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?
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!
The Parker 51 is one of the most famous pens of all time. Even today, over 50 years after this fountain pen first went on sale, the pen is sought after by collectors and mint models can go for hundreds of dollars. The Parker 21 looks almost exactly like the Parker 51, but sells for a fraction of the amount.
What’s the difference between these two vintage fountain pens?
Continue reading “Parker 51 vs. Parker 21: What’s The Difference?”
The Rotring Newton is often confused with the older, more desirable Rotring 600. Both are great pens and they are remarkably alike, but they are distinctly different models and while the Newton echoes the design of the 600 it is not a Rotring 600. Sorry to say it, but there is no “Rotring Newton 600,” that’s just something people write in auctions.
Does any of this matter though? Are we just splitting hairs? Or is there a real difference between the Rotring 600 and the Newton pens. Let’s find out.
Converting a fountain pen to an eyedropper is a quick and fun job, so long as you choose the right pen! It’s quick to do, quite cheap, and you can often double or even triple your ink capacity.
Continue reading “Best Fountain Pens for Eyedropper Conversion (And How To Do It)”
If you are shopping for a very affordable — as in sub-$20, sub-$10, 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 do have some shortcomings that we don’t expect from standard fountain pen purchases.
These Chinese fountain pens are very affordable, but they don’t have websites with clear explanations and offer don’t come from vendors we know and trust. Plus that often have very slow shipping times (sometimes 2-4 weeks to the US) so remembering what you bought can be an issue. It was with those challenges in mind that we set up this top Chinese fountain pens of 2019 roundup.
Lamy makes a few different fountain pen converters and it’s not always clear which one you should buy. Lamy doesn’t offer much guidance on this, but don’t worry, it’s easy to figure out which one you need.
Continue reading “Which Lamy Fountain Pen Converter Do I Want?”
Few people would argue that one of the main draws to fountain pens is the amazing variety of inks on offer. This selection can quickly go from an allure to a curse when the paradox of choice sets in and you are presented with literally hundreds of shades of blue, all of which are relatively affordable and easy to access.
If you don’t quit fountain pens right at that moment you are presented with an interesting dilemma: how can I test inks? Taking things to their logical conclusion, we here at Unsharpen further asked, “How can we test fountain pens inks cheaply, efficiently, and accurately?”
Here’s what we’ve found…
There is a good chance that some time in the past year you’ve run into a pen made by Kaco. Despite a general unfamiliarity with the company, they are been making many rather good pens lately.
So… who is Kaco, where are they based, what’s their website? We had many questions and wanted to learn the basics about this pen company, whose pens we’ve been enjoying for some time now.
You’ve almost certainly heard of Moleskine notebooks, and you probably have owned at least a few of them, but have you spent any time learning about the company behind this iconic paper product?
Continue reading “What’s The Deal with Moleskine Notebooks?”
Zebra’s Emulsion ink is a bit of an enigma. Most companies neatly categorize their inks ink “ballpoint,” “gel,” and “rollerball” and some even throw in “hybrid” but Zebra ended up with “emulsion.” Does that mean something specific? Is it a translation quirk or brand name? Let’s dig into it a bit.
Have a mechanical pencil (also known as an automatic pencil) whose lead won’t come out? There is a good chance that your pencil is jammed! This can be annoying, but it’s usually easy to fix. This guide will help clear that jam and get get your pencil back in working order.
Continue reading “Pencil Lead Won’t Come Out? How to Fix a Jammed Mechanical Pencil”
In theory fountain pen cartridges should be easy — you insert one into your pen and you start writing. In practice, they are rather confusing. Some only work on one brand of pen, some work on lots of pens, but they all look alike. The are not labeled well and the downside of messing up an cartridge installation can be a broken pen (bad) or a leaky cartridge (usually worse).
This guide should help with some of your common fountain pen cartridge questions as well help you visually identify which cartridge is which.
Have you heard of Cello Pens? If you aren’t based in India, there is a good chance that the company is entirely new to you, but it’s a big outfit and its worth having on your radar.
One of the more common questions people have about pens is, “Who invented the ballpoint?” We honestly can’t say why this gets asked so often but it most certainly does, so let’s dive into it.
Continue reading “Who Invented The Ballpoint Pen? Origins Of A Modern Writing Instrument”