Live data from Hacker News

Pen Refills Guide

unsharpen.com

11–20 of 58 posts

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#11
post #7

zebra sarasas (cobalt color) are my faves! they smear less than other gel pens like the G2’s, which is good for lefties. great to know they’re an ISO standard size (parker-style G2).

+1 for Zebra Sarasa. (I was excited to see it mentioned as well.) I'm a fan of them (for 15+ years) since someone I knew who owned an office supply store introduced them to me. They look a lot like G2's but if you look closely at a G2 you see a brown smear of color at the top of the refill which Sarasa doesn't have. However, I cross out things often (to do lists), and sometimes draw a line across the page (as a divid…

yah, blobs seem to be an issue with many ink pens, gel or otherwise. when i need to draw lines, i usually pull out a tissue or napkin to dab off the extra ink after each line.

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#12
post #10

Rotring makes the best pens and mechanical pencils, bar none. They're well-built, stylish, and incredibly durable. They do not look or feel cheap, and they're perfectly weighted. After years of experimenting with different models and refills, I've found the one brand I'll stick with forever. Do yourself a favor and look them up.

I own a rotring 600 which my father used 40 years ago - indestructable. However my Pentel GraphGear 1000 is so much better: metal body, rectractable tip (so I can carry it in my pocket), great grip, great balance.

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#13
I've been writing with Mitsubishi ball pens before but switched to a fountain pen - a simple Lamy with a fine feather - and I can really recommend it. The writing experience is very nice as the pen requires very little pressure to write and with a little practice the result looks very good. I also bought a small flask of black ink and an ink converter (a small ink cartridge allowing you to draw ink from the flask into the cartridge via the pen) to refill it, which I have to do roughly every two weeks. I've been almost exclusively writing with the pen since more than a year and went through less than a quarter of the flask so far, so it's more economic than using ball pens as well I'd say.

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for Zebra Sarasa. (I was excited to see it mentioned as well.) I'm a fan of them (for 15+ years) since someone I knew who owned an office supply store introduced them to me. They look a lot like G2's but if you look closely at a G2 you see a brown smear of color at the top of the refill which Sarasa doesn't have. However, I cross out things often (to do lists), and sometimes draw a line across the page (as a divid…

yah, blobs seem to be an issue with many ink pens, gel or otherwise. when i need to draw lines, i usually pull out a tissue or napkin to dab off the extra ink after each line.

You might wanna try out Pilot Vpen [1] - its a disposable fountain pen available in a couple of colour options. I've been using them for 3 years now without issues, and no blobs form (generally, unless the paper was a tissue paper or smth)

[1] https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Vpen-Disposable-Fountain-Pen-B...

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#15
post #12
post #10

Rotring makes the best pens and mechanical pencils, bar none. They're well-built, stylish, and incredibly durable. They do not look or feel cheap, and they're perfectly weighted. After years of experimenting with different models and refills, I've found the one brand I'll stick with forever. Do yourself a favor and look them up.

I own a rotring 600 which my father used 40 years ago - indestructable. However my Pentel GraphGear 1000 is so much better: metal body, rectractable tip (so I can carry it in my pocket), great grip, great balance.

Try the Rotring 800. It's all of those things. It's a bit more expensive than the Pentel, but if you're not prone to losing pencils, I think you'll like it.

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#16
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found pens to more commonly break before they run out of ink anyway. And my preferred roller ball pens (Uniball Air Micro) aren't refillable anyway. But I've taken to using a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen more often anyway, and that's easily and cheaply refillable from a bottle of ink.

Heh. I've found that my odds of breaking a pen are negatively correlated to the price of the pen. I switched to using pigma microns at the beginning of the year. Just starting on my 3rd pen. The first two are not only not broken, but they are also neatly arranged in my stationery drawyer. Marked as finished. Wish they had a way of refilli g the inks on these pens. I wanted to try fountain pens but couldn't find archi…

I'm switching frequently between Pigma Micron and Pilot Drawing Pen.

I like the ink of the Micron, overall the feel are similar enough that both are fine for me, but the Pilot simply lasts longer.

I've a set of both, and what I've found is that when unused for a while (despite being neatly capped) the Micron will simply dry out and stop working. I've almost never had this with the Pilot.

For oddball diameters and colors which I use rarely it's a nuisance.

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yah, blobs seem to be an issue with many ink pens, gel or otherwise. when i need to draw lines, i usually pull out a tissue or napkin to dab off the extra ink after each line.

You might wanna try out Pilot Vpen [1] - its a disposable fountain pen available in a couple of colour options. I've been using them for 3 years now without issues, and no blobs form (generally, unless the paper was a tissue paper or smth) [1] https://www.jetpens.com/Pilot-Vpen-Disposable-Fountain-Pen-B...

Have you tried the Pilot 78G? It's a quite reliable and yet cheap fountain pen: https://www.penaddict.com/blog/2013/11/27/pilot-78g-fountain...

Re: Pen Refills Guide

#20

I've been writing with Mitsubishi ball pens before but switched to a fountain pen - a simple Lamy with a fine feather - and I can really recommend it. The writing experience is very nice as the pen requires very little pressure to write and with a little practice the result looks very good. I also bought a small flask of black ink and an ink converter (a small ink cartridge allowing you to draw ink from the flask int…

I tend to write with cross fountain pens these days, because I like the look of the Century I and II ranges mostly. I have converters and pots of black and purple ink, and I think some blue cartridges hanging around.

Always liked fountain pens, they slow me down a little which makes my writing so much more legible.

Post reply on HN