The terrible Quinkflow

[Jonah79]

Because I'm also a ballpoint user, I use Quinkflow refills. The have a nice colour and write well, but they are terrible starters. The first few words are almost unreadable. 

A 45 cent Bic Cristal fine starts every time, but a Quinkflow... 

And this even happens after a few hours of not using the refill.

 

Anyone else? 

[Mercian]

This is useful to know 

I haven’t yet used a ‘Quinkflow’ refill.
I have used the old ‘gel’ refills - I loved my violet/purple one, but Parker stopped making it 😢

 

My last (black) gel BP refill seemed to run out very quickly. I am minded to stick to Parker’s ISO-certified BP refills in future, or to try one of the ISO-certified ones that are made by other companies.

[Ueno808]

I have three Quinkflow BP refills - two black and one blue - and all start immediately with no problem.  They are a couple years old.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

Parker refills are carp full stop. Best going with other makes especially Monteverde. They do some cracking Parker type refills. I currently have a fair few black Parker “gel” refills as the blue just dries/ runs out in double quick time.

[Glenn-SC]

Interesting. My Quinkflow refills have all come in pens that I have purchased (new or used) and they all seem to work fine for me. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Good to know, in I do have some antique Jotters and my wife has some Parker BP's.....(she's a Ball Point Barbarian; so I get to user her 4-5 fountain pens.).

 

The T-ball re-fill reminds me very much of 1965....about the date of the Jotter.

 

I was looking for a gel refill over here in Germany were often we are behind the moon.....and the department store had none.

 

So what is the best Parker refill?

I plan to go to my B&M.

 

 

[Mercian]

On 2/5/2024 at 8:02 PM, Jonah79 said:

Because I'm also a ballpoint user, I use Quinkflow refills. The have a nice colour and write well, but they are terrible starters. The first few words are almost unreadable. 

A 45 cent Bic Cristal fine starts every time, but a Quinkflow... 

And this even happens after a few hours of not using the refill.

 

Anyone else? 

One thing I will add is that my own Parker ballpoint refills have tended to react badly to being left unused for long periods of time, but will revert to being reliable starters if they are used often, with e.g. only a couple of days at a time without use.

And even the ones that I used infrequently, and so found to ‘always’ be hard-starters, became reliable again if e.g. I only used them to do the day’s crossword in the newspaper, but did that every day for several days.

 

I presume that the problem is caused by some solvent evaporating out of the small area of ink that is on the exposed-to-the-air side of the tungsten ball, and a resultant difficulty in then doing enough writing to remove all of that ‘de-natured’ ink from the writing ball.

 

The speed with which this happens - and also the degree of difficulty in subsequently dislodging the ‘de-natured’ ink - will vary with the temperature/humidity/pressure of the air where you keep/use the pen, and according to how long a period for which it typically sits unused.

 

The process of getting my BP refill working nicely again has been easy for me - but then I live in a very mild, ‘maritime’ climate at only 140m above sea level.
If you happen to live somewhere that is very hot, very cold, very dry, or very high, you may well find it much harder to keep your BPs running ‘nicely’.

[Mark from Yorkshire]

No, I stopped using “genuine” Parker refills and generally use Monteverde refills instead and that also goes for my Sheaffer pens as well. Parker refills are c*ap even the standard ballpoints 

[Number99]

5 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

Good to know, in I do have some antique Jotters and my wife has some Parker BP's.....(she's a Ball Point Barbarian; so I get to user her 4-5 fountain pens.).

 

The T-ball re-fill reminds me very much of 1965....about the date of the Jotter.

 

I was looking for a gel refill over here in Germany were often we are behind the moon.....and the department store had none.

 

So what is the best Parker refill?

I plan to go to my B&M.

 

 

There are only two options for PARKER ballpoint pen refills: high-viscosity oil-based ink and gel ink.

There are only a few combinations as far as specifications go, but you can certainly look in your local *PARKER catalog.

The ballpoint pen inks the OP compared are low viscosity oil-based inks, which are in a completely different ink category than high viscosity oil-based inks. (They should not be compared.)

 

There are many PARKER G2 standard refills available from various companies, so you can use them, but there is no guarantee that they will be compatible.

So please get information from those who have actually tried and succeeded in threads like this one.

I use the original in every pen because I have too many pens to do that and have to check every time which refill is in which pen.

