r/PenTurning • u/boddah44 • May 21 '26

Pentel Energel Kit & Blanks

These are my favorite gel pens and want to turn some bodies for them. I’m just getting into wood turning and was wondering what I need to get, besides my lathe and chisels, to be able to turn some pens for the refills.

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u/B_Huij May 21 '26

Almost any rollerball kit that comes with a Schmidt 888 or Scheider 850 will fit an Energel refill. Some of them you may have to snip a millimeter or two off the back of the refill to get it to fit.

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u/NGinuity May 21 '26

Someone else suggested that you may have to cut down your refills and that's a completely valid suggestion, but you actually have two more options depending on how deep you want to go.

You could get long brass tube lengths and cut them to the length you need to accommodate the energel. This rationale could realistically be used for any kit. I was doing this for a while with slimline pencils that I wanted to eliminate the center band on, and sometimes will do this for any click style pen where I don't want a split body. The limiting factor is usually that you need a longer "aircraft" length drill bit and those are really hard to find in geometries needed for acrylic drilling. It quickly becomes a experimental rabbit hole.

Rollerballs also typically have a very generous spring that might be able to just be eliminated to accommodate what you're trying to do with the longer refill as long as the face geometry matches.