Editing The Pen Addict 9/transcript (section)

== Pencil Recommendations ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. No, we can move on to pencils now. Okay. All right. So one of the topics that I get questions about from time to time on the Pen Addict blog is recommend me a pencil for this. You know, I do this type of work. I'm this type of student. And I'm not a pen user. I want to use, you know, a pencil or some other lead-based writing instrument. And I've never been a big pencil person myself. I've always had one, you know, something like a very fine .5 millimeter standard lead pencil. I never really gave thought into my mechanical pencil until I ran across the Uniball Kuro Toga.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And if you've spent any time on my blog, you know, I refer to it as the pencil by which all others are measured because it is so different and it is so far superior writing experience compared to any other mechanical pencil. There better be a pretty good reason why you're looking at a different mechanical pencil. And there's plenty of valid reasons. But for writing with a pencil, I cannot think of a better pencil than the Uniball Kuro Toga.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Do you have one of these, Myke? Yeah, I do. And I love it. And I totally agree with you 100%. It's the only pencil, in my opinion, worth using. And it's because of the – I mean, we spoke of – I think we spoke of it on the show before. But the Kuro Toga implements a system in which the lead turns every time you turn the paper down. So press it down on paper. So with most mechanical pencils, you will end up wearing away the lead. So it's a slant. So then the lead becomes very thick. So it starts off nice and fine. But the more you use it as you're wearing down the lead, it just becomes quite a thick line. But every time you press the Kuro Toga down on the paper, like the lead sort of rotates a little. So it keeps a consistent line thickness. Right.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it keeps the point sharp, the tip of the lead sharp. You can't really see it rotating. It's just so gradual. But it flat out works. I've tested it. You know, the biggest challenge with the Kuro Toga is learning not to spin the pencil in your hand when you're writing.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yep.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Right. If we've all written with a mechanical pencil, when that lead gets dull on one side, what do you do? I mean, you rotate the pencil in your hand. So you're constantly making that circle. Well, the Kuro Toga does it for you. So you actually have to stop yourself. You're actually defeating the purpose if you twist the pencil in your hand. And one of the reviews I did, I forced myself to – I wrote a full page, like one sentence. I just repeated it over and over and over again across the entire page, forcing myself to learn how to write without rotating the pencil in my hand. And from letter one to the last letter on the page, the line looked exactly the same. And that's when I was sold. You know, I kind of ran it through the gauntlet there. And I was like, it works. I mean, there's nothing else you can say about this pen other than it works. And it does have a pretty cool design. You know, there's three different – no, four different models right now. There's a base plastic barrel model, which is actually very nice.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's the one that I use.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's really cool. Actually, the plastic grip is smooth, but I find it kind of comfortable. It's kind of a neat-looking pencil, and the grip is pretty comfortable. The one I use is called the Kuro Toga Roulette, you know, because it spins around. Get it? Hilarious. But it has a knurled grip area and a little bit – I don't know, an upgraded barrel, if you will. Some more metal parts. You know, the top half is plastic, but the bottom half is metal and knurled grip. Then there's one called the high-grade, which is kind of that half plastic, half metal also, but with a smooth metal grip. And then they actually do a Kuro Toga Alpha Gel, which whenever you hear the Alpha Gel, that's always talking about the special grip that Uniball likes to promote. It's that super, super squishy grip. So, yeah. So, yeah. You know, if you're looking for a mechanical pencil for writing purposes, I wouldn't look any further than the Uni Kuro Toga. It's a top-notch pencil. I reviewed it when it first came out. I want to say like 2009-ish maybe. It might have even been earlier than that. And I haven't found a pencil that beats it yet as far as, you know, comparing it directly to another pencil. There hasn't been one that's beaten it yet. So, for general writing, the Kuro Toga is the way to go. Now, if you want to – if you're looking for a more specialty pencil or something different, you know, and something maybe a little more classic styled, the Rotring 600 is what I call – and actually what it's referred to, it's a drafting pencil. It's got a longer lead pipe with a little more clearance around the barrel. It's a heavier – it's a fully brass barrel pen. I think it's a brass – excuse me, pencil.