 

I use PARKER ballpoint pens mainly for short documents where I can't make mistakes or when I want to write letters slowly and neatly, because they have moderate frictional resistance when writing and I can inflect the line width.

The disadvantages are common to high-viscosity oil-based ink ballpoint pens, but they tend to tire easily because of their high writing resistance, and the viscosity of the ink tends to change with changes in temperature.

PARKER gel ink has too thick a line for me due to the language.

 

I prepare DAISO ballpoint pens for use in environments where I am likely to lose them, Pilot Doctor Grip for long writing sessions, and Mitsubishi Uni Power Tank for outdoor use.

PARKER and Pentel Energel are for clean copies.

Which ballpoint pen ink refills to use depends on each person's situation.

 

And the best PARKER refills are the freshest refills available in stores.

And...I don't know the meaning of the English abbreviation of B&M...

 

*For example, the assortment of ballpoint pen refills on parker pen.JP does not show the entire assortment on Parker pen.com.

 

Edited February 17, 2024 by Number99
Link attachment position and additional links

[Glenn-SC]

3 hours ago, Number99 said:

And the best PARKER refills are the freshest refills available in stores.

And...I don't know the meaning of the English abbreviation of B&M...

 

“B&M” stands for “Brick and Mortar”, meaning a physical store a person can walk into the see/handle pens and accessories. This is I n contrast to a mail-order or internet seller where items are ordered based on descriptions, photos, and/or videos.  

[Number99]

2 hours ago, Glenn-SC said:

“B&M” stands for “Brick and Mortar”, meaning a physical store a person can walk into the see/handle pens and accessories. This is I n contrast to a mail-order or internet seller where items are ordered based on descriptions, photos, and/or videos.  

Thanks.

I almost understood it incorrectly when I searched online and an e-commerce site called "B&M" showed up.

I don't know if PARKER refills have a manufacture date on them, but he can ask the store. If that is not possible, he can drag the refill out from the very back of the shelf.

(If the store has proper inventory control.)

[Bo Bo Olson]

OK...fresh Parker Refill and old wine.

 

.... That last is a three block walk from my B&M.

 

I'm sure my B&M does enough business he'd not have any vintage Parker re-fills on hand.

 

Though as I mentioned that new...T-Ball I have in my old Jotter, feels vintage.

I buy very few BP refills........in I got lots of FP's and inks.

Mostly I'd buy a Schmidt Parker clone for half price....(even there I dither and don't)..at the over €5.50 for a Parker refill, the price of a bottle of Pelikan 4001 ink....what I'm probably looking for is a cheaper gel re-fill.

Got to see if Schmidt makes one..........

 

I'll have to buy Lamy refills......my wife has a lot of Lamy BP. (Happens when the Lamy factory is some 15 miles away.)

I have an old once affordable MB ball point, and for just a bit more than two Parker's I got 2 MB refill.

With half the original left...wanted a different color............could be I'm good to I get my BP's transferred to my Pyramid.

I find the thinner Jotter to be top heavy vs that MB.

 

The wife has the more modern Parkers than my Jotters, and a thin set she admires more than uses.

 

That MB BP, is from the era, when MB made affordable pens, the 3xx, these BPs. Before the pen reached the bottom of your shirt pocket if you forgot to retract it, the shirt pocket would cause the button on the clip to flip retracting the point.

 

At that time a Jotter cost $3.50...Cross skinny black matt one $8.00 the status pen of the late '60-early 70's. And I don't remember if that MB cost 12 DM or $12.

 

I wasn't into German pens back when they were never cheap. Imagine, someone wanting more for a gold plated trim pen like 146/9 than a rolled gold trimmed Snorkel. Ugly Pelikans cost some $14 or so...the price of a Snorkel. (at 4DM to 1$).

Or wanting $90 for a 725 rolled gold trimmed Geha when a sterling silver Parker P-75 cost in the BX/PX  only $22 in silver backed money. Which is what I paid...civilians paid a couple dollars more for that pen in 1971/2 in a BX/PX.

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

This is a BP I'm never going to use...my wife got it for €5 at a flea market.Mint of course.....no nose up smilie to be found....

I looked it up, first price was €350, then 500 and one guy wanted only Ç9--. Penboard.de has or had it for €500.

I took it to my B&M, and the elderly sales lady...younger than me, took one look at it and it's box and said it originally cost €250..............a bit out of the unusual, if the sales lady could remember the price after only 17 years.....of course there may have been other such Lamy LE ball points, in that price range. It is a heavy pen.