I’ve been hunting for a good match for my KT Dive in Dense Green ever since I got my hands on it. The tricky thing is how the shade of green verges on being outright green and also having a tinge of bluish turquoise. Mesmerising!
My initial candidate was the Lamy Al-star in limited ‘Petrol’ color. It was pretty close in color, was capped like the Dive, and had rounded and faceted sides. But the clip was chromed. Easy fix with a donor black clip.
But then I realised: the FP version had the ink level window! A mirror to the Dive’s KT rotation window! And so I kept a lookout for a used example, as I really do not have any use for FPs at all otherwise.
Meanwhile, I tried out the Sharbo Nu with its intriguing center-aligned MP component, which I duly changed to a 0.7 for more versatility. And also gave the Pentel Philography limited a spin.
The Shabo’s ‘deep viridian’ turned out just a smidgen greener than the Dive, while the Philography leaned more teal than than the Lamy.
The Lamy FP donor arrived and I got into surgery right away. The inside of the FP was somehow more snug than the RB model and I had to saw off the excess ‘collar’ around the rollerball section, so that it didn’t protrude past the ink level window.
Similarly, an Energel refill needed to be trimmed slightly so that it could fit into the FP’s body.
Here’s a closer look at the Dive and modified Al-star. I suppose an opaque black grip would look closer to the Dive but I like the functionality of being able to check the ink level on my gel refill.
Great Success!