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Or how to make a Knight into an Esterbrook. You may know the Pilot Knight, an entry level pen that I find is a solid everyday writer, dang near bomb proof with it's steel construction and hard as nails finish. (the pen in these photos is about 10 years old) I've grown quite fond of this Corolla of the pen world and use it with the basic Con-20 converter. Pilot, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to discontinue the Con-20 (and Con-50 as confirmed by Classic Fountain Pens) and I discover this just as I was thinking of replacing my Con-20 as the sac had herniated under the press tab so far that it rubbed against the body when being reinserted into the barrel. To add insult to injury, Pilot is replacing both the 20 and the 50 with the Con-40 that holds half as much ink. Errrr. What to do? I decided to take matters into my own hands. I cleaned both pen and converter in prep for surgery. My first thought was to remove the sac from the converter and replace that. If you look closely, you will see a tiny lip of plastic beyond the end of the metal jacket of the converter, I took a dental spatula and attempted to ease this fitting out of the end of the jacket. After half an hour getting nowhere, the jacket being well crimped onto the fitting, I pressed hard with the spatula and deformed the stupid piece of plastic and finally managed to pull it out of there with forceps. Just as well, the fitting and the actual sac were not strongly attached anymore and came apart easily. Now that I had the sac out of the metal jacket, it looked familiar. It looked like a #16 sac, the same that fits Esterbrooks and I even happen to have one on hand. The stars must be aligned, this never happens! There they are, side by side, and dang! The #16 fits perfectly on the section of the Pilot Knight. Cut to length, sac in place, the only thing is the metal jacket doesn't fit snug over the sac and section, and sac shellac is not strong enough to hold it (note excess shellac in photo). I think I will cut and apply a second layer of sac, left over from cutting to length, and that might snug the metal jacket in place. Even unsecured it's not bad, the jacket rattles a bit inside the barrel, but the pen functions great. I haven't measured but I expect it is restored to the original ink quantity .9 ml, while the replacement Pilot Con-40 is rated at .4 ml. Grant Petersen, of Rivendell bike fame, once said "if you find something you really like, buy a lifetime supply because the manufacturer will change it just because they can" and that is certainly how I feel in this case, and perhaps why I felt strongly enough to take a working pen into surgery.