Last month when I cleaned out my office supply cabinet I found three 12-packs of retractable ballpoint pens, the remainders of a carton I bought a couple of years ago. I used some of the pens at work, and the rest had gotten buried and forgotten.
I brought one of the packs upstairs and emptied the pens into the holder on my desk. They looked nice; however, every time I tried to use one they wouldn't write. My rule is that a pen gets one chance to work before it gets tossed, but these pens were choice. I wondered if I could do something to get them to work. A quick Google search led me to the wikiHow article How to Restart a Dry Ball Point Pen, which had some great suggestions. I decided to give some of them a try over the course of the weekend.
First I attempted the obvious ideas. I shook the pen, tapped the tip against a hard surface, and scribbled vigorously on a piece of paper. Nothing.
Next, I took the ink cartridge out and blew into the end opposite the ballpoint, and rubbed the pen on the bottom of my rubber-soled tennis shoes. No luck.
Feeling frustrated, I rubbed the tip of a pen on an emery board, then ran some hot water into a bowl, removed the ink cartridge from several pens, and immersed them in the water. I soaked the tips in rubbing alcohol, and repeated the soaking process with hairspray. None of theses did the trick.
The easy solutions weren't working, so I tried a more complex one. I put the ink cartridges into a Ziploc bag and put the bag in a pot of boiling water for five minutes. Negative.
By this point I was getting pretty discouraged, so I passed on the more extreme ideas--heating up the ballpoint tip with the flame from a lighter, forcing a wire into the tube, and taking off the metal tip to push the ink down from the other end of the tube; these were too potentially messy for me.
I think I've just about exhausted all the options. It pains me to throw all the pens away, but do I have any other choice?
Just went thru the same things... but I didn't exercise your vigor! I threw out a bunch of pens. :-( And made note to myself that the more expensive pens were the ones I couldn't get to work!!
ReplyDeleteNot only did you throw out pens, you did a great job of organizing what was left...I saw the picture!
Deleteno, you don't have a choice! na...and it sometimes comes down to the time spent trying to make them work being more valuable than keeping the pens. It's usually markers that get tossed here...after checking each one to see if it still works!
ReplyDeleteFor many years I had a end-of-the-school year ritual where I'd check all the markers that came home to see which ones worked. I STILL have that urge every time I see a big bag of them :-)
DeleteBall point pens are no longer my instrument of choice. I like gel pens, which are recommended for check writing to deter check fraud. The lesson learned is to use the pens when you get them. I don't have that problem with the really expensive ones that Terry orders for me. They go quickly. But the ones that we get as freebies here and there, they do dry up and I have no ill feeling about tossing them.
ReplyDeleteI do very little hand writing any more, except for notes to myself and entries in my checkbook when I've used my card, so I've really got a nice supply of pens even without the ones I'll have to toss.
DeleteI write, by hand, a lot. I keep a journal. I also make notes for stories, and I take notes for my Sunday School lessons. I still make a handwritten list for shopping. Thank you notes & birthday cards & other types of cards keep my pen busy, too.
DeleteAnd that, dkzody, is why you're a much better person than I am!
DeleteI actually enjoy going through old pens and pencils and weeding out the ones that don't work anymore or need sharpening! Happy New Year Kathy!
ReplyDeleteIt IS a good feeling to toss out things that don't work!
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