Caran d'Ache - rollerball refill in a ballpoint

[LoverOfPens]

l have just discovered this forum, and it looks fantastic!

 

I developed an interest as a teen in Waterman fountain pens, and eventually, just in nice fountain pens that I liked.  About 10 years ago, a colleague and l went to a pen store together at a conference, and he int'roduced me to Caran d'Ache rollerballs. I was in love.

 

Well , I lost my beloved Ecridor 🥵 and I found a beautiful vintage Caran d'Ache on a website. It arrived today and to my horror, it is a ballpoint!

 

Since it is gorgeous, I'd like to keep it, but I loathe ballpoints. The (dried up!) refill was called Goliath.

 

Does anyone know if I can use a rollerball refill in a ballpoint?

[elysee]

You could use a gel ink parker-style ballpoint pen refill.  Monteverde makes a parker-style gel ink refill which comes in a variety of point size including broad.  I like the Monteverde blue and blue-black broad gel ink parker-style refills.  Parker makes a gel ink refill that has a nice blue hue, but I am not fond of its scratchy feel while writing. Itoya makes a sort of needle-nose parker-style gel ink refill if you want a finer point.  There are others as well.

 

Most Caran D’Ache (CA) pens work fine with a parker-style ballpoint gel ink or regular ink refill but some CA need a little help.  If the refill protrudes a little bit at the writing end or the top-button on the pen does not engage the refill properly, you can use a nail file, emery board, or sand paper to file off a little of the plastic top of the refill.  Most of my CA ballpoint pens (I have MANY) work fine with a parker-style refill with no modifications, but some need a little help by my shortening the refill (filling-down the plastic top of the refill) a little bit.  When doing so, do the filing a little bit at a time so that you do not go too far. 

 

Using a gel ink refill in your Caran D’Ache ballpoint pen may change your mind about ballpoint pens.  You might like to try a Visconti SmarTouch (parker-style) ballpoint pen refill or a Schmidt Easyflow 9000 (parker-style) ballpoint pen refill as they both have nice ink and ink flow.  I prefer the Visconti SmarTouch broad parker-style refill but it seems to have been discontinued; I just bought the medium refill to give it a try.