Refilling your Pilot Varsity Disposible Fountain Pen

After a few requests from my review earlier this week of the Varsity, I decided to post a presto- chango ink change how to of sorts. It was just about dead anyway so let's breathe some new life into the patient.

Here we have the tools prepped for surgery. You can get away with an eyedropper, but what's fun about that? Go for the danger of the syringe. Oh and I don't condone drinking and operating, but sometimes it's needed.

The secret is to not scratch the crap out of your nib, use a rag, or plastic covered pliers and give it a gentle tug, this pen actually gives a refreshing pop to let you know it's out. Now go clean up all the ink you just spilled if you were not patient enough to wait till your pen was dead.

Rinse in warm water, rinse till it runs clear and then rinse it for another 5 minutes. Trust me. After rinsing--- dry thoroughly with paper towels, or I use an old jar stuffed with paper towels that I put the nib point down in. Acts like a sponge. Make sure all parts including the cap are rinsed clean. No need to pull the metal nib off of the feed, just rinse it all as is.

Because I only have two hands, I cant shoot and fill, but I have 2 cc's exactly of ink here in the body. The nib goes on the same way it came out. I had to put a little more pressure on the way in, but it popped in and sealed nicely.

Without hesitation, the ink started flowing and I have a brand new disposable fountain pen that I won't be disposing of. It's a new good pen. Oh, and I recycled the bottle my beer was in so that's two green things for the day.

More importantly... the Boston Red Sox equipment truck leaves for Florida today. Suddenly it's not so cold outside. Have a great weekend and I will have a fresh pen on Monday.

The Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen

When I hear the words "disposable" and "fountain pen" I grab my wallet and without having a second thought, pay up... you can count me in. Lady's and Gentlemen, the Pilot Varsity Fountain Pen.

I don't think this was my first fountain pen I ever owned, but it was up there early on the list and I probably have burned through 100 of these since then. All colors, all styles and I have refilled these before. The usual process: yank the nib, rinse, syringe ink in and pop the nib back. I hate to throw them away if the ink is flowing and the nib is still solid.

You can tell this one gets thrown around. It's beat up and has seen a ton of paper and use. Cheaper is not always better, but in this case, cheaper means a dependable pen that you can loan to someone to use if needed and not fear having your nibs pointing east and west from some heavy handed Bic user.