Unsharpen

Pens and Pencils | Reviews and Data

Thomas Varner

Thomas Varner is a freelance writer from Birmingham, AL. While he has always been mindful of pens, he just recently became passionate about them and even began collecting them as well as getting into the fountain pen hobby. He is an avid collector of Parker pens, particularly Jotters and has a quickly growing collection of fountain pens. Reach out to him on Discord.

Muji Aluminum Body Fountain Pen

Muji is a Japanese company that offers a wide range of products from apparel to home furnishings. Among these are a line of stationary products including pencils, ballpoints, and gel pens. One of their more popular items is an aluminum-bodied fountain pen.

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Caran d’Ache 849 Ballpoint Pen

The Caran d’Ache 849 is an iconic ballpoint pen that has been made continuously since the 1960s.

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Zebra Surari Emulsion Ink Pen

The Zebra Surari Ballpoint looks like a typical cheap office ballpoint. In actuality, it’s much more. Even so, it features a very simple plastic body and rubber grip. The clip and click mechanism are plastic as well.

The Surari costs about $1.65 per pen and is a Japanese import. It’s available with black, blue, and red ink. You can also get 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0mm tips sizes. There is a dark black body available, but the clear one is much more common.

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Uni Boxy 100 Ballpoint Pen

The Uni Boxy 100 is a very unique and interesting pen from Mitsubishi Pencil Co, LTD (Uni-Ball). It was first introduced in 1979 and is very popular with Japanese students.

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Pilot Juice Up Gel Pen

The Pilot Juice Up is a retractable gel pen from Pilot that features a unique writing tip and clip design. It is an improved version of the Pilot Juice Gel pen.

The Juice Up is available in a variety of ink colors and three tip sizes. 0.3 mm, 0.4 mm, and 0.5 mm. The most colors are available in the 0.4 mm size. These include standard colors and pastels. You can get a 5-pack of one ink color for about $12 or a 10-color set for about $20-$25.

The Juice Up is one of Unsharpen’s best gel pens.

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Uni-ball Signo UM-151 Gel Pen

The Uni-ball Signo DX UM-151 is capped (stick style) gel pen that is sold in a huge variety of colors. It’s sold as single pens, but also often sold in bundles that can have many pens and many colors.

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Uni Jetstream Sport Ballpoint Pen

The Uni (Uni-ball) Jetstream Sport is an affordable, plastic-bodied pen from Japan. It has an ergonomic design with a rubber grip and plastic parts.

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Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel Pen

The Pilot Hi-Tec-C is a popular capped gel pen known for its fine tip needle-point. It is an inexpensive office-style stick pen featuring a clear plastic body and cap, and metal cone piece at the front.

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Pentel EnerGel Euro Needle Point Gel Pen

The Pentel Energel Euro Needle Point (aka needle-tip) is a capped gel pen from Pentel Co., LTD. It features a needle-point tip, plastic body and cap, and a folded metal clip. It is also a non-refillable liquid gel pen. It costs about $3.

The Euro Needle Point is an inexpensive office-type pen. It is similar to several needle-tip rollerball style pens, the most popular being the Pilot Precise V5 rollerball.

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Zebra Sarasa Clip Gel Pen

The Zebra Sarasa Clip, sometimes referred to as the Zebra Sarasa Push Clip, is an affordable, plastic-bodied gel ink pen from Zebra. The Sarasa clip is from the Japanese Zebra Co. Ltd., as opposed the US-based subsidiary Zebra Pen Company.

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Zebra Z-Grip Flight Ballpoint Pen

The Zebra Z-Grip Flight is a low-viscosity ballpoint pen from Zebra’s Z-Grip line of pens. It is a cheap, office-focused pen that is typically sold in bulk. The most popular offerings are a 5-count blister pack or a 12-count box. It sells for about $1 per pen.

The Z-Grip is available in both a retractable and capped design. It is very similar to the standard Z-Grip but has a bolder design.

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BIGiDESIGN Ti Click EDC Pen

The Ti Click from BIGiDESIGN (aka BigiDesign) is a retractable pen machined from grade 5 titanium. Titanium has become a very popular choice for EDC pen bodies because of its high strength and low weight. The Ti Click’s major claim to fame is that it’s compatible with over 100 different refill types. No modifications required.

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Parker Urban Fountain Pen

The Parker Urban fountain pen is an executive offering in the Urban Collection. This line also feature an Urban ballpoint and rollerball in numerous finishes.

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Parker Urban Ballpoint

The Parker Urban Ballpoint is an executive-style ballpoint in Parker’s Urban collection. The Urban line is a lower mid-level offering aimed at young professionals. The Urban collection also features ballpoints, fountain pens, and rollerballs in several finishes.

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Zebra G-402 Stainless Steel Retractable Ballpoint Pen

The Zebra G-402 is metal bodied Gel pen in Zebra’s “Steel” series. It is the mid-range offering and the gel version of the F-402 ballpoint. Other gel pens in the line include the entry-level G-301 and the recently released G-350. In 2020, Zebra will be releasing the G-450 and G-750.

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