Pentel Archives - Bleistift

Yoko Tsuno and the Pentel P205

Leave a Comment / Mechanical pencils, Pentel, Seen in the wild / 31 December 2022 / P205, Pentel, Roger Leloup, Yoko Tsuno

2022 saw the release of the 30th Yoko Tsuno album.

In case you are not familiar with this series ^[1]I came across this series a few years ago for the first time.: In the Yoko Tsuno comics the main character, an electrical engineer, is taking part in adventures all over the world. Stories are usually technology and Sci-Fi heavy.

Beginning of “*On the Edge of Life*” from 1977.

The first story appeared in 1970 and more than 50 years later they are still drawn by Roger Leloup, who is now 89 years old. He is still working on creating more adventures and, according to rumours, the 31st album is already half completed.

As can be seen in the this Kaboom video, Roger Leloup is using Pentel’s P205 to draw his comics. The clip has been removed, presumably to more more comfortable to hold and because the pencils are not being used in pockets anyway.

A few years ago I was quite lucky and managed to get a signed print from Roger Leloup that I want so share here with you.

I believe that the use of the images in this blog post fall under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

References[+]

References
↑1	I came across this series a few years ago for the first time.

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Latex-free grip ‘pips’ for added comfort and control

6 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Pentel / 26 December 2022 / 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 0.9mm, Graphgear, mechanical pencil, Pentel

I really like my Christmas gift: a set of Graphgear mechanical pencils in 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9.

The official price for one in the UK is £26.68 ^[1]except the 0.4 mm version which isn’t officially available in the UK, but you can get a set of five, with different lead diameters, for under £35.

Pentel’s Orenz is a mechanical pencil I use often, but I haven’t had the pleasure of using another one of Pentel’s pencils yet: the Graphgear.

The Graphgear’s design is great. I especially like the retractable sleeve, activated via the clip. The grip section, knurled metal with rubbery dots, officially referred to as Latex-free grip ‘pips’, and lead hardness indicator, as well as the overall construction are also amazing and show a nice attention to detail.

The lead that came with the pencil doesn’t seem to be all HB. The lead from the 0.5 mm pencil is so much softer than the one that came with the 0.4 mm pencil.

I will certainly enjoy using the different lead diameters and retracting the sleeve when I have finished writing… When I write a lot in one go I will probably still want to use a sliding sleeve pencil out of convenience, i.e. to always have the right amount of lead looking out of the sleeve.

References[+]

References
↑1	except the 0.4 mm version which isn’t officially available in the UK

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Pentel in 4XL

Leave a Comment / Pentel / 26 April 2018 / Pentel, t-shirt, Uniqlo

A quick follow-up to the blog post from two days ago.

Today the postman brought a parcel.

It’s one of the new Uniqlo t-shirts!

As reported previously the Japanese Uniqlo t-shirt sizes seem to be a size smaller than the European ones, i.e. a Japanese XL is more like a European L. Funnily enough, this is not consistent across Asia. Chinese sizes seem to be like the European ones, not like the Japanese ones.

Yumiko sent me the Pentel Sign Pen shirt in 4XL. Thank you!

I assume it’s going to be like a European 2XL or 3XL. It’s certainly more than big enough.

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The New T-Shirt Season Has Begun

3 Comments / Links / 24 April 2018 / BIC, Pentel, t-shirt, Uniqlo

You might remember my previous Uniqlo blog posts.

If not: here’s a quick recap. Uniqlo has a series of t-shirts called “The Brands”. As part of this series, Uniqlo cooperates with international brands. Last time this included Pelikan and Tombow.

Well, the new Uniqlo t-shirt season has begun – and there are, again, stationery related t-shirts.

This time: Bic and Pentel.

Japan has more large sized t-shirts available for the new series, but ordering from Japan might not be necessary… when I checked Uniqlo UK I saw that this time they stock three of the four stationery related t-shirts.

I’d like to thank Yumiko for this information.

The images in this blog post have been taken from the Uniqlo website. I believe that the use of the images shown in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service.

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Well, I never! A fake mechanical pencil – Pentel’s Orenz got cloned

5 Comments / Mechanical pencils, Pentel / 23 March 2018 / fake, Mannish, mechanical pencil, Orenz, Pentel, Tian Jiao, Tian Zhuo, Tizo

I love sliding sleeve pencil and am a big fan of Pentel’s Orenz, so naturally, I couldn’t resist when, last year, I saw a fake Pentel Orenz for sale. Well, I say fake, but this copy doesn’t actually pretend to be an Orenz, nevertheless, it is as close as can be…

At the time when I bought it the fake Orenz wasn’t much cheaper than the real thing. I bought mine in November 2017 for £2.23 (~ $3.16; €2.55), but now you can get them for much less (£1.32 or $1.50 with free postage).

Have a closer look at this pencil in my video.

The click-baity title and cover picture are thanks to some ‘advice’ from Techmoan.

Price: November 2017

Exchange rates: March 2018

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