Quote from Gerhard on 13 April 2026, 4:24 am

Fountain pens are like a 1950's classic car convertible. They are really nice for a oceanside drive on a Sunday, for those into the scene. But a classic car is objectively worse than a modern driver. Slower, less reliable, less utility, worse suspension... yet there is still a charm to these cars.

Fountain pens are quite the same. For fountain pen fans, who perhaps love to journal – or who sit down for hours writing their next novel – the fountain pen does provide a smooth writing experience, and beautify the experience. Calligraphy is, objectively, better with a fountain pen – there is no doubt there. If you fall into one of those categories – I wish you all the most blessed of writing experiences!

However, for other persons such as myself (engineer in this case) – fountain pens can be messy to refill. They dry up much easier if not used for a few weeks. They are much more delicate. They require nice paper, and nice a desk setup, for the pen to function well. They are more expensive too. They can have leaking issues on airplanes. And also, you shouldn't really be using them with a ruler.

A rollerball is objectively better. And also... a rollerball can be a cool pen! That is the purpose of this post. Not to somehow diss or belittle fountain pens – but to encourage more excitement about rollerballs.

A rollerball is like workhorse – a literal working horse on a farm. It is less fancy and combed than a dressage horse – but the farmer can deeply appreciate the working horse. Indeed, there can be horse shows, where farmers get excited about the latest generation of work horses – capable, strong, with a good temperament, and able to perform well everywhere.

I do get sentimental about my tools – and having a tool by one's side – capable – and working well in all conditions – that builds my appreciation for the tool. I do have, for instance, a very beautiful glass dip pen – I've used it for some art projects and writing a letter or two – but I don't have this sentimental connection to it, as it is stored away carefully in a box, 99.9% of the time.

A rollerball can write incredible smoothly. It can write well on any type of paper, even fax paper, if anyone still uses that? It can be made of interesting materials, be rugged and durable. On paper, it is superior to a fountain pen in every regard, except for the 'vibes' than a fancy fountain pen has. For myself, I often need to take notes standing up – that isn't much of an option with a fountain pen. That is kind of a dealbreaker. Also, when I do sit down at my desk, and want to form well-structured notes, I often want to use a ruler. This would be unsuitable for the nib of a fountain pen, especially a soft, golden, expensive one.

So why then is there so much more excitement about fountain pens than rollerballs? I think one aspect is that rollerballs are so predictable and reliable – there aren't so many things to talk about. When using a fountain pen, a lot of questions arise – such as what paper to use, what nib size to use, what nib material to use, how do we avoid leaking, what ink to use, which ink can jam a nib, how to clean the pen, how to avoid damage, how to avoid smudging, etc. etc. With a rollerball, there simply isn't so much to talk about. They just work.

One genuine benefit of a fountain pen is that you have a vast array of inks to choose from – I do wish that refillable (and hence ink-swapping) rollerball cartridges was more of a thing. That would make the scene much more interesting. There can be some choice in the 'nib' on a rollerball – with size variation – and even felt tips. Luckily, many grail pens that often hyped (like Visconti's pens) do usually have rollerballs too – they are always thoroughly in the background though – almost an afterthought it seems. I was recently looking at a Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, and was excited about the closing mechanism, the porous material, the clip, styling and overall vibe – there are hundreds of videos on YouTube, hundred os blog reviews, and hundreds of posts on Reddit talking about the pen – the fountain pen that is! Only around 1% ish of posts would talk about the rollerball. And this is a good case study, because the nib on this particular brand is quite clearly the weakest aspect of it.

So. The truth is, I am kind of jealous of the fountain pen community. I wish there was as much excitement and discussion over rollerballs.

And also, I wish there was more of a scene for grail-type mechanical pencils.