Uni Kuru Toga High Grade Auto Lead Rotation 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil, Blue Body (M510121P.33)...

In my eyes this thing is engineering marvel. It never crossed my mind the idea that something like a mechanical pen that rotates the lead automatically could exists and much less I could imagine how much this improves my writing experience. I never really liked mechanical pens that much, they always felt like a hassle, having to deal with easily breaking leads and having to constantly adjust the pen in my had to get a fine line was an annoyance, so I always preferred normal pens. Now that I'm studying Japanese again, I decided to try again a mechanical pen, someone recommended this and oh boy I could not be happier with it, practicing my kanjis with this feels like a god sent. Whoever came up with the idea of building pen, I salute you.

Theres normal people, and then theres people like me. I sniff books when nobodys looking, I obsess over the texture and weight of my paper, I engage in internal and external debates regarding ideal graphite size, and, naturally, I heavily research my writing and drawing instruments. Seeing as how I prefer to do all of my writing and most of my sketching and drawing using a mechanical pencil, I was in search of my own perfect fit. It had to have the perfect weight, the perfect flow, and feel like a natural extension of my hand. It had to be perfect because this is seriously important business! I have bought many pencils throughout the years in search of my graphite toting soulmate. Many have been decent, none have been perfect. That is, until now. Enter the Kurutoga. My beautiful glass slipper. And it comes in pink, which makes it even more perfect for me. Its a tactile joy to use and fiddle with. Its weighted to just the right degree and constructed from a sturdy combination of heavy duty plastic and sleek metal. The rotating mechanism activates and works beautifully. It begins its rotation as soon as you begin use and continues until you put the pencil down, effectively keeping your graphite from wearing down unevenly. When sketching with this pencil, I feel as though my lines and shapes flow organically from my hand, and my finer details are later added with ease. The drawing experience that a cheap plastic mechanical pencil provides cannot compare. Even though I could talk about the Kurutoga all day, I will finish this review with a few notes that I find worth mentioning: -I dont recommend using the Kurutoga without its corresponding graphite. It is truly a superior graphite, and its been created to work with the rotating mechanism of this pencil. It is also far less messy than cheaper graphites. Since buying this pencil, I no longer have grey fingerprints all over my sketchbooks and graphite residue covering the side of my hand. I can do some blending and smudging with a tortillion, but I dont have nearly as much accidental smudging as I used to with traditional graphite. My lines are clean and my shading is intentional. -The eraser on this is not the best. Its one of those tiny little crumbly ones that runs out really quickly. However, this is easily remedied by simply using a different eraser. If youre like me, youre already surrounded by art erasers of every variety, so youre set. If youre using this as your writing pencil, grab a retractable stick eraser. -The Kurutoga is worth every penny. Its design, performance, and durability make it superior to anything else that Ive found. My search for the perfect mechanical pencil is over. If, like me, you'd like to use one perfect pencil exclusively, the price of the Kurutoga is completely justified.

This pencil, made by Mitsubishi in Japan, is an extremely high quality mechanical pencil. It has a mechanism that automatically rotates the lead while you write, maintaining a high point sharpness at all times. It is made to be used with the matching Kuru Toga pencil lead, which I also highly recommend due to its superb writing characteristics. A few people have mentioned the high price of this pencil, which I can't really understand, because at about ten dollars, it is not much more expensive than many run-of-the-mill writing devices, and this pencil is anything but run-of-the-mill. The "High End" model here (the pencil comes in a variety of "grades," all with the same interior mechanism, but with different outer casings; mine is the "Roulette" model with the etchings in the gripping area, this one, with a smooth aluminum grip; both work great, and which one is best for you depends mostly on personal preference) is metal and high quality plastic. It is booth lovely in design but also one of the most superbly performing pencils I've ever used. I can't recommend it more highly. Five stars. Note: The specific replacement leads for this Kuru Toga pencil are the: Uni Kuru Toga High Quality Pencil Lead - 0.5mm - Hb ,20 Leads X 2-pack . Note also that these are rated at "H2," which is harder than the normal "HB" I use, but the special design of this lead makes them even easier and smoother to use than the standard "HB" type. Highly, highly recommended.

Despite being a huge technophile, I still have some habits that would be considered by many as idiosyncratic anachronisms. Perhaps most prominent of these is the way I still take notes and explore ideas: using fountain pen, paper and pencil... and borderline obsessive about the quality of the "old school" tools I use. The tactile nature of these tools usually compel me to test them prior to purchase... and I admit I was a little hesitant (no local distributors around Seattle), but this is a bet I won. The K.T. replaces a fifteen year old Staedtler 0.5mm all-metal favourite that finally broke. Most pencils I've found to be too light or too "fat" or unbalanced... this one is somewhat on the lighter side, but has enough of a decent heft and handles very nicely even for long computation or (technical) sketching. The thickness of the barrel is on the average side for what I prefer/use, but feels right and has yet to make my fingers feel fatigued. I was skeptical about the "auto rotation" mechanism --- wether it makes any difference or even works --- it seems to work really well, maintaining a nearly constant width point. The only gotcha is I have to 'unlearn' the reflex which I've developed of rotating the barrel with my thumb every time I lift the instrument off the page. I don't have to. Minor wish: it's a hybrid, metal with few plastic parts. An all-metal option would be great; just a bit more weight. This almost docked a 1/2 star from it, though its good enough overall to be pushed up to five for the autorotate. Since it's new, durability of both the mechanism and the finish is TBD, after some weeks in the field.