Refillable Gel Pen, 0.5 mm

Details

A capped gel pen with a 6061 anodised aluminium barrel, a knurled grip section and a stainless clip, taking a 0.5 mm tungsten carbide ball. It is sold on being refillable, so the refill comes first. Part LEAF-GR05, 111 mm long by 6.0 mm, Rs 35 each and Rs 90 for three, and we will stock it for as long as the pen is sold and five years after it is discontinued. That envelope is the common G2-style gel size, so third-party refills of the same dimensions fit and the pen is not locked to us. The second thing a gel listing owes you is what the ink actually is, because gel ink is two different products sold under one word. Pigment gel is a solid pigment suspension: water resistant, lightfast, and fit for a document you will need in ten years. Dye gel is a dissolved colourant: brighter, cheaper, and it runs when the page gets wet. Almost nobody prints which one is in the barrel.

• Black is pigment-based. It is water resistant, does not lift when a wet finger crosses it, and is the one to use on anything you may need to keep
• Blue, blue black and red are dye-based. They will run if the page gets wet and they will fade in a sunlit window. That is what dye gel does, it is why they are the brighter colours, and we would rather print it than let you discover it on a form
• Refill part LEAF-GR05, 111 mm by 6.0 mm, Rs 35 each, Rs 90 for a pack of three, stocked while the pen sells and five years past discontinue
• Writing length measured 600 m by the ISO 27668-1 method. About four months for an hour a day of note taking, which is why a Rs 240 pen with a Rs 35 refill is cheaper by the second year than a Rs 20 pen thrown away every month
• Capped rather than retractable, so there is no click mechanism to fail and no spring to lose. A cap also seals a gel tip, which a retractable does not
• Restart behaviour, measured: capped for 48 hours it writes on the first stroke. Left uncapped for 8 hours it takes two strokes to restart, and beyond about a day the tip needs a scribble
• Barrel is 6061 aluminium, anodised, 24 g with the refill in, balanced just behind the grip. The clip is stainless steel, not plated mild steel that rusts through in a pocket
• There is no BIS product specification for a gel ink pen, so the grade named here is ISO 27668-1 and the writing length is measured by its method
• Not a fountain pen ink and not for a fountain pen. Gel ink is pigmented or dye in water with a thickener, and putting it in a nib will clog it