Papermate refills - are they still being made?

[posmic]

Schneider refills also seem to fit the bill, plus they're available in more colours as well. The current Lubriglide is very, very good, imho.

 

http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Schneider_Express_225_Refill.html

[rminj]

Yes. Back in college I wrote exclusively with the Papermate profile with "powerpoint refills"... This was when Gillette owned Papermate.. The top of the refill would push in a bit which pressurized the refill. They really put

a lot research and effort in refill and how the pen wrote. Not so much effort into the pens although the Profile pen was very durable...as good as a Jotter.

(BTW: I did not write with a Jotter back then..I found the ink a light blue and terrible).

 

To this day no ballpoint I've written with has come close in terms of speed or ink on the paper without skipping as a Papermate profile with the Powerpoint refill. You could say I'm here on this forum and others trying to get that

writing experience back.

 

The lubriglide refills that one can buy to this day write very well..as close to the old powerpoint as one can get.

 

I've moved to Jotter since Sanford/Newell-Rubbermaid killed the Profile pen. I guess they decided why compete with the Jotter. The only thing I'll say is I firmly believe the Parker refills are lubriglide ink. The Parker refills are available everywhere. For a while (right after Newell brought Parker?)the Parker refills tips has a taper to them that made them come closer to the Papermate refill point size. Alas,they killed that (cost too much?) and went

back to the plain triangle tip.

 

I'm currently writing with a Parker broad blue refill. This is a close as I can get to that original PowerPoint refill experience. But the Papermate refills your seeking do write better...the point size and ink of the Papermate refills, in my humble opinion were really state of the art in terms of ballpoints.

Edited May 3, 2010 by rminj

[nstlgia70]

It seems that there are quite a lot of people who had been using Papermate ballpoints and are missing them somewhat. Of course they cannot be compared to fountain pens, but ballpens do have a place on our desks or in our pockets. I believe that if Papermate were still promoting expensive pens like before, many people would be still be using them today. Both the old Powerpoints and new Lubriglide are really better than anything out there (IMHO the Lubriglides are better, but the light blue ink of Powerpoints look nicer than the purplish ink of Lubriglides). It's true that only the current Parker refills come close to the Lubriglides. I think the Parkers had only been that good after both the Parker and Papermate brands come under the same owners. I remember back in the 80s writing with Parker ballpoints was a less than pleasant experience. The ink just would not flow smoothly, and it was not possible write with speed. As mentioned in a previous post, Parkers are now probably filled with Lubriglide ink. Yes, I do find that the ink color is similar to Lubriglide's. Most likely similar technology is used too. Unlike other contributors on here, I will not switch to Parker now. I feel that it is not right for me to continue patronizing Sanford. I will both try to modify generic refills for use in my Profile, as suggested by Parse Error, as well as getting some of the Schneider refills recommended by Posmic.

Thanks again for all the input, they had really been helpful.

[rminj]

I think Sanford figured the Profile was so similar to the Jotter that they figured why sell both?

The Jotter shape and size is similar to the regular width Profile (I never cared for the slim version).

 

 

 

 

It seems they decided to make the Papermate line non-refillable. But the metal Lubriglide refills were used in their successful PhD series for some years. Really for speed and ink smoothness Gillette did a good job with the Profile and its metal refills. Guess they could not make the pens too good else people

don't anymore..only the refills?

 

If could not find a Papermater refill I guess I would try the fishers first:

 

http://www.spacepen.com/blueinkfinepointfisherpressurizedrefillsfor1950papermatepens.aspx

[WriteAway]

It might be really interesting to get either a copy of Sanford's strategic plan, or to sit in on a board meeting to get a sense of why the company does what it does with its products and services. Actually, it would be great to do that with any pen company that would allow it. Time to buy Sanford stock, perhaps?

[dogpoet]

Would you really want to be profiting from the ridiculous nonsense they get up to?

Still, I suppose this has been good news for Cross.

(I do have a very nice Papermate refillable biro somewhere, but as I've had it for nearly a quarter of a century, I have no idea what model it is. A stainless steel body a bit like a skinny jotter and a squared off clip with the logo put in in plastic, so maybe the 25 was an influence as well.)

[RLTodd]

It might be really interesting to get either a copy of Sanford's strategic plan, or to sit in on a board meeting to get a sense of why the company does what it does with its products and services. Actually, it would be great to do that with any pen company that would allow it. Time to buy Sanford stock, perhaps?

 

There is no Sanford stock. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid.

 

There is however Newell Rubbermaid stock. New York Stock Exchange listed, symbol NWL, currently somewher in the neighborhood of seventeen bucks a share. One can always buy a share of stock, travel to the annual share holders meeting, and enter an owner's protest about the way the managers are running the company.

 

IF, one doesn't mind the WORK (it is tedious), one can read through the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR service, and get some idea of their business plans. Probably not as specific as one wants, but it is a competitive business.

[WriteAway]

I should have been more clear...

 

I was trying to say that it would be interesting to get into the mindset of the decision makers at Sanford/Newell-Rubbermaid, and see why some of their decisions seem to run counter to the wishes of the customer, as well as to common sense (from a pen user's view). I understand that they run a huge business with the goal of maximizing profit for stockholders, but it would be quite interesting to listen to product discussions and why certain decisions are made.

