Do you like rollers?

[bilbok]

You can get rollers for under a dollar at an office supply store too. Give them a try. Rollers can be disposable, use refills and a few take ink from a bottle.

 

I don't know what your "high end" question means. If you sell a pen for over fifty bucks, then it's supposed to be high end. Pens aren't inherently expensive regardless of the underlying writing technology.

 

Can you find rollers you can not refill ?

Edited May 31, 2008 by bilbok

[bilbok]

One thing thing that befuddles me about roller ball pens is that, when the ink is depleted, you usually throw away a cartridge that includes the nib. That means that the majority of the money you paid for the pen is not in the writing part of the pen, the nib, but rather in the fancy casing. This is not true of all rollerballs, though. On the other hand, when purchasing a fountain pen, one can rest assured that their main investment is in the nib itself, which is reused and is never thrown away with refills.

 

That's why the refills are more expensive than the ink of a FP and the FP more expensive than rollers ?

[simonrob]

Are they between the fountain pen and the ball point regarding to the writing ?

 

Does it worth buying a high end roller or this is wiser to pay a little more to get the same pen with a nib ?

 

I particulary think about the diamond pattern sentyrman of Dunhill.

 

Thanks

 

I think they feel a bit nicer than most ballpoints, but as with ballpoints I would only use one in a situation where a fountain pen simply won't work. As for whether it's worth buying a "high end" roller ball, I don't think so; what's the point of spending a lot of money for what's no more than housing for a cheap disposable mechanism? I think it makes more sense to buy cheap rollerballs and ballpoints and save your money for fountain pens.

 

I would suggest something a bit different: right now Swisher have in their clearance section Sailor gel pens. They write as well as any ballpoint or rollerball I've ever encountered and cost a mere 5 @ $4.99 or 50 @ $35.

 

Simon

[Deirdre]

I think they feel a bit nicer than most ballpoints, but as with ballpoints I would only use one in a situation where a fountain pen simply won't work.

There are times I'll use a roller -- I keep a roller or ballpoint in my purse as a backup. Sometimes I just like to mix it up.

 

One situation where a non-FP may well work better: low light situations, because you don't have to orient the nib. That's one situation where sided pens like the VP and Omas 360 can also be helpful.

Edited May 31, 2008 by Deirdre

[JJBlanche]

I have bought nice Pelikan and other rollerballs to go with my FPs when the price was right (reads: practical give away). That said, most of them collect dust, and I'd much rather write with my $15 Reform student FP than the most expensive, über-limited RB.

 

Ever since first being introduced to rollerballs, I've found them interesting, in the sense that all you're really paying for is an expensive holder for a $5 refill. You could pretty much wrap the refill in duct tape and, for all intents and purposes, get the same writing experience as a $400 RB. For example, my El Cheapo wal-mart Parker RB ($10, including refill) will always write as well as Parker's top of the line, because they both take the same refill. By contrast, a Parker Jotter will probably not write as well as the nicest Duofolds/51s, etc.

[andyk]

I quite like RBs, have several favourites are probably my Pelikans and CS100, they write well and are useful for occasions when I may not be able to use an FP, however if you use Gel refills in a BP, they write pretty much the same.

 

Andy

[MYU]

Rollerballs are great writing instruments, a natural evolution from the ballpoint. And the new capless refills are remarkable--they write fluidly with no blotching or skipping. Schmidt claims that their "Super Bowl" rollerball refills are writable for up to a full year uncapped.

 

The conservative side of me doesn't like the fact that the entire refill (insert?) is tossed out when dry. But I understand the need for doing so. The roller ball degrades over time, in a manner I don't quite understand. Either the ball itself loses its shape causing a loss of smoothness or the socket that holds the ball in distorts enough to allow the passage of ink unevenly. If you could put more ink into the refill, after the 2nd or 3rd time you'd begin to notice the degradation. But apparently the manufacturing technique results in a significantly small cost for that writing tip, unlike a fountain pen nib.

 

I love writing with a fountain pen, but sometimes it is not the suitable writing instrument for the job. The roller ball fills in that space nicely.

Edited May 31, 2008 by MYU

[amper]

My experience with rollerballs is quite like FrankB's, as he posted above. I dislike and prefer a good ballpoint for those tasks that my fountain pens can't cover. I like to use those rollerball pens for which a rollerball refill sized ballpoint refill is available. In my Graf von Faber-Castell rhodium Guilloche, I use the Schmidt 2010 M refill, and I am currently hunting for a Cross Selectip large ballpoint refill for my Cross Metropolis rollerball. Aside from that, I'll take a Bic Cristal any day over most rollerball refills.

[sumgaikid]

I have used R/Bs in the past and found that they tend to skip when writing(It may also be that I'm not a heavy-handed

writer and therefore don't push down hard when I write). That being the case,I only use B/Ps whwen I'm out of f/p ink.

 

John

[tulipa]

I always carry a roller with me so that I can use it to fill out multi-copy forms instead of worrying bending the nib of my FPs by pressing too hard.

[Garageboy]

The Mitsubishi Uni Ball refills are NIIICE, better IMHO than any of the MB, Waterman, etc

Too bad they don't make a "nicer" pen holder for it

[Juan in Andalucia]

I like writing with them, and I always seem to have one at hand, but I've had a couple of shirts ruined, and a bag stained on the inside, so I don't carry them with me. They're scattered around my house: drawers, desks, cups...but not near my clothes.