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's metal from top to bottom, so it's got some heft to it. So, when you're doing technical drawings or drafting, you have a little more control over the tip of the lead. That's what the weight of a pen or pencil does. It helps give you more control when you're writing or drawing or sketching like that. And this – the Rotring 600 design is probably the best-looking pencil design ever, maybe. That's obviously an opinion. But whenever people see one of these or hold one of these, they're usually fascinated by it just because the engineering of the pencil design is brilliant. The weight is perfect. The balance is perfect.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You know, I know you haven't had a chance to get a hold of one of these yet, Myke, but it's almost a piece of art.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm looking at images now, and it is a very, very handsome piece of equipment.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' This is a pencil that people have for decades, and that's no joke. And people swear by these, will only buy these. You know, you can buy replacement parts for them. I mean, it's not a cheap pen. I think it's like – excuse me, pencil. That's like $33. But for something that's going to last you 10 or more years, it's a pretty good investment, especially if you're into the technical side of things. I would recommend the Kuratoga if you're just doing straight writing, if you prefer to write with a pencil. But if you're doing any kind of sketching, drawing, engineering, architecture, that's where this Rotring 600 comes in. And I think I've pronounced it about six different ways so far. I don't know the correct pronunciation. Rotring.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Rotring.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Rotring. I think it's actually Rotring.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Rotring is the way that I would say it.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. We'll get some listeners to email me and verify. But I think it's Rotring, and I just have a hard time not saying Rotring. So those two, that's the top of the list. That's your top tier pencil recommendations if you're looking to try something. If you want to try something different that doesn't look or feel like any of these other pencils, there are a couple that I like. One that's actually been around for 40 years now. I think it came out in 1971 when I was doing the research on this, when I reviewed it on the Pen Act. It's the Pentel Sharp Carry. Now what this pencil is, it's a capped mechanical pencil. So think of it as a pen where you uncap it, and you post the cap on the back of the pencil. And the lead advance mechanism works just like it would if you had the pencil uncapped. It looks like a pen, but it's a fantastic looking and feeling mechanical pencil. And a really unique design. It's not a design you see in a pencil very often. And that's another one that people have used for decades. It may not last as long as like a rotring because it's a plastic barrel. There is going to be some damage issues you could run across there. But as far as style and performance, it is an all-time classic. And the reviews for that pencil are off the charts if you ever go read reviews on it. And everyone loves it because it's really, really different. And it's a wonderful feeling pencil.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Interesting looking. Yeah. I mean, have you ever seen anything like that? No. I mean, it's kind of different.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And it's real shiny. And it looks really nice. It looks even better in person than it does in photographs. I'll have to say that's one of those that caught me off guard when I used it. I had low expectations going into it, and it actually knocked my socks off. It was so good. And one other one like that, which isn't quite expensive, but it's actually on the low end, is called the Pilot Delful, D-E-L-F-U-L. And the reason why I like that, it's kind of a good student pencil. A lot of students read the pen out and they ask for recommendations and things like that. The reason I like that one is because it's pretty inexpensive. It's one of the cheapest pencils in price that has a fully retractable lead pipe. So students are always concerned about throwing their pencils in the bag and the mechanical pencils and getting them bent at the tip or something like that. Because, you know, it's a really narrow and fragile area of the pencil. And the Delful allows you to retract it fully into the barrel. Now, there's plenty of other pencils that do that, but they're usually $30, $80 in the Rotering 800s case. But the Delful is like $6 or $7 and it's got cool colors. It's got a comfortable grip. That's another one that caught me by surprise. So I just want to throw those things out there for a few pencil recommendations.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's funny, like I've been looking at Google Images as we go, like, so I can see what these look like. Because I'll do the full links for the listeners in the show notes to places to purchase. And your images keep popping up like in the first couple of images. Oh, that's funny. The first image on Google Images for the part of Delful was a pen addict. And you can tell which ones are yours because it's all on dome paper.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty funny. I'm going to have to look now.