A year ago I bought a pen that I liked a lot but then stopped using. I’m not sure I can explain why I did that except to say that it just didn’t feel quite right. It wasn’t the pen; it was me.

The Karas Kustoms Ink Roller Ball was part of a Kickstarter set I ordered. I opted for black anodized aluminum with a copper section. It doesn’t quite look as good as the green and copper fountain pen version, but it still looks great. The parts are interchangeable so I can put the green cap on the black pen and vice versa. I can also switch the sections and reverse which is the roller ball and which is the fountain pen. (I don’t know why I haven’t done that yet except “work” and “effort”.)

The Karas Kustoms Ink Roller Ball and Fountain Pen.

The pen is about 1.7 ounces and just under five inches uncapped and comes with a Schmidt Cap-less p8126 refill that’s held up well under heavy use and a lack of any use. The section on both pens is well designed and I find I can use the pen a long time with out my hand getting sore or my fingers sliding around on the section.

During the time I used it, the anodizing didn’t show any dings or scratches, even around the sharper parts on the cap and bottom or where the cap meets the body.

My only real complaint is that the tip on the refill is a bit thin and dry for my taste. It writes well and it writes smoothly but the line it leaves doesn’t look dark enough to me and it doesn’t feel right when I use it.

Despite that being the only complaint, and perhaps because I liked the fountain pen version so much, the Ink RB slowly got relegated to my pen case rather than my pocket and eventually I moved it to long term storage. I broke it out to use today before I did this review and I still like it, just not enough to keep carrying it. I’m tempted to buy a fountain pen section for it (if they are still available for this pen) as a way to get it back into my rotation.

If I don’t, as much as I like it, it will most likely be up for sale soon.

The Karas Kustoms Ink Roller Ball still has some original copper color.