 

BTW, I've included gel refils (like parker's) in this category.

 

Juan

[Doug C]

I do like them, but as some here can attest, over the last couple of months I have sold a lot of them here at FPN. The main reason is that I had too many to put refills in, and as others have mentioned, they all pretty much feel alike, as opposed to fountain pens which have their own character. This is especially true of Italian fountain pens. You can put five of the same model, same maker, same nib size, together and they will all feel different (and, at least one of them won't write at all!).

 

There are just times when you need something that will write on difficult paper, or in some cases, when you don't want to subject your nib to a nasty surface. I also love pencils. To me they have the same kind of toothiness that FP's do.

 

The only thing I can't stand are ballpoints.

Edited June 2, 2008 by Doug C

[bilbok]

I like writing with them, and I always seem to have one at hand, but I've had a couple of shirts ruined, and a bag stained on the inside, so I don't carry them with me. They're scattered around my house: drawers, desks, cups...but not near my clothes.

 

BTW, I've included gel refils (like parker's) in this category.

 

Juan

 

Are Rollers more dangerous than Fp or ball points ?

[bilbok]

The only thing I can't stand are ballpoints.

 

Why?

 

[bilbok]

Are they between the fountain pen and the ball point regarding to the writing ?

 

Does it worth buying a high end roller or this is wiser to pay a little more to get the same pen with a nib ?

 

I particulary think about the diamond pattern sentyrman of Dunhill.

 

Thanks

 

I think they feel a bit nicer than most ballpoints, but as with ballpoints I would only use one in a situation where a fountain pen simply won't work. As for whether it's worth buying a "high end" roller ball, I don't think so; what's the point of spending a lot of money for what's no more than housing for a cheap disposable mechanism? I think it makes more sense to buy cheap rollerballs and ballpoints and save your money for fountain pens.

 

I would suggest something a bit different: right now Swisher have in their clearance section Sailor gel pens. They write as well as any ballpoint or rollerball I've ever encountered and cost a mere 5 @ $4.99 or 50 @ $35.

 

Simon

 

Is really a nib so expensive and so difficult to make that buying a $800 FP is a good purchase when a $600 roller is a bad purchase ??

 

[bilbok]

I have used R/Bs in the past and found that they tend to skip when writing(It may also be that I'm not a heavy-handed

writer and therefore don't push down hard when I write). That being the case,I only use B/Ps whwen I'm out of f/p ink.

 

John

 

Doesn't one need to press much more for a ball point than a for roller?

[daveg]

I like writing with them, and I always seem to have one at hand, but I've had a couple of shirts ruined, and a bag stained on the inside, so I don't carry them with me. They're scattered around my house: drawers, desks, cups...but not near my clothes.

 

BTW, I've included gel refils (like parker's) in this category.

 

Juan

 

Are Rollers more dangerous than Fp or ball points ?

 

Pens with liquid ink (Rollers and fp) tend to be more dangerous in this respect than ball pens. I can attest that capless designs that depend on you to have the presence of mind to retract them before re-pocketing them can be a bad thing. (For me at least.) There are a few fps like this and quite a few rollers. Thick ball pen ink won't go far if you make this mistake.

 

Is really a nib so expensive and so difficult to make that buying a $800 FP is a good purchase when a $600 roller is a bad purchase ??

 

Any hundred dollar pen is a bad purchase - unless you like it a lot! You're going to see a preference for fountain pens on a forum called Fountain Pen Network but you may or may not agree with it. Obviously ~99% do not agree, but you probably wouldn't be here if you weren't interested at least.

 

Keep in mind that the whole ball/roller thing gets blurry with gel inks and sometimes you see gel/liquid inks in the same shape refills as ball points.

Edited June 3, 2008 by daveg

[bilbok]

Pens with liquid ink (Rollers and fp) tend to be more dangerous in this respect than ball pens. I can attest that capless designs that depend on you to have the presence of mind to retract them before re-pocketing them can be a bad thing. (For me at least.) There are a few fps like this and quite a few rollers. Thick ball pen ink won't go far if you make this mistake.

 

There are FP and rollers with no cap ?

 

 

Any hundred dollar pen is a bad purchase - unless you like it a lot!

 

Please stop trolling ! We risk to have a suicide spree on the forum because of you !

 

 

 

You're going to see a preference for fountain pens on a forum called Fountain Pen Network but you may or may not agree with it. Obviously ~99% do not agree, but you probably wouldn't be here if you weren't interested at least.

 

I have no preference because in the last 15 years, I have only used cristal Bic or so.

 

I like nice clothes and accessories but had no nice pen si far.

 

I decided it was time to buy a few pens, all the more since I noticed that bic tends to flow when carried in pockets and I don't want to ruin a suit jacket.

 

 

Keep in mind that the whole ball/roller thing gets blurry with gel inks and sometimes you see gel/liquid inks in the same shape refills as ball points.

 

What is gel inks exaclty ?

Edited June 3, 2008 by bilbok

[GeneF]

As far as I am concerned the worst roller is better than the best BP.

 

I REALLY wanted to love the traditional Cross pen I received as a gift, but it just won't write for me.

 

I also remember way back when - the first Pentel's came out - nice, but a really heavy (to me) line.

 

When I am not using my FP I use a uni-ball vision elite with the .5 tip. Smooth, airplane safe, and good for carbons.

 

GeneF