Posts filed under Kuru Toga

Uni Kuru Toga Metal Mechanical Pencil Review

Is the Uni Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencil the best technical advancement in stationery over the past 20 years? It might be, and if it isn’t, it’s near the top of the list. As a counterpoint, does anyone need the lead rotation mechanism that sets this pencil apart from the rest of the mechanical pencil market? We will get to that point in a minute.

This is far from the first Kuru Toga we have reviewed on The Pen Addict. We will mix one in every year or two when they come out with a new and interesting model. The pricey Kuru Toga Dive ($50-$100, depending on a litany of variables,) was, and still is, an outlier in the interesting department, and still brings all the pencil heads to the yard. The standard Kuru Togas, like the colorful $7 KS model, keeps the product lineup fresh, interesting, and popular.

Where does one of their latest releases - the Kuru Toga Metal - fit in with the rest of the product lineup, and the overall mechanical pencil space?

*The barrel opening helps show the rotation in action, moving from white to orange as it engages.*

On merit, this is a great pencil. The aluminum barrel gives it a nice feel in hand - sturdy and solid, but not heavy. The grip and barrel feature varying widths of ridges for a stable grip feel. The clip is strong, the knock is nice, the nose cone is designed … wait, what’s that in the nose cone?

Aside from the metal barrel, Uni is marketing a resin nib damper that reduces tip wobble. Has mechanical pencil tip wobble been a problem that I have overlooked for years, because never once have I run across it. I guess maybe if the pencil features a retractable pipe there could be, but the Kuru Toga Metal doesn’t have that feature. Traditionally, mechanical pencil tips feature one large nose cone that is rigid and static, with no opportunity to wiggle. And given the detailed work that is often required from pencils like this, I think I would have heard more about it.

*From L to R: no nib damper, nib damper, no nib damper.*

But then again, there has to be a reason to charge $36 for a mechanical pencil. I’m just not sure “nib damper” is on my checklist of required features.

Rewinding back to my earlier question: do you need a lead rotation mechanism in your mechanical pencil? I’ll be the first to tell you that I like this feature, and it absolutely works as described. To test it, I fixed my fingers on the grip and wrote the same phrase over and over to see what the tip of the graphite looked like when finished. It came to almost a perfect point, which is impressive.

*The graphite shape after my fixed grip writing. It works!*

What if I rotate the pencil in my hands while using it? Does the mechanism still work? Absolutely, but then you just have a normal mechanical pencil in your hands where your manual grip rotation works alongside the mechanical rotation and makes different width lines on the pages, depending on the position of the graphite.

Is this too much to think about? I think so. I’m a pen and pencil rotator, so outside of fountain pens, I’m constantly spinning the barrel in my hand. With pencils it is more prevalent, of course, and while it would be a choice to never spin the pencil and let the Kuru Toga do its thing, I don’t think that is possible.

*Top to bottom: Kuru Toga Dive, Rotring 600, Kuru Toga Metal, Pentel Sharp, Spoke Model 4.*

I buy Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencils because they are well-made mechanical pencils and they look cool. I don’t buy them for the lead rotation technology, despite the fact I think the technology is awesome. I’m guessing this is an obvious take, and many people fall into this category. I like the rotation when I need it … have I ever needed it?

The last bit to cover is where the Uni Kuru Toga Metal Mechanical Pencil fits within my recommendations of the rest of the Kuru Toga product lineup. The $36 price tag makes it easy to move down the rankings, especially given that I believe the Roulette model is the best model, and is only $13.50. That is a steal at that price. The Advance model ranks ahead of the Roulette in style options, and costs even less at $8.50.

Instead of listing out even more I’d pick ahead of it, I think the only one I wouldn’t is the Advance Upgrade model. I didn’t get along with that barrel design at all.

I completely get along with the Metal model, I’m just not sure the price gets along with the competition.

(This pencil was sent to me by a friend living in Japan. Thank you Jacob!)

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Posted on September 30, 2024 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Uni, Kuru Toga, Mechanical Pencil.

Uni Kuru Toga Dive Mechanical Pencil Review

My review of the Uni Kuru Toga Dive has been a long time in the making. Why?

I was hoping they would be more widely available by the time I posted this.
After several months, I’m still not sure what to make of it.

Jacob, from Fudefan and the Tokyo Inklings Podcast, surprised me with the Dive earlier this year, as he happened to catch them at the right time during their very tiny launch window. While monitoring the launch online, it appears that several Japanese retailers received their store displays and inventory, put the pencils out for sale on February 16th, then POOF! They were all snapped up, and have yet to be available again.

What makes the Dive so special that there was a mad rush to buy them, and a continued 4-5x markup of them on the secondary market?

For starters, the Kuru Toga mechanism is one of the few technological advances we have seen in mechanical pencils in decades. Designed to rotate the lead as you write so you always have a sharp, consistent point on the graphite, it offers something no other mechanical pencil manufacturer can. And it works. This is no marketing gimmick, or mindless innovation.

With that under the hood, Uni turned it up to 11 with the rest of the design:

Adjustable length auto-advance lead mechanism? Check.

A cap, with a clip? Check.

A magnetic snap-cap, at that? Check.

No-knock writing when uncapping? Check.

Wait, what did I just say? When you uncap the pencil the graphite is “clicked” forward to your preset writing length based on your auto-advance setting. This means if you have a habit of holding the knock and pressing in the lead when done (to avoid breakage, for example,) when you uncap the pencil the lead resets back to the exposed position. Uncap, and write, no matter the status you left the Dive when previously using.

