To me, the most important part of a pen is the ink. The way it writes. Yes, it’s important to be comfortable in my hand and look neat, but really the love of a pen stems from how well it writes. You could give me an extremely expensive pen that writes like shit and I’ll hate it, but give me a $3 Shachihata Ergoline that writes like a dream and I’ll love it.

So what’s to be done if you want the experience of writing with a premier, luxury pen like a Montblanc Rollerball if you don’t have a few hundo to throw down on a pen? Just a little modification, of course!

This one is very simple. Here’s all you need:



Pilot G2 Limited (or other G2-size pen)

Montblanc Rollerball Refills

Box Cutter

Step 1: Line Up The Inks

Montblanc refills are designed specifically to only be able to fit into Montblanc pens. I know this because prior to trying this I tried to fit their refills into several other rollerball pen bodies I have (including the Baoer Skywalker, a Montblanc-wannabe if there ever was one) and it was just slightly wrong for all of them. As it comes, it won’t fit into the G2, but notice something curious- they look awful similar:



The only thing that seems to be separating them is that little piece of plastic on the back of the Montblanc pen. So what’s to be done? Cut that thing off!

Line them up next to each other with the ink points being even.

Step 2: Use the Box Cutter to cut the little piece off



CHOP



Step 3: Insert chopped Montblanc refill into G2 Pen



Step 4: Write!



This modification will allow the Montblanc refills to fit any G2 pen, including the regular G2 and the B2P





Enjoy your expensive writing experience for cheap!

Of course, not everyone agrees with this approach. When I suggested this mod to someone as a cheap way to get an expensive writing experience on Reddit, I was told: “that logic is terrible, a montblanc pen costs a lot not because the filling system, but because of the materials it is made out of, costumer service and stuff, out of the 300 dollars it costs the actual writting [sic] part costs 5 out of that”

So if the resins, customer service, and the cachet of owning a true Montblanc pen is worth it to you, then go right ahead. If you actually care how the pen writes… this will be just fine for you.