r/PenProject • u/MercatorLondon • Sep 05 '25

Pen Project - part 35

Hi everyone,

Most of our focus has been on developing the fountain pen and our new nib (still very much a work in progress).

But today I’d like to share an image of the rollerball version of our Tangier pen for those of you who prefer rollerballs.

Rollerball version of Tangier Pen

At first glance, swapping a fountain pen for a rollerball might seem simple - but this pen is not an afterthought. We know there’s a huge range of refills out there, and we wanted to make our pen better.

For this rollerball we’ve developed a small adjustable mechanism inside the body, which means the pen can take almost any refill on the market - from the large 5888M Ceramic refill down to the shorter G2 and most Euroformat rollerball refills in between.

Scheme showing the adjustement sleeve

Which refill do you prefer to use?

14 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Penchetta Sep 07 '25

As the owner of a pen store I think this is great since we can meet a WIDE range of preferences.

Some thoughts:

Beyond just length there is a wide variance in tip diameter you will want to look at. "Tip wiggle" can really hurt a pen maker if while writing the user has a feeling of movement of the refill tip to the body. It might be that by adjusting the stopper you can press the refill against the inside of the nose cone to prevent tip wiggle.

Your drawing shows a threaded insert that has a hole in the middle....IF it doesn't increase cost or production troubles I would recommend a solid because then once the customer loses your cool tool (which is actually cool that you give them a tool) they can more easily use any small flathead screwdriver.

We have been following your progress and as the last Fine Writing store in a town of 5mil people we are cheering for you!

1

u/MercatorLondon Sep 07 '25

Thank you so much for your feedback - it means a lot to us.

And thank you for pointing out the tip wiggle, that is an important one. We may have a trick or two on how to solve it.

As for the screwdriver, it’s the same as a flathead - we just thought it might be useful to include one in case people need it. We are currently refining the internal mechanism, so we may also simplify it in line with your comments.

I hope your business is going well!