It’s difficult to explain, but it is due to how the cap, and cap magnet, are designed. You aren’t forcing a click every time you cap an uncap the pencil either. If you cap the pencil with the graphite exposed, it doesn’t come out any longer than where you left it previously. But, if the lead is retracted when storing (capping) the pencil, the next time you uncap it, the lead is ready to write without having to press the knock. In short, the Kuru Toga Dive can be used as a complete no-knock mechanical pencil.

There is a knock on the back of the pencil for you luddites out there, but like how the original Kuru Toga broke us from the habit of rotating the pencil in your hand, the Dive is asking you to never use a knock again.

That’s not the only thing the Dive is asking of you. It is also asking you to spend $50 on a plastic-barrel mechanical pencil. While the metallic blue finish on the Dive is beautiful, don’t let that confuse you into thinking there is aluminum underneath the admittedly cool exterior. The list of high-quality mechanical pencils you can buy for a fraction of that price is too long to list here, even Uni’s own upgraded Kuru Toga models.

But I get it. I get the price, and I get the ask. $50 seems right to me with the litany of design elements and engineering in a single package. And-don’t hate me for this-I think an aluminum barrel Dive in the $80-$100 range would be the sweet spot for what Uni has created here.

*The Uni Kuru Toga Dive compared to the Rotring 600 (middle) and Pentel Sharp. Gargantuan.*

One detail I haven’t discussed yet is how the Dive feels when writing. It’s good, but I’ll stop there. My biggest hangup is the grip diameter, where at 10.7 mm is much wider than other standard grip sections like the Rotring 600, which checks in at 8.1 mm. That’s not the only oversized part of the pencil-the entire thing is gigantic. Posting the cap, while designed to fit properly, turns the pencil into a plank. I only use it unposted. Due to its size, the Dive may be better suited for an 0.7 mm default lead size, if not 0.9 mm.

In the end, the Uni Kuru Toga Dive is another step up in mechanical pencil technology. I’m just not sure it is a step forward. There is no arguing that it got off to a hot start, in part due to great marketing by Uni, plus the scarcity effect. But is it sustainable? That’s the bigger question I have. I like it. It makes me smile. It’s also $50, and asks me to hold a baton while writing with a needle. I’m glad I have one, but I’ll pick up a more classically designed mechanical pencil-even another Kuru Toga-if I plan on doing real work with graphite in hand.

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Uni, Kuru Toga, Mechanical Pencil, Pencil Reviews.

Uni Alpha Gel Switch Mechanical Pencil Review

The Uni Alpha Gel Switch Mechanical Pencil asks one of my favorite reviewer questions: Why? In this specific scenario, the “why” is why would you want both a standard pencil mechanism and a Kuru Toga pencil mechanism in the same barrel, with a toggle to switch between the two?

The short answer to the question is “I have no freaking clue!” But let’s explore the Alpha Gel Switch a little deeper, shall we?

First off, this is a fantastic looking mechanical pencil. I’d expect nothing less from Uni. The Alpha Gel is a classic in its own right, taking Uni’s traditional writing experience and adding one of the softest, most cushioned, writing grips on the market. That type of feel isn’t for everyone as it does add to the diameter of the grip, even accounting for the added squishiness. It is a popular and well-loved feature across several of their product lines.

The Kuru Toga is even more loved and more respected, as it changed mechanical pencil technology when it launched. For those unfamiliar, the Kuru Toga uses a mechanism inside the barrel to slightly rotate the lead every time you pick it up from the page. This allows your pencil tip to wear evenly and write consistent-width lines. My review from 12 (!) years ago shows a test where I didn’t rotate the pencil in my hand for an entire page to see if the technology actually worked. Spoiler alert: It did.

And it continues to do so to this day. I think it has made writing with mechanical pencils better, and sent the competition scrambling for something new they could compete with.

That said, you may not need what Uni is selling you in the Kuru Toga. From a note-taking and writing perspective, it’s great. But what if you are an artist or designer and need different line widths, edges, and shading density? Then the Kuru Toga isn’t going to fit your needs as well as a traditional mechanical pencil.

Notes on my writing sample: I used the Alpha Gel Switch with four different grip types. From top to bottom: Kuru Toga setting with fixed grip, Hold setting with fixed grip, Kuru Toga setting rotating the pencil in my hand, Hold setting rotating the pencil in my hand. As you might guess, if I work the graphite into an angle using the Hold setting and then switch to the Kuru Toga setting, it will take a couple of lines to normalize the shape of the lead again. This begs the overarching question of this entire product - why?

What if you could have both? The lead rotation of the Kuru Toga and the fixed writing of a traditional pencil are both available in the Uni Alpha Gel Switch. The issue I’m having is that I haven’t discovered the use case for that combination yet.

For starters, if the Alpha Gel grip is the big selling point, you can already buy it in a standard Kuru Toga model, as well as a standard mechanical pencil model. If you need the lead rotation of the Kuru Toga without the Alpha Gel grip there are dozens of options out there, too. What is the use case for both systems in one pencil? The student artist is all I can think of, and that is even a stretch. To me, it feels like this:

Despite the fact I cannot figure out the perfect use case for why this pencil exists, I do know one thing about me and what I look for in products: I’d buy the Uni Alpha Gel Switch again 10 out of 10 times. I just don’t know what I am going to use it for.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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