Retro 51
The stationery community has been writing a few Retro 51 articles on stationery.wiki. When I tried to make the information in these articles semantic [1]To allow exciting queries like the one producing this table. I came across a few issues.
One issue is related to Retro 51’s refills, one related to their categories, lines and editions. Luckily the users in The Pen Addict’s Slack channel are extremely helpful and knowledgeable when it comes to Retro 51 so the confusion with Retro 51’s series, categories, lines etc has been solved.
The other issue, relating to their refills, took me a while to figure out. This was probably not helped by the fact that I don’t own a Retro 51.
The short answer is: I think Retro 51’s rollerballs accept standard G2 refills, which means you can turn them into rollerball, gel or ballpoint pens.
Here are some of the bits of information I found along the journey. They might be old information for you, but since I am more into pencils and fountain pens than refillable non-disposable rollerballs a lot of this was new to me.
ISO standard
Refills are standardised in the ISO standard 12757.
ISO 12757-1 is for general use, i.e. there are not too many demands on the ink.
ISO 12757-2 is for documentary use, i.e. for writing documents that are required as evidence and the standard also looks into things like how the ink is coping with bleach, etc.
Confusion
There seems to be contradictory information on the web when it comes to the G2 refills. This is probably not helped by the fact that Pilot has a pen called the G2. Based on what I have seen so far G2 and RB refills tend to get confused.
The G2 standard seems to have its origin in Parker’s Jotter refills, which came out in the 1950s.
I have produced a little table with further information about these refills. It also includes average writing length per refill based on the information by Premec. Other refills may vary.
| Type | Diameter | Length | Name | Avg writing length | Ink charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D D1 mini | 2.35 | 57.1 or 67.0 | multicolor marker | 350 m | 0.1 g |
| Japan Style | 2.9-3.0 | variable | 600 m - 2000 m | 0.22 g - 0.32 g | |
| Spezial | 3.0 | 61.0 or 66.5 | |||
| X10 | 3.05 | 106.8 | ballpoint standard | ||
| X20 | 3.05 | 106.8 | ballpoint standard large capacity | ||
| C1 | 3.05 | 117.4 | ballpoint international | 0.8 mm: 2200 m 1.0 mm: 1900 m | 0.4 g |
| B3 | 3.05 | 132/103 63/43 | ballpoint stick refills | 1700 m | 0.375 g |
| A2 | 3.20 | 106.8 | ballpoint standard | ||
| G1 | 3.20 | 106.8 | ballpoint large capacity | ||
| G2 | 6.00 | 98.1 | ballpoint / gel large capacity | 0.7 mm: 400 m (gel) 5000 m (oil based) | 0.7 g (gel) 1.1 g (oil based) |
| RB | 6.30 | 110.0 | standard rollerball | 0,5 mm: 500m 0.7 mm: 400m | 0.8 g |
| 130.8 (stick) 110.5 (retractable) | gel refill | 0.7 mm: 450 m (stick) 600 m (retractable) | 0.7 g (stick) 0.9 g (retractable) |
For more information about refills see The Well-Appointed Desk’s Epic Refill Reference Guide and The Refill Finder.
The diagram is from Qniemiec, translation by Francis Flinch and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
References
| ↑1 | To allow exciting queries like the one producing this table. |
|---|
The confusion comes from the G2 term. Some places (shops, online vendors, etc) use it to differentiate the Parker-style refills from the regular European standard rollerball refills which often get referred to as G2s, not to be confused with the Pilot G2.
That said, Retro 51s accept Schmidt 8126/8127 and Parker-style refills only, without an adapter. See the bottom of the Refill Guide for links to Tofty’s handy dandy adapters.
Thank you for this explanation and your epic refill guide.
I find this very confusing. I wonder whether Pilot’s G2 is the cause of this. So some people call the RB refill (from the image and table) a G2 refill?
On this side of the pond the Parker-style refills are also called G2, see https://www.cultpens.com/c/q/explore/product-type/refills/parker-type-g2-refills
Hi, I am looking to find a source of unusual size metal ballpoint refills.
This is to restore vintage pens from the 1970’s.
The refill length is about 37.5mm.
The diameter is approx 3.2mm.
If you had any of a similar diameter I’d be happy to buy and cut them down to size.
Any help, gratefully received.
Thanks,
Mike
THANK YOU so much!! This is a godsend.
I PURCHASED A BALL POINT PEN FROM CASPARI AND THE REFILL LEAKED ALL OVER THE PACKAGE. THEY SENT ME ANOTHER PEN AND I CAN’T FIND A REFILL FOR IT. CASPARI TELLS ME THAT IT TAKES BALLPOINT REFILL 5. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT MEANS AND SHE DIDN’T EITHER. CAN’T FIND ON LINE. CAN YOU LET ME KNOW WHERE TO LOCATE THIS AND WHAT THE 5 ACTUALLY MEANS. THANKS. MARIA