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Laurie
April 27th, 2015, 07:50 PM
Hi. I realise this is not a ballpoint forum but I recently purchased a Sheaffer Targa fountain pen and it came with a ballpoint. It is still working but I thought I would purchase a few refills. I read on another forum that the Parker refills work after you shave a bit of the end. Also I read about some Private Reserve Gel ink refills working in them. Also read that the Monteverdi ballpoint refills will fit. Can anyone confirm this and give me some information on where to get a refill.

HughC
April 27th, 2015, 08:27 PM
Current Sheaffer refills work. They're a nicely weighted BP, I like them.

Regards
Hugh

Laurie
April 27th, 2015, 09:52 PM
Thanks Hugh
Can you use the rollerball type of refills and the gel refills?

HughC
April 27th, 2015, 11:16 PM
I don't think the rollerball would fit, don't know about gel refills. Monteverde does make a gel for Sheaffer but I've never seen one, they also make an ordinary refill which I haven't tried. Again Pen and Ink might be worth asking as they're not cheap refills ~$7 so you want the best. Officeworks plus a few newsagents stock the Sheaffer refills too.

Regards
Hugh

mhosea
April 28th, 2015, 12:47 AM
AFAIK, Parker gel refills are identical in size and shape to Parker ballpoint refills. I have a Parker gel refill in my Targa ballpoint (with a bit of the plastic end whacked off with a Dremel).

Laurie
April 28th, 2015, 03:07 PM
Thanks mhosea. Excuse me but what is "AFAIK"? Yes i did read a post about the fact that you can fit the Parker refills. Apparently they are preferred as being better writers. I will buy some and give it a try. Thanks again

jar
April 28th, 2015, 03:22 PM
TTBOMK AFAIK=As Far As I Know IIRC and if I RTFM correctly.

Laurie
April 28th, 2015, 03:39 PM
Thanks for that. Now I am really confused. Maybe I will post a few Australian slang words like "Fair dinkum" and "true blue" and "crikey"

mhosea
April 28th, 2015, 03:53 PM
AFAIK = "As far as I know"

IIRC = "If I recall correctly".

jar
April 28th, 2015, 07:26 PM
TTBOMK= To The Best Of My Knowledge

RTFM = Read The Fricking Manual

mrcharlie
April 29th, 2015, 01:43 AM
This is great information!

I just happen to have a "Sheaffer's" ballpoint (one of the really old ones where the clip is the lever that deploys and retracts the point) with a refill old enough for the point to be gummed up solid, and an unused Parker Gel Refill, Blue ink, Medium point. I used a utility knife on a safe cutting surface to trim off the top 3 mm of the Parker refill and put it into the Sheaffer pen body, and now I have a working pen. And I really like the Blue Parker Gel refills in function and ink color, so this makes me really happy. Even if it is a Blue refill in a Black pen, which some would see as sacrilege.

Thanks a lot for this suggestion/information!

FWIW, the 3 mm you need to trim off is basically exactly cutting off to the depth of the ratchet teeth on the top of the plastic end of the refill.

Also, I can confirm the Parker Ballpoint and Gel refills are the same shape/form factor. I have had good user experiences with both. The Parker "Rollerball" refill is a different form factor than the ballpoint, and my only experience with one was very unsatisfactory.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l187/mistercharlie/fpgeeks/parker%20bp%20and%20gel%20refills_zpsxaozgfgz.jpg~ original
Top is Parker ballpoint refill, bottom is Parker Gel refill trimmed to fit a Sheaffer.

mrcharlie
May 2nd, 2015, 08:31 PM
FWIW, the 3 mm you need to trim off is basically exactly cutting off to the depth of the ratchet teeth on the top of the plastic end of the refill.

I'm a nerd so I tend to measure in SI units -- but I was thinking it was possible that Sheaffer may have designed their second attempt at a ballpoint pen1 to have a refill that could be used with Parker pens using a small adapter, but where a Parker refill wouldn't fit in the Sheaffer pen. Since both companies were American at that point ... it is perhaps more correct to state that you need to trim 1/8 an inch from the Parker refill to make it fit in a Sheaffer.

Does anyone here know if Sheaffer ever sold a small adapter cap thingy2 with their refills to let them be used in Parker pens?

Notes:
1. The original Sheaffer ballpoint was the 1940s era Stratowriter (http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Sheaffer/SheafferStratowriter.htm), and used a very different refill design which hasn't been made for many decades. I only know this because some super competent person on FPN detailed how he fixed his Stratowriter to work by re-sacking the original cartridge/refill unit a couple years ago when I was reading FPN a lot, and I thought that was an amazing piece of work. As old as I am, Stratowriters are way before my time.

2. I'd call it a "widget" but that is what they call the adapter thingy that is part of what you need to get a modern ballpoint refill to work in a Stratowriter.

mrcharlie
April 18th, 2016, 10:47 PM
I have a Parker gel refill in my Targa ballpoint (with a bit of the plastic end whacked off with a Dremel).
The Parker style aka Euro G2 or ISO G2 refill, once shortened, may fit the in the Sheaffer Targa ballpoint and the old reminder-clip Sheaffer ballpoint I have, but sadly I found it will not fit in the Sheaffer NoNonsense ballpoint. It will not fit into the NoNonsense due to the slight difference in shape towards the front, with a different length between the tip and where the barrel becomes wide.

It would have been nice if I'd noticed this prior to buying some more G2 refills ...

lilycollins
June 2nd, 2023, 08:56 PM
It's worth noting that Sheaffer garten of banban (https://gartenofbanban.io/) and Parker are both established pen brands, and some models may have compatible refills. Shaving a bit of the end of a Parker refill to fit your Sheaffer Targa ballpoint pen might work, as mentioned on the forum you read.

Chrissy
June 2nd, 2023, 11:40 PM
lilycollins with the "garten of banban" link is a Spammer and resurrects old threads with these links while trying to look like a normal member

Doctox
November 11th, 2023, 05:30 PM
I have a lovely Grand connoisseur BP, and I must say the Monteverde gel refills are excellent.

Doctox
November 17th, 2023, 01:48 PM
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