Why You Should Hack Levenger Pens

As a co-founder of Levenger, I’m proud of what the company has done since our founding in 1987 to help customers enjoy high quality tools of the reading and writing trades. I’m even proud of some of the little things, like the refills we sell for our rollerball pens. (Our refills are made in Germany by the same company that makes refills for most of the luxury pen brands.)

But Levenger is a small and quirky company in our industry. While we endeavor to make high quality, small run products, most of the companies in the “office products” space are international giants. They make, in general, lower priced products and sell them by the container load all over the world. This is a good thing in that the world’s people. From Moosejaw, Canada to Melbourne, Australia, folks get to enjoy inexpensive notepads, reliable pencils and pens, and perfectly sticky, sticky notes.

One of these international firms is Pilot, a venerable Japanese company that we’ve had a relationship with for many years. For example, we sell Pilot single-use fountain pens in a long lasting leather pouch.

But here’s a secret that up until now very few people have known: most Levenger brand rollerball pens will accept Pilot G2 refills. Why is this good to know? Because Pilot G2 pens are some of the most appreciated and most widely available pens on the planet.

The truth is that inexpensive Pilot G2 pens write almost as well as Levenger pens, and as well as most luxury brand pens, for that matter--no matter the cost.

It’s kind of like watches, or what the watch industry likes to call timepieces. You can spend $50,000 on a Patek Philippe mechanical marvel and it won’t keep time as accurately as a Casio quartz watch that costs $10.99. (Not to say you might still want a Patek for other reasons, but timing the Kentucky Derby isn’t one of them.)

But back to Levenger rollerball pens, you can enjoy the look and feel of most of our rollerball pens while running them on Pilot G2 gel ink fuel.

Why are we divulging this secret?

Sure, I want to sell Levenger refills; we make pretty good margins on them, and they do, as I said, write extremely well. But let’s face facts: Pilot G2 gel ink refills write well too, are available everywhere, and are inexpensive. What’s more, Pilot makes them in more varieties of point sizes and colors than we do with our Levenger brand refills.

Sample the Best with Levenger and the Pilot G2 Experience Pack

You can buy Pilot G2 pens in almost any grocery store in America, on Amazon and in Costco. But you’ll be limited to whatever pens are blister packed ready for sale. But we’ve worked with our friends at Pilot to make a special sampling of the range of the G2 experience in one handy Experience Pack. Here’s what you’ll get:

1 Bold Point 1.0mm in black

1 Fine Point 0.7mm in black

1 Extra Fine Point 0.5mm in black

1 Ultra Fine Point 0.38mm in black

This way you’ll be able to sample all the point sizes offered by Pilot.

And there’s more:

1 Bold Point 1.0mm in blue (lovely for signatures and writing bold notes)

1 Extra Fine Point 0.5 mm in red (ideal for editing and writing in margins)

1 Fine Point 0.7mm in purple (just because it’s such a cool color)

The seven pens in our Pilot G2 Experience Pack will let you feel for yourself the range of writing experiences available in one of the world’s most popular pens, all in a sweet package as they will arrive in a nice Levenger leather pouch.

After you try them, select one G2 to unscrew and load the refill into your Levenger pen. Then you’ll have the best of both worlds--a nice Levenger pen with just the point and ink you want.

Comments

[DALLEN BOUNDS]

Everything that Steve said here is TRUE. I didn't know they were enter-changeable, but I realized the Pilot refills were a close 2nd in writing quality to the metal German refills. Costco now carries the Foray brand which turns out to be a poor cousin to the Pilot brand. I have two Pilot fountain pens with retractable nibs that I love to use. Thanks for all of the GREAT information here. I just discovered these blogs he has been doing and I have spent the past hour plus reading the last ten. I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Shelli Dronsfield]

I miss the Levenger EF fiber tip pen refills and have not been able to find a replacement, even through the Pilot G2 options. Recommendations? You had a very faithful customer in me with those refills! :-)