Pilot Down Force Ballpoint Pen - 0.7 mm - Black Body - Black Ink

I use this pen at work as a nurse. It is great- easy to clip on my scrub collar, it writes at every angle so I can label things with ease. With options for bright colors I never loose site of it or run the risk of having a coworker snatch it up! I highly recommend this pen for a nurse in the clinical setting.

I'm writing another review for this pen after testing out two other refills in it.

First I tried a Foray ink refill (that is Office Depot's store brand), which was the same size as the Pilot ink cartridge that came with the pen, but the Foray insert has a 1.0mm tip which reduces scratchiness. It goes right into the pen with no trouble, a very easy and cheap upgrade ($0.99)

When it comes to ballpoints I really prefer broader writing tips, so I tried the ink insert from a Papermate Profile ballpoint I had lying around. I don't know if the refills for these are sold separately, but I couldn't find them at an office supply store, so you may have to buy the Profile pen just to get the ink out of it (it easily unscrews and drops right out). Once you have it out of the Profile pen, cut it down to length using the original Pilot insert with scissors--the actual ink inside the sleeve doesn't come anywhere near the cutting point, so no mess. Then just stick it in the Down Force. This refill works great, and the Profile pens have 1.4mm tips so they put down a smooth, bold line (for a ballpoint).

Both of these make this pen useful to me again. There may be other refills that fit this pen, but they simply weren't available in my area--it seems to be a rather standard sized refill though. Using these ink cartridges instead of the original presumably means that the "pressurizing" feature of this pen is lost, which doesn't matter to me because I never write upside-down.

So, the body of this pen is a winner and by spending another few dollars on a better ink refill it goes from bad to good, but it should've been good in the first place so I'm only upgrading my rating to a 3.

Pen body is nice- it's solid, hard plastic, which is not normally great for lots of writing, but it's somehow very satisfying in the hand for it. A good diameter for my hand I suppose. If you grip your pen very hard, though, the textured grip and hardness might be unpleasant. This is where the less-than-impressive ink cartridge factors in. It's only mediocre, run-of-the-mill typical bad ballpoint. I rarely like to use ballpoints, much preferring the smoother new jetstream/acroball/surari. The good news is this pen body can take the thinner refills of that type- other colors' reviews mention some; the surari multipen refills also work. So if you like the colors and a hard chunk of plastic holds appeal (it should!) give this a try but get different refills. (By the way, the end is gray, not white as it may appear on some monitors, which I am glad of.)

I purchased this at the store in Japan when I visited, and I replaced the refill to BVRF-8F-B (Acroball's refll).
The combinaion of Down Force and Acroball's refill (BVRF-8F-B) is perfect because the Down Force have no rubber grip (I always hesitate using Acroball by the unpresant rubber grip) ahd the refill of Acroball is smooth and it is smoother by the pressurization.
The initial cost of Down Force may be higher, but I get more benefit by changing refill.

It's a study pen, sort of klunky to use. I think the mechanism and clip are too big. Plus, it does not write very smoothly. A disappointing purchase that has gone into the junk box.