Unsharpen

The Best Pens for Writing a Lot

05/28/19 Unsharpen Team

Picking the best pen is never an easy task, but one thing is clear: there is a big difference between a pen that you will use for a few minutes here and there and one that has to be used for sustained periods of time. Just like when you are running and marathon shoes are different from sprinting shoes, pens for writing a lot tend to be very different than other pens.

The thing with pens though, is that there is no category of pens for extended time periods or distance, so we need to come to our own conclusions.

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What Is The Best EDC Pen?

05/16/19 Unsharpen Team

If you are looking for a pen to carry around with you, you want something tough, stylish, versatile, and affordable. You want a pen that’s a tough as your worst day. That’s an “EDC” or everyday carry pen.

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Akkerman Fountain Pen Ink Review

05/13/19 Unsharpen Team

If you are looking for an excellent family of inks, you can’t go wrong with Akkerman. This is an extensive set of inks and its size and language can make it a bit difficult to navigate… but don’t let that stop you! Akkerman inks are too good not to try. Here is our Akkerman ink review after trying a number of samples and buying a few large bottles of this fountain pen ink.

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What Are The Best Pens for Moleskine Notebooks?

05/11/19 Unsharpen Team

Moleskine notebooks are excellent and easy to find, but they have notoriously lightweight paper. The company doesn’t say exactly what the weight is, but give most premium notebooks (Clairefontaine, etc.) are in the 90 grams per square meter (gsm) range, Moleskine feels to be about 70 gsm. This number might not feel too light, but it’s under a critical number at which many fountain pens and broad — often even medium — rollerballs will bleed through.

So, with that lightweight, possibly uncoated, paper in mind, what are the best pens for using in Moleskine Classic notebooks?

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Best Chinese Fountain Pen of 2019

05/04/19 Unsharpen Team

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.

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What’s the Deal with Tul Pens?

04/30/19 Unsharpen Team

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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What is a Tubular Nib Pen?

04/19/19 Unsharpen Team

Have you heard the term “tubular nib” thrown around and have no idea what it means? It’s a rarely used, but poorly defined term. This article will explain the uses of the term and outline a few pens that could be described as having a tubular nib.

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Schmidt Pen Refill Buying Guide

04/14/19 Unsharpen Team

The German company Schmidt makes some of the world’s best pen refills. Unfortunately it can be difficult to understand which one you need. This guide should help you work through your pen refill problems!

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How to Refill a Fountain Pen Cartridge

04/11/19 Unsharpen Team

It’s a popular question: Can I refill a fountain pen cartridge? The answer is a firm yes! You can, and you should.

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Pilot Fountain Pens Compared: Custom Heritage 912 vs Custom Heritage 92 vs Custom 74

04/09/19 Unsharpen Team

If you are choosing a higher-end Pilot fountain pen you have a potentially confusing decision to make: do you buy a Custom Heritage 912, a Custom Heritage 92, or a Custom 74? Even the names are alike, how are the pens different from one another?

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Which Lamy Fountain Pen Converter Do I Want?

04/08/19 Unsharpen Team

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.

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How To Swap Lamy Fountain Pen Nibs

04/08/19 Unsharpen Team

In case you didn’t know it, one of the best features of Lamy fountain pens (aside from the Lamy 2000) is that they use a modular nib system. That’s right — you can pull the nib off your Lamy Al-Star and put it on your Safari. Or you can take the gold nib from your Scala and put it on your Vista. Swapping your Lamy nib is an incredibly easy process once you get the hang of it. Here are a few ways to change those nibs…

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Pelikan Pen Naming: M200 vs M400, M205 vs M405

03/28/19 Unsharpen Team

If you are in the market for a Pelikan fountain pen then you are going to want to figure out the company’s naming convention. After all, there is a big difference between an M200 and an M600, so it’ll be worth spending a few minutes to get to know the name schema, even if you don’t commit it to memory.

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Best Fountain Pens for Eyedropper Conversion (And How To Do It!)

03/27/19 Unsharpen Team

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.

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Pilot G2 Montblanc Hack: $200 Pen for $7

03/23/19 Unsharpen Team

If you really get done to it, what is the beating heart of a high-end pen? Some would say 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. With this thinking in mind, you can get all the bang out of a Montblanc rollerball by using the refill in a excellent, but highly affordable refill, like the Pilot G2.

Here’s how you do just that!

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