Uni-Ball Kuru Toga 0.5 mm Starter Set

 

Several years ago the Mitsubishi Pencil Company introduced the first Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil under the Uni-ball brand name. It was what has come to be known as the Standard Model.  Since the Standard Model was introduced the company has introduced the High Grade and later the Roulette as well as a host of other models and colors in 3 lead sizes.  The pencils revolutionary "Kuru Toga" or Auto Rotation Engine has made the Kuru Toga line of pencils very popular across the world. But up until a couple of years ago this line of pencils was only available in the US from online retailers.

 

I first saw this pencil at my local Wal Mart last year yet the copyright date for the pencil is 2013.  So it's my guess that the pencil has been out since then.  So I'm running par for the course by blogging about a pencil that everyone else has already blogged about.  What can I say?  I'm an old Geezer after all.  And Old Geezers are often slow do to our advanced years.  Anyway as you can see by the pic below that the pencil is offered in America by the Sanford Brands division of Newell Rubbermaid.  Sanford Brands is the soul distributor of Mitsubishi Uni and Uni-Ball products in North America.

 

The pencil in the Starter Set is different than the Standard Model that can be had on-line, though this too can be found on-line.  The pencil itself differs only in it's look. However the Starter Set comes with a pack of 12 leads designed just for the Kuru Toga pencils and 2 erasers.  This set is (was)* exclusive to the US.  For a better (and much quicker) description of the entire Kuru Toga Line, follow this link.

The Starters Set also is unique in price.  The Standard model alone sells for around $7.00 to $8.00 depending on where you buy it. The Starter Set sells for between $5.00 and $6.00, again depending on where you buy it.  For me this is by far the best value in the Kuru Toga line in either the 0.5 mm version, like mine, or the 0.7 mm version.  For those of you who use the erasers that come with mechanical pencils the 2 extra erasers are a nice bonus.  As far as the leads is concerned, well I can not speak to how good it is because I have no real way of testing pencils leads.  But the package has this to read...

 

So you are on your own when it comes to your choice of lead to use.  But I've always had success with Pentel's Super Polymer leads.  It would be interesting to know who Mitsubishi considers the maker of "... the leading lead".

 

If you discount the rubber ring at the metal tip of the pencil then the grip diameter is approximately 9 mm.  Count the rubber ring and it's 10 mm.  Your choice.  The rest of the pencil is approximately 9 mm in diameter.  The pencil is approximately 141 mm long and weighs approximately 9.6 grams.  The entire tip of the pencil measures approximately 22 mm and the grip...  Well if I use the silver ring on the Standard Model as the end of the grip them the grip is approximately 28 mm long.  If I use the back of the first ring on the grip then it is approximately 15 mm long.  Take your pick.  The balance point is approximately 71 mm from the tip of the pencil.  Yawn, so much for the stats.

 

So as far as the pencil itself goes, well it is really nothing more than a Standard Model with a little less paint on it.  But as far as the Starter Set as a package goes, well this one is a real winner in my book.  Why?  Because of the great value the Starter Set offers.  You get a Standard Model Kuru Toga, one of the best mechanical pencils ever invented, in either 0.5 mm or 0.7 mm, the 2 most popular lead sizes, a 12 pack of Uni's best lead and a couple of spare erasers for less than the price of a slightly more fancy Standard Model.  What's not to like?

You can purchase the Starter set from Wal Mart and probably from other retail outlets as well as on line at jetpens.com where you can purchase the entire line of Uni Kuru Toka pencils.

On a personal note, I use a Roulette model in 0.5 mm as my every day pencil and could not be happier with my choice.

Notes: * Before the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web I can see the usefulness of making a product aimed at a specific group or country.  And to some degree it still has merit.  Retail brick and mortar stores have to have something to sell after all.  But when some "sold only in (you name the country)" items can be bought from online retailers based in many different countries, the idea makes less and less since every day.

The Pentel Sharp Kerry and the Mad Mathematician

Miss Tussy Pink
Click to enlarge...  On second thought, don't...

