I say this every year, but the end of the Summer vacation and travel season seems to come earlier every year. For our family, school starts Monday, and based on order patterns and inquiries I’ve been receiving through the blog, readers have begun winding down their Summer travel adventures and preparing to head back to the office, more often than not in-person. In the past, I’ve used this time of year to talk about some of my favorite everyday working stationery, which includes the beloved Uniball Jetstream - one of the best all-around pens (and refills!) on the market. Today, the goal is to take the opportunity to discuss how you can use the Jetstream to “upgrade” pens you may already own.
Many popular non-fountain pens on the market today ship with the Schmidt P8126-27 capless rollerball refill. (For those unfamiliar with the technical name, this is the same refill included with the Retro 51 Tornado and Baron Fig Squire. The P8127 is the medium-tip version, whereas the P8126 is a touch finer.) While this refill is probably the best capless rollerball refill available, I personally dislike it. Rollerballs in general are far more finicky for me to use than fountain pens, and with the exception of a few specific cartridges I enjoy, I nearly always swap out the stock refill for a new option. My swap refill of choice for Schmidt capless rollerballs is the Parker-style Jetstream SXR, but you’re not limited to that format for the Jetstream writing experience. I kit out most of my multi pens with Jetstream D1 refills, and am always looking for other Jetstream (or Jetstream-like) low-viscosity cartridges to “upgrade” my non-fountain pens.
The Craighill Kepler pen: a recent discovery. Check out the unique D1 refill mechanism below.
Why I Love the Uniball Jetstream
It writes smoothly, dries quickly, and doesn’t bleed through paper. As a low viscosity “hybrid” ballpoint pen, Jetstream ink combines the smoothness of gel ink with the quick drying and permanence of a ballpoint. Uniball was one of the original manufacturers to introduce this type of pen, and the category (which includes other excellent options) has exploded in popularity in recent years.
The standard Jetstream pens are easy to find in most stores, and we’ve recently been able to source the Jetstream SXR-600 Parker-style refills from Japan. I’ll talk further below about my favorite ways to use these cartridges in non-Jetstream pens.
Across the board, Jetstream pens and cartridges last a long time and are relatively inexpensive. The SXR-600 cartridges can be found for roughly $7-8 per unit, and the D1 refill for even less than that. While that might seem high, due to the nature of ballpoint ink, these last for a very long time without drying out (as in, years), especially if you like your tip sizes in .5mm or narrower
The Craighill Kepler pen kitted out with a Uniball Jetstream D1 refill.
My Favorite Iterations of the Uniball Jetstream and HoW I use them
Uniball Jetstream D1 Refill. The Jetstream D1 refill shot the Lamy 2000 4 Color Ballpoint (Multi Pen) to the top of my non-fountain pen everyday carry. But lately, I’ve also discovered that this refill fits the Craighill Kepler Pen, which I previously had assumed was another retractable rollerball pen but actually uses a unique D1 mechanism. Available colors include black, blue, and red.
Jetstream SXR-600 Parker-Style Cartridge. I have this refill loaded into pens including the Retro 51 Tornado, the Baron Fig Squire, the Schon DSGN Classic Machine Pen v.2, and the Caran d’Ache 849 “Rollerball”. This cartridge features an absolutely massive ink capacity, and I have yet to experience one running dry, especially in the finer tip sizes. The drawback is that they apparently only come in black ink. Blue, red, and green, please!
The Uniball Jetstream 3&1 or 4&1 Multi Pen. While you can’t swap the refills into a different pen body - at least not to my knowledge - Uniball makes its own multi pens, and they’re excellent. I personally prefer the “&1” series, which indicates that a mechanical pencil is included as one of the functions. On my recent trip to Kinokuniya in NYC, I went a bit crazy and picked up a handful of these in some less common collaboration colors. I love that the Uniball multi pens often contain red and green Jetstream refill options.
If there’s one piece of “advice” that I would want readers to take away from this post, it’s not to give up on a pen just because you don’t like the stock refill. Unless a brand (like Lamy) heavily invests in proprietary refill designs, you can often find other compatible cartridges that will fit your pen and might better match your writing style. For a refill compatibility resource, I generally refer people to this comprehensive post by my friend Ana over at The Well-Appointed Desk.
Note: I will be attending the D.C. Pen Show from Thursday, August 3 through Sunday, August 6. While orders will still ship within our typical 2-3 business day processing time, if you’d like something to arrive early next week, please get your orders in by 5:00pm U.S. Central Time today.