Ink Links

-- De Atramentis Dornfelder Ink review  (Inkyjournal)

-- Leads From Austria and Slovakia  (Dave's Mechanical Pencils)

-- Holiday Gift Guide and First Giveaway Contest sponsored by Jet Pens - My top 10 categories for basic sketching supplies  (Lung Sketching Scrolls)

-- Pelikan Pelikano Junior - A Lefty's Review  (Writer's Bloc Blog)

-- I’m an Addict and JetPens is My Dealer  (Today, I Wrote...)

-- Under the Dome update, First JetPens order, Blue Signos, and a 1.0mm Sarasa  (Not a Book Nerd)

-- The Five Pens You’ll Meet In Heaven  (Does This Pen Write?)

-- Review: Hero 616 Fountain Pens  (Amateur Economist)

-- Faber-Castell – 21st century pencil manufacturer  (Pencil Talk)

-- I’m on JetPens!  (Dog Eat Doug)

-- Heaven…I’m in Heaven  (Craft Therapy)

-- Namiki Black Celluloid Fountain Pen  (Pocket Blonde)

-- Ecosystem Environmentally Friendly Journals  (Office Supply Geek)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick programming note:  Posting will be relatively light over the next several days during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope to get a Ink Links post up for the weekend, but other than that, it will be the early part of next week before any new reviews are posted.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Review: Pilot Just Meet Slim 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil

I generally feel the same way about mechanical pencils as I do about ballpoint pens.  I like how they look, I like how they write, I like their functionality, but 9 times out of 10, I am going to grab a pen, and most likely a gel ink one.  That being said, the Pilot Just Meet is a good example of a nice mechanical pencil.

The big selling point of this pencil is the barrel made from Japanese Ash Trees.  JetPens has the full details:

Just try and resist the pro baseball good looks of the Pilot Just Meet. The pencils are made of high-quality wood from Japanese Ash trees reserved for the production of baseball bats. The trees are over 80 years old when harvested. Thus the pencil has a strong body and a satisfyingly smooth feel. It is a perfect gift for the baseball fan in your life. What a home run by Pilot!

I chose the gray body, but it also comes in natural and orange.  By the looks of it, you would think the pencil would have some weight behind it, but it is reasonably light overall.  Possibly too light for "Godzilla" Matsui, but Ichiro might like it after a run through his humidor.

The one dilemma I have with this pencil - and really all mechanical pencils in general - is that the Uni-Ball Kuru Toga has me completely spoiled.  I'm not enough of a pencil connoisseur to delve into the minutia of why I prefer one pencil over the next, but I do know that writing with any other pencil besides the Kuru Toga leaves me a little frustrated.  I see the lead flattening out and becoming fainter on the page and I long for the auto rotation mechanism of the Kuru Toga.  Am I the only one who feels this way?

Click here for the XL review.