Posts filed under Pencil Reviews

Tombow Mono Graph Grip Shaker Mechanical Pencil Review

It the most recent episode of the Pen Addict podcast, Myke and I discussed some of our favorite school supplies. This brought back a ton of memories for me, especially since it has been a VERY long time since I was in school.

My school supply heyday was the late-80’s, and while we discussed a few items from that era, we skipped over one of my primary writing tools: The mechanical pencil.

The Pentel Sharp P205 and the Pentel Quicker Clicker were my workhorses. As someone who was committed to the finest lines I could find, 0.5 mm mechanical pencils were a core option for me. I couldn’t afford the engineering pencils from the college bookstore I frequented, but I could liberate the P205 from my dad’s office (remember when office supplies were good?) And, the Quicker Clicker was inexpensive and available at the grocery store.

So, what does this lead up have to do with the Tombow Mono Graph Grip Shaker? It made me fall in love with durable plastic barrel mechanical pencils. I pick one up today, like this one, and am immediately transformed back to my teenage years.

Don’t get these pencils confused with the trash that is disposable plastic barrel mechanical pencils like the Paper Mate SharpWriter. These are quality pencils with added features that will last years if taken care of.

The feature list of the Tombow Mono Shaker is impressive. The primary feature is even in the name. This is a shaker pencil, meaning a quick flick of the wrist will extend the lead, while keeping your hand in the writing position. There is a knock as well, in this case, in the clip which can be depressed for the same effect.

Speaking of the clip, it has a locking mechanism to keep the shaker from extending the lead when getting tossed around in your backpack. On top of that, it has and extra-large, extra-wide eraser that can be twisted to be extended or stored away. Did I mention that the eraser is the best in the business? That too.

That’s a lot of stuff!

Admittedly, Tombow has confused their own market (and me) with the introduction of this pencil. At $7.25, it is close in price to the $6.00 plastic grip, plastic clip, and similarly named Tombow Mono Graph Shaker. Are the rubber grip and metal clip enough to introduce a completely different pencil? There are metallic paint jobs too, but they are awfully similar.

In the end, either of these pencils are excellent in my book. They offer more than I expect in this mechanical pencil price point, and look great to boot.

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

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Posted on September 17, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Tombow, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Midori MD Pencil Review

Have you ever had trouble deciding if you like a product or not? I’m running into that right now with the Midori MD Pencil.

That makes for a strange review. Do I like it? Do I love it? Do I want some more of it? I don’t know. It’s obviously good and I keep using it, but what is my opinion on it? What should I tell you about it?

It’s a pencil. That’s the hangup for most non-pencil people. “They are all the same Brad!” No, not at all. But this one. This one I can’t tell you what to do.

It’s not as good as my favorite pencils. That list includes the Blackwing 602, Tombow Mono 100, and the Mitsubishi Office 9850 for starters, and even more included in the Pencils For Pen Lovers Sampler Set. And I love using pencils. There is hardly a day that goes by where I’m not enjoying one of the many pencils that live on my desk. I LOVE using pencils!

It’s not as bad as bad pencils. I haven’t tried many bad pencils on purpose, and if you stick with brands that are sold by all of your favorite online vendors, you don’t have to worry about that either. You know bad when you get them. Scratchy graphite, non-centered cores, janky wood quality, and Wopex.

It’s expensive. It’s not egregious at $1.83 per pencil from CW Pencil Enterprise, but that is on the upper end of the pencil spectrum. As a pen person at heart, and as someone who pays hundreds of dollars for a single fountain pen, it is funny to call that expensive. But it matters. Just like any product, price vs. perceived value vs. competition comes into play when making a buying decision.

I enjoyed it while using it over the past couple of weeks. It has good point retention, which is one of the most important features of a pencil to me. Even as a B-grade, which is softer than my preferred graphite hardness. That gives it a nice darkness as well, another favorite feature of mine. The satin finish looks and feels nice, and I’m perfectly fine with the no eraser style. I may even prefer it.

So, what should you do? If you are a Midori fan, then it is a no-brainer. It fits their style and aesthetic perfectly, and, of course, they are high quality. If you are a general nice pencil fan, then there are better options out there. If you want to try good pencils for the very first time, I’m not sure this one should even be on the radar.

Reviewing middle of the road products is the hardest. If there is no one thing that is great, or no one thing that is bad, what do you hang your hat on?

Maybe nothing, other than enjoying it for what it is.

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Posted on September 10, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Midori, Pencil Reviews.

Tombow Irojiten Color Dictionary Color Pencil Review

In years past, I wouldn’t have given much thought to colored pencils. Then, a little phenomenon called Adult Coloring happened, and I NEED all the colored pencils! Need is a strong term of course, but I do own more colored pencils now than I ever have, and the Tombow Irojiten Color Pencils may be the best of the bunch.

Let’s get the one negative out of the way first: They are expensive. You can buy them in two sizes, either a 30-pack Dictionary, of which there are three, for $34, or one of several 5-pack mini-sets for $9.50. Neither of those are a value by any stretch, but the 30-packs are clearly the way to go even if you just want to test them out.

And test them out I did with the Dictionary set containing the tones Pale I, Vivid I, and Deep I. Confused yet? Understandably so. Each of the three Dictionary sets comes with three 10-packs, individually boxed. The other two sets contain Pale II, Deep II, Light Grayish I, and Fluorescent, Very Pale, Dull I. These are the Copic Marker of the colored pencil world it seems.

It would be nice if each of the 30-pack Dictionaries had a name of their own for discussion and clarity purposes, but I’ll deal with it because these are flat-out the best colored pencils I have used.

I chose the set I did because it had the most variety between the three boxes contained within. Pale I is a nice spring palette with a big range of pinks, greens, and blues. Vivid I is the closest to a standard set of colors, with a rainbow of traditional leaning shades. Deep I has a great range of browns, greens, and blues that you don’t normally get in standard colored pencil sets.

From a writing and coloring perspective these are wonderful. The cores are wax, but they feel the most traditional graphite pencil-like of any colored pencil I have used, right down to the sound and feel on the page. They don’t feel waxy or sticky when laying down lines.

Is it strange to say I feel like I can control these colored pencils better than others? That’s what it feels like to me, especially when coloring in fine details. I can hit right on the edges of even the smallest details. I think it has something to do with the pencil-like edge I get from the core, as opposed to a more rounded tip. I make mental notes of this constantly as I am coloring, as if to say “Wow, this is different.”

Sharpening the Irojiten colored pencils is a breeze too. I’ve mostly used my Uni KH-20 crank sharpener, but handhelds, like the KUM Masterpiece, do the trick just as well.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the packaging, because for once, that is the first thing that caught my eye. Each Volume of the Dictionary comes in a dedicated 10-pencil box with plastic slots to hold the pencils in place, and numbering and name details for each pencil on the inside cover. The box also has an elastic band to keep it closed when stored, or on the move. These added touches help justify the price, at least a little bit.

The best products are the ones that give you joy. The Tombow Irojiten Colored Pencils do that for me, whether I’m using them, or just looking at them sitting on my desk. And that’s where they have been since they arrived. I like them so much I want them close by at all times. Plus, they fancy up the joint just with their presence.

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

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