u/gfj23

For quite some time, I’ve dealt with the dilemma of having my most-favored pen body designs only accept Parker-style refills, but not loving the options. I tried to settle for the Jetstream refills, but it never clicked, and I ended up on the path to the typical gel options from Sarasa, Pentel, Uni, etc.

However, with some recent recommendation assistance from this subreddit, I got a sampling, which included Schneider Gelion +, and I also grabbed a couple OHTO refills to try, the Flash Dry and Ceramic.

The Gelion+ turned out to be the perfect refill for the Leuchtturm Drehgriffel, and to my surprise, the OHTO refills were the first ever to work in a Rotring 600 without tip wobble. This was actually the biggest revelation, because I’ve always loved the feel of a Rotring 600, but just couldn’t get past the wobbliness with any non-Rotring refills. It almost feels like the Rotring should come with this refill stock, it feels way more native to the Rotring 600 format.

Pleasantly surprised by the writing experience with the GS02. Mainly wanted to try the refill it comes with, but was actually quite pleased with the pen itself after several rounds of note taking on calls. Nice and dark lines, and smooth as butter in this Itoya notebook. Might be the best Parker style refill I’ve tried to date.

Been favoring the Sarasa Grand in the middle for long-form writing lately.

Want to get more use out of my Leuchtturm Drehgrifell, as it does feel nice ergonomically, but haven’t fallen in love with any of the refills I’ve tried for it. Any suggestions for Parker-style refills similar to an Energel/Zento/Sarasa type of ink flow/darkness? Not a huge fan of the Jetstream SXR-600.

Looks even nicer in person, and writes lovely on this Itoya notebook paper also pictured (I swapped in the blue-black Sarasa 0.5 refill). Been all I’ve wanted to reach for all week. No matter what, no new pen seems to be able to pull me away from the Grands for good.

I’ve been on a bit of a new pen break for awhile, feeling pretty satisfied with my daily rotation of Zento Signature, Sarasa Grand, and Dr. Grip with Juice Up refill. However, this weekend I visited the Yoseka Stationary store in Greenpoint Brooklyn, and came across their Philography collab, and couldn’t resist. It’s such a beautiful pen in person, and the refill? Maybe I’ve been sleeping on Pentel…

Heads up that as of now (6/1 5:25pm eastern) there’s still stock available on JetPens for the silver and gold Zento Signatures. Just snagged a gold one.

I was able to snag a brass Zento Signature today at the Kinokuniya in NYC next to Bryant Park.

Was close to end of day when I went and they had two left (after the one I grabbed), so possibly still available tomorrow for any early birds.

Do note that their price was marked up about $20 over typical online retail, but I decided to just go for it since it was the brass version.