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The Old Geezer
Please Excuse My Absence

I have not blogged since July of 2015 due to the fact that my Lovely Wife was diagnosed with 2 types of cancer. A new case of breast cancer which has metastasized and gone to her bones, mainly her back. She had a mastectomy of her left breast which showed the type of cancer that was in her bones. She has been taking an oral med. every day and she has a port under her skin to receive a liquid med. She has gone through one round of radiation treatments to stop some pain in her back. That gave her GERD and the med for that was nasty tasting. The bone cancer has caused the vertebra in her lower back to pinch her left sciatic nerve causing her pain, numbness and foot drag. She also has skin cancer that has only been partly addressed.

I have been busy taking care of her as the treatments have left her weak and sickly. She can not drive so I have to drive her to her appointments and treatments. I also have to do all the cooking and most of what cleaning we do. So I do not have a lot of time for blogging. However the installment of the review of the Schaeffer Ultrafine 0.3mm pencil marks what I hope will be a new review every month. However some of my future reviews may seem familiar as they may be a review of a pencil or pen that I have reviewed before just in another size due to my limited collection of writing instruments and the economic state of our nation.

I am grateful to George Fox for wanting me to do a review of another one of his pencils. I think that as a reader of my humble blog, may fine of interest as the Schaeffer Ultra Fine is a very unusual pencil.

So please excuse my absence and as a reader of my humble blog I hope that you enjoy the review of this unique pencil.

Coming Soon...

Thank you,

The Old Geezer.




Monday, December 29, 2008

Frakenpen: Pentel EnerGel/uni-ball 207 Micro Refill

If you are looking for a review of the Pentel EnerGel Liquid Gel Pen then you should look somewhere else. This "review" is of the Pentel Energel body and the Mitsubishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill. This type of set up is commonly called a "Frakenpen".

While reading the JetPens Forum I ran across a write up about the Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT and was intrigued. So I went to Staples looking for one, just to have a look. Well I saw one but didn't buy it. I was still intrigued though, wondering just how heavy the pen was. But I didn't want to spend the money on a pen that I might not like and one that I knew that I was going to replace the refill in straight away anyway. Still intrigued I went to the check out with my purchase (see my post "Staedtler Liquid point 7") and there at the counter was a display of pens on sale, with, to my surprise, a plastic Energel Liquid Gel Pen on sale for a buck! How convenient for me! Needless to say, I bought one.

Once I got my prize home I did just what I knew I was going to do. The JetPens post had read that the EnerGel would take a Mitsubishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill so that's exactly what I put into it. It fit like it was made for it. So now I have another, yet non Mitsubishi, container for my beloved Signo 207 Micro refills. So why write up a "Frakenpen"...? Because I'm it's creator, Ha! Ha! Ha!... Eh, I mean, because someone might find it interesting.

The pen body is attractive being chrome, silver, black and black rubber. I think that the only metal on the pen is part of the pocket clip, the rest of the pen I believe is plastic. A common combination nowadays. The pen is 147.6mm long retracted and 11.1mm in diameter. The body is pretty much a straight line with a little flair on the rubber grip at the point where it joins the chromed tip. The screw joint is at the point where the grip and upper body meet. Once apart the grip slips off the back end of the chromed barrel. The push button is lightly sprung so it is always at the upper most position. When clicked the distinct sound of the spring in the push button can be heard compressing and uncompressing.

The Pen is very light, just how light I don't know as I don't have a gram scale and it's too darn late to scurry off to the Post Office to try and use their scale. Just take my word for it, it's light. But what should one expect from a plastic pen? Actually the pen is top heavy, I guess because of the metal pocket clip. But the rubber grip is more than adequate to hold the pen comfortably being a thin non-squishy rubber sleeve over a hard surface. This is the kind of rubber grip that I really like. Those clear, squishy silicone grips are just wrong on so many levels. There is also enough of the grip to allow for either a low or high hold. The pen is easy to control, partially because of the well designed grip.