Miss Tussy!  Well I haven't seen you in some time!  You sure are looking good, Tussy!, Eh, but where are my manners?  Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Tussy Pink!

 

"Oh, Geezer!  You sharp tongued fox you!  I've missed you!"

 

Well, Tussy, I've missed you, and Tommy and Zedragon the Zefoid? 

How are they, by the way? 

 

"Oh, they are doing just fine, Geezer.  Tommy and I are officially engaged!"

 

Well this is wonderful news!  When's the wedding?

 

"Oh, we've not set a date just yet."

 

Well, will I be invited to the wedding?

 

"Of course, Geezer!  I couldn't get married if you aren't there!  I want you to give me away!"

 

Tussy!  I'm honored!  I'd be happy to give you away!

 

"Thank you, Geezer!  You know how much you mean to me!"

 

No problem, Tussy.  By the way, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?  Oh!  I see!  You have the Mad Mathematician's gift to me, the Pentel Sharp Kerry!  I guess this means that you want me to give my review of the pencil?

 

"Geezer, you are so astute."

 

Tussy, you flatter me.



Miss Tussy Pink and my
Pentel Sharp Kerry
Click to enlarge

 

"By the way, Geezer, who's this Mad Mathematician you refer to?"

 

Oh, that would be Tim McLarnan.

He's some crazy pencil-loving math professor form Indiana who read most of my blog in one sitting!  He e-mailed me one day asking if I'd do a review of the Pentel Sharp Kerry.  When I informed him that I didn't own one he was gracious enough to send me one of his!  Nice guy, huh?

 

"He sounds like a very nice man indeed, Geezer!  I'll bet he and I could crunch some numbers together!"

 

TUSSY!  This is a G-rated blog,

remember?  Besides, didn't you just tell me that you and Tommy Turquoise just got engaged? 

"I'm so sorry, Geezer!  I don't know what came over me!...  I... I feel a little woozy!" 

 

Are you alright, Tussy?

 

"Yes, yes!...  Perhaps I'll go and lie down in my room."

 

Well, alright, Tussy.  I'll check in on you later.

 

"Thank you, Geezer, but there's really no need.  Tommy will be by shortly."

 

Alright, Tussy.  Take care.

 

"Thank you, Geezer.  I surely will.  Bye, for now."

 

Goodbye, Tussy.

 

Boy, she can be a handful sometime!  But at least she did bring me the Pentel Sharp Kerry that MathProfMan sent me, (don't ask).  So, I guess it's about time that I did my review...

 

It's rare that I get a request to review a certain item but when I do it is always to do a review of an item the requester already has!  Such is the case with the Pentel Sharp Kerry.  I get an e-mail form this guy who has a couple of requests concerning the stats that I provide.  Then he proceeds to school me in a grammar lesson!  And yes, I did need it!  By the professional tone of his e-mail I figured him for at the least an English teacher.  Nope.  He's a Math Professor from Indiana.  He must be a speed reader because at the very beginning of his e-mail he confesses to reading most of my entire blog in one night!  Wow!  Now that's a compliment!

 

He had several requests the most significant being that he wanted me to do a review of the Pentel Sharp Kerry.  As I told Tussy I told him that I didn't have one so he graciously decided to send me one of his!  But not just any Sharp Kerry, but one that has historical significance.  According to Tim, "...I read somewhere that they’re called Sharp Kerry because (a) “sharp” just means mechanical pencil in Japanese, and (b) the black ones were the original design, and they reminded the designer of the black Kerry cattle he had seen in Ireland.  So I’m sending you the most historically significant kind".  Cool!  So for all you Pentel Sharp Kerry fans, especially the Mad Mathematician, her is my review of the Pentel Sharp Kerry, finally.

 

I am a fan of the slender drafting pencils in 0.3 mm and 0.4 mm.  They are a bit scratchy when used, but that's the price one pays for super fine lines.  So normally I shy away from the "mechanical" pencil with few exceptions, the Mitsubishi/Uni Kuru Toga line of autorotation mechanical pencils being the most outstanding.  So under normal circumstances I would never would have considered  a Pentel Sharp Kerry as one that I would enjoy using.  That was a mistake.

