A Gentleman of the Enlightenment

Thanks for checking out the latest in my series of wood case pencil reviews. Next up is the Mars Lumograph from Staedtler. Yes, that's right our friends over in Germany make a mean pencil. Or is it that mean? Let me get something off my chest first. I love the blue - it's so... Staedtler. One thing that bothers me though is the white print on the barrel. It wears off very quickly. The made in Germany bit has rubbed off. It's available in 20 grades of lead which is the most out of any pencils I've reviewed so far, which is great! You can find yourself forgiving the lack of a robust finish when the price is taken into account. I'd put this pencil at a mid-range tier as at the time of writing it's £1.54 over on Cult Pens - I'm not affiliated with them by the way I just think they are a great shop. Buy some stuff from them and you will find out why - So you can get two of these for one Tombow Mono or a Hi-Uni. To write with it doesn't feel like it's lay

This is an extremely quick review of the Tombow Mono 100 pencil. Love this thing - the lead feels better for me in comparison to the Caran d'Ache Swiss Wood I have also reviewed. It's softer and darker. The paint finish is sooo shiny. Take a look at the end of the pencil too - the barrel is hexagonal but the end is actually round. Same as a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni - is it a thing? Hexagonal barrel + round end = quality? Price-wise you're looking at £2.57 at the time of writing over at Cult Pens - that really puts it in the high end. It puts it in the snatch it away from your wife-that's-gonna-chew-it end. They are made in Vietnam, you might expect Japan but it's Vietnam as per the stamp on the barrel. Sorry, you can't actually see that detail in my images - my phone camera is a bit old and besides half of it's sharpened off. It's supposed to have a darker more contrasting lead than comparable pencils but I'd say it was just comparable really, the eye of

 This one may just be the best pencil I've ever tried. Not because of any cool finishes or materials. It's just that good. Having said it's not due to finishes just above I can say that the finish on this pencil is absolutely amazing. A real high gloss that's shown off by that maroon colour. It's the same maroon as the first high school I went to. You might describe it as a red wine red? Even though no wine I ever drink is this colour. What about red wine stain red? Yes, that'll do. The lead in this one just feels so soft. Lovely detail on the end of the barrel as with all of these high-end pencils. Hexagonal barrel with a round tip. Nice black and gold trim to contrast with the red-wine-stain-on-a-white-shirt coloured barrel. Despite my joking, I actually really love the colour - much better than dull old black. There are 15 lead grades available for this beauty over at Cult Pens if you like to have a selection. It's made in Japan too and has been since th

Welcome to another one of my extremely quick pencil reviews. The latest being the Faber-Castell 9000 - Woah, what a big number? must be a good pencil... read on. This pencil is an interesting one. Made in Germany since 1905 or some such - I think they may be the oldest surviving manufacturer of pencils in the world. You can catch a documentary about the factory over in Germany on the BBC or on the Smithsonian Channel.   It has a really nice painted finish and a joy to sharpen. As a comparison, I think the wood feels a little denser than a Mitsubishi Hi-Uni. Just in case you didn't realise, that paint finish has 7 layers... 2 primer, 4 paint, and 1 lacquer. One of the biggest points to get across here is that this pencil is priced below that of a Mars Lumograph but I think it writes better. Nipping at the heels of a pencil not far off three times the price. It doesn't have a sexy end design, not as glossy as other higher-end pencils. It's not dipped in shiny stuff or a diff

Cool little pencil this one. It's made from extruded wood fibers. It's actually only 70% wood which obviously means they can get a lot more pencils out of a tree. Hence that Eco name. They use wood flour which is a by-product of the forestry industry... read about WOPEX here.   They are literally making pencils out of the "sweepings off the floor". I'm actually of the opinion that if it's sustainable forestry what's the issue? But when I held this in my hand I noticed something I love about it. The weight... that fancy WOPEX stuff is dense! The branding and text really pops out of that black colour as well and has a much better finish than the Mars Lumograph. Honestly, not sure why the text rubbing off on that pencil sticks in my craw so much. It feels great - has a similar weight to the Caran D'ache Swiss Wood but this one is more of a normal pencil thickness.  The writing experience is pretty much the same as the Staedtler Tradition really. Not great

