It’s a popular question: Can I refill a fountain pen cartridge? The answer is a firm yes! You can, and you should. This reduced your use of plastic and can save you lots of money.
How to Refill a Fountain Pen Cartridge
Platinum Fountain Pen Buying Guide
Platinum is one of Japan’s “Big Three” pen companies, but it doesn’t seem to get the same level of attention as the other two, at least in the United States. Despite that, Platinum makes some of our favorite fountain pens.
If you are considering buying a Platinum fountain pen which should you lean towards? Which are sure-fire hits that no one can deny is a great pen? Read on to find out.
Best Chinese Fountain Pen of 2020
If you are shopping for a very affordable — as in sub-$30, sub-$20, or even sub-$5 — fountain pen and you want high-end features like screw-on cap, included converter, or piston-filling mechanism then you are shopping for a Chinese fountain pen. Brands like Wing Sung and Jinhao offer incredible value for the money, but they might have some shortcomings that we don’t expect from standard fountain pen purchases.
The Best Rotring 600 Alternatives
The Rotring 600 is a wonderful pen and an icon of writing instrument design. That said, it’s not for everyone. So if you want a pen like the Rotring 600 but different, what should you get?
Pilot G2 Montblanc Hack: $200 Pen for $7
If you really get down to it, what is the beating heart of a high-end pen? Most people would agree that it’s the ink. While that’s not generally the feeling here at Unsharpen — we are pen geeks after all — it’s hard to argue that point if you aren’t as into pens.
With this thinking in mind, here is how you can get a top-notch Montblanc rollerball refill into a highly affordable pen body, like the Pilot G2. That’s the heart of a $200+ pen but with a total cost of about $97.
Paper Sizes Explained
Paper sizes are an unfortunately confusing thing. You just want some printer paper or a notebook and instead you are choosing between “A4” and “B5” and other unhelpful options. Maybe you are better off when switching to numbers, like “8.5 by 11” but we’ve all made the mistake of ordering legal paper when we meant to get normal.
This guide should help you sort out all your paper size problems.
Twsbi Fountain Pen Buying Guide
If you are in the market for an entry-level to mid-range fountain pen then Twsbi is a great option. The company has a number of strong offerings in the sub-$100 range, including very competitive pricing bands, like $20-30, where big players like Pilot might seem like the obvious option.
Read on to learn about the best Twsbi pen for you.
What Is A Student Fountain Pen?
The phrase “student fountain pen” doesn’t get thrown around as much as it once did, but there still exists a whole class of fountain pens known as “student” pens.
What is a student pen? What makes one good? What are the best student fountain pens today, at a time when much fewer people are actually learning to write using a fountain pen.
What’s The Deal With Tru Red Pens?
Tru Red (often written as TRU RED) is a stationery brand that you might have seen come up recently. They company makes surprisingly nice products, but sales are largely limited to Staples stores.
Who is Tru Red? What products do the make? Is this a pen brand worth paying attention to?
Fisher Space Pen Broke? How To Use The Lifetime Guarantee
One of the main reasons to get a Fisher Space Pen is the company’s lifetime guarantee of its pen. This is an impressive offering given just how long these pens tend to stick around.
Still, we had questions. For instance, what is the warranty and does it cover? If a Space Pen was to break, what should you do?
Continue reading “Fisher Space Pen Broke? How To Use The Lifetime Guarantee”
Fountain Pen Filling Systems: Pros and Cons
Fountain pens can be filled with a number of different mechanisms. These not only fill the pen, but go a long way in placing it within the pen world and then determining its size, price, and other qualities. While no filling mechanism is the best, there are reasons to by one or another each time you get a new pen.
Continue reading “Fountain Pen Filling Systems: Pros and Cons”
The Best Stationery Shops in Portland, Oregon
Planning on visiting Portland, Oregon in the coming days? Think you’ll have a few minutes to step away from the city’s incredible food, coffee, and nature to do a little pen and paper shopping? If so, here are the best stationery shops in the city.
Continue reading “The Best Stationery Shops in Portland, Oregon”
How To Clean Fountain Pens
Fountain pens are great, but the cleaning is, to put it lightly, a chore. Maintaining and caring for fountain pens takes time, and even if you don’t baby your pens their water-based ink still runs out more quickly than a ballpoint or rollerball. Want to change ink color? That requires a cleaning too.
So cleaning comes with the territory, but what’s the right way to do it?
What’s The Deal with LIY Pens?
LIY or “Live In You” is an under-the-radar pen company, but they make a few interesting products. Maybe you’ve stumbled upon them on Ebay or in discussions about Chinese fountain pens, but you probably didn’t make a purchase without knowing a bit more about the brand. This article should help!
What’s the Deal with Tul Pens?
Ever been handed a Tul pen or found one at the office and asked yourself, what kind of pen is this? It happened to me and other people have had the same question. So, what’s the deal with Tul pens?
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