Pentel Sharp Kerry
Click to enlarge

The Pentel Sharp Kerry is a very unique pencil with unique features.  At first one might easily mistake the Sharp Kerry for an elegant fountain pen or other fine pen because of it's design.  It is one of only 2 pencils, that I am aware of (which doesn't say much), that has to be "posted" in order to work properly!  That is the cap is removed from the pencil and posted on the back in order for the pencil's ratchet mechanism to function properly and for the pencil to be balanced and fit comfortably in the hand.

 

The pencil has 2 push buttons.  An inner and an outie, eh, outer.  The inner push button connects directly to the lead reservoir/clutch system.  When the pencil is not posted you can push the button to advance lead but it's sort of clumsy due to the pencils short length.  When posted, as intended by the designers, the outer, self contained, push button activates the inner push button.  This is quite the innovation, considering.  But apparently either not a very popular one, like the Shaker, or Pentel holds the patented on this and almost all variations.  Either way the Pentel Kerry stands out as a misunderstood and under appreciated mechanical pencil.  For the design lends itself to one very unique characteristic.  It can easily help prevent ovaling. 

 

Ovaling is where the lead from any pencil (except the Kuru Toga) goes from making a sharp, rounded mark to a wide oval one.  This is due to how we, as humans, write (chimps may write differently, but I don't know any chips so I can't ask).  We hold out writing instruments at an angle to the paper as opposed to perpendicular.  We don't normally twist the pencil in our hand, as some in the drafting/architectural  field are taught, but rather grasp it firmly in hand in a static position and grind away until our writing is illegible due to the fact that we write very small and our pencil now writes very big! 

 

By turning the pencil a quarter turn every few line of text we can keep the lead from a mechanical pencil from ovaling-out.  But turning a normal mechanical/drafting pencil a quarter turn means that at least one in 4 turns the pocket clip is in an awkward, even painful position pressed up against the web of the hand.  But what I have discovered with the Sharp Kerry is that in order to turn it one quarter turn is to turn the pencil down into my fist and turn the cap in either direction (hopefully the same direction every time) before returning it to a writing position.  With use this can become almost automatic.

 

I'll bet you didn't know that, MathProfMan!

 

Well, I've managed to fill up more space than my usual post and given you all very little useful information.  So with out further ado...  The Stats!

 

The Pentel Sharp Kerry is 123 mm long, closed, 131 mm long posted.  The diameter at the center is 11 mm tapering to 9.5 mm at the end of the grip.  The grip is 24 mm long and the tip, including lead sleeve, is 19 mm long.  The main body of the pencil is 104.5 mm long.  The diameter of the cap is 11.5 mm at the widest tapering to 7mm at the push button and is 64 mm long.  The pencil weighs 21.6 grams and the balance point, posted, is 63.5 mm from the pencil tip, making the balance of the pencil a scooch.bottom heavy, but hey, can you feel a scooch?

 

I was quite pleasantly surprised at the Sharp Kerry.  It is well balanced, making it easy to maneuver, the plastic grip, which is unadorned, is a good grip surface and the width of the 0.5 mm led make the pencil very smooth writer.  It's a little on the short side for my personal tastes but that doesn't seem to be a problem, the length of the pencil, bot my personal taste.  The pencil nestles in my hand well and is a genuine pleasure to write with.  Because the lead sleeve is only 2 mm long it would be hard pressed to use as a drafting pencil, but well suited for freehand drawing.

 

The pencil is not at all unattractive, except maybe the inner push button.  The indented rings make the inner push button look odd, but they serve a very good purpose.  They are needed as grips in order to get the push button off in order to fill the lead reservoir with lead.  Under the outer push button is the obligatory eraser, no clean out rod though (so what else is new?).  The glass black finish of the

Pentel Sharp Kerry Disassembled
Click to enlarge

plastic parts contrast well with the bright chrome of the metal parts for a very pleasing appearance.  The only slight mar to this is the satin finish on the tip of the pencil,  Why did they not just keep the look going with a bright finish on the tip is a question to ask Pentel (if you could actually contact someone who knew).  To me it would have made for a nice looking pencil...  Yes, Tussy, it would

have been prettier.

