The rotring 800 Drafting Pencil in Black

Hey, Tommy!  Long time no see!  Where you been, Tommy?

"I've been around, Geezer!  The question is, where have you been?"

Well, I've been sick, real sick!  And I'm struggling to get better. It's a hard road, buddy!  But I'm going to make it!...  Say, what have you got there, Tommy!  Is that a...

"That's right, Geezer!  It's a black rotring 800 0.5mm drafting pencil!"

Oh my word!  Where did you get that!?

"It's yours, Geezer!"

No!  I can't afford one of those!...  Tommy, if you stole that from someone...

"No, Geezer!  It was a gift, remember?  You got it from someone very special who really cares about you!  You got it from..."

YES!  I remember!  I remember, now!  I've, I've been so confused lately, Tommy!  I can't seem to remember things like I used to!  I, I think that I'm losing my mind, Tommy!...  I'm really loosing it...

"Oh, come on, Geezer!  Quit being so melodramatic, will you!  You're just getting old, that's all!"

Hey!  It's my blog!  I'll get melodramatic if I want to!

"Sure, Geezer, sure!  How about reviewing the pencil, OK?"

Oh, yeah, the pencil!  Well, since you brought it out...

When this fine example of the pencil makers art arrived in my mailbox I was flabbergasted!  I had dreamed of owning one of these superb pencils ever since I bought my silver rotring 600 0.3mm pencil.  But economic times being what they are and all, it was forever going to stay a dream!  But I guess dreams do come true, due to the generosity of a few kind souls!  So, what makes this pencil the stuff of dreams?  Craftsmanship and design!  I put craftsmanship first because the design, rather the look, is classic!  The general shape of the pencil has been around for years!  Koh-i-noor, Pentel, Ohto even Retro 1951 all have used the hexagonal shape with a round grip in some form or another, and there are others!  But the quality, the craftsmanship of these fine instruments may equal but never surpass the craftsmanship of the rotring 800!

This pencil is externally all metal, whether it be brass, stainless steel or hard anodized aluminum this is a well built pencil.  The joint between the body and the grip is seamless!  All the joints are this way from head to toe.  Inside the quality continues.  There are non-metal parts on the inside, but this by no means implies lower quality!  No, on the contrary, the use of flexible synthetic parts helps the pencil deal with internal pressures, like repeated lead advancement as well as continued use by cushioning the impact of both internal and external applied stresses!  In other words it helps keep the thing from being pounded a part and gives the pencil a softer feel when writing.

But that's not to say that the rotring 800 isn't a looker!  Because it is!  I'm a fan of silver colored pencils myself but when I saw the flat black finish of the 800 with the red and gold colored accents, I couldn't take my eyes off of it!  This pencil is a real beauty!  It looks stealthy!  Kind of reminds me of a ninja!  Lurking in the dark, ready to strike!  And like a ninja the rotring 800 has something up it's sleeve!

The lead sleeve retracts into the grip with a simple twist of the knurled top end of the red ringed pencil.  Twist the top the other way and the lead sleeve extends!  It retracts with a snap!  However if there is no lead in the clutch, the mechanism does not work smoothly!  In fact, it is rather difficult to get the sleeve to extend without some effort!  The same is true for retracting the sleeve!  With lead in the clutch the mechanism should work almost effortlessly!  This feature is an elegant way of solving the problem of having the slender lead sleeve sticking out when carrying the pencil in a breast picket, especially when it's a shirt pocket!  Ouch!  If you've never been pierced by the needle like lead sleeve of a drafting pencil then you have no puncher marks in your man boobs!


The rotring 800 breaks down into 5 components.  The grip, the main body and enclosed mechanism, the lead sleeve/tip the eraser and the push button.  Unless you happen to work for rotring in the assembly plant or as a engineer, that I suggest that you do not attempt to dismantle the pencil any further than this!  There is no clean out rod, but I don't think you're going to need one as 0.5mm lead does not break as easily as 0.3mm lead does!  Lead capacity is good, a tube of 12 leads should fit easily and still have the pencil feed.  With the lead pushed back flush with the lead sleeve 2 depressions of the push button advances enough lead to write with.  The eraser is about as useful as  drafting pencil erasers are!  Which is next to useless!  Get yourself a stick eraser ll be happier.

