Rollerball Refills

[ProdigalG]

Being new to pen collections, I am still not quite brought in to going with my first fountain pen yet. Having said this, I’ve always wanted a luxury pen for work , getting tied of using cheap ballpoints, which I have always detested.
 

Recently going back to studying, I had to make tonnes of notes so started writing a lot. I couldn’t  read my hand writing after and also wanted to focus on making neat notes.

 

Being typing most of my life on laptops, I wanted a smooth writing experience and decided to pick up a rollerball. I picked up a MB Starwaker Blue Planet. Started to experiment with different colours and very expensive rollerball refills, I started to look around at the refills market. 
 

In the meantime, I also brought a few more pens and started collecting. While still sticking to rollerballs, I find to have preference with the fineness of the ink and wanted severs pens with several colours. One thing I was sure was that I didn’t like the medium size (0.7mm) as I find that I could not write fast and control the precision.

 

I was ok with the standard Schmidt 0.6mm, Fine, but after a number of pens, still went back to the MB fine which it looks like and writes like more of a 0.5mm. Plus, MB ink to keep seems more vibrant in its blue, green and purple.

 

Long story short, I use all the rollerball refill inks I have and did a quick comparison. 

 

My most go to is till the starwaker in royal blue, sometimes switching to Monteverde for MB in blue/black.  
 

My daily however is the Ohto C350 0.5mm in my Visconti Homo Sapien Laca Colour Terra De Siena.
 

Lastly, I do like writing in green with the Schmidt 5888 Green F in my Diplomat Aero. 

 

If only rollerball refills makes fun colours in F outside of green, red, blue, black. This is likely the reason I may pick up my first FP this year due to the ink ranges available. Another new world to look forward to!

Edited July 7, 2022 by ProdigalG

[amberleadavis]

You might consider some of the roller balls that use fountain pen ink. I believe Visconti makes one.   I was not happy with my Monteverde inkball so don't do that one.

 

 

[amberleadavis]

 

18 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

You might consider some of the roller balls that use fountain pen ink. I believe Visconti makes one.   I was not happy with my Monteverde inkball so don't do that one.

 

 

 

Oops, you already have a Visconti, is it a roller ball or an Ecoball (which was refillable with fountain pen ink cartridges).

[ErrantSmudge]

Pilot G2 rollerball refills are available in at least 15 different colors.  That's still nowhere near the color variety you can get with fountain pen inks, but it is better than the basic blue/black/green/red selection you typically find.

 

[ProdigalG]

On 7/8/2022 at 5:40 AM, amberleadavis said:

You might consider some of the roller balls that use fountain pen ink. I believe Visconti makes one.   I was not happy with my Monteverde inkball so don't do that one.

 

 

Thanks for recommendation. Indeed I have caught a YouTube video on RB that uses fountain pens ink. This is most lIkely indeed my mini step journey into a full on FB. The Visconti Crystal Dream looks like an amazing FPen with its sort of airplane proof system. So much to learn about a FP. 
 

Absolutely still need yo learn some brands and models which provides rollerball nib using FP ink. 
 

I accidentally brought ballpoint converter refills to rollerball for Parker with Monteverde, so my next Pen may just be the Duofold Big Red Ballpoint Pen just because of these refills I brought by accidents lol. 
 

It’s like buying luxury watches, I actually have to think about servicing before I commit on a model and brand now. 
 

Let me look at the ECO ball. I am still up for getting the Bronze Age as there are some decent discount out these and I would like to experience the non magnetic version. Tuscan hills also on the card.

Edited July 10, 2022 by ProdigalG

[ProdigalG]

On 7/8/2022 at 6:28 PM, ErrantSmudge said:

Pilot G2 rollerball refills are available in at least 15 different colors.  That's still nowhere near the color variety you can get with fountain pen inks, but it is better than the basic blue/black/green/red selection you typically find.

 

Nice one. I did come across the Pilot G2, but unsure if that fits into what type of Pens, i.e., are they equivalent to euro std like the Schmidt 5888. The fit is a ballpoint fit perhaps? 
 

One other thing I picked up is I find most alternative colours in rollerball world comes only in Medium, I haven’t work out why they don’t come in Fine (perhaps lack of demand). Even Montblanc ink makes medium on for their alternative colours. 

[ErrantSmudge]

13 hours ago, ProdigalG said:

Nice one. I did come across the Pilot G2, but unsure if that fits into what type of Pens, i.e., are they equivalent to euro std like the Schmidt 5888. The fit is a ballpoint fit perhaps?

