My gateway pen was the Pilot Precise V5. I’ve always had good results with it and found it to be one of my favorite big box store pens. Sadly, they are disposable plastic pens. I had always hoped there would be a way to refill them. And now there is! The V5 Hi-Tecpoint 0.5 Cartridge System (Way to come up with a confusing naming convention there, Pilot!) is the answer.
The V5 Hi-Tecpoint uses the same Pilot cartridges as Pilot’s fountain pens which means the pen could be fit with a converter as well. I believe either the Con-20 or the Con-50 should fit but you could also syringe fill the cartridge the came with the pen.
Aesthetically, the pen is the same round, straight barrel as the original V5 Precise. The clip is plastic rather than metal though. There’s new branding graphics which I’m lukewarm about but giant graphics on pens seem to be standard operating procedure for pens under $25 so I can’t fault them for going with the trend.
On my first test run, I removed the stock black ink cartridge and replaced it with a colored ink cartridge from the Pilot Mixable Color set for the Parallel Pens. I chose the violet cartridge. I was not sure how effective running water through it would be for removing the previous ink color so I just swapped out the cartridges and scribbled for about a half a page until the ink color shifted from black to purple.
The Parallel ink cartridge seems to work fine in the V5 Hi-Techpoint. I had no issues with flow or feathering so I feel pretty confident that I can jump to standard fountain pen inks next. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?
If you’re looking for a refillable rollerball that can take fountain pen ink, for $3.20 this is as good an option as the J. Herbin and gives a considerably finer line. The Hi-Tecpoint is also available in the V7 0.7mm version if you perfer a bolder line.
DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Woah! That’s a very cool feature. I always seemed to pick up a Precise every few months, so this might be a nice addition.Let us know if there are any issues when you get around to a converter.
I picked up a couple of these from JetPens (0.5 and 0.7) and I’ve been slowly working on draining the included cartridges… Hearing that a new color makes its way through the feed so quickly, I’ll have to break out a CON-50 and try out something new very soon!
It’s about time! These were old faves of mine too. Mm mm, filling one with Noodlers Heart of Darkness…
These are my go-to non-FP pens. Very glad to hear that these are now options!
think my brain just exploded.
How many times were you able to refill it before it died? Pilot says you can only get 10 refills before it stops writing but I would think it would go longer.
I’m only on my second refill but its still going strong. I wonder if they are concerned about the seal wearing out?
I think I tried using some Pilot fountain pen ink cartridges in mine—long before I read this post—and it ruined the pen. 🙁 I’m having trouble finding the right cartridges for this pen and am debating trying what you used here. I just don’t want to ruin another one!
Anyone know if it works with fountain pen ink. The package says not to use these cartridges with fountain pens. What I am wondering is if I can fill the v5 with fountain pen ink?