The 800 measures 133.04 mm with the lead sleeve retracted and 143.49 mm with it extended.  It's 8.38 mm across the flats and the grip is 8.25 mm in diameter.  It weighs 24.5 grams making it a heavyweight in the pencil world!  But I like the weight of an all metal pencil!  Normally I would measure the balance point from the tip of the pencil.  However the tip of the 800 moves so that wasn't possible.  So I measured it from the push button.  Extended the balance point is approximately 69.10 mm from the push button and retracted it's approximately 65.85 mm from the push button.

The writing experience with the 800 was a dream The weight and balance are good, for a boy like me!  The knurled grip is just the right cut neither too course nor too fine!  It affords me a good hold so I'm not having to spend so much trying to hold onto a poorly made grip!  If you write a lot with a pencil then the weight of the 800 just might be enough to fatigue your hand.  If not then I suggest that you dig deep into your pocketbook if you want a rotring 800 for they don't cone cheap!  The rotring 800 in both black and silver and in 0.5 mm and 2.0 mm (lead holder) is available from our friends at JetPens.

They're Back! June Giveaway

Two years ago I gave away, for the first time, a set of the Peachtree Plaything's Magna Tank 0.5 mm gel pens.  The gel pens are a big hit with many people all over the world.  Wal-Mart had been the best place to buy Magna Tanks until some time in 2009 the giant department store chain stopped selling them and they became almost impossible to find!  My email inbox was flooded with rumors of where they could be found, but I was never able to find them again!

Then in 2011 I was informed (by a company rep) that in the late summer of that year Wal-Mart would start selling them again!  But I never saw them back on the store shelves and soon stopped looking for them.  Then, while shopping at a Wal-Mart in another city, I accidentally stumbled across a rack of them!  I could hardly believe my eyes!  I wanted to buy several sets but budget constraints limited me to one set!  The purpose of my purchase was to announce their comeback via this giveawayhat's right, blog fans, I'm giving away the first set of Magna Tank gel pens in 0.5 mm that I've seen in over a year!

And all you have to do is to drop me, The Old Geezer, an email, at theoldgeezer@live.com, telling me just why I should let the Random Integer Generator at the bottom of this blog pick you as the first Pens And Pencils giveaway in over a year! HA! Caught ya!  I have aboslutely no control over who wins the giveaway as it's done randomly! But tell me why you should win anyway!  Please do not post a comment on this post in expectation of entering the contest!  I need an actual email from you so, in case you win, I can contact you.  And please, when you send an email make sure that it's a valid addy as I will assign each email a number in accordance to it's date of entry (early emails equate to lower numbers, not that that means a hill of beans).  Please limit the number of emails to one per entry.  In the email's title, please put June Giveaway so I will know not to just gloss over it! 

The contest will remain open until the day of my birthday (June 12).  Sometime after 12:00 PM on that day I will let the Random Integer pick a winner,  So get your entry in ASAP!

Thanks for entering my giveaway.

OOPS!  I almost forgot!  The Giveaway is officaly closed!

The Kuru Toga Roulette

 I now own 3 Kuru Toga pencils. The only one I don't have is the High Grade, yet.  The Roulette is to me by and large the best Kuru Toga available to date.  It has the overall shape of the High Grade with the advantage of being almost all metal.  The only external plastic piece (save for the black tip) is the push button topper.  This is on the silver model a translucent light gray plastic.  The rest of the Roulette is a two-tone silver-gray metal.  The upper body is a bright silver with the name in a dark gray color.  The neck of the push button, pocket clip, coupling and and end cap are all chrome.  The lower half of the body, which is 1-1/2 times the upper body diameter is beautiful satin gray with 4 groves designating the finely knurled grip.

The diameter of the Roulette's grip is nearly perfect for this blogger.  I really like the feel of the fine knurls of the grip.  It is easy to grip and slip resistant.  Writing with the Roulette is a pleasure from beginning to end.  The auto rotating mechanism provides a built in cushion making the writing experience quite smooth.  There is a slight learning curve with any Kuru Toga, or in my case an unlearning curve.  As I write with a standard drafting pencil I have trained myself to rotate the pencil automatically as I write.  This helps keep the lead from ovaling out.  With the Kuru Toga rotating the pencil defeats the principle of the auto rotating mechanism.  So I'm having to learn to hold the pencil without letting it rotate in my hand.

I've come to like using the Kuru Toga Roulette over all my other Mechanical/Drafting pencils.  I've always like the auto rotating mechanism but not the thickness of the original Kuru Toga or the grip of the High Grade.  The Roulette is the culmination of all the best features of the Kura Toga Series.

