So I am more curious than anything. At first I was thinking that a rollerball could right on paper that fountain pens can’t but as far as I can tell that is only marginally true and there don’t seem to be many “inkball” or “cartridge rollerballs” or what ever desciption they go by. And of those that I have found, they are either plastic disposable looking pens or more expensive pens that leak all over the place. I have read that one of their main weaknesses is that since fountain pen ink is on lower end of viscousity, tolerances must be tight and the rollerball wears much faster than fountain pen nibs. After learning all this I wonder if there is a pen that has addressed all of this. One that lets you use fountain pen, replace the nib when it is worn, and doesn’t look just like a disposable pen. Any one know of a pen like that?
Certainly not that I’ve seen. The only refillable rollerball or inkball or whatever you want to call it I own is the Herbin one, which is very cheap and plasticy. Mine is also apparently irrevocably seized with the ball being locked up in the point, and no matter what I do to it I can’t get it to the point that it actually writes again. I put it away dry many years ago and it apparently just croaked itself in storage. Now it’s a nonfunctional curio that hangs out in my pen holder just filling a slot but accomplishing nothing.
I have not heard much better reports of the Kaweco one.
A couple of years ago I spent a while looking to try every rollerball fountain pen I could find. Here are my suggestions:
This is easily the best. Smooth. Writes great. Starts writing immediately. Never leaks. This is easily my most used.
Downside: I like ultrafine line width, this is kinda medium line width
Similar to the above, but slightly thicker line width (if you prefer that).
This is a premium and smooth pen with ultra-fine line width, but that comes with feeling very scratchy on paper. This is the best I could find for ultra fine line width.
No-name ultra cheap Ali Express pens
These are dirt cheap from AliExpress and come in fine and ultra-fine line width. They work well enough. Would probably recommend sticking with these if you want fine line width. Probably not worth spending on the premium option above.
I wish I had small enough hands to use this. Really good pen. Looks premium. Very pocketable. The small size limits it to small size ink cartridges and makes it difficult to use with big hands. You can put the cap on the back to make it a comfortable size, but that the makes it back-heavy.
I’ve used these pens for over a year. They’re still working fine. The only problem has been that if I don’t use the pen the ink dries up and it stops working. That only pen that gave me trouble with leaks was the Kakimori pen, and that was only because of temperature changes (leaving it in the car, then taking it indoors to a warm environment…this leaking went away when I left the pen in an office drawer).
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Dries up? Doesn’t that make it a cap problem? I wonder why all these brands have a poor seal on their caps.
Dang it, the Herbin is like $14 across the pond but in the US it is $40!
