The Leuchtturm1917 Drehriffel Gel Ink Pen is a tale of two pens. One pen is a clean, beautiful, classic design that I love using. The other pen is when the gel ink refill hits the page and I want to put it down and move on to something better. But I try again, because the first pen makes me happy.
That happiness for Leuchtturm began in 1920 when the original Drehgriffel was launched. 2020 marked a return for the modern interpretation of the pen, with many design accolades following. Leuchtturm had an instant hit on their hands. Importantly, as you will see later in this review, the new Drehgriffel shipped with a ballpoint ink refill.
The gel ink version followed a year or so later, although it took me until this year to pick up one of my own. The London Graphic Centre turned out to be an epic stop during my Relay 10th Anniversary trip, where I picked up this beautiful Aquamarine model. I put it immediately into the rotation on that trip as I was writing a lot about my adventures, and it was … meh.
The model number on the refill, BP-G-B-0820.SQ, only exists on the Drehgriffel product page.
The gel ink refill is nowhere as good as I expected it to be. Who makes this refill? I can’t say for sure. I’d like to say it’s a Schmidt, but I just downloaded their product catalog and they don’t offer gel ink refills, in any shape or size. So your guess is as good as mine. Also, I didn’t discount that I got a dud (it does happen, even to the best,) but I received a lot of feedback on this refill once I shared my experience, and nearly everyone else shared similar experiences.
My expectations from gel ink refills (in any line width,) are that they are smooth, dark, and lay down clean, sharp lines. I don’t think one of those expectations stands above another as the primary feature, but if any one of the three are off it throws the whole experience off. For the Drehgriffel, it’s the clean, sharp lines where this refill primarily fails, with smoothness causing problems, too.
I don’t expect that you can see what I feel in a static image, but this refill does not spark joy.
I have a ton of experience writing with gel ink refills, so I know right away when one isn’t up to my standards. Sometimes the refill will work its way into form, but most of the time you get what you get from the jump. This one has never been good - so what do we do? Well, since I love the barrel so much, we change the refill.
I’ll admit, I don’t love doing that, despite being a frequent refill swapper-outer. Why not give yourself a better writing experience? Sometimes I think a pen should stand on its original configuration, especially as far as reviews go. If this is the retail experience, that’s what I want to share, even if I might make the pen “better” for myself going forward.
Either of my favorite Parker-style options - the Jetstream SXR-600 or Ohto Flash Dry - make for a great choice. I’ll probably mix one of those into this barrel since this refill has to go, but what saved my love for the Drehgriffel lineup as a whole was a second model I picked up - with the stock ballpoint refill.
I mean, we're sitting here, and we're in here talking about gel ink. I mean, listen, we're talking about gel ink. Not the ballpoints! Not the ballpoints! Not the ballpoints! We're talking about gel ink. Not the ballpoints, not the ballpoints, we're talking about gel ink, man. I mean, how silly is that? We're talking about gel ink.
The chosen ballpoint.
It’s time to talk more about ballpoint ink. And how, in this case, the Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel ballpoint is the better choice.
Should we talk about the pen barrel now? Definitely, because this is not a pen shape that is for everybody. I love thin barrels and lightweight pens. The Drehgriffel is both of those things, plus has a reasonably long front nose cone and taper, which shrinks the diameter further the lower you grip it. Again, these are all things that work for me, along with the twist-to-deploy refill mechanism. Any one of those things could be a dealbreaker for many users.
Safari for scale.
The other dealbreaker could be the price. At $27.50, this is an expensive pen, especially on the store shelf next to a rainbow of Leuchtturm1917 notebooks. For an aluminum barrel pen with a brass tip and solid twist mechanism, the price is fair in my book - especially with all of the fun color options.
I had fun with this review, and I’ll continue to have fun with the Leuchtturm1917 Drehgriffel gel ink pen, but with a different refill. The ballpoint stays. The ballpoint always stays.
(I bought this pen at the London Graphic Centre at regular retail price.)
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