The Roulette as well as the full line of Kuru Toga's are available from our friends at JetPens.com

The Case For The 0.4mm Pencil

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a die hard 0.3mm drafting pencil fan, evident by my sizable collection of modern 0.3mm drafting pencils.  But for some time I have been wondering about the newest lead size in the drafting pencil line-up, the 0.4mm.  One can wonder if a single millimeter could make a difference.  Well, it can.  The chart below shows the line width of a 0.3mm, o.4mm and a 0.5mm pencil lead, all HB grade.  Each line was drawn with a squared off lead at 90%.  Each line measures 0.3mm, 0.4mm and 0.5mm from top to bottom (PEAK Scale Lupe, 10X power, metric scale was used to measure line width). 

As one can see, there is clearly a difference in the size of the lines.  While the top line, the 0.3mm is by far the thinnest of the three and the bottom, the 0.5mm it the thickest, the middle, the 0.4mm is exactly in between the other two.  It's thin enough to be considered an extra fine line, unlike the 0.5mm line which, when ovaled out can become quite wide.  The 0.4mm lead has the advantage of being a fine lead without being quite as fragile as the 0.3mm for the same lead grade.  Of course the 0.5mm lead is, of the 3, the strongest.

I have been using the 0.4mm pencil for some months and have rarely found the need to use the 0.3mm pencil!  Egad!  Does this mean that I've fallen out of lust for the 0.3mm pencil!?  Has the 0.4mm pencil take it's place in my heart!?  Not quite!  I'll always collect 0.3mm drafting pencils, for after all, they do produce the thinnest of lines (save for the 0.2mm pencil).  But for practical everyday use, the 0.4mm has probably replaced the 0.3mm pencil in my book.  If produces a suitable fine line while maintaining a modicum of strength.

A number of 0.4mm drafting pencils can be bought at our friends at Jetpens.com.

Rhodia dotPad

Some time ago I received a small pad and 2 wooden pencils in the mail.  This was not unexpected as I had been approached and ask if I would review what is called a dotPad by Rhodia as well as a Rhodia wooden pencil.  I agreed.  Once the package arrived I examined the contents and fully attended to do a review quickly.  Well, I got sick just about that time and failed to do a quick review as promised.  Time passed and my illness came and went and the review was not forgotten, just put aside.  Recently the sender contacted me again about the review, I explained my situation and promised a timely review.  Once again my illness befell me and the review was again put off until now.  It is my hope that the sender will forgive me and accept this honest opinion of the items sent.

The dotPad I received was a 5.8" x 8.3" pad with a heavy backing.  80 sheets per pad of 21.3lb high grade vellum paper.  The pad is microperforated at the top so the sheets are easily removable.  The grid is composed of light lilac dots spaced 5mm apart.  The 2 pencils are of Linden wood painted orange and black, the Rhodia colors, with black erasers.  Surprisingly the black of the wood goes all the way through.  The lead grade is HB, comparable to a #2 pencil.  All in all the black covered dotPad and the orange and black pencils look striking nice!  Oh, yeah, the pencils are triangular in cross section!

I do not use wooden pencils at all, having gone completely over to drafting pencils years ago.  But I did find the triangular shape of the pencils afforded a comfortable grip.  Like any grade HB lead, it's soft.  Being soft it lays down a dark line that widens as the point dulls.  No surprises here.  The black erasers perform as one would expect erasing clean as long as the user isn't heavy handed.  The pencils sharpened cleanly when I used a Steadtler open type metal sharpener, the kind that I use on my colored pencils (oops!  I guess that I do use wooden pencils after all!  Just not to write with!).  All in all the Rhodia black and orange pencils are only exceptionable in their color, shape and solid construction.

The dotPad I found to be exceptional!  The heavy weight vellum paper is very forgiving when erasing heavy lines.  While it will smudge, it does not easily tear as lesser quality paper.  It's sizing accommodates a wide variety of writing instruments from fountain pens to rollerballs to gel pens to pencils, even a 0000 rapidiograph pen!  All seemed very smooth despite the fact all were fine to extra fine points.  My test pencil was a 0.3mm with HB lead and it felt exceptional smooth!  I really like the writing surface, especially when using a pencil.

