I've recently been looking into rollerball pens that take fountain pen cartridges, or are compatible/refillable by user with fountain pen ink. What I initially wanted was to figure out how to refill Pilot V5 needle-point rollerballs. I've had good experiences with those pens but the problem was that they would eventually run out of ink and are a disposable. Those particular pens sell at a premium price compared to other rollerballs from other brands or product lines, such as the uniball rollerball pens. As a student I would go through a good amount of pens a year, and since I've started using fountain pens, I'm trying to slowly wean myself away from them.
Fountain pens give me that great smooth inky feel and great fun when writing with a fountain pen nib. A big problem though is that when I write quickly, rollerballs are more practical. I have not yet acclimated to the point of where my fountain pen keeps up with my fastest cursive when it comes time for writing on tests or in-class responses. For this I refer to a trusty old rollerball (currently one from Uniball, because I have a pack from a sale awhile back.)
I have one of the Noodler's rollerball tips installed in a preppy that came free with one of their 4.5 bottles of ink, but I find that that one, while it lays down a wonderful wet line with Heart of Darkness, it dislikes drier inks, such as Noodler's Black (Original? Bulletproof? I don't know). Armed with the knowledge that many others and even Nathan Tardiff himself have commented on the wear of the rollerball nibs from Noodler's, I started looking into cartridge taking rollerball pens that don't have replaceable nibs. One must assume that if the tip is not replaceable, then it must be built for work and wear.
The ones that I came across in the order I found them were the Noodler's rollerball, Kaweco rollerball, the J. Herbin rollerball, and the Yafa cartridge-rollerball. All of these are essentially what the rollerball tip in the preppy wants to be. The advantage the preppy has though as the ability to be an eyedropper pen, and thus have a beautifully large reservoir for ink. I had already ruled out Noodler's in my mind, because I already knew about their wear and tear nibs. The next three came down to availability, pricing, and looks.
Just received the J. Herbin rollerball in the mail. After looking around for information on this pen, I found that there was little to none, and the only page with information was a listing on the Writer's Bloc website that said that the pen was discontinued. Discontinued! Where do you find such things then? Of course- rummage sales, auction blocks, thrift shops, etc. I found my particular pen on Ebay from an estate items seller/digger.
The pen comes in a foam bed in a round tin, not even 5 inches in diameter. The collectable tin contains the pen, and some smaller tins of cartridges to fit it. I will edit this post later to include photos.
I have to admit that upon opening the tin, I was not impressed, I was disappointed even. The hazard of buying things on ebay is that you can only get so much information, and since there was only one of this particular item that I had been able to find anywhere, I settled. What I received, to my surprise was a black demonstrator pen. I had been lead to believe from the listing on the other site that all the pens came with a sliver body, with different colored caps. Other than the color though, the pen looked alike to the one on the listing, when I got myself to a computer and compared.
I suppose that my disappointment was mostly because I'm not exactly the biggest fan of demonstrators. Despite this being my first demonstrator fountain pen (with a rb tip, but it is essentially a fp), I've had click-pens, ball points, mechanical pencils, etc- that have been demonstrators. And they didn't really do anything for me. I prefer a sleek and beautiful look to my pens. (Even the eyedropper Preppys have a nice asthetic to them... when their ink barrels are mostly full, I don't get the same feeling when it's a Preppy with a cartridge.) While what I have currently can't be called the prettiest fp collection ever, they have nice designs and a great feel to them. The second thing I noticed (after the demonstrator part) was that the plastic was soft to the touch. However it IS hard plastic. This is pretty confusing. This is not soft plastic, such as the bodies of the Pilot Parallel pens, but it isn't hard and highly polished plastic like with the Platinum Preppy pens, and its also not like those plastic pens with the 'satin' feel. Perhaps I'm just imagining it. Perhaps not, but to me the plastic body feels different.
The pen is light in the hand, and fairly shot, about 5 inches capped and 6 inches posted. I need to write with it posted because I feel that it is too light without the cap. With the cartridge in, this pen is still lighter than a preppy pen with a cartridge in, but the body is also significantly thinner. The body is thicker than for instance, a BIC ball point. If I were to compare between the fps that I have, I would say the dimensions are closest with a Noodler's Flex pen (which has the same body as their Creeper), but a third to half a centimeter shorter capped, but almost 1.5 cm longer posted.
I believe the point would be equivalent to a US medium. So far it has written well and smoothly with the J. Herbin cartridge ink. Much better than the RB tip on the preppy, whether that is due to workmanship or due to the much finer point on the Noodler's tip, I can't really say. I have noticed though that the ball inside the tip from Noodler's is definitely metal, and the one from J. Herbin seems to be made of plastic. The tip being made of plastic makes me worry, because plastic wears down much more quickly than metal does. The real test for me is to see how well the pen will do when I refill these cartridges with other inks.
I will follow up with a more in-depth review another time on the writing performance once I've had the pen for awhile. (I've only had it with me for 1.5 hrs now! Yes, I was excited.) If there's anything that I've missed in terms of initial impression that anyone wants to know, tell me.
I had thought that since I got the J. Herbin, I probably shouldn't get the Kaweco, but seeing how its a demonstrator and all... I figure this will become my 'take- everywhere- pocket pen' and if I get a Kaweco it'll be in my pen pouch. I've seen and tested a Kaweco FP before, so I know what to expect in terms of body. I would definitely consider it more 'professional looking' and 'higher end' rollerball. I feel like I can get away with the J. Herbin masquerading as a regular pen most of the time. But that can be both good and bad. On one hand less people might want to swipe it, on the other hand, they might not feel quite as guilty swiping it, since it looks pretty cheap.
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