Kokuyo Enpitsu 1.3 mm Mechanical Pencil Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

Out of the wilderness between the mechanical pencil and the lead holder, comes the Kokuyo Enpitsu 1.3 mm mechanical pencil. It was designed to mimic the simplicity of a wooden pencil, but with the convenience of a mechanical. It does achieve this goal, though obviously not without sacrificing some features of both.

The body is fully coated in a soft rubber, which makes it very comfortable to hold, even for long periods of time. It has a very slight triangular shape--just enough to keep it from rolling on a flat surface, but isn't in any way intrusive to how you'd hold the pencil. The lead and metal nose retract completely, so there's no risk of lead marks or breakage in a bag or pocket. The lead feeds in through a hole in the top of the click button. It has the potential to fall back out this way, but it doesn't happen easily. Since I didn't have refills handy, I'm not sure how many pieces of lead it can hold at once, but it doesn't look like there's room for a lot of backup--just the one in use and a spare. And that's really it--there are no removable parts, no eraser, no clip--it really is a cross between a wood pencil and a lead holder.

The 2B lead that comes with it writes like a graphite marker. It's incredibly soft and dark and lays down a thick layer that fully covers the paper beneath. I can see it being very useful for sketching or shading, especially on a larger scale. The thick lead isn't well-suited to fine detail work. It also wears down very quickly, due to its softness. I didn't find it ideal for writing, for that reason. I was having to click new lead every paragraph. The lead is also available in other hardnesses that may be better suited to writing, though the selection is limited due to this unusual diameter.

If you're a sketcher, you probably already have strong feelings about erasers and keep your favorite handy. So not having a redundant eraser on this pencil could very well be a plus. I kind of missed one, though--and even forgot a few times that there wasn't one and kept flipping the pencil around to be disappointed. Admittedly, it would have to be a pretty robust eraser to contend with the thick lines of dark lead put down by this thing. Not one of those tiny cylinders one could mistake for a Tylenol. It could also serve the purpose of sealing off the lead chamber--but then we risk losing Kokuyo's vision of simplicity for this pencil. And I do like its simplicity.

So I keep coming back around to admitting that all the features I'd want to add to this (an eraser, a clip, etc) would just get in the way of its design. It really wants to float in that space between pencil and lead holder, both in form and function--and I don't know of much else that's available to fill that gap in the market. And for under three bucks, you can keep all different lead widths and hardnesses handy with a set of these. They come in a bunch of fun colors, with either .7, .9, or this 1.3 mm lead. Sketchers and drafters will, I think, love this thing.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Kokuyo Campus Twin Ring Notebook Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

Affordable, dependable, and delightful. That's how I describe the Kokuyo Campus Twin Ring notebooks. I honestly don't know why it took me so long to try one of these notebooks, but I'm sure glad I did.

These notebooks come in at a whopping $5.50 a piece, with your choice of 6 or 7 mm rule and an assortment of colors. At a price like that, it's hard to argue that this is a high value notebook.

I went through a phase recently where I didn't want anything to do with spiral notebooks. No idea why, but it happened. That's no longer the case, as I really appreciate the versatility of a spiral notebook – particularly how they lay completely flat and don't require any sort of stabilizing pressure to keep pages down while writing. Other types of bound books also have their perks, so it's just a question of mood or needs for the job when it comes to picking one based on binding.

The binding in the Kokuyo is twin ring, which means there are two rings for each hole in the paper. This creates a strong spiral that resists being deformed when put in a bag with other large objects. I always hated how my notebooks in school would exhibit a harsh slant in the spiral binding after a couple of weeks of class. With the Kokuyo notebooks, this isn't as much of an issue due to the smaller diameter of the spiral, and the extra reinforcement. As another bonus, the double spiral also means there are fewer accidental tears. It seems like single spiral notebooks loose pages more frequently because it's easier to rip them out.

The front of the book has two covers in a way – a semi-rigid translucent front cover, and a normal cover with the branding and information just after that. I'm assuming the translucent cover on the front is to add a bit of protection to the book, but I'm confused as to why there's only one. Why not a little protection on the back? Given the price, it's hard to complain.

So, it's a notebook that you write in. How does it handle inks? Really well.

This isn't a premium paper, so you can easily find notebooks that feel smoother and handle show-through much better, but you'll pay much for them, especially if they are similarly sized. The semi-B5 size is a great step up from the standard 5.5" x 8.5" notebooks that are really common. It's not so big as to be unusable on small desks, but it's also quite spacious.

Writing with fountain pens in this book is smooth. The paper is a great quality and I'm really happy with it. It does show through a bit to the back of the page, but not so much that it renders the back page unusable. It's only a minor problem in my opinion, and even when using wide nibs I've not had any problems using the back page.

I haven't seen any feathering with the inks I've tried, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of the inks that are infamous for feathering showed a slight amount of feathering on this paper. Dry time is pretty quick as the paper is fairly absorbent. The ink doesn't lay on top of the page very long. Overall, it's a fantastic paper for the price.

The notebooks only come in ruled format, but you can choose between 6 mm and 7 mm spacing. The 6 mm ruling comes in a green or red cover, and the 7 mm books are available in yellow or blue covers. Like most Kokuyo paper, there's an area at the top for the date and other information for your notes. Every fifth line is denoted with a tiny dot at the beginning and end of the line. I've never used this, but it's worth mentioning.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect this book to live long in a harsh environment (like a backpack with textbooks), but the good news is that it fits the Kokuyo Systemic cover. The cover will keep everything inside pristine.

Overall, I can't recommend this book enough if you're looking for a semi-B5 or B5 sized notebook that handles fountain pens well. It's not in the same performance category as others (Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Mnemosyne, etc.), but it also isn't in that price category either. It's a great budget book for taking notes and carrying daily.

Kokuyo Beetle Tip Dual Color Highlighter Review

I don't do too many highlighter reviews because I don't have many situations where a highlighter comes in handy. My highlighter replacement tends to be a multi pen like the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto where I can mark up or underline in a range of different colors. On the occasion where a highlighter is required there is only one brand for me though, and that is Kokuyo.

The original Kokuyo Beetle Tip 3way was the first, and probably only, highlighter to make me say wow. In one tip it has three different highlighting modes, and I can't imagine anything else I would ever need from a highlighter.

Since my experience was so positive with the 3way, I wanted to give the new Dual Color Highlighter a shot to see how it stacks up. The selling point of this highlighter are the two adjacent color tips. You can start with one color, rotate the pen 180 degrees, and pick up with the other color. You can also create a double underline by using the two tips at once right down the middle.

This all works great, but I had one annoying issue with the highlighter. The width of the barrel and the low profile of the highlighter tips caused me to tilt my head like a curious dog to see the line I wanted to highlight. It was awkward and I tired of doing that quickly.

Aside from that, the colors are on the light end of the scale, which I prefer, and the barrel quality itself is nice. Plus, I thought that was a Rebel Alliance symbol on the barrel the first time I looked at it. The Kokuyo Beetle Tip Dual Color Highlighter is not Empire approved.

(JetPens is an advertiser on The Pen Addict and I received this product at no charge.)