Fisher Space Pen Hacking

Last year the Fisher Space Pens were all the rage. An amazing pen, that writes in the cold, in heat, upside down, even under water. Only problem: it's $20...

Seeing as how my favorite batch of pens were purchased 20 for $2.50, paying $20 for a pen is quite a stretch for me. On top of that, I had heard some people grumble that it isn't really all it's cracked up to be, as far as being a pen is concerned.

So I head over to the local UC Davis bookstore and buy not the pen, but the $5 ink replacement for said $20 pen. One empty 13 cent pen, a bit of scotch tape, and some exacto knife-fo later, I have a $5.13 pen which writes the same as the $20 Fisher Space Pen.

My feeling:
I'm glad I didn't spend $20 on it. It is a rather nice pen, but even after getting the ink cartridge warmed up after a few days, it doesn't write as dark as I like. I'm just too much of a fan of the heavy black gel ink pens to like something this sophisticated. It is not worth $20, but was a very entertaining way to spend 20 minutes and $5 is acceptable. Supposedly, since the ink is pressurized, it does do well writing on surfaces other than paper, which I have yet to try out.

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