 

The Lamy Tipo will accept the Pilot G2 (purely by chance I'm sure), which makes the Tipo a nice $10 USD rollerball that offers a wide variety of ink choices.   Lamy refills are proprietary, so the G2 probably won't fit other "standard" pen sizes.  For example I have a Rotring 600 rollerball and a Retro 51 Tornado rollerball and the G2 refills don't fit those pens.

 

Edit:  I was mistaken, the Rotring 600 also accepts G2 refills.  Unfortunately I don't think Rotring makes rollerballs anymore.

 

13 hours ago, ProdigalG said:

One other thing I picked up is I find most alternative colours in rollerball world comes only in Medium, I haven’t work out why they don’t come in Fine (perhaps lack of demand). Even Montblanc ink makes medium on for their alternative colours. 

 

All 15 G2 ink colors I have on hand are available in Fine.

Edited July 10, 2022 by ErrantSmudge
Rotring 600/G2 compatibility

[ProdigalG]

12 hours ago, ErrantSmudge said:

 

All 15 G2 ink colors I have on hand are available in Fine.

That is awesome! I’ll look at the Tipo and Rotring 600 for sure.

[ErrantSmudge]

This article about G2 refill compatibility is very interesting:

 

https://pickypens.com/pilot-g2-refill-compatible-pens/

 

It lists several brands as being compatible, but this excerpt caught my eye:

 

Montblanc

Although Montblanc are rightfully considered to be the premium luxary pen brand in the world, you are able to modify the Pilot G2 refill slightly to work with a number of their rollerball pen models.

 

I'd say get a package of G2 refills and see if you can fit them into your Montblanc.

 

Also, the Pilot Metropolitan rollerball (of course) accepts G2 refills.  That's another great option for an inexpensive yet classy rollerball pen.

 

Two more links on this topic worth checking out:

 

https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2021/4/21/pilot-g2-update-pen-bodies-and-alternative-refills

 

https://www.wellappointeddesk.com/2014/06/epic-refill-guide-rollerball-gel-and-ballpoints/

 

And a link about the topic here on FPN:

 

 

 

 

[ProdigalG]

On 7/12/2022 at 2:10 AM, ErrantSmudge said:

This article about G2 refill compatibility is very interesting:

 

https://pickypens.com/pilot-g2-refill-compatible-pens/

 

This is a awsome article - I am looking at the Faber Castell Ondoro now. 

 

On 7/12/2022 at 2:10 AM, ErrantSmudge said:

Montblanc

Although Montblanc are rightfully considered to be the premium luxary pen brand in the world, you are able to modify the Pilot G2 refill slightly to work with a number of their rollerball pen models.

 

I'd say get a package of G2 refills and see if you can fit them into your Montblanc.

 

That would be fun expereiment! Using Monteverde at the moment, but fine colours is so worth it. I always thought in my head that G2 are ballpoint pens when I was resereaching on line or that G2 are european standard, but with a diffrent length. With MB the annoying part is always the screw in part - which makes it diffcult for other review to copy - even the Monteverde for MB ones when screwing in feel forced and not smooth. I feel like I was to mess up the thread of my Starwalker when screwing it in. I might buy a 2nd hand starwalker off ebay to try it out. 


By G2s, I am leaning it might be G2 07s I am looking at. If I can hack the refill for Lamy 2000, that woudl be so worth it. While I love to use my Lamy more, since I used Lamy M63 refills, which is an annoyingly wet and too board rolleball for me, I am sticking it as a RED Pen (Red M63). 

 

 

[ErrantSmudge]

8 hours ago, ProdigalG said:

By G2s, I am leaning it might be G2 07s I am looking at. If I can hack the refill for Lamy 2000, that woudl be so worth it. While I love to use my Lamy more, since I used Lamy M63 refills, which is an annoyingly wet and too board rolleball for me, I am sticking it as a RED Pen (Red M63). 

 

Lamy has two rollerball refills: the M63 is for pens with caps (Safari, 2000) and the M66 is for capless rollerballs (Tipo, Swift).  I know from experience the G2 works in my Tipos, but I don't know what the difference is between the M63 and M66 and whether the G2 is hackable to fit M63 pens.  I have read it needs a spacer to fit the M66 pens, but it works in my Tipos as-is.

 

The nice thing is that it costs little to experiment!

[amberleadavis]

I probably should mention the Sherpa. I have one covering my Pilot Precise Bold and Sherpa has it's own fountain pen ink refillable rollerball.