Many people really enjoy the the modern look and feel of the various LAMY ballpoint models, but absolutely hate the M16 refill that comes with it. Now, I personally don't find it too offensive to use for everyday writing, but what if there was potentially a better way?
About a month or so ago I got a message through Instagram by Anson Chiu (@neotrooper) with a picture of something he had just bought that I had never heard of: an adapter for your LAMY ballpoints...
I was intrigued.
This seems highly enthusiastic!
What this adapter does is allow the user to insert the tiny D1 refills that we most commonly find in multipens into a LAMY ballpoint pen format. There are a lot of beloved gel, hybrid, or other ballpoint refills like the Zebra Sharbo X, Uniball Jetstream, or Fisher Space pen that are made with a D1 size so this opened a whole new world of opportunity.
These adapters only seem to be found in Japan, but I located a seller on eBay (from Japan) that had some listed. I can't seem to find that seller anymore, so these may be hard to get now.
Although, I did find it from a seller (maybe the same one) on Amazon for around the same price.
I wouldn't say it was at all inexpensive... I believe I paid around $15 total to get it, but I figured it would be worth a try. It took a month to get here, so I was hoping it was worth the wait.
The adapter is a small piece made of two parts: a black plastic sleeve section where you insert the D1 and a metal base which you insert into the pen. It is very well made.
I had a 0.5mm Zebra gel refill available in my stash to test with, which also happens to be a favorite.
My initial hopes would be that it would work in my vintage LAMY Unic ballpoints, but it unfortunately didn't seem to fit properly. I'd wager that it is due to the telescoping tip mechanism which may have some slightly different tolerances. Kind of a bummer, but I may try to do some "modifications" to the adapter to see if I can get it to fit.
Instead, I loaded the adapter and gel refill into my stainless steel LAMY 2000 ballpoint and it fit perfectly. The tip extended and retracted without issue and writing didn't yield any of the dreaded "wiggle" we often get with retractable pens.
My thoughts are that the adapter would fit well in most LAMY ballpoints like the Safari, AL-Star, Eco, and other less complicated ones. I've yet to try the Dialog 1 ballpoint by LAMY which I believe has a bit of a telescoping action, so this one may be out... we'll see.
All in all, this is a sweet little piece of equipment to help enhance your daily writing with the pens you love. Cheap? Not really, but may be worth it. I know I'll get a ton of use out of this thing.
Here again is that link to Amazon if you think this might be something you need...