not easy to find.

 

AFAIK Parker terminated all production in the UK a long time ago.

 

Indeed way back the UK BP refills were superior to the French.

 

 

D.ick