 

The Sharp Kerry is unusual in another way.  It easily, with minimal effort, breaks down into 9 separate components.  From left to right, back row, of the pic above they are the: tip with 4 mm lead sleeve; grip; connector; upper body; cap with attached pocket clip; eraser, which resides under the outer cap in the cap; outer push button cap; inner push button cap; and in the front row the all metal lead reservoir and ratcheting clutch system.  The Sharp Kerry follows the Sharp Series (P203 - P209) in that the reservoir and clutch are one unit with a captive spring.  An over sized hex just above the clutch aligns and keeps the clutch system spinning so that the tip can be screwed onto the clutch thus holding the system together..  However there is no interchangeability of this unit between the 2 pencils.

 

Unlike a lot of mechanical pencils of it's price range, and some above it, the reservoir and mechanism are made entirely (as far as I could see) of metal.  The lead reservoir is a bright chrome and substantial enough to withstand the rigors of years and years of lead advancement.  It's also big enough to hold a dozen leads.  However don't put any more than 1/2 a dozen leads in the pencil, this pencil, or any other mechanical pencil.  The reason being that to many leads can prevent one from aligning with the mouth of the feed tube inside the reservoir.  To access the reservoir the pencil must be un-posted.  The rings in the cap allow you to use a fingernail to pull up on it thus removing it.  To access the eraser (Please don't!  Buy a good stick style eraser like the Uni E-Knock, from jetpens.com), the pencil has to be posted so the inner push button can push the outer one up enough to grasp.  The fake here is that since eraser does not fit in the reservoir, the pencil can be turned upside down without lead spilling out!

 

To advance enough lead to write with, once the clutch has been fed, simply push down on the push button twice.  Now you're ready to write (or draw, or doodle, or whatever you do with a mechanical pencil)....  What I mean by, "once the clutch has been fed...", is once lead has been advanced to the point of exiting the pencil it is pushed back flush with the end of the lead sleeve with the finger tip or table top or the back of your little brother's head.  The clutch has now been fed and the end of the lead rests at the tip of the lead sleeve.  From this position each press of the push button to advance the lead should advance an equal amount,  So now you can tell how many "clicks" it will take to produce enough lead to write with from a cold start.

 

The Pentel Sharp Kerry comes in only 2 lead sizes, 0,7 mm and 0.5 mm, two of the most popular lead sizes for general use.  I would prefer to have had one in 0.3 mm but they don't make them in 0.3 mm.  In a way that's a good thing.  0.3 mm pencils tend to be scratchy due to the fine lead.  The lead also breaks easily.  But the 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm diameter leads are the most popular sizes for general writing and freehand drawing.  When I wrote with the pencil I found it to be a very smooth and well behaved pencil.  By well behaved I mean I did not have to push or drag it across the paper.  It is so well balanced and light it is a down right pleasure to write with!  If it came in any finer a lead it would not perform quite as well.  The sharp pointed 0.3 mm lead would drag and scratch, unless a soft grade of lead was used.  But anything softer than grade HB (closest to a #2 pencil lead) would smudge easily.

 

Bottom line?  Well I'll have to eat crow and admit that I really like the Pentel Sharp Kerry in 0.5 mm HB.  It feels good in the hand, it's easy to write with, delivering a smooth performance.  I especially like the way that I can turn it a quarter turn with one hand in order to keep the lead sharp.  It's an elegant looking pencil as well as being a solidly, well built and designed.  Believe it or not, the pencil has been around for 43 years!  Amazing, isn't it?

