If you had to use a ballpoint what's the smoothest

[ballboy]

I've recently rediscovered the bold smooth writing simplicity of Cross, with my Arcadia lying dormant in my desk drawer: a long slender refill with a screw in thread to the rear of the pen seems to offer unfussed wrting for me. Parker refills are ubiquitous in many brands of ballpoints but I find them pointy and scratchy sometimes by comparison. You can however buy gel points in the same refill format and experiment.

 

Ballpoint pens I've tried include Cross Apogee, Parkers of various models including Jotter and the rare Ellipse, Waterman Expert and Rotring Freeway. Waterman and Rotring BPs use Parker refills.

 

Having said that, I'm spending any significant bucks on a fountain pen and leaving ballpoints to the past: I'd prefer a rollerball or cheap disposable BP/gelpoints.

[LouisA]

1. Bic Stick (the original Stick or the Click) Smooooth writing pens.

2. Cross (any model, love the way they write)

3. Waterman

[mikey]

Parker brand refills are the best IMO (medium blue to be exact). They are also known as "large international" refills. Numerous other brands make Parker-style refills that include gel and liquid "capless rollerball" refills in a variety of colors. Itoya and Monteverde come to mind.

 

The WORST refills are the Fisher Space Pen refills. It is a neat trick that they pressurize the refill so you can write upside down, under water or in outer space but as soon as you use about a quarter of the refill it will blob on you every three or four characters. Someone here at FPN called this "boogery" writing. It renders the refill useless.

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

Who makes the best ballpoint refill? I would like to buy a new ballpoint pen. I want to base my decision on the quality of the refills available.

 

[duna]

I always post my pens. Even my Bic Crystals. Even if I have to write a number. Don't follow the lead of MB boutiques trying to lure you in the murky, brown waters of unposted pens. They are also horrified if you put another brand of ink inside their (precious) pens. Caps are obviously made to be posted, and if the cap cannot be posted on a pen, this is often labeled as peculiar (by optimists) or as a defect. No offence intended to people who love to write with unposted cap, but in my opinion this is the canonical (and practical) way.

[soapytwist]

Caran d'Ache Goliath, no question. And you can either buy an expensive pen to put it in or one of their cheaper Metal Collection pens.

[penguinmaster]

Best ballpoint refill to me is a Parker Gel. Lovely smooth ballpoint, but still allows those triplicate forms to be filled out!

 

-penguin

[Tsujigiri]

Who makes the best ballpoint refill? I would like to buy a new ballpoint pen. I want to base my decision on the quality of the refills available.

 

Wait, are you saying that you'll buy a pen based on that company's refills? Because most ballpoint refills are interchangeable across brands...

I haven't experienced the problems with the Fisher Space pens, those have worked well enough for me. Cross and MB also work well, but it's a shame that those two companies use non-standard refill sizes.

[Headache Corporation (TM)]

As someone pointed out above, Cross bp refills screw-in, and for that reason I like them. The refills don't rattle (although I've seen it happen because the inside of the whole pen was loose). Cross refills are probably unremarkable, but in my experience they are reliable and smooth enough. The downside: they don't make gel refills that fit in the same pen.

 

Many pens that take Parker refills tend to rattle, including my experiences with the Jotter and a newer Parker design (can't recall the name right now) and even an $80 Pelikan that takes the same refills. I usually end up trying to put tape on the end of the refill in a futile attempt to stop the rattling, but it usually just screws up the mechanism.

 

 

[Pjake]

CdA broad, is my refill of choice...

 

I'm indifferent to Parker Gels, preferring instead Parker broad/black or blue bp refills.

 

Peter

[Greg D]

Here's another vote for the Parker gel being the best writing ballpoint re-fill. I would suggest that you purchase whatever pen meets your needs/wants and that uses the Parker style re-fill. For the times that I can't use a fountain pen (work) I use a Pelikan K800 with the medium Parker gel, with black ink. Visconti also makes a gel re-fill in this same style that absolutely glides on paper but it is nearly twice the price as the Parker. AFAIK, they make a medium and a broad point but I have only tried the broad, which was a bit too broad for my writing style.

 

Greg~

[matthewst1]

Diplomat Easy Flow BP refills are the best, IMO. Super, super smooth without being a gel or too wet. Also the international standard (Parker) size. Only available in black though; because the formula hasn't been perfected for blue ink yet. Amazing!

[officesupplygeek]

I really like the Uni-Ball UBR-300 .5mm. They come in the A.G. Spalding wooden pens, and I try to use them as refills in my roller ball pens even if I have to modify them a bit. I would however love to get a Uni-Ball signo dx gel refill, that would be awesome.

[barny]

Fisher space pen refills (cross type, parker type etc..) bar none - IMO

[jmkeuning]

Everyone who has eyes to see and fingers to hold a pen knows that Fisher Space Pen refills are the best for your ballpoint.

[RayMan]

Any BP that accepts Parker gel refills. This includes:

 

All Parker BPs

Aurora

Monteverde

Visconti

[lovemy51]

parker, cross, waterman... i hate all of them. about gel... i won't put them i the same category as BP (technically, they might be). as far as BP "ink" that i can say i'm willing to consider using: Zebra, itoya (parker style), and fisher (in that order).

[sexauerw]

I've just discovered that Monteverdi makes a gel refill that fits Sheaffer ballpoints. I have letting them languish in my pen drawer and just using those that take the Parker gel refills, but now I can finally use my nice Sheaffers. Not that I use any ballpoint much, they're strictly reserved for that horrible thermal paper and for carbonless forms.

 

So far the only place I've found to buy these refills is Fahrney's. I hope they become more widely available.

[yellotrace]

space pen works fine for me.

Need it for signing on those cold cold Canadian winter days when any other pen would have been frozen.

 

But that's about as much action my space pen sees.

[Juan in Andalucia]

I use Parker medium black bp refils because they can be used in many other pens, like my Retro 51 Tornados which are some of my favorite bps.

 

Juan

[Deirdre]

I like the Visconti gel refills, particularly sepia.