Posts filed under Pencil Reviews

Platinum Pro-Use 171 Mechanical Pencil Review

It's been a while since I really used a mechanical pencil in earnest, but I'm glad I decided to pick up the Platinum Pro-Use 171 recently. The name isn't great, but don't let that turn you away from this otherwise excellent pencil.

The Platinum Pro-Use 171 mechanical pencil is a drafting pencil made with premium materials, but it also sports a couple of neat tricks that make it a little nicer to use than your standard drafting pencil. Of course, it also has that tiny emergency eraser to erase the tiniest of mistakes.

Along with the metal body, knurled grip, and matte black finish, the pencil also features a fairly standard lead-grade indicator, a pocket clip, and a retractable lead pipe. Pretty standard fare in the mechanical pencil realm.

What sets this pencil apart is a couple of features that add some additional customization and adjustments to make this pencil fit your grip, style, or the specific job at hand.

First off, the lead pipe is completely adjustable in length. By rotating the cone back and forth, you can extend or retract the lead pipe from 0 to 4.5mm. At the 0 setting, the pencil is set for storage in a bag or pocket without the risk of poking through fabric. But when you're ready to write, draw, sketch, or use the pencil alongside a straight-edge, you can extend the pipe to the appropriate length to get the job done.

I've found that I enjoy using the pencil with the lead pipe extended all the way (to 4.5mm) because of the way it alters the grip. See, this is the main downside I have with the pencil. When fully extended, the knurled grip blends smoothly into the cone and gives me the grip that I prefer. When the pipe is retracted, that extra space (up to 4.5mm) is transferred to a gap between the grip section and the cone. The pencil still works just fine in this setup, but it does alter the grip feel. My fingers can't get comfortable when this gap is present. The smooth material between the knurled grip and notched cone just confuses my fingers and I end up fidgeting with it too much.

With my personal idiosyncrasies aside, it's still a really cool feature. I have plenty of pencils with retractable lead pipes, but they're either fully extended or fully retracted — no in between. It's nice to have this level of control for certain tasks.

The other feature, which I'm even more excited about, is the pressure-absorbing spring contraption inside the pencil that allows the lead to retract back into the pipe if you exert much pressure on it. This is intended to prevent lead breakage when you apply too much pressure when using the pencil, but it has the added benefit of making the pencil feel softer on the paper when using it. This feature is easy to turn on or off — just rotate the grip one way or the other. You can't tell a big difference at first between the two modes, but after writing for a good minute or two in one mode, it's much easier to feel how it can completely change the way the pencil feels when writing or drawing. I've really enjoyed writing with this pencil with the soft mode turned on. In my mind, it's a similar difference to how a soft gold nib feels as compared to a stiff steel nib of the same size. They both write great, but the gold nib feels a little softer. Depending on what you're doing with the pencil, the ability to switch back and forth is really cool.

Platinum Pro-Use 171 Mechanical Pencil Eraser

As far as other options go, you can grab this pencil in a variety of sizes/colors. If you want the matte black version shown here, you have an option of 0.3mm or 0.5mm lead sizes. There are also 0.3mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm versions, and each is represented by a specific color — gray, navy, black, and white bodies with a silver knurled grip section and cone. The matte black versions both cost $34, while the other ones come in at just $20. From what I can tell, the only difference in price comes down to the materials used. The body of the matte black versions are metal, while the others are just plastic. Functionality-wise, they're the same.

Platinum Pro-Use 171 Mechanical Pencil Comparison

The Matte Black Pro-Use 171 looks killer, and it's worth the extra 14 bucks to match that blacked-out aesthetic if that's your thing. If not, save some money and know that you're getting an equally great pencil!

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

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Platinum Pro-Use 171 Mechanical Pencil Writing

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Jeff Abbott and filed under Platinum, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Hombre x Kaweco Edition Pen and Pencil Set Review

A funny thing happened on the way to this review.

I’ve had my Hombre x Kaweco Edition set for months now, using and enjoying both the AL Sport Gel Roller and Special S Series mechanical pencil (more on them in a moment) that are part of this collaboration. When it came time for me to type up this review, I went to grab the product link to insert into this article, and noticed something strange. The price of this set, directly from Kaweco (where I bought mine) has increased drastically.

I had it in my head that I paid around $90 for the set, and now I’m seeing it listed at 123.75€, or approximately $150. Is my memory failing me? That’s always a valid thought, but in this case, it wasn’t. I paid 85€ ($103) for this set in August 2020:

So what gives? I have no idea, but I sent Kaweco an email to see if something changed. I do know that it recalibrates some of the thoughts I have around this product.

