Posts filed under Pencil Reviews

Retro 51 Tornado Dmitri Mechanical Pencil Review

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to mechanical pencils. Give me a classic design over most anything. Bonus points if it is an engineering-style mechanical pencil, like my beloved Rotring 600.

That’s what has kept me away from the Retro 51 Mechanical Pencil for so long. Not that this isn’t a classic style with it’s twist mechanism. In fact, it may be more classic than the standard click mechanism. But the twist pencil is no longer the expectation for mechanical pencils, nor has it been for decades.

It took Retro 51 to design one to get me interested. The Dmitri, named after Dr. Dmitri Mendeleev, the father of the Periodic Table, is not only a great bit of scientific history, but is beautiful to look at.

Unfortunately, that’s where my joy with this product ended.

Retro 51’s Tornado mechanical pencils are designed around 1.15 mm graphite diameters. I like larger diameters, regularly using both 0.9 mm and 2.0 mm varieties in various products I own. But, the graphite has to be good. I’m not sure this graphite is good. It has a more plasticky feel than I would like. That makes it smooth and firm, but it has no character. No depth. No darkness.

With a more standard lead size I would happily swap in a different brand, like I do with ballpoint and rollerball refills. 1.15 mm is such a peculiar size that it makes swapping the lead out more difficult than with other mechanical pencils. Quick Googling shows a dearth of options.

Even the times I am content with the lead situation in this pencil, I’m not content with the mechanism. It works fine extending and retracting the lead, but when I’m writing and the tip hits the page between words, the lead scoots back into the barrel slightly. Not every single time, but enough to be noticeable. It’s like there is some play in the twist, allowing it to backtrack if it’s hit in the right spot.

And finally, the eraser. It erases fine, that’s if it remains in place long enough to get the job done. I figured out immediately that if I erased in a left to right fashion, the eraser would pop out of the barrel. If I erased in an up and down fashion, it stayed in place. End of the world? No. Annoyance? Yes.

Does the style of the pencil outweigh the annoyances I had with it? No, it doesn’t. There is no doubt it is a stunner, and would make a great gift for the right person. But if you aren’t looking for a gift and instead want a great writing experience, you should look elsewhere.

(Retro 51 provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on November 19, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Retro 51, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Muji 2B Pencil Review

As I have become enlightened about Muji and their stationery over the years, I can’t help but think about what the underlying brands are for this white label wonder.

It has been easy to sort out the origins of the gel ink pens: The refills come directly from the sources. Even though all of the normal markings are removed, the refill shapes match their source companies refills. Even the plastic parts of the refills are the same colors as the OEM refill.

A quick twist of the barrel and you will see refills from Uni-ball, Zebra, and Pentel in use in their various gel ink pens. And its not like they are trying to hide it either - the Muji pen that uses the Zebra Sarasa refill is a spitting image of the Zebra Sarasa Clip pen. It’s easy to sort out.

*The tip after writing my review notes. It does wear quickly.*

The Muji Pencil though. That poses a challenge. What cues from the design can help me figure it out? Can I tell anything simply from the feel of the graphite core?

If this was a bad pencil I wouldn’t care. But it’s not. It’s downright awesome. When I first opened the package, sharpened one up, and put the tip to the page, my response was “Oh!” as in, this feels good. The graphite is smooth and dark. Yes, a 2B should feel that way, but I thought it was extra nice.

That led me immediately to my next question: “Who is making these for Muji?” I’ll cut to the chase right now and tell you I don’t know for sure, but the list of options is very, very short.

The first words out of my mouth were that it reminds me of the Tombow Mono 100 - high praise indeed - but I didn’t have one at the time to test. I do now. I don’t own a 2B Tombow, but I did test the HB from the Mono, Mono 100, 8900, and 2558 lineups. And I don’t think the Muji pencil is made by Tombow. All of the Tombow cores felt similar to each other, and none had the smoothness or darkness of the Muji.

My second thought was Mitsubishi. Knowing the relationship that Muji already has with the company - Uni-ball gel ink refills for starters - I’d say this is the most likely scenario. The Mitsubishi 9850 feels really close, despite it being an HB versus 2B comparison. The consistency of the graphite on the page is much closer than anything from Tombow.

After being compelled by the 9850, I thought the 2B Mitsubishi Hi-Uni would be a closer match than it was, but it has a firmer core than the Muji by a good amount.

Surprisingly, the Blackwing Pearl was a close match for the Muji. The core felt similar, and the color and smoothness on the page was similar. I’m not sure if that says more about the 9850 or the Pearl. Regardless, these are the two closest matches, with of course the HB in the 9850 being firmer than the other two.

One final point to make in my overthinking this: The pencil barrel has a code stamped into the barrel. I have no idea what it means, but I do know that the font used doesn’t match any of the Japanese pencils I own that have similar markings. The 6 is especially telling.

So, I’d love to tell you who makes this pencil, but I can’t say for sure. (Update: According to an enterprising reader they are made by Kitaboshi, making my Blackwing comment even more interesting than I knew. Seems legit!) What I can tell you is it looks great, feels great, and works great, and for a .50 cent pencil, what more can you ask for? Heck, it may even convert me over to the dark side of the B scale in time.

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Posted on November 12, 2018 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Muji, 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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