Refilling Pilot Varsity Mb Fineliner Or Fav Rollerball With Your Favorite Fountain Pen Ink

[amberleadavis]

I just send a new to FPN pen user some black ink samples and a pilot varsity in black. I told him how to do the refill, and drew this little instruction set. These instructions work great for your Montblanc fineliner (I've done it), or rollerball (done it too). I can't take credit for the bright idea, to quote Microsoft, I "embraced and enhanced" this little time saver.

 

http://sheismylawyer.com/She_Thinks_In_Ink/2014-Inklings/slides/2014-Ink_270b.jpg

[AndrewC]

Hang on! You are saying I can do this with my $8.00 a pop MB roller ball refills?! I searched and found some refills that fit with a kludge, but this is stellar! Especially with the "manual". I know the hack for removing the end of the Varsity and just reloading it, but this is pretty elegant. Thanks for sharing. Would you post this on Pentrace? Or do you mind if I link to it? Some foks there would love to see it.

[macball]

The MB rollerball refills are even easier to fill. There is a plastic cap on the top that pops off with a pair of pliers. Use a syringe or dropper to fill up with fountain pen ink of your choice. The capacity of the rollerball is not great so don't overfill or it will leak out of the nib... just saturate the sponge. The top then snaps back on.

 

The MB highlighter is also refillable, but through the breather slits in the bottom because there is no plastic cap.

[amberleadavis]

Hang on! You are saying I can do this with my $8.00 a pop MB roller ball refills?! I searched and found some refills that fit with a kludge, but this is stellar! Especially with the "manual". I know the hack for removing the end of the Varsity and just reloading it, but this is pretty elegant. Thanks for sharing. Would you post this on Pentrace? Or do you mind if I link to it? Some foks there would love to see it.

 

 

One of my other posts has a link to a YouTube video. As for the Not FPN site...well, I'm really partial to FPN (I even volunteer as a moderator) so I'd rather you didn't post my stuff there, but you may link to this location and encourage membership.

[Bemo]

That's just too cool.

[Lou Erickson]

Here I thought the "pull really hard with pliers" method was easy. That's really cool!

[amberleadavis]

It's funny, I've had mixed results using this trick on highlighters. I wonder if the ink is just that different.

[paisleye]

Great tip! Thanks!

Sorry to revive the thread, but found this while searching for the possibilities of using FP inks in a MB Fineliner.

[amberleadavis]

Thank you! It works quite well with the fineliners and rollerballs. Not so hot with the highlighters as I mentioned. Also, I think I would limit this experiment to pH neutral inks and inks that are generally safe for mixing. So no Iroshizuku, VMail or Baystate inks. I have had great luck with Diamine inks and the regular Noodler's line. The highlighters have had JHerbin inks which may be a problem of the highlighters.