Pen Refills

Find pen refills for common and uncommon pen brands and products
By Elliot Feldman, freelance television and new media writer/editor Coney Dog Productions While pens of the disposable variety, with no pen refill option, are the norm for modern pen usage, there are many diehards who still stick by their one or two personal favorite pens, refusing to throw them out for reasons of habit, ecology, or collectibility. It is for these individuals that pen refills are made.

Types of writing instruments using pen ink refill cartridges include:

1. Technical pen refills (with or without squeeze or piston load-it-yourself cartridge converters)
2. Fountain pen refills (full-sized and mini-sized ink cartridges)
3. Gel and ballpoint pen refills
4. Fineliner felt tip pen refills
5. Multi-color pen refills (requiring more than one cartridge)

For users of a discontinued pen product, there are still suppliers available for even some of the rarest of pen refills, especially those with an outmoded technology. Finding these suppliers, however may offer a challenge.

Find online sellers of technical pen cartridges and fountain pen refills

Fountain and technical pens come in a variety of styles from everyday inexpensive to rare and costly. Certain brands of fountain ink pen refills require converters that suck the ink into cartridges.
Try:  A.T.Cross Company is an example of  a company that stocks expensive and sometimes rare fountain pens that require a fountain pen refill. PenRefill.com, a part of the Levenger Company, offers tips on how to fill a fountain pen cartridge with a piston converter. Australian company Pen & Ink sells fountain pen ink refill converters for a variety of pen brands.

Find online sellers of gel, rollerball or ballpoint pen refills

While most gel, rollerball and ballpoint pens are disposable, many brands make models that require ink pen refills.
Try:  Parker Pen, a pioneer in the development of rollerball and ballpoint pens, offers refills and replacement instructions for specific types of rollerball and ballpoint pens (including multi-color). Fisher Spacepen is a special pressurized ballpoint pen that claims to write underwater, upside-down, over wet paper and under conditions of zero-gravity. Note that a Space Pen refill will also fit certain other brands like Cross Pens and fifties-vintage Paper Mate Pens. You can find refills for modern Paper Mate ballpoint pens at the Paper Mate's website.

Find an online pen refill supplier offering multiple types of pen refills

Choose a pen refill supplier with the widest selections of refills for common and uncommon (even antique) pen brands.
Try:  Colorado Pen Direct offers refills for a wide variety of pen types, including ballpoints, fountain pens, rollerballs and Fineliner felt-tip pen refills. Yafa Pen specializes in all types of pen refills. For those unsure of the exact pen refill that they'd need, they have the Refill Finder that's searchable by pen brand or refill type. Seller Paradise Pen has its own refill finder along with their refill cross reference chart.

• Some rollerball pens may accept Fineliner felt-marker refills.
• Some fountain pen users may prefer ink cartridge refills that don't need converters, because they may be prone to leakage.
• As environmental consciousness increases, pen refills are becoming a more viable and popular solution to throwaway pens.