The Signo 207 Micro refill speaks for it self (not really, because if it could I'd be on a TV talk show making millions!). It has received many write ups on as many blogs and forums so I won't write up anything about it here... Yes I will. I like the Signo 207 Micro refill very much, so much that I've put it into several other pen bodies. Up until now they have all been other Mitsubishi's even though the refill will fit a lot of other pen bodies by other pen makers. But this is not why I like the refill. I like it because it writes smoothly and smaller than the advertised 0.5mm ball size. The manufacturer claims it produces a 0.3mm line but I find it to be closer to a 0.4mm line. And that's just fine by me. It's also a pigmented ink, not a dye ink. This makes it truly waterproof. It is also claimed to be fade proof and acid free. All desirable qualities in a writing pen ink.

So what do I end up with? I end up with an inexpensive, very comfortable, well writing gel pen that if treated right will give me years of writing pleasure. It also gives me the information that I wanted to know: I would enjoy having a Pentel EnerGel Alloy RT, with a Mitsbishi uni-ball Signo 207 Micro refill. And it only cost me a buck.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting, I just wish the pen housing would have been green and black, after all it is a frankenpen.

Mark said...

Hey, where do you buy the signo micro 207 refills? I've been looking for them everywhere. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Mark,

You can get them at JetPens.com.

mrkatt said...

Did you ever get an Energel Alloy?

The Old Geezer said...

No, never did. Can't afford one now! But the plastic one showed me what i wanted to know about the interchangeability of the Signo refills.

Brinstar said...

Based on this review, I got myself a Uni-ball Signo 207 Micro 0.5mm refill to put in my recently-dry Pentel Energel Alloy. The Energel comes with a 0.7mm line, which is much too thick for my personal taste. Previously, I had been using the Pentel Energel Needle Tip, which comes in 0.5mm. Anyway, the Signo 207 refill fits perfectly in the Energel Alloy. This is my first time trying the Signo 207, and so far I'm quite pleased with the consistency, width, and smoothness of the line. Thanks for the review!

The Old Geezer said...

Brinstar,

Glad that you found the article of value. Thanks for reading my blog. You may already know but the EnerGel will accept all the 207 refills as well as the RT Gel refills, the Jetstream refills and the Zebra Sarasa refills. Just in case you'd like a variety.

Megan G-Y said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
justelise said...

I actually did the opposite. I put an Energel refill into a Uni-ball P207 Premiere and into a Pilot G2 Pro. I hate Uni-Ball pens for the most part, but I like the 207 Premiere body, and I'm over the G2 refills, so I can use the Energel refills in all three. I don't really need anything waterproof or archival quality, but I do need a smooth writing refill that's reliable, and I think the Energel beats the Uni-ball and Pilot refills on that front. No skipping, and no feathering.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if a staff member here at onelonemanspensandpencils.blogspot.com could post it.

Thanks,
Oliver

John McGurk said...

I know this has been out for a while, and this is a little off topic. Do you have a list of Pen bodies that are compatible with the 207? For instance, the Waterman Carene is a perfect fit. The Visconti Van Gough is mostly a great fit.

The Old Geezer said...

John,

I was not aware of the 2 you mentioned. Other than the pens that I have mentioned, I am unaware of any more save the 2 that you mentioned. What I do is take the 207 refill and push it into the cap or barrel of the pen in question. If it goes through cleanly, it should work as long as the refill length is the correct length. If it's too long then there's little to do. If it's too short, then a filler such as a cut length of empty refill tube, can be used to fill the gab.

Roshan Jha said...

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Gary said...

Yesterday, I had mistakenly placed a Uniball 207 refill in a Pentel Energel pen. After realizing my error, I pulled out both refills and compared them side by side. They are identical in every way, down to the last detail. My assumption is that the refills are made by the same company and are simply marketed under different brand names.

I feel confident to say that you can purchase whatever refill is cheaper and refill either pen with confidence that either refill will work just fine.

Thanks for your blog.