 

Well, if you want one of your own you'll have to find your own crazy pencil-loving Math Professor to con one out of, eh, I mean to manipulate into giving you one.... NO!  No!  That's not what I meant at all, eh, gee whiz, I've really gone and put my foot in it now...

Seriously, you can find plenty of Pentel Sharp Kerry's at our friends at jetpens.com in 6 different colors and 2 lead sizes (not all colors available in both lead sizes).

Well, I hope that you, the reader, has enjoyed my "review" of the Mad Mathematician's (now my) Pentel Sharp Kerry.  Please feel free to leave a comment, check a box and/or e-mail me and tell me what you thought of both the pencil and my review.

To the left shows the Sharp Kerry about to be posted and then posted.
This additional information is at the request of one of my readers.  It shows the relationship of the 2 pushbuttons.  As you can see the outer pushbutton is not fully extended until the cap is posted, making firm contact with the inner pushbutton.  I hope that this clarifies the relationship between the 2 pushbuttons.

Thank you for reading my humble blog.






                                                                              

uni Kuru Toga Family of Mechanical Pencils

Some years ago Mitsubishi came out with a unique pencil under the uni (uni-ball) label.  They called it the Kuru Toga, meaning auto rotation pencil.  The idea was a simple one, rotate the lead in the pencil rather than having the user rotate the pencil in order to keep the end of the lead, where it contacts the paper, from ovaling, or flattening, out.  When the lead ovals out the line it produces is wider than the actual diameter of the lead itself.  The lead also ends up with a sharp angular point that causes the lead to dig into the paper, when the pencil id rotated, and breaks the lead.  This is especially true with small diameter leads like 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm.  Draftsmen once were taught to rotate the pencil in their hand as they drew a line to give the lead a conical point and avoid lead breakage.  However with so many of us using drafting pencils and mechanical pencils designed like drafting pencils to write with the draftsman's technique does not work.  But the ratcheting mechanism of the Kuru Toga does.

Basically the mechanism works much like the mechanism that operates a  "click" style pen.  Teeth in a clutch, under spring tension, hold the tip in place until pressure is put on the tip, such as what happens when one puts pencil to paper.  The clutch releases, rotates the lead a small degree the reengages, much like when one presses the push button on a "click" style pen.  As one writes the constant pressing and releasing of the lead to the paper causes a continual flow of energy to the Kuru Toga engine, rotating the lead continually, giving it and keep a conical point.  The result is less lead breakage and a written line with a diameter less than the actual diameter of the lead.  Thus a 0.5 mm pencil delivers close to a 0.3 mm line and a 0.3 mm pencil close to a 0.2 mm line.  Brilliant!

0.5 mm version

The original Kuru Toga was an almost entirely plastic pencil with a metal tip cover and a clear grip.  The grip was clear so the user could see the auto rotating mechanism in action and be amazed at the brilliance of Japanese engineering!  Or something like that.  The tip cover has a rubber ring around it to enhance the grip of the pencil.  This pencil was first offered in 0.5 mm only, then later in 0.5 mm and 0.3 mm.

0.3 mm version

But the pencil, as awesome as the design was, is as inelegant as it is functional.  Enter the High Grade.  This was the next phase in the Kuru Toga line.  It featured a more elegant looking and smaller diameter upper body as well as a metal pocket clip and more traditional mushroom style push button.  A metal conical ring separates the upper body from the lower, which retains much the same shape as the original Kuru Toga.  Only the clear grip is now opaque, being a sliver/white silken plastic with a small "port hole" window with which to view the rotation Kuru Toga Symbol.  The tip cap was also redesigned, being slightly longer with a tighter fitting rubber grip ring.



High Grade version

This was a major improvement over the original Kuru Toga as far as athletics goes. The auto rotation engine was unchanged in the High Grade.  There was no real reason to change it.  It works so why mess with it in order to make it slightly slimmer?  Or perhaps the design had reached it'd limits miniaturization wise while being made from plastic and using other materials may have not been cost effective!  Who knows?  This design may have been the final version had it not been for, in my opinion, the grip!