 

It wouldn't do anyone any good to buy Newell-Rubbermaid stock unless they felt they could profit from it, least of all, me.

[mr T.]

As mentioned in the title, does anyone of you know whether the metal refills for the old Paper Mate ballpoint pens are still being manufactured today?

 

They are still manufactured by Schneider (the Express 740 refill)

[Julio]

The Fi.sher pen company make the papermate refill with "space age" compressed ink, or somethin like that.

[Darth Indiana]

any more on this? my mom's favorite pen is a Profile, and if the refills aren't going to be available she needs to know.

 

re. Space Pens: is there one that's similar in specs to the Profile Slim? I figure that would make a nice christmas present if Profile refills go extinct.

[elysee]

Papermate refills are available on Staples.com. I found listings for the medium blue, fine black, and medium black refills on the Staples site.

[WriteAway]

It might be really interesting to get either a copy of Sanford's strategic plan, or to sit in on a board meeting to get a sense of why the company does what it does with its products and services. Actually, it would be great to do that with any pen company that would allow it. Time to buy Sanford stock, perhaps?

 

Wow! Look what popped up on another thread here...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/157393-newell-rubbermaid-roadmap/

[nstlgia70]

any more on this? my mom's favorite pen is a Profile, and if the refills aren't going to be available she needs to know.

 

re. Space Pens: is there one that's similar in specs to the Profile Slim? I figure that would make a nice christmas present if Profile refills go extinct.

 

I am afraid they are no longer made by Papermate. However, a compatible type is available from another manufacturer, as pointed out by Posmic and Mr. T earlier in this thread. Check out their posts for the links.

 

The Fisher Space Pen company used to make refills that fit Profile pens, but I am afraid they had also been discontinued. The only place that you can still find them is here: spacepen

[Aesop]

Greetings, everyone. I've just discovered this forum, and am very pleased to find I'm not the only one who obsesses about things like this. I use fountain pens and calligraphy dip pens, and I actually never thought much about ballpoint pens until the good ones disappeared from the market.

 

As others have noted here, the Papermate inkflow was clearly much better than all other common ballpoints, and the Papermate pen was a pleasure to hold and use. Papermate was also the most widely sold ballpoint, which seemed to make perfect sense. The strategy now seems to be to give the customer hundreds of bad options and keep the one good option away from him, only possible because a single company owns all the major brands.

 

I buy Lubriglide refills from Staples.com, which occasionally stocks them. They ship them for free to my local store, which doesn't stock them. But I've been worried about having pens to use them in. I'm afraid to carry around my one remaining Malibu, since I tend to lose things, and my one remaining 98 broke about a month ago. Malibus and Profiles are usually available on eBay, for $10-15, but that seems too much for something I'm likely to leave on the first bank counter or restaurant table I come to.

 

A possible alternative that I'm looking into is the Bic Clic. I never used a Clic before, and I can't remember how I happened on the one I'm currently using, but I like the shape even better than the Malibu/Profile, and I was pleased to find that it accepts a Lubriglide refill. It's generally the same shape, but at 0.40" max it's slightly fatter than the Malibu & Profile Regular (max 0.37"), and quite a bit fatter than the Profile Slim (0.31"). The only problem with the Clic is that it's cheaply made, so I'll have to replace them regularly even if I don't lose them.

 

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of companies that will sell you 300 to 10,000 of them, in any color of the rainbow, with your advertising on them, for about 25¢ each. But as far as I can tell there's only one retail outlet: Where'sMyBIC.us (another Sanford company) sells the Clic in blue or black only, for $1.75 plus $3 shipping per order. I hope it's the same pen as the Clic I'm carrying now. I'm about to place my first order, and I'll report back on how that turns out.

[meiers]

I saw them at Staples.

[TheClassicCarol]

If you think it's hard to find refills for your pens, consider the case of the Papermate Lady Capri...

 

I like these pens for no sane reason, so I thought I was hosed until I found some cut-to-size ball pen refills on ebay. The refills are Fisher Space Pen refills. For the Lady Capri, the indicated cut points were all too large, so I used a fine saw to cut the refill to the same size as the Piggyback single section, and removed excess ink with a toothpick to avoid leakage into the pen. I have made three of these pens workable in this way, and my wife loves them as much as I do.

 

I just purchased a Lady Capri today, for no sane reason, except it was cute. How would I get one the refills you so skillfully craft?

[Aesop]

Forget what I said above about the Bic Clic. I was able to buy it, but I didn't like it. I would not suggest it as an alternative to the Papermate Malibu. Papermate refills have a slightly smaller diameter near the tip, so they wobble a bit in the Clic, which makes it unpleasant to write with, and the Clic refills don't write as smoothly as the Papermate Lubriglide. Also, the Clic is shoddily made; it feels cheap, and the joint won't stay together, and the threads strip out easily. And the Clic has 3 other internal parts besides the refill and spring, and they fall out and get lost when you open the pen to change refills.