[HN Gopher] Overengineered Japanese Mechanical Pencils [video] ___________________________________________________________________ Overengineered Japanese Mechanical Pencils [video] Author : jkellermann Score : 115 points Date : 2022-04-14 08:43 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com) | yjftsjthsd-h wrote: | Alright, I went in thinking "come on, how 'overengineered' can a | mechanical _pencil_ be? ", and by about halfway through I wanted | to buy one, and at the end I readily admit that they've managed | to find exactly the problems with these things and fix them, way | beyond what I would have thought practical. Remarkable:) | fmajid wrote: | I have the Orenz Nero, the Kuru Toga and even a Faber-Castell | alpha-matic, but my favorite is a Faber-Castell e-motion with its | lovely tactile wood barrel and expressive 1.4mm lead. | deeg wrote: | That was fun. I don't use anything except mechanical pencils but | none of those really grabbed me and I generally love gadgets. For | some reason I don't like the bouncy feel of the spring-protected | tips and the only time I break leads is when I drop the pencil on | the floor. | jonhohle wrote: | The engineering on the spring protected pencils is amazing, I | also like the rounded tip, retractable sleeve on the 0.2mm | pencils. I hadn't seen that before this video. | | Many years ago I really hoped the Kura Toga would be as | revolutionary as the Quicker Clicker was back in the mid-90s, | but it always felt like I was fighting the lead orientation. I | have eventually settled on the rOtring and draftmatics because | I enjoy their aggressive knurling. | | I would really like a heavy, aggressively knurled side advance | (preferably lower than the Pentel's). I really miss the | transparent barrel that displayed the action of the Quicker | Clicker, but like the ergonomics of the fatter, tackier rubber | grip. | | I found the QC and the Pilot Precise V5, around the same time | and nearly 30 years later they are still among my favorites. I | mostly use the V5RT these days, but gladly grab a V5 (in blue | or green) when I can. | contingencies wrote: | Here in China I realised if you want more than 4 colors or so, | multicolour pens are also Japanese imports only. But they're too | fat to be useful, IMHO. It's also hard to source ballpoint pens | in non red-blue-black colours, for no apparent reason. I guess | I'm oddball for liking colour contrast in my notes. The nicest | pen I ever bought was machined out of Laotian tropical hardwood | but it was a traditional calligraphic pen with the nib and ink | management issues. For modern writing implements... you can't | beat a fullscreen terminal, _vim_ and a Cherry (German design, | China fabrication I guess). https://www.cherry-world.com/ | a9h74j wrote: | > I guess I'm oddball for liking colour contrast in my notes. | | I just started taking notes to learn a new programming | language. Writing the code with a red pen and my own notes in | blue makes for a fantastic contrast. | [deleted] | gorgoiler wrote: | JetPens' marketing is amazing. Their online storefront is very | well put together, and above all their buyer team ensures they | have mountains of imported variety in every category. | | It's so nice to see someone doing something well. Really well. | | I have no connection to them other than I spent $500 with them | last Christmas on gifts for my entire family. | 0xbadcafebee wrote: | You could say it's a website made with Japanese craftsmanship. | Really well made, just because. | amelius wrote: | How does the automatic lead extender know by how much to extend | the lead? If I were to write lots of dots, the lead would wear | off less than when I wrote lots of dashes, but I would touch the | paper and lift the pen an equal amount of times. Guess: is it | weight controlled? | readingnews wrote: | I am not 100% sure how it works, but I own two of them, and if | I write a bunch of dots, it does not keep extending the lead. | Escapado wrote: | This is crazy cool! I wonder how these miniscule and thin lead | sleeves are produced and how they manage to stay within tolerance | and even get a rounded edge. | dharmab wrote: | I'm sad that I didn't discover the Kuru Toga pencil until after I | left school. I put them in gift baskets for friends who are | students. | Justsignedup wrote: | Gotta admit, the spring inside the tip to prevent stress breakage | sounds amazing. It was the #1 reason I stopped using mechanical | pencils. | bb88 wrote: | There's a "pipe slide" model of the kuro toga that will slide | the pipe with the writing so only a little bit of lead is | exposed at all times. | | Uniball also has custom lead with a softer outside and a harder | core. | sva_ wrote: | I have a Pentel Orenz Nero 0.2mm with such a feature. It is | pretty nice, but you will often scratch over the paper