The grip retained the original shape and size as the original Kuru Toga, which in itself is not a bad thing.  The bad thing is the material it is made of and it's lack of any knurled surfaces makes the High Grades grip less effective than the original!  I personally find the grip hard to hold.  The pencil has a tendency to ride up in my hand making it hard to write with.  I have little idea as to why they chose the material they did to make the grip from.  It almost feels like a hard silicon grip!  Had they made the grip from a less slick material or had they put some type of knurling on the grip then the design may have reached it's peak.

Enter the Roulette.  This is what the High Grade should have been.  The upper body of the Roulette is the same as the High Grade, but in silver, and so is the tip cover.  The big difference between the two pencils is the grip.  Here they finally got it right.  The grip of the Roulette is made from aluminum and is a straight barrel with 3 wide knurled rings at the bottom of the grip where it meets the tip cover.

Roulette version

The knurled rings add a considerable amount of gripping surface to the pencil.  I find the Roulette by far the easiest Kuru Toga to grip and write with.  I really like mine and I use it all he time.  Up until the Roulette my "go to" pencil had been a Pentel P203 0.3 mm pencil.  But like all 0.3 mm pencils, the lead still breaks too often.  I really can not recall the 0.5 mm lead breaking on me while using the Roulette with the proper amount of lead extended.  So the Kuru Toga Roulette has now become my "go to" pencil.

Other than athletics the Kuru Toga family of mechanical pencils all share the same auto rotation engine.  The also share the same low capacity, hard to feed lead into lead reservoir!  Lead has to be fed into the reservoir one-piece-at-a-time and the reservoir fills up fast (well as fast as it can being fed one lead at time).  They also share the same basic take down.

The push button comes off, the eraser pulls out, the tip cover unscrews and the lead sleeve/tip pops off.  The lead sleeve/tips and tip covers are different between the two basic pencil designs and so is the end of the pencils where the tips/lead sleeves and tip covers fit.  The erasers and push button/eraser covers also are completely different.  So of the 4 removable parts none are interchangeable between the 2 designs.

Bottom line is that while all the Kuru Togas have their fine points, my favorite by far is the Roulette, for reasons already stated.  However the roulette may not be, and I'm sure that it isn't, every ones favorite Kuru Toga.  The best way to find out which one is best suited to you, the reader, try each one out and see which one fits you best.

The Old Geezer


Ticonderoga Meets Kuru Toga

I just learned of the Ticonderoga Sensematic Auto-Feed Mechanical Pencil. "No clicking, no twisting, no sharpening! The Ticonderoga Sensematic is the world's only auto-feed mechanical pencil. Simply touch the pencil to paper and the Sensematic "senses" how much lead you need, advancing just the right amount as you write. You'll never again have to stop writing or drawing in order to sharpen your pencil." So goes the hype on the on-line store I found it at. Just imagine the kind of pencil that we could have if they combined the "auto-feed mechanism" of the Ticonderoga Sensematic with the "auto-rotating pencil" mechanism of the Kuru Toga! We'd have a pencil that always feed out lead automatically and would always stay sharp. Who knows, maybe one day it will happen.

Kuru Toga Pencils

I was writing a few reviews on various drafting/mechanical pencils on the JStationery web site when I saw the Kuru Toga 0.5mm pencil ad in a sidebar. I was curious so I took a look. The more I read about this amazing pencil the more interested I became. It seems that this offering from Mitsubishi of Japan, under the uni label, is a very unquie pencil indeed. While the concept is simple the inner workings of the pencil is not, at least not to this blogger.

Anyone who has used a drafting/mechanical pencil for any length of time has noticed that they all have one little flaw, the lack of rotation of the lead. Drafting students are taught to rotate the pencil between thumb and fore finger as they draw a line. A tricky thing at best and not an easy thing to master. The result, in theory, is that the pencil lead maintains a sharper profile there by producing a more consistent line width. While writing however this is impossible.

