UH Oh, are all Parkers that bad writing?

[Chris Bar]

Tried a Parker refill for the first time in a new pen style and was disillusioned with the terrible line quality, reminiscent of the five-and-dime ballpoint with Howdy-Doody's picture on the barrel. I have been searching for the ultimate ballpoint (one-hander :biggrin pen kit that uses the Parker refill, due to the assumed better line quality and higher ink capacity. I decided on the CSUSA American Bullet point in Rhodium and perhaps Berea's 8mm Euro in gold titanium. But since I have yet to order this last model, the jury is still out, uh, really not yet docketed.

Anyway, seems my Woodcraft Slimline Cross refills have had much, much better line quality, to the end that the Parker may have (for me) lost out to a more available line of pens, those that use the Cross refill. I am under the impression, right or wrong, that the cross is going the way of the Dodo bird, for the aforementioned reasons. What do others think of the standard Parker refill for line quality? And maybe the status of Cross refills?

Oh, the CS European ballpoint is a winner too. Made some of these in Rhodium as Christmas gifts for my neighbors; wish I had taken photos. It is a Cross refill and a well designed pen. Suppose I could make the Euro in a Cross and the Bullet in a Parker gel. And seeing the Zen and the Retro photos in a recent post, must order some of those also. ...so little time....

So, any thoughts......no, not those thoughts....good thoughts....about these perceptions?

 

[gwilki]

Chris: The parker style refill that comes with kits is frequently crap. If you replace it with a real Parker or any of the premium Parker style refills, you won't have a problem.

 

[bitshird]

I have a Parker T-ball jotter that I had in college I think it's had 3 refills in close to 40 years it still writes the last refill was about 4 years ago
Many of the kit supplied refills are pretty bad,some are mediocre to OK. I got Pi$$ed off when the first pen I turned quit writing with in a week, Dr.Cavender and Mr. Metcalf set me straight, and weren't too gentle in the procedure, even the factory Parker Gel refills go bad, there are several suppliers that have good refills, try the Golden Nib Anthony Turchetta, http://www.thegoldennib.com/index. or Heritance pens, DC Bluesman http://www.fountainpennibs.com/. Both offer quality inks, refills and excellent nibs for fountain pens, No personal connection other than through my wallet.

 

[ed4copies]

Try a gel type that fits Parker - lots of people LIKE gel - Cross can't use gel (they have a "look alike" that doesn't).

 

[Chris Bar]

Gee, thanks. Feel better about it now....but shucks, I just sent a nice bullet pen to daughter and it has the junk refill. Guess I will order a few refills and hopefully have them sent directly to her, asap. Made the pen with the banksia with blue filler, blank from Ernest. Turned out ok but was tough to turn....had to resharpen the Benjamin Best gouges every several passes! But they are easy to sharpen .
I did want to try a gel, so will have a few of these sent to her also. I am currently making another bullet but this one has eucalyptus burl. She had a business trip to Australia recently so have tried to use Aussie woods for her pens. Will get good refills for this pen for sure. Thought a good refill would have been provided with a good pen.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Hm, maybe I am not up to date, but the Gent Jr ball point pen I have has a Parker-style refill, so I don't quite understand your statement:

"Oh, the Jr. Gent II ballpoint is a winner too. Made some of these in Rhodium as Christmas gifts for my neighbors; wish I had taken photos. It is a Cross refill but a well designed pen."

It is my personal experience (and I have made many pens in my life) is that the refills coming with my ball point kits (and they are all from Berea) are of very good quality - in both the Cross-style and the Parker-style. I am writing this now at least the 10-time here, but I had several customers coming back to me and asking to buy refills ("like the one that came in the pen") from me since they had gotten original brandname Parker or Cross and they were not as good as the no-name kit refill. I had quite some problems with original Cross myself. The only refill I change is for the Sierra Click, I use the gel refills that are recommended - I don't like this extension piece on the Parker style refills.

 

[thewishman]

Most of the time, the kit refills are as good or better than the name brand refills. Once in a while you get a clunker, but I have been pleased with the kits' refills. Almost all of my ballpoints are from Berea.

 

[ed4copies]

Most of the time, the kit refills are as good or better than the name brand refills. Once in a while you get a clunker, but I have been pleased with the kits' refills. Almost all of my ballpoints are from Berea.

I believe Chris has nailed it.

And, when you get ONE, you may get SEVERAL - they all came down the same machine, who knows how many were made in a "bunch".

Overall, I agree with Rudy - several thousand pens later, a bad refill is the exception.

 

[GouletPens]

I've used hundreds of the Parker brand gels in my pens and people love them. They do run out MUCH quicker than BP's, but that's gels for ya. :tongue:

 

[Chris Bar]

Was mistaken on which pen was made for the neighbors, which was the European ballpoint in Rhodium, not the Jr. Gent ballpoint. Apologies for being wrong, and thanks for questioning the type. The Euro has the Cross refill, and I remember it having nice line quality. I just checked the refill type in the Bullet pens in stock, and it is a Dayacom. That name is also on the plastic bag containing all the pen parts, so I assume Dayacom makes the pen as well as the refill. I do prefer cutting the tenon in wood and not to the tube, so hopefully they might make either kit in gold titanium some day.

Does the gel run out more quickly than the ballpoint, or just more quickly than the standard Parker rollerball? If the rollerball runs out more quickly than the ballpoint, perhaps the Cross in a high quality refill is a way to go.

 

[GouletPens]

Was mistaken on which pen was made for the neighbors, which was the European ballpoint in Rhodium, not the Jr. Gent ballpoint. Apologies for being wrong, and thanks for questioning the type. The Euro has the Cross refill, and I remember it having nice line quality. I just checked the refill type in the Bullet pens in stock, and it is a Dayacom. That name is also on the plastic bag containing all the pen parts, so I assume Dayacom makes the pen as well as the refill. I do prefer cutting the tenon in wood and not to the tube, so hopefully they might make either kit in gold titanium some day.

Does the gel run out more quickly than the ballpoint, or just more quickly than the standard Parker rollerball? If the rollerball runs out more quickly than the ballpoint, perhaps the Cross in a high quality refill is a way to go.

The 'rollerball' pens I believe you're referring to are all Hauser/Schmitt type...the real long ones made to fit screw cap pen kits. Those last much longer than the Parker style one's which are shorter and hold less ink. What I was comparing was the Parker style ballpoints compared to the Parker brand gel rollerball refills.....they're the same size and style but the ink type flows differently.

 

[sbell111]

I believe Chris has nailed it.

And, when you get ONE, you may get SEVERAL - they all came down the same machine, who knows how many were made in a "bunch".

Overall, I agree with Rudy - several thousand pens later, a bad refill is the exception.

You will get occasional clunkers even when going with name-brand refills. I think that I've had more bad Parker-brand gel refills than I have had generic Parker-compatible gel refills.