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Pens and Pencils | Reviews and Data
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The Unsharpen Editorial Team handles writing and curation for Unsharpen.com. This includes writing most articles, writing pen, paper, etc. reviews, and building out the site's data catalog.

You can learn more about the team at the Youtube channel, as well as watch the catalog of over 500 video reviews and guides with over 10 million collective views, which will give you some insight into our pen expertise and our 20+ year history geeking out about pens, pencils, and paper.

Have a question? Reach out and a team member will get back to you.

Which Pens Are Sold In The Most Sizes?

If you want to use the same pen and ink combination in a number of sizes, what’s the best pen to choose? This is a niche question, but certainly an interesting one. This came up when we wanted to some pen longevity testing — testing out how long the ink in a pen will write — and we wanted to determine the impact on the writing tip size on how long a pen will write. The best way to do this is to get the same pen in as many sizes as possible… but which pen should we buy?

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The Best Gel Pens of 2024

Pentel Energel

There are few writing instruments that are more satisfying than a great gel pen. The right gel pen is buttery smooth, has color that pops off the page with excellent legibility, and is a pleasure to write with on nearly any paper. Gel pens are one of the best and most versatile ways to write in 2024.

There are many gel pens sold today. While there aren’t too many truly bad gel pens left, a few stand out from the rest. We’ve extensively tested dozens of gel pens since 2018… these are our favorites.

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The Best No-Plastic And Low Plastic Pens And Refills

Pilot S20 Ballpoint Pen

Many people are trying to reduce the amount of plastic they use in their lives, but this can be quite difficult, especially with small, affordable items like pens. While pens and plastic go hand-in-hand, particularly with lower priced pens, there are some choices you can make to reduce the plastic in your writing instruments.

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Caran d’Ache Graphite Pencil Guide

Caran d’Ache makes, and has made, a wide array of high quality wood pencils. The line spans from everyday, student pencils, to luxury pencils made of unique types of sustainably sourced wood.

It’s not that easy to differentiate from one pencil to the next, despite the obvious care Caran d’Ache has put into these pencil. This article will try to clear things up a little and make sense out of this wonderful line of pencils.

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Pens, Ink, And The Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Form

If you have recently purchased a pen or ink from an international reseller or manufacturer there is a chance that you will be required to fill out a Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Form. This request will come from the shipper, usually Fedex, not the seller or a government agency.

So what do you do when you get this request?

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The Cheapest (Good) Fountain Pen Ink

Pelikan 4001 Ink

Fountain pen ink doesn’t have to be expensive. Today fountain pens might seem like a luxury product, but let’s not forget that not too long ago they were a standard writing tool used everyday by millions of people worldwide. Those people weren’t using luxury inks with delicate undertones, they were using dependable, affordable fountain pen ink.

Don’t let the marketing hype fool you… those great, cheap inks still exist.

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