When writing the pencil remains in a fixed position in the writer's hand. As the writer writes the tip if the lead, which when new starts out with a face perpendicular to the shaft of the lead, begins to wear down at the angle the writer is writing at. This produces an oval face on the lead broadening out the line that the lead makes. Thus a 0.5mm pencil lead begins to make a line closer to 0.7mm's wide. When you are used to writing smallish, like I am, this makes one's writing a little cramped and smudged looking. If the writer turns the pencil a few degrees then the line, temporarily, become finer. The drawbacks here are two fold.

One the writing now looks and is inconsistent in line width. This looks untidy at best. Soon the line width is broader once again. If the writer rotates the pencil to much then a very sharp edge is presented to the paper and often this causes the pencil lead to snap off. This generally leaves the face of the lead ragged. This often leads to another breakage of lead as the writer tries to flatten out the lead once again. This has been the bane of all users of drafting/mechanical pencils ever since they were invented.

Now comes along the Kuru Toga, which means "auto-rotate pencil" in Japanese. Every time the lead is pushed against the paper, the internal gear automatically rotates the lead 9 degrees. This means that the lead never forms a chiseled edge. The lead face remains sharp, forming a cone instead of a flat surface. Simple, really. But the pencil's internals, the Kuru Toga Engine, is not. Even though the pencil (sometimes) comes with a booklet explaining the workings of the Kuru Toga Engine it's all in Japanese! So until I either learn to read Japanese, hire an interpreter, or they publish a booklet in English the inner workings of the Kuru Toga Engine will remain a mystery, at least to me.

Now as far as hands on experience goes, well I've had some. My first offering in this pencil was in 0.5mm. I was so impressed with the thin line it produced that it almost instantly became my favorite pencil. In reality it acutally produces a clean, consistant 0.3mm line! It really works! You can actually see the engine at work as the mechanisim turns the lead as the grip area, where the Kuru Toga Engine is, is clear. There are two Kuru Toga symblols on the rotating part of the engine, 180 degrees apart so you can actually watch the engine work.

The pencil is almost completely plastic so it's very light. It feels good in the hand and is easy to grip thanks to some thick ridges on the clear plastic grip. The pencil's slightly top heavy, but not that you'd notice while writing. You can feel the engine working, there's a slight up and down motion to the tip as you write. But I find that after a short while I don't notice it anymore. The pencil is handsome with a metallic blue finish, clear grip, chromed cap, black and chromed tip and a white pocket clip. The chrome cap has a blue rubber grip ring around it which comes in handy as the cap must come off to remove the black plastic and stainless steel lead sleeve. The sleeve just snaps of and if done with ease you won't even break the lead.

There are three drawbacks with the Kuru Toga, all of them minor. One is the eraser. I's tiny and useless like all such token offerings on drafting/mechanical pencils. No biggie as I have used a stick eraser these many years. Second, there is no clean out rod beneath said token eraser. Inconvenient, but no deal breaker. However I suggest that if you have one from an old pencil, tuck it away up under the eraser because as good as the Kuru Toga is lead breakage is inevitable. Lastly the lead reservoir is small compared to other such pencils and the lead feed hole is tiny. I'm used to large reservoirs and gaping holes that I can shove dozens of leads into. But I guess it's a small price to pay for such a great pencil.

Last but not least, shortly after I'd started using the 0.5mm Kuru Toga I was lamenting the fact (or so I thought) that they didn't make the Kuru Toga in 0.3mm! Then lo and behold I saw a black 0.3mm Kuru Toga for sale on eBay! I wasted no time in buying it (though it was at a premium price and my lovely wife almost had a cow). I was not disipointed when it arrived and I started using it! It produces a sub 0.3mm line! I've done a side by side comparison with my uni-ball Signo bit in 0.18mm and found that when drawing a straight line with a straight edge the 0.3mm Kuru Toga produces a line at least as thin as the Signo bit!

Bottom line is that the Mitsubishi uni Kuru Toga, in either offering, is a fantastic pencil! I hope that I'm never without one. I give them 5 out of 5 stars *****.

The Kuru Toga is available from JetPens.com