Pentel Q355, 1980
Cool.
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I got a new toy. Not sure of the exact vintage, but it’s a 600-series Rotring Trio multipen, maybe mid 90s?, before they swapped over to the smooth-grip Newton series? The first runs I think had the full “Rotring 600” branding written on the barrel, this one is plain. Whatever the case, it has seemingly the original German Rotring branded Blue and Red ink refills along with the 0.7mm mechanical pencil mechanism. These are gravity fed by holding the pen with the label of the insert you want to use facing up and then clicking down the button at the top. Button locks down, remains clickable if you are using the pencil for extending the lead. To retract, instead of clicking the button again, you rotate a knurled ring between the button and shirt clip. Similar to the retract mech on the current 800. Kinda wobbly+mushy lead extension click feel like the 800, as well. Has a kind of general overall pleasant worn-in metal-on-metal feel like a nice old car. Heavy, solid brass. I will maybe carry it around because it looks cool and I want people to like me. I otherwise didn’t have a decent 0.7mm pencil.
Here it is with the rest of my pencils.
Came across one of these, IRL-style, a little while ago, and played with it. That thing is cool as hell.
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I got a new pen. It is a Jinhao 51A with a maple wood body. The Jinhao 51A is a clone/homage of/to the Parker 51 fountain pen and shares that pen’s distinctive ‘hooded’ nib section and dimensions. It is produced in lots of finishes, transparent plastic, enameled metal, etc and one additional longer size. It cost $8 shipped on Amazon, I think they’re even cheaper on Aliexpress/etc.
Seems okay. I put some Platinum Carbon black ink into it, which I have been using in my Muji pen so I can paint over its lines, which hasn’t clogged that pen up yet, but we’ll see. I got this Jinhao to have a slightly thinner line option and also because I am bored what is life now, etc. Maybe one day I’ll get a Parker 100 or 50 or go deeper down the hole with all the other “Hoodies” and “Natural Nibbers”.
I have a confession. I actually bought two pens, because I couldn’t decide on the body material. I’m only gonna keep one though, I am a good boy. Attached below please find photographs comparing these two 51A variants alongside the 1951-produced Parker 51 mechanical pencil that I bought a couple years ago from a pen degenerate in an abandoned mall that was/is? partially converted into a large indoor flea market.
I have another confession to make. I actually bought a third one of these but it never arrived. Bye.
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I also bought one of these, research informs me, approx. 9 months ago? I have an old parker 51 that likes to belch blots between writing way too wet, at base, and wanted to see how the clone would compare to it + my previous (dismal) experience with very cheap Chinese fountain pens.
It’s
Very OK!
Solid thick-for-me line when I want to write very large (for me) on index cards/brain vomit. Can choke on the usual tiny, cramped lettering my Writing Deliberately produces.
love 2 have the tactile experience of The Doing tied so closely to The Mode of Thought yes mental illness forever hand in mine YES
If you are also a sicko who loves to look at pictures of pencils and pens on the internet I am here to suggest that you might like looking at this gentleman’s posts:
like say these fine displays of discontinued Faber Castells and retractable Colleens, wowee
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Are the ends dials for indicating the softness of lead you’ve loaded?!
I’m not sure if you, like, rotate an inner cylinder with the lead hardness markings or rotate the outer sleeve with the window, on these.
In the second pic, I think the knurling/dials that are aligned are the spots on each that you turn to adjust how much lead comes out per click.
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Very good
surprising I haven’t posted itt yet
current daily drivers: uni ball vision elite, blackwing 602, zebra sarasa push clip 0.4, uni ball Signo DX 0.38
Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Field Notes, and Caliber (CVS brand) paper
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noice
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bought one of these recently, decently lightweight, very slick in the hand, and a retractable tip so it’s relatively pocket safe. quite nice. altho i’ve already misplaced it, i’m constantly losing pencils smh. also constantly losing the eraser caps
my other mechanicals:
dearly departed: (dropped it somewhere)
(didn’t actually like this one v much)
finally i will someday purchase a rotring, hopefully one with a retractable tip, but the plastic one may make more sense…
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lol i got a rotring in the like starter pack when i tried to study industrial design, i didn’t realize it was like… the fanciest
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thinking about buying something silly… like a 0.9mm pencil with 4B lead… pencil that’s basically a graphite Sharpie
I have some wooden Tombow 2B’s that smear a lot unfortunately, but there are mechanical pencil leads formulated to smear less
nice
i’m looking at
some tools
from top: blackwing 602, blackwing 10001 Ltd edition, camel HB, Mitsubishi hi-uni HB (General “the miser” pencil extender), tombow mono 100 HB, tombow mono 100 F, tombow 8900 2B
points courtesy of a KUM long point sharpener (cheap must have)
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This is such a smart idea that seems so obvious now that I’m seeing it.
Also:
heh
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yeah there’s a couple different models of pencil extender, this one isn’t great but gets the job done
still thinking about that perfect mechanical pencil lead… my fav wooden pencil is the mono 100 in HB or F, would love to get something that dark but with that level of durability