Pentel Orenz 0.5

Another Orenz post.

I bought this Orenz from eBay seller Morgan’s Direct for £4.99 (~$7.30; €6.50).

Pentel Orenz 0.5 mm

0.5 mm, 0.7 mm and the Mannish Line

You might have seen my Facebook post about the recently released 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm version of the Orenz and about the Orenz Mannish Line that will be released in June.

The Mannish Line has some interesting colour combinations. Very tempting.

The UK packaging
The UK packaging

The Orenz in 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm doesn’t seem to be available in Japan. The one I bought was the official UK version, but made in Japan, of course.

The UK Orenz on Silvine Memo Books
The UK Orenz on Silvine Memo Books

The sliding sleeve

The 0.3 mm version of the Orenz needed quite a bit more force to slide the sleeve than the 0.2 mm version, see the sliding sleeve table for more information. This made me think that the 0.5 mm version will need even more force to slide the sleeve, but to my surprise that was not the case. While the 0.3 mm version needs more than 0.1 Newton, the 0.5 mm version needs only about 0.1 Newton. That’s still more than the best 0.5 mm pencil, the Staedtler Microfix S, but as far as I know, this is the best value for a pencil currently in production. Using different leads might result in different values, but both the 0.3 mm and the 0.5 mm version of the Orenz were tested with the original leads they came with.

Great centre of gravity
Great centre of gravity

Vitals

Weight: 10.4 grams
Length: 14.5 centimetres
Diameter of the grip section: ~8 millimetres
Force needed to slide the sleeve: ~0.1 newton

This blog post has been brought to you by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
This blog post has been brought to you by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Conclusion

Overall: it’s a fantastic pencil. Pentel’s pencil designs are very polarising for me, I either love or dislike them, but the Orenz has a design I really love, unlike the P20x series liked by many, but not me.

It’s a shame that this pencil is only available in black. Pentel, please release it in other colours, too.

Pentel Orenz


Price and exchange rate: May 2016.

This mechanical pencil has been added to the sliding sleeve table.

More about the Orenz can be found in these Bleistift blog posts: Pentel Orenz 0.3Peanuts Orenz 0.2The sliding sleeve and the Pilot Color EnoWhy did the sliding sleeve disappear?

…or at The Pen Addict, I Liek Pencils, One Lone Man

…and at Lexikaliker, who was probably the first outside Japan to write about this pencil.

You can read more about Georg Christoph Lichtenberg at Wikipedia.

The notebooks in the photos are Silvine Memo Books.

9 thoughts on “Pentel Orenz 0.5”

  1. Can’t wait to receive this item. Thanks for your review.

    I think that sliding sleeve pencils are the optimal solution for people who write a lot. Not having to push continuously the advance botton, allows to focus more on the thought process. I’m sure that 99% of consumers don’t even know that these pencils exist. You need to embark on a crusade to make these pencils more widely known 🙂 who needs a fixed sleeve pencil? Only people who use the ruler a lot, because it sometimes make the sleeve slide, exposing too much of the lead.

  2. Thank you for your comment.

    I completely agree with you. You would have thought that now that drafting ..and designing ..and work involving precision and (traditionally) rulers is done on computers the mechanical pencils would be adapted to the tasks of the users who usually don’t need rulers, but somehow the sliding sleeve pencils never made a proper comeback 8^(

  3. It is now available in more colours, sorry if I can’t link you to the pentel site but I’m on mobile.

  4. Ah, and the pencil is great! I don’t notice the sliding sleeve dragging on the paper, the mechanism is perfect. It’s the best pencil I’ve used.

  5. Thanks for letting me know. I thought the Orenz was on Pentel UK’s web site, but now I can’t see it there anymore, at least not outside the ‘news’ section. Do you know which colours are available?
    The Pentel Orenz is really great. I think the sliding sleeve version of Staedtler’s Microfix was better, but when it comes to sliding sleeve pencils still in production the Orenz works best.

  6. I’m also constantly on the lookout for a great sliding sleeve pencil. For years the only one I was aware of was the Pentel PS315 sliding sleeve Sharp (a pencil that I’m amazed to see you don’t seem to have reviewed, since it’s been around so long, is still in production, and is relatively inexpensive). It’s been my favorite pencil for years. I also have the PG2 (old-school 0.2m sliding sleeve drafting pencil) and the PS523 (the discontinued 0.3mm version of the PS315). Unfortunately I’ve never found a sliding sleeve pencil in either 0.7mm or 0.9mm. I’m heartened to see your posts about the Orenz line being expanded up to 0.7mm — I’m going to keep my eye out for that.

    I would be interested to see you compare the PS315 to the other pencils you’ve tested, particularly in relation to the force needed to slide the sleeve. I’ve never noticed it being an issue, but I’m curious how it would fare in your tests.

  7. Thank you for your comment.
    I have been looking at the PS315 in the past, but wasn’t able to buy one – so I thought they are not being made anymore. I didn’t put effort into chasing old stock as, strangely enough, I love the look of the Orenz, but somehow don’t like the look of the P200 or PS315. I can see the PS315 on the American Pentel site, but didn’t see one in stores or online in Europe.
    I’ve seen the 0.7 mm version being sold, so I hope you can find one. Amazon Marketplace and eBay often have good prices.
    If I come across a PS315 (or the version with smaller lead diameters) for a good price I will probably buy it – thanks for bringing these to my attention again.

  8. You’re right, it looks like the PS315 isn’t very widely available. I suppose it’s possible they’re phasing them out with the expansion of the Orenz line.

    I haven’t gotten my hands on an Orenz yet (I just ordered a 0.7mm) but I suspect I’ll like the PS315 a little better. Its sleeve only retracts down to 2mm (so you can still use it as a drafting pencil), which makes it so I can still clearly see where the lead is going to mark. On a related note, that’s always been my complaint with pencils that have conical sleeves — the lead’s location isn’t as clear, so precision marking is more difficult. That’s also my complaint about the now discontinued sliding sleeve Sharp, the PS535 (http://www.pentel.com/store/sliding-sleeve-sharp). Its sleeve retracted completely, but with the same range of motion as the PS315:

    PS315 sleeve length: 2-5mm
    PS535 sleeve length: 0-3mm

    … so when the sleeve got short on the PS535 it started to be obscured by the body of the pencil, making it hard to see where it would mark, meaning I had to click more often.

    Anyway, I’d encourage you to check out the PS315 if you can find one. As I said, it’s my favorite pencil. I’ve got something like four of them, to make sure I always have one available even if they’re discontinued. Given your love of sliding sleeves I’d guess you will like it too.

  9. Thank you for your detailed comment.
    I agree about the conical sleeve. Using pencils with a conical sleeve is often (not always) subconsciously annoying to me because of this.

    The PS535 isn’t bad looking. I had a look whether I can see some new old stock, but didn’t find any.

    I will keep my eyes out for both of these Pentels, now. Thanks.

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