A philosophical issue I have with some of the pens I own has me thinking about a car in an old TV show.

About a thousand years ago when I was in high school, I was horrified to learn that the awesome looking Coyote X sports car in Hardcastle and McCormick was mostly a shell built on a Volkswagen Beetle chassis. (Note: yes, we totally had sports cars 1,000 years ago.) Sure, it had the engine from a Porsche 914 and, yes, it was common to build fancy looking kit cars on a Beetle chassis, but it still kind of seemed like cheating to me and the Coyote X lost some of its appeal (especially after it was replace by a boxy monstrosity in season 2).

This brings me to the issue I have with some of the pens I own: they are attractive shells built on a common chassis. The fountain pens, with a few exceptions, all use nibs from the same manufacturers and take the same converters and cartridges. This doesn’t bother me as much as it should, though, because I can use different inks and the nibs all write differently. I can also get the shell designed the way I want it, so that at least some of it is not off-the-shelf.

It’s the ballpoint pens that have me thinking. The ones I use the most all have the same “chassis”, in this case the Pilot G2 refill. The G2 is a terrific gel ink pen that writes better than most ballpoint pens but when I put it in a $40 shell I’m still using a $1 pen, it’s just disguised with a fancier surface.

The Karas Kustoms Retrakt (top), Pilot G2, Tactile Turn Mover, Karas Kustoms Bolt. They all use the same refill.

This has me pondering exactly what I’m getting for my money. I’ve used Pilot G2s at work and during travel and I find the rubber bit around the end starts to get sticky and to move around. It also tends to collect dust and random white bits. The plastic cracks if you’re not careful and I’ve broken off the clip on at least two by trying to attach them to books.

In the end, the main rationalizations I come up with are that  the machined pens are more durable than the plastic G2 which means I don’t have to replace them as often which makes them, after a long stretch of questionable logic I won’t go into more environmentally friendly, especially as I don’t toss them out when they are empty. (Granted, sometimes I buy a G2, take out the refill and toss the pen in a “variety” drawer, but that’s an issue for another post.)

The machined pens are thicker than the plastic G2 body, which makes them more comfortable for me to use. Also, because they use the common refill, they are easier to maintain. If I run out of ink, I get a replacement for a dollar without having to track down a specialty shop and take out a personal loan.

I’ve turned down the chance to get some new ballpoint pens from the above manufacturers and I’ll probably try to sell a few of the ones I do have. I still like them and use them, but that Volkswagen Beetle chassis is bothering me a bit.

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.