I had a small project going when I took these pics so I used the dotPan and Rhodia pencils to do my calculations.  The smoothness of the writing surface proved to be a blessing as I did all the lines freehand.  I especially like that fact that unlike a standard quad pad the dots almost disappear  beneath the dark lines of the pencil.  With ordinary quad pads, even with the ones with light lines, the graph line often get in the way, especially when freehanding a "straight" line.

All in all I think that The uniqueness of the Rhodia triangular black and orange pencils will win over a lot of wooden pencil fans while the dotPad has already won me over!  I wish all "graph" paper were like the Rhodia dotPad!

To find out how and where to purchase the entire Rhodia line of products click this link.

Pentel P203: A Review

What follows is a review of the Pentel P203 that I originally did for Associated Content.

Review: Pentel 200 P203 0.3mm Automatic Pencil
Style: Drafting

Technical Data:
Length: 142.8
Diameter (Body): 9.3mm
Diameter (grip): N/A
Balance Point (From Push Button): 73mm
Weight: 11.3 grams
Lead Sleeve: 4mm, fixed
Lead size: 0.3mm


Major Components: End cap/Lead sleeve, body, clutch assembly/lead reservoir, push button, eraser with clean out rod.

Construction Type: Independent body, integral lead reservoir/clutch assembly.

Construction Materials: Plastic body, lead reservoir, metal end cap/lead sleeve, push button, clutch assembly.

Colors: Brown body, black lead reservoir, chrome pocket clip, end cap/lead sleeve, push button.

Mode Of Operation: Ratcheting push button lead advance, 3-jawed brass clutch with brass over-sleeve.

Appearance: With its tapering brown body the PG203 looks more like a typical writing pencil than a drafting pencil, but looks can be deceiving as the PG203 is a true drafting pencil. White lettering stands out on the multi-side body, which has an indentation for the pocket clip, which is set down a short distance from the top of the body. The chromed push button is the over the sleeve type and is a simple closed tube. The chrome end cap continues the pencil's taper to the lead sleeve. There is a small ringed rib at the end of the body where it contacts the end cap. Less than a centimeter up from the rib is a set of 11 equally spaced rings that makes up the grip. Simple elegance.

Disassembly: To disassemble the P203 first remove the end cap/lead sleeve. Next remove the clutch assembly/lead reservoir from in side the body. Remove the push button then the eraser with the clean out rod. Finally remove the pocket clip. Reassembly is the reverse of assembly. Note that the end cap screws onto the extended clutch assembly. The clutch assembly locks into the body via a hex nut.

Clearing A Lead Jam: Refer to this article, Clearing A Lead Jam, should clearing a lead jam be necessary.

My Opinion: The P203 feels great in my hand and writes remarkably well, feeling so well balanced in my hand. Two or 3 clicks produces enough lead to write with, about 1mm's worth. The lead advance mechanism has a distinct metallic sound and is semi loud. The P203 was my first 0.3mm drafting pencil and the one by which I hold all others up to. It is an old design but old does not mean out-of-date. While the P203 is no longer made (but still available) the design is so good that it is not only carried on in the Sharp line it has been copied by several different companies. The P203 is a rugged pencil; I've had one for over 25 years.

Last Words: While the P203 has been discontinued by the manufacturer (declining sales says the Pentel of America rep.) I fail to see why the other 3 pencils are still available. It really makes no scene to me and probably never will. Despite the fact that it has been left by the wayside by Pentel it remains one of the best drafting pencils ever made. The P203 is a pencil that should be in any collection so I suggest that you get one while you can.

March Giveaway!

In July of 2009 I did a follow up review of the Staedtler Liquid Point 7 rollerball liquid ink pens.  They have been sitting around in a drawer ever since!  So I've decided to give them away as it looks like I'll never use them!  Way too many pens to try and use them all!  So some Pens And Pencils blog reader will win these beautiful German made rollerballs simply by sending me an email with something in the header about Staedtler Liquid Point 7's!  That way I can tell who entered the giveaway and who didn't!  Rules are simple: One entry per reader; must be an email, comments on the blog will not count (though you can leave all the comments that you wish); must be received before or on somewhere around March 31st.  At some point I'll close the giveaway and let the RIG pick the winning number that corresponds to one of the entries.  After that I'll contact the winner and ask for a mailing addy so I can ship them out!  Simple, no?

So Pens And Pencils readers get those emails in!  You never know just what number the RIG will pick!

BTW, just incase you can't find my email addy in the sidebar, in my profile, it'smailto:theoldgeezer@live.com.

The Giveaway is now closed.  No more emails please!  Thank you.