Tag Archives: click

Review: Monteverde Gel Ink Refills

I like gel ink. I want to use gel refills in all my pens, when possible. Unfortunately, many gel refills don’t fit pens like the Baron Fig Squire and Click, or Parker Jotter. Either the tip portion is too thick or short, or the body of the refill is too thick for the body of the pen. Enter all the Parker style refills that use gel ink. Monteverde is just one option.

Monteverde refills are available just about everywhere from Staples to Walmart (online to Amazon and every fine stationery store. The prices seem to fluctuate wildly. I picked up a 2-pack in the clearance section for 50 cents, but normally a 2-pack is about $8 at my local Staples! I found 5-packs on Amazon from a variety of sellers for about $14. Clearly, online stores are the winner when it comes to offering up Monteverde refills.

The gel refills are available in a vast variety of colors, mine are blue. The next package I purchase will be blue-black, but they offer purple, green, red, teal, black etc… The blue is lovely. The gel ink is smooth on all the paper I’ve used, including the finest cheapest paper we use at work. The ink has flowed smoothly from the moment I took the little waxy blob off the tip to the point I drained the refill.  

These are great refills, but not the cheapest. They range from $2.80 to $4 per refill. To me the price is comparable to the regular Squire refills and they have the performance of gel ink on cheap paper which I’ve bloviated about before this post, but gel ink on the crap paper at work works better than liquid. End of story, these are a great refill and worth every penny to me. You won’t be unhappy with a Monteverde P44 (Parker style) refill. Continue reading

Review: Baron Fig Squire Click

Baron Fig announced the clicky version of the squire last week. When I received the reviewer announcement I was excited- a click mechanism is my preferred pen point deployment method. I immediately asked BF to YES PLEASE SEND ONE!

Mine is in the fig wine colorway. You can also get charcoal gray. The fig wine color is burgundy or maroon depending on your level of fancy. The anodized coating is really tough. I tested it by slipping it into my Nock Fodderstack XL pen pocket along with my MetalShop CT Twist Bullet Pencil. I carried it around like that for the week, sitting on the two as I was at work and around the house. Some aluminum transferred from the Twist bullet, but there were no scratches.

The most important difference between the Click and the standard Squire is that the Click is substantially smaller than the standard. It is narrower and lighter and weighted toward the click and slightly less balanced than the standard Squire. For smaller hands, the Click is a great pen. Inside it uses a standard Parker refill or the Schmidt Easy Flow 9000. If you are going to use a ballpoint refill this is a great refill. It’s smooth and dark. I do wish it used the regular Squire refill but if I’ve gotta use a ballpoint the Schmidt Easy Flow 9000 is great.

My least favorite part of this pen is the nock. I prefer a nock with a satisfying and notable click, this nock doesn’t deliver that at all. If you like the Kara’s Kustom nock, it’s the same. It works really well and feels good, but doesn’t give me the sound I want in a nock. The Click would be made substantially better with the addition of a clip. The lack of clip means that I need to stash it into my Fodderstack XL or get one of the pen cases BF sells. (Or a Tofty printed clip.) If I don’t get one of these options and it is loose in my pocket the point is deployed and well, the ballpoint is less messy, but still marks up my pocket and wallet.

Overall, I like the Squire Click. Because it is smaller and lighter than the standard Squire I find that I can write with it for longer periods of time without hand fatigue. It did take a bit to become accustomed to the balance but now that I am, not an issue. The Click is a sturdy well made pen. It retails for $45.

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