Anybody else finding Cross refills to be worthless?

[Conan the Grammarian]

Seriously, I pay $5+ for a Cross refill and I get less performance out of it than.a $2 Pilot G-2 refill.

[Ron Z]

I have never liked Cross refills.

[inkstainedruth]

@Conan the Grammarian -- Sorry, I wouldn't know.  I have a few Cross pens (mostly Solos) but I have converters for them; I dislike cartridges in general because when they're empty they tend to either end up in a landfill (so, not good for the environment); or have to be refilled with a syringe -- which is, IMO, a major PITA because there's often not a good way to *seal* the cartridges if you're trying to stock up and fill/refill a bunch at once.... 

A few years ago, I happened onto a Penetia (a sub-brand of Cross) in a little antiques shop, and was told that they took International Standard converters.  So trailed around with the pen at a pen show, only to find that "International Standard" isn't as "standard" as claimed. But a Cross converter?  That fit just fine....  Go figure....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Ron Z]

I think that he's talking about either ballpoint or rollerball refills.

 

[Carguy]

11 hours ago, Ron Z said:

I have never liked Cross refills.

I concur. I have a tray full of Cross ballpoints that I have bought at various estate sales over the years. Unlike Ruth, I hardly ever find any fountain pens at estate sales. All of these Cross pens had new refills put in them when I got them in the past two years and not a single one of them write without some effort.

 

I need to have a Cross ballpoint sale!

[Mark from Yorkshire]

There are better refills made by others for cross ballpoints or pens that take the same type of refill 

[inkstainedruth]

16 hours ago, Carguy said:

Unlike Ruth, I hardly ever find any fountain pens at estate sales.

This is reminding me of a conversation I had with someone at one of the evening parties at IIRC OPS last fall.  I was sitting at a table with some guy from southern Indiana (he ran a non-profit which provide potters and sculptors with studio space and equipment).  And he said he almost NEVER found pens in the wild.  And I realized that Pittsburgh ALWAYS had money -- first from the steel industry, and now from high tech stuff (there's even a company who helped with some of the hardware for IIRC the recent Artemis II space mission around the moon -- I see their building just off the highway from Downtown to the town I live in as I'm driving home from stuff) and also medical stuff (a guy my husband and I used to know was a pilot and he often had jobs flying transplant organs to hospitals in the city...).

And of course, even then?  Sometimes I DON'T get lucky (was 4th in line at a sale south of me earlier this morning (doors opened at 8 and I got there a little after 7 and it's now about 20 minutes after noon) to look at a couple of Parker pens in boxes (the photos weren't so good, and the table they were on had a lot of jewelry and watches as well, and people crowding around that table).  So after poking around the rest of the house, I asked the cashier.  And it turned out a "sumgai" had found them and was paying for them just at that point.  Of course, I couldn't get a straight answer from the guy as to whether they even WERE fountain pens....  Sigh.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Chris1]

I'll take the bait and ask...

As I have several Cross ball-point pens (the common, slim Century type) with refills and am not wildly happy with the way they write (scratchy at first, then a bit blobby before skipping at the end of their life) but have had no luck with unbranded Cross-style stick refills, what should I look for and buy?

 

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

I’ve not tried them but Monteverde do cross style refills and there gel ink ones are more reliable than the Parker ones and the colour of the ink is a lot better as well in my humble opinion. Schneider also do cross type refills I can’t recommend theses or say what they are like as I have no experience as far as I’m aware with them just looking at cult pens as to which OEM manufacture make that style of refill 

[torstar]

When i cannot see the ink level, suspicions arise.

 

 

[Ron Z]

The original style Cross refill has always been metal.  Rollerball, Cross was always metal.  

 

Monteverdi refills generally are safe.  I like the Schneider Gelion refills (Parker style)l so would be interested if they were available for other pens.

[Karmachanic]

https://www.beaufortink.co.uk/pen-refills/cross-style-pen-refills

 

https://www.beaufortink.co.uk/what-makes-our-pen-refills-what-they-are