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The Tombow Mono 100 Pencil Review

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 faith might peg it a little darker than the Mitsibushi. (see for yourself below, not very scientific but we are talking pencils here). I can't fathom a difference between this and say, a... Mitsubishi Hi-Uni. Better than a bog-standard Staedtler though.

This little beauty comes in an insane 17 different lead grades... 6B through to 9H! If you can actually draw then this would be a huge advantage to you. If you're used to something like Pentel leads in a mechanical pencil this will probably feel softer than HB to you.


I do like this pencil. I like the feeling of the lead much more than the Swiss Wood by Caran d'Ache but it doesn't look as cool. I know it's called Mono but black and white is a bit... murgh.

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