Ballpoint refill transplant

For someone who loves to dismantle pens and finds the process therapeutic, I often carry out refill transplant when my favourite-looking ballpoint runs out of ink, or when I favour a pen body more than its original ink, that I want a change.

To do that, I will raid my “pentry” to find a suitable donor, particularly amongst the ones gotten free at seminars that write well. When a match is found, the length of the plastic ink tube will be trimmed or lengthened with masking tape, and masking tape will go round areas on the tube that require protrusions; just so as to model after the original.

And it makes me very glad when the new donor fits perfectly (with no rejection), in other words a successful surgery!