Is the Uni Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil the best technical advancement in stationery over the past 20 years? It might be, and if it isn’t, it’s near the top of the list. As a counterpoint, does anyone need the lead rotation mechanism that sets this pencil apart from the rest of the mechanical pencil market? We will get to that point in a minute.
This is far from the first Kuru Toga we have reviewed on The Pen Addict. We will mix one in every year or two when they come out with a new and interesting model. The pricey Kuru Toga Dive ($50-$100, depending on a litany of variables,) was, and still is, an outlier in the interesting department, and still brings all the pencil heads to the yard. The standard Kuru Togas, like the colorful $7 KS model, keeps the product lineup fresh, interesting, and popular.
Where does one of their latest releases - the Kuru Toga Metal - fit in with the rest of the product lineup, and the overall mechanical pencil space?
The barrel opening helps show the rotation in action, moving from white to orange as it engages.
On merit, this is a great pencil. The aluminum barrel gives it a nice feel in hand - sturdy and solid, but not heavy. The grip and barrel feature varying widths of ridges for a stable grip feel. The clip is strong, the knock is nice, the nose cone is designed … wait, what’s that in the nose cone?
Aside from the metal barrel, Uni is marketing a resin nib damper that reduces tip wobble. Has mechanical pencil tip wobble been a problem that I have overlooked for years, because never once have I run across it. I guess maybe if the pencil features a retractable pipe there could be, but the Kuru Toga Metal doesn’t have that feature. Traditionally, mechanical pencil tips feature one large nose cone that is rigid and static, with no opportunity to wiggle. And given the detailed work that is often required from pencils like this, I think I would have heard more about it.
From L to R: no nib damper, nib damper, no nib damper.
But then again, there has to be a reason to charge $36 for a mechanical pencil. I’m just not sure “nib damper” is on my checklist of required features.
Rewinding back to my earlier question: do you need a lead rotation mechanism in your mechanical pencil? I’ll be the first to tell you that I like this feature, and it absolutely works as described. To test it, I fixed my fingers on the grip and wrote the same phrase over and over to see what the tip of the graphite looked like when finished. It came to almost a perfect point, which is impressive.
The graphite shape after my fixed grip writing. It works!
What if I rotate the pencil in my hands while using it? Does the mechanism still work? Absolutely, but then you just have a normal mechanical pencil in your hands where your manual grip rotation works alongside the mechanical rotation and makes different width lines on the pages, depending on the position of the graphite.
Is this too much to think about? I think so. I’m a pen and pencil rotator, so outside of fountain pens, I’m constantly spinning the barrel in my hand. With pencils it is more prevalent, of course, and while it would be a choice to never spin the pencil and let the Kuru Toga do its thing, I don’t think that is possible.
Top to bottom: Kuru Toga Dive, Rotring 600, Kuru Toga Metal, Pentel Sharp, Spoke Model 4.
I buy Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencils because they are well-made mechanical pencils and they look cool. I don’t buy them for the lead rotation technology, despite the fact I think the technology is awesome. I’m guessing this is an obvious take, and many people fall into this category. I like the rotation when I need it … have I ever needed it?
The last bit to cover is where the Uni Kuru Toga Metal Mechanical Pencil fits within my recommendations of the rest of the Kuru Toga product lineup. The $36 price tag makes it easy to move down the rankings, especially given that I believe the Roulette model is the best model, and is only $13.50. That is a steal at that price. The Advance model ranks ahead of the Roulette in style options, and costs even less at $8.50.
Instead of listing out even more I’d pick ahead of it, I think the only one I wouldn’t is the Advance Upgrade model. I didn’t get along with that barrel design at all.
I completely get along with the Metal model, I’m just not sure the price gets along with the competition.
(This pencil was sent to me by a friend living in Japan. Thank you Jacob!)
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