Pentel Orenz

From time to time I look at the Mechanical Pencils at jetpens.com just for fun.  I guess that I should look at them more often because this is where I found the Pentel Orenz mechanical pencil.  I almost missed this on...  Ah who am I kidding!  I did miss this one as it seems to have been around a couple of years.  But better late than never I say.

The Orenz is a very handsome little pencil is Sky Blue.  I'm fond of blue, so I really don't mind that when I went to purchase mine they were all out of black.  But color does not make a pencil good or bad, but it does go a long way towards out perception of a pencil, or any other object for that matter.  If we don't like the color then we may not like the object.  So our perception of an object, based on color, shape, size, what have you, goes a long way towards how we feel or think about an object.  I like the Blue.  A business person probably would like the black one, a doctor might like the white one, a young lady, perhaps the pink one and a monkey might go bananas for the yellow one.  But a pencil by another color will write the same.

An writing is just what the Orenz was designed to do.  Pentel took a page from their PG2 drafting pencil and went one better.  Like the PG2 the Orenz is made in 0.2 mm!  That's right!  0.2 mm!  The PG2 is a partial sliding sleeve design.  The lead sleeve slides about 1/2 way up the length of the sleeve then stops.  The sleeve of the Orenz will slide all the way to the tip of the pencil, though I don't recommend that you do that very often.  While the PG2 uses a more ore less conventional system for the lead sleeve the Orenz incorporates a new, innovative system.  Pentel calls it the "Lead Support System".  It's a very simple system.  So simple I wonder why no one has come out with something like it before!

The heart of the "Lead Support System" is a unique weighted lead sleeve/lead retainer system.  The lead sleeve is attached to a brass cone that holds the lead in place and keeps it from falling straight through the pencil.  This device rides the lead and maintains it's position on the lead inside the pencil.  When the push button atop the pencil is pressed the lead is once more extended.  However because the cone is struck as the clutch is pressed down and opened, the cone pulls the lead down and holds the lead inside it in place so when the lead sleeve is extended the lead stays flush with the tip of the lead sleeve.  As you write the lead is used up and the lead sleeve/cone rides up the lead inside the pencil.  When the pushbutton is pressed the cone maintains the length of lead within the sleeve so no lead protrudes beyond the tip of the lead sleeve.

The pencil comes preloaded with lead and is ready to use with a single push of the button.  As you write the lead sleeve actually rides the edge of the paper and because of this it feels a tiny bit scratchy at certain angles.  As the lead is used up the free floating lead sleeve rides back up into the pencil cone.  A single press of the push button extends the lead sleeve and the lead inside it with out pushing the lead beyond the end of the lead sleeve so writing can continue.  As long as the system is feed a continues stream of lead there is no reason to ever press the push button more than once. When at the end of the writing experience you wish to retire the pencil for the day all you have to do to reset the pencil is to press the push button and hold it then press the tip of the lead sleeve against a hard surface, or use your finger, while simultaneously releasing the bush button.  This will drive the lead sleeve up into the pencil once more and will reset the system.

If you ever have to refill the pencil with lead or when a piece of lead is so short that the system no longer holds onto it or for whatever reason that you have to restart the system you will have to press the bush button enough time to expose lead out the end of the lead sleeve.  Next just follow the above instructions on retracting the lead sleeve.  When you need to use the pencil, simply press the push button once and begin writing.

Figure 1

Figure 1 (above) shows the relationship of the tip, lead sleeve and the clutch (housed in the main body).  Figure 2 (below) shows the lead sleeve extended (top) and retracted bottom).

Figure 2

Now for some of those "boring" stats.  The Orenz weighs 10.1 grams, making it a light weight.  It is 142 mm retracted and 145 mm extended, making it of average length.  The grip length is 43 mm long and the tip is 18 mm long.  The balance point is 71 mm from the tip of the lead sleeve making it almost perfectly balanced. The diameter of the grip area is 9.5 mm at the pencil and 8 mm at the tip. 

The over all look of the pencil is attractive with it's stainless steel tip, chrome pocket clip and push button cap contrasting nicely with the sky blue of the one piece body.  As far as how the Orenz writes, well, my copy feels a little scratchy from time to time, depending on the angle I held the pencil.  The closer I approached the vertical the scratchier it felt.  So I took a bit of 4 zero steel wool to the tip, genteelly, which seems to have helped  However I DO NOT recommend that if your Orenz is scratchy that you put steel wool, or any abrasive, to the delicate tip unless you know exactly what you are doing.

 

The Pentel Orenz is available in Black, White, Sky Blue, Yellow and Pink and are available from our friends at jetpens.com

 

The Pentel Orenz used in this review us solely or in part made possible by a gift certificate a from our friends at jetpens.com