 The Uni Kuru Toga Advance is a nice mechanical pencil. There's no point denying it. If you aren't sure what makes a Kuru Toga so special, where have you been? They use a special rotating mechanism inside the pencil. Each time pressure is put on the point, so each time you lift and place it back on the paper the lead is rotated by a small amount. The original model is good and I have a couple that I'll be reviewing later.  The issue really is that it was designed for writing non-cursive script. You need to lift and drop the lead 40 times for a full revolution of the lead. The advanced model has a rotating mechanism that rotates twice as fast. So 20 times for a full rotation. I can honestly say this makes a huge difference. I went with a special edition orange colour. It looks so great. The small holes allow you to see into the mechanism - I mean if you want a good look just unscrew the end. The holes also act to enhance grip on the pencil when in use. It's worth stating

The Platinum Pro-Use Mechanical Pencil is a little beauty. Competitively priced - it's well under the price of an all-metal offering like the Rotring 600/800. I picked up the 0.3mm version as I'm moving over to preferring 0.3 over 0.5 these days. Even though it does have a tendency to make me write really small! So, what featured does this thing boast? It's got a mechanism to shorten the lead sleeve so you can choose how much lead sticks out over the end of the barrel - that also means it can be made "pocket safe". It has another cushioning mechanism as well which gives the lead a little bit of bounce.  It's not an all metal body though... the knurled grip is metal though - I really love a knurled grip! This is not the best knurling I've felt because that accolade goes to the Rotring 800 but it's not the worst and any knurling is better than none. There is a lead indicator as well which works really well. I've seen it written on Reddit etc. that th

What do you do if a Faber-Castell 9000 is a bit much for your budget? Why not try the Faber-Castell Dessin 2000?  I got this to give it a go and to compare to the 9000. First up - it doesn't sharpen quite as well - I feel it's a bit ragged and the wood feels soft.  It's a lovely looking thing although the finish doesn't strike the eye as quite as high quality as the 9000. The lead it a tiny bit more toothy than the 9000 to me which you may actually prefer.  This pencil might lack the prestige of being the original product of the company but I really like it. It's toothier and definitely doesn't leave as dark a line as the 9000 therefore my preference would still be the 9000. It's priced really competitively priced mid-range pencil - hard to break as it uses the SV bonding technique. Most quality pencils will have bonding. It basically means that the core is glued to both sides of the pencil before it's shaped, painted, etc. 

 This is a bit of fun. I got one of these just to try it out. Bit of a classic design from over in Korea. You might have seen one of these pens before... probably branded with a company logo on it if you work in financial services or pharmaceuticals.  Basically instead of a press once to engage the nib and once again to retract you click once to engage and then knock the little plastic clip in to retract the pen. I picked a 1mm version of the pen because it comes in a cool yellow colour. It writes...well... it writes like a 25p ballpoint okay! Get it over here. It has that annoying slight flex that you get from all cheaper ballpoint pens. Being a bit of a fusspot I find that the end of the pen is a little too long for my tastes. I find I want to hold the hexagonal barrel for a little more grip but then it feels like you holding the pen miles from the end.  If a Bic is too basic for you and you want a little bit of a talking point around Korea's most popular pen then this is the one

To get right down to it this is one of my favourite wood case pencils.  Why is that? Well, it looks Ace - that'll be the certified Swiss beech wood it's made from - it's COBS certified don't you know. I have seen some reviews around the web from a few years back that show an FSC certification. COBS is much cooler - great talking point amongst your cool stationary collecting pals.  This is so refreshing and different in comparison to the more usual cedarwood the beech gives it a lovely dark colour - it's not dyed, that's the colour of the wood. Just looks like a clear coat of lacquer and that lovely dipped red top end (more on that later). Should be noted that the lacquer finish is matte and not gloss. This thing really stands out. What's it like to use? Well for an HB it's a little light for my tastes but the plus side to that is it seems to hold a point for just a bit longer than a lot of my other pencils. It's a good bit heavier than a normal penci

 Aha! We have it! A striped pencil! This is the first pencil I've reviewed at under £1. It's quality no doubt - who doesn't recognise this just from the pictures? It's pegged to be below the Mars Lumograph in the Staedtler range and comes in at £0.77 over at Cult Pens. I bought one just to see what it was like in comparison to my more fancy pencils. Check out my reviews of Tombow, Mitsubishi, Faber-Castell, and the like for info on those. Yes, that text on the barrel is not embossed, rest assured it will come off pretty sharpish through use. I'm cool with that though as we're comfortably sub-£1 here. It even comes in 14 degrees of lead from 6B to 4H. It doesn't really come much cheaper with major brand pencils. Okay, maybe the Staedtler Noris is a tiny bit cheaper. It's a nice pencil - I'd say the feel is nigh on identical to the Mars Lumograph and at a lower price. Your mates aren't going to look at the tradition and think... Woah cool! though