I’ve always been a big fan of rollerball pens that use fountain pen ink. I wrote about them a while back and showed a small sample of my personal rollerball-fountain-pen-ink collection. Since that time, my collection has grown.
The most recent addition to that collection isn’t actually a pen itself but a conversion kit. Retro 51 recently introduced a rollerball conversion kit that converts a Retro 51 fountain pen into a rollerball that uses fountain pen ink.
* Photo from Dromgooles.com
The kit comes with a rollerball “nib”, a collar to fit the fountain pen, and a converter – the assembled set is shown below. Please note that the cap piece is not included in the set.
I chose my favorite Retro 51 fountain pen for this conversion – one with sparkles, unicorns, and rainbows. But the important part here is the rollerball conversion.
I have fit this into several Retro 51 fountain pens of varying ages and it has fit perfectly in all of them. The only annoyance was that the collar in the kit is only available in silver so it does clash a bit with fountain pens with gold or rose gold fittings.
The conversion kit works perfectly with the aesthetic of the pen overall and I was able to cap the pen with no issue.
Looking at the rollerball and the fountain pen sections next to each other show how close the two are to each other in size and shape. The only real difference is in the type of nib each can hold.
The nib itself is a 0.5 mm width (see my previous review mentioned at the beginning of this post for a more in-depth discussion of nib widths on this kind of pen) and I’ve had no problems with it in the three weeks I’ve owned it. When I first inked up the pen, the ink did take a bit of patience before it wanted to write. But once the ink started flowing, I had no further issues.
The Retro 51 rollerball conversion kit can be found at Dromgoole’s and other retailers that carry Retro 51 products. It is listed for $26. While the price surprised me when I first came across the kit, I’m not surprised now that I’ve used it. The collar is metal rather than the plastic I would have expected and the rollerball insert is a heavier build than I’ve found in other conversion pens.
I’m incredibly happy to see Retro 51 branching out into products like this and taking a chance in a new area. I look forward to what they have coming out in the future!
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided at a discount by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
ooooo Now this I may need to invest in! I love my Retro 51s but I do tend to use the Rollerballs a bit less….
Dang. I have a slew of Retro 51 rollerballs that require conventional refills, and was hoping for something that would allow me to use fountain pen ink in my current rollerballs. I have a good number of fountain pens, just no Retro 51 fountain pens, and am not likely to buy one in order to convert it to rollerball. I enjoy using a pocket-sized J. Herbin rollerball pen that accepts fountain pen ink, so will content myself with that for now. Thanks for the review!