(Update: There are many Country settings, language setting, and VAT setting to get set in your website cookies, so make sure you are seeing the 99 Euro version of the pen if you are interested in it.)

Let’s get one thing out of the way up front: This is a charity-focused product. All proceeds from these 500 sets go to a children’s hospital in Germany, and will help to build a school in Kenya. Raise all the money you can! But, maybe along the way, clean up the product copy a little bit:

But enough about the pricing - for now - let’s talk about the product itself.

Pablo Fontagnier, aka Hombre, is a graffiti/street artist after my own heart. His art style is wonderful, with colorful, clean, and poignant works, made to scale from a computer screen to the wall of a warehouse. 25 years in the game have earned him a reputation to match the name. And this collaboration with Kaweco came out great.

The product packaging is traditional Kaweco, with the full-on Hombre treatment. The black tin features the HOMBRE tag, which is housed in a paper sheath of Hombre artwork, and the hand-numbered serial number of the set. Both the pen and pencil feature the Hombre logo etched in white on the black base of each barrel. A+ on packaging and presentation across the board.

The pen is the classic Kaweco AL Sport Gel Roller, in a black satin finish, with an 0.7 mm Parker style (international G2) black gel ink refill. I adore this pen, and it is the main reason I made this purchase. I didn’t own a Kaweco gel roller pen prior to this one, and this one matches my style to a tee. I will mention that when writing, there is a little tip rattle from the metal on metal contact between the refill and barrel, but not enough to be a real problem.

If you have used any pocket Kaweco fountain pen, then you know the size of this model. It is small and pocketable when capped, and when in use, extends to a full-length writing instrument.

If it is love for me and the AL Sport Gel, it is only like for me and what is the Kaweco Special S 2.0 mm Push Pencil in this set. I love the idea of this pencil, and the aesthetics are spot-on, but this is a mini Kaweco that in unable to transition into full-length for writing. It is great for freehand sketching and art, so maybe it really is perfect for this set, but for regular writing, it just isn’t long enough for extended sessions.

I may shop around for 2.0 mm graphite with a little more texture to see if that works better for me. The graphite included with the pencil has a slight clay feel to it, which is used to help bind the material into the sticks that we use as refills. I prefer ones that are more scratchy than glassy, which is what this one is.

Still, I’m not sure I can work with the shorter length of the pencil in the long term, not to mention having to hunt down a sharpener (not included) if I want to put a point on it. Again, if you treat this as an art pencil, I think you will be happy.

So, is it worth it? Heck yes - at the original price I paid for it. If bought separately, the pen is around $60, the pencil around $40. Add in nice barrel etching, great packaging, and all the proceeds going to charity? It’s fantastic. At $150? Maybe I wouldn’t have been so quick to pull the trigger, especially if I’m not certain how much use I will get from the pencil. If it settles back down to the $120 as listed in the website copy, I think that is completely fair, and would recommend it if it fits your needs.

(I purchased this pen at full price from Kaweco Germany.)

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Posted on February 1, 2021 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Kaweco, Pen Reviews, Pencil Reviews.

Left-Handed Pencils

Did you know there was such a thing?

It seems that many of you had no idea. Neither did I until a few years ago, when I saw a pencil in my right hand with the text printed upside down. Yes, it is that simple. The legible orientation of a pencils stamping determines its “handedness.” Pretty cool, right?

Well, except if you actually are left-handed and would like a pencil to not look backwards in your hand. Lefties comprise approximately 10% of the worldwide population, but only a fraction of one percent in my admittedly unscientific study of the pencils in my collection.

Last week, I pulled out well over 100 pencils from the Closet of Doom, and came away with one, ONE, pencil that was stamped for a left-handed writer. Do you know why? Because it came from Write Notepads. And Chris Rothe, owner of Write Notepads, is left-handed and wants his pencils to look correct when he uses them, darn it!

With one in every 10 possible pencil users writing from the left side, wouldn’t you think pencil manufacturers would cater to them a little more? Say, 10% of their production to left-handed barrel stamping? Or, stamp the opposite side of the barrel with the opposite oriented markings, making each pencil correct for every user?

Or, is this some type of Big Pencil conspiracy?

Look, I’m not here to pretend I’m a lifelong lefty and have gone through all of the challenges lefties go through. But, I’ve been an honorary lefty for two months now, and there is more left-handed writing in my future, for at least another month or two. I want my pencils to look just as cool in my left hand as they do in my right!

Is 10% of production too much for you, Blackwing? Is the squeeze not worth the juice, Musgrave? How about you, Tombow? Set yourself apart from the competition in this area!

It’s time for pencil manufacturers to get right, and start making pencils for their left-handed fans.

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