I like to hurt pens...

Ok... maybe the title is a bit misleading, I would never 'hurt' my pens. But occasionaly, I try to do a so called 'Pen hack'!

But why? You might ask. Why would I voluntarily use dangerous tools -such as sanding paper and hobby knives- on innocent pens? Well, usually because they are daily carry pens, so after a while, they can look quite beat up, and I often don't like the way they wear down!

 Because these aren't the most expensive pens (I wouldn't try this with your most precious gold-nibbed pen!) I figured a little experiment couldn't hurt, so I started sanding and polishing...

A Lamy pico ballpoint, Parker Vector, Parker IM and Koh -I-Noor.

All of these pens are modified in the same way. I sanded them down, revealing the brass, plastic or aluminium body of the pen. I often used regular sanding paper, or special abrasive steel wool (I believe it's actually meant for wood) It's not too hard to get them to look this way, you just have to take your time and make sure that you only sand them down in one direction, especially if you want the final product to look good! For a nice and shiny finish, you can always take some metal polish and polish them up, especially brass and aluminium pens will benefit from doing this! 

I personally think these pens look quite good now. Obviously you are limited to the material they used for the pen, so most pens will end up looking gold-ish due to the brass body.

If you are interrested in more 'serious' pen hacks, involving saws and drilling, you might want to check out this japanese blog about pen hacks: The uncomfortable chair.

So what about you? have you ever tried to modify a pen? Let me know in the comments!

A collection of three modified Koh-I-Noor leadholders, a 5.6mm, a 3.8mm and a 2mm version.