Use the Force: The Internet's Guide to Reviving a Dead Ballpoint Pen

What's going on

Almost everyone has met this tiny tragedy: a ballpoint pen with plenty of ink still visible in the cartridge that simply refuses to write. The culprit is usually a small pocket of air that has formed inside the tube, breaking the flow of ink down to the tip.

One person ran into exactly this and asked the internet for both the cause and a fix. The replies quickly settled on a likely villain — writing with the pen angled upward lets gravity pull the ink away from the tip while air sneaks in — and then spiraled into a gentle arms race of increasingly physical remedies, nearly all of them variations on a single theme: apply enough centrifugal force and the ink will return.

The suggestions ranged from swinging the pen by hand, to mounting it on bicycle spokes, to strapping it to a car wheel, to running it through a washing machine. The original poster's eventual solution, however, took an unexpectedly cinematic turn.

Comments

There’s still ink left, but a gap formed in this part and now it won’t write anymore…😭 Does anyone know the cause, or how to fix it…?

インク残ってるけどこの部分に空洞ができてしまって、使えなくなってしまいました…😭 原因や対策などわかる方いますか…？

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I want to know this too.

私も知りたい。

Pretty sure the main cause is writing with the pen angled upward. A ballpoint works because gravity pulls the ink down to the tip, so if you often write at an upward angle it can stop writing. As a quick fix, like others said, use centrifugal force. For a real fix, like others said, switch to a pressurized ballpoint pen.

原因は上向き筆記が有力かと思います。ボールペンはインクが重力で下に流れることで書けるので、写真のような角度で使うことが多いと書けなくなることがあります。とりあえずの対処としては他の方が仰るように遠心力等を利用根本的な対処としては他の方がおっしゃるように加圧式ボールペンを使う

Plenty of people already posted fixes in the replies so… The cause is usually this: when you don’t have anything to rest on and you press your notebook against a wall to jot something down, the tip ends up pointing up, and air gets in through the gap around the little ball at the tip.

戻す方法はリプにたくさん書かれてるので… 下敷きにするものがなくて壁にノートなどつけてメモとったりするとペン先はだいたい上向いてしまうので、インクが出るペン先のボールの隙間から空気が入り込んでしまうというのが多いかなと

The cause is usually leaving the pen with the tip pointing up, nya ヽ(´ー`)ﾉ For this one, point the tip down and warm it up — the ink goes fluid and reconnects with the part below, nya

原因はペン先を上に向けて置いたことが多いですにゃーヽ(´ー`)ﾉこれ、ペン先を下に向けて温めてあげればインクが流動的になって下のとくっ付きますにゃー

Accidentally running it through the washing machine pretty much always does this,,,

洗濯機に間違えて入れたらだいたいこうなる、、、

Once, I blew really hard into the open end of the cartridge and it fixed itself. Twice, I just broke it.

芯の開口側からめちゃくちゃ息を吹き込んだら直ったことが一回あります。壊したことが二回あります。

I once tried sucking from the open end thinking it might fix it. I remember it being the least delicious flavor of my entire life. Would not recommend.

直るかな、と思って開口部から吸ったことがあります。人生で最も美味しくない味わいだった記憶があります。おすすめしません。

Hold the other end in your mouth and write while blowing into it (applying pressure). The air works its way out of the tip. Though there are times when it just won’t work (泣).

反対側を口にくわえて息を吹きかけながら（圧力をかける）、文字を書きます。すると、ペン先から空気が抜けます。でも、それが出来ない時も無くはないです(泣)。

No idea about the cause, but if you grab the other end and swing it around hard, the centrifugal force pulls the ink toward the tip and sometimes that does the trick!!

原因はわかんないですが、逆の端を持ってぶん回して、遠心力でインクをペン先に寄せるとなんとかなることがあります！！

I just use a wire to force it back in from the rear.

針金使って後ろから強引に押し込んでます

I revived mine once by rigging it up and swinging it around hard 🙂

以前の状態にしてブンブン振り回したら復活しました🙂

Guess I was a real brute-force type — I just kept writing on paper (scrubbing, more like) until the air worked its way out…

空気が抜けるまで紙に書き（擦りとも言う）続けてた私は脳筋だったんだなぁ…

Just passing through. Figured you could fix it by sending the ink to the tip with centrifugal force? I recall seeing a video of someone reviving a pen by strapping it inside a washing machine and running the spin cycle. The conclusion, though, was ‘buying a new one is faster’…

通りすがりです。遠心力でインクを先に行かせればイケるでは？で、洗濯機にボールペンを固定し脱水をかけて復活させた動画を視た記憶があります。結論は「買ったほうが早い」でしたが…

Thank you! True, they are cheap after all…💦

ありがとうございます！確かに安いですからね…💦

For a fix, you can tie it to a string and swing it around (it’s light, so that’s actually pretty hard), or if you’ve got a bike, strap it to the spokes and go for a ride — that should fix it easily.

対策としては紐などに取付けて振りまわすか(軽いのでなかなか難しい)、自転車があればスポークに取付けて走ると簡単に直ると思います

Thank you! A bike! That’s clever…!

ありがとうございます！自転車！賢い…！

Fix it to your car wheel. Drive. Centrifugal force gathers the ink to the outside. The cartridge in that state flies off somewhere. That is all.

車のホイールに固定します。走ります。遠心力でインクが外側に集まります。その状態の芯がどっか飛んでいきます。以上です。

Thanks! Ahh I see, that makes sense— …hang on, it’s gone flying off somewhere, hasn’t it!

ありがとございます！なるほど〜て、どっか行っとるやないかい！

Thank you all for the many tips. I took your advice and gave it a try. Please inspect the results.

沢山のアドバイスありがとうございました。ご意見参考にして治してみました。ご精査ください。

Thanks for all the advice! For now, I went ahead and fixed it in a sort of Jedi way…!

色々アドバイスいただきありがとうございます！今回はとりあえずジェダイな感じで直してみました…！

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How did this turn into such a funny situation lol

なんでこんなおもろいことになった？w

Fixed by the power of the Force. Extremely Jedi.

フォースの力で直った、すごくジェダイだった

So all the Jedi out there are just fixing their ballpoint pen ink, huh.

ジェダイの人みんなボールペンのインク直してるのか

There’s Grogu sitting right there in the back too. So cute ☺️ (Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, the little green character from The Mandalorian.)

ちゃんと後ろにグローグーいてる。かわいい☺️

The sheer quirkiness of the fix, plus how cool it looks, plus the worry about the scratches on the ceiling, and…

直し方のクセの強さとカッコよさと天井の傷の心配さと…

So once you become a Jedi, the Force’s guidance (centrifugal force?) lets you repair ballpoint pens too! 🔦🖊️

ジェダイになるとフォースの導き（遠心力？）でボールペンも修復できるんですね！🔦🖊️

Believe in the Force.

フォースを信じるのだ

A Jedi Master can even fix ballpoint pen malfunctions…! I think I’ll try believing in the Force too (eyes dead serious).

ジェダイマスターはボールペンの不具合も直せる…！私もフォースを信じてみようと思います（まっすぐな目）

The great Master Yoda also said, on the subject of fixing ballpoint pens: ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’

偉大なるマスターヨーダもボールペンを直すことについて「やるか、やらぬかだ。ためしなどいらん」とおっしゃっていました。

The power of the Force is amazing!

フォースのちからってすげー！

My take

Apparently, brute force is the correct answer to a problem far more often than one might expect.

#Funny #Culture

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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