with the | metal which is definitely a counter argument. Makes 0.2mm | usable though. I think for 0.5mm you don't need it, just get | some decent 'lead'. | eth0up wrote: | I have a Pentel (0.5) that I purchased 12 years ago. I treat | it with equal ritual and reverence as I do, say, my Korean | crossbow, or Leica optics - it has its own altar of sorts. I | may have appendages of my own form that are guarded less. I | modified it though, using a glue to permanently fix the | pocket clip into a particular position. | | I was hesitant to post a trivial comment, but I discovered an | ancient container of 0.5 pencil inserts this morning, and... | I worship high quality Pentels. Built to last! | jkellermann wrote: | My first try to post in HackerNews, hoping this fits the spirit. | I was amazed to see the features of these pencil pens. | | Are these pencils common where you live? Here in Germany, they | are known, but rather seldomly used... | _aavaa_ wrote: | I thoroughly enjoyed it. Overengineered certainly fits the | bill, but boy do I love mine (Pentel Orenz). | | At 0.2mm it's great for a math, especially with the number of | super and subscripts I find myself ending up with. | | The redesigned clutch on the one pencil is a Kevin good idea I | wish all pencils have. Being able to write till the last 0.5mm | of lead instead of wasting 10mm. | | 10mm doesn't sound like a lot, but standard lead is only 60mm | long, so we're talking about wasting 16% of the lead. It gets | even worse if it happens to break into shorter pieces. | juanci_to wrote: | I grew up using a lot of mechanical pencils, but I was too | reckless and the cheap ones I used broke easily. | | Now I just use a standard #2 pencil. | jamal-kumar wrote: | All my German pens and colored pencils are for art, | interestingly. Great investment it's been over the years, keep | on coming back to faber-castell, but it does seem to be the | focus of what is made in your country. | Freak_NL wrote: | Nah, mechanical pencils are a niche, and those Japanese ones | are a niche within a niche here in the Netherlands too. In | Japan they are common, mainly due to the writing system that is | very well suited to mechanical pencils, so they are common in | schools. | | I use the Uni Kuru Toga in its fancy aluminium variant for both | Dutch (mostly random notes and DIY measurements) and Japanese | (I'm Dutch, but proficient in Japanese). For writing kanji, the | self-rotating core just can't be beat. The line thickness | remains a very neat 0.3mm with 0.5mm pencil lead due to the | cone at the writing end staying, well, a cone. | | Fortunately, these pencils can be ordered worldwide these days | via various resellers. In Japan you get the luxury of just | being able to walk into a Wen Fang Ju Wu (a stationary shop) | and buy one starting from Y=500 or so. | vr46 wrote: | The Kuru Toga is so versatile, I have three with different | lead. But I do want to investigate these others :D About | thirty years ago, I had a Faber-Castell where the lead sleeve | retracted and automatically dispensed new lead so finally I | will be able to get a similar replacement. It's not always | Japan! | arcen wrote: | Hoi! I am in the Netherlands as well, which site did you use | to purchase the Kuru Toga? I am interested in buying one too | riversflow wrote: | I have a couple of Rotring 800's that i adore because of the | disappearing tip(makes them much more packable!) However I'm | the only person I know who has anything not disposable. | jahewson wrote: | You had me at overengineered. | bllguo wrote: | I've used the Kuru Toga for years. The mechanism is so good that | I don't see the argument for any other pencil. Which is actually | a shame, as I can't get excited for other pencils anymore. | | During my school years we had all kinds of discussions and | comparisons for best pencils, best pens, best erasers. | bb88 wrote: | I highly recommend getting the kuro toga pipe slide. The pipe | slides up to protect the lead as you're writing, but you still | get the clutch mechanism that rotates the lead. | | They're available on amazon for not a huge amount of money: | | https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pipe+slide+kuro+toga (no affiliate | link) | Havoc wrote: | The pointy metal ends on these bend so easily though. I love the | concept but that just makes them a liability for daily driver use | donutshop wrote: | Yeah it's a sad day when the tip land straight onto the floor | :( | chernevik wrote: | You're looking for the Rotring 800, my friend. Twist to retract | / extend the lead sleeve into / out of a rounded nub. And it | has a beautiful solid heavy build. | | There are also the Pentel GraphGear models, which retract / | extend with push, but the build isn't as satisfying. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-04-15 23:00 UTC)