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Bandai Namco Sun-star Nocfree Metal

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“A so-so mechanical pencil with auto-advance feature”. Said the Potato.


Well I’m always curious about pencils equipped with auto lead advance ever since I heard about the KT Dive and Orenz Nero, and even more after I tasted the greatness of the Faber-Castell alphamatic and TK matic. So for the Sun-star Nocfree Metal it’s not an exception. To be fair, there is more than the auto-advance that make this pencil interesting to some : the metal body, the grip design and the Bandai Namco name itself.

It only comes in 0.5mm, and the pipe is not fine enough. For comparison, let’s look at the Pentel Orenz Nero, which actually cares about the relative size between the guiding pipe and the lead itself. On the Nocfree Metal, we see a clunky design. If you maintain a straight posture, you have to squint really hard to see where the lead touches the paper surface. Or, you can try to “feel” it, good luck with that.

The cone is brass, the body is aluminum, and the cap is plastic. The internals and the clutch are also plastic, rendering the center of gravity slightly toward the tip (the yellow dot in the second picture). A hard shell covering an elastic internal gives me the image of a snail. And I hate snails. Just look at that clutch… *sigh*. A plastic clutch is not necessarily a bad design, but when they so focus on metal in their advertisement, I expected more.

The grip is useless; they replaced one slippery thing with another slippery thing. I can barely feel it, and when I try to, I lose the feel of the pencil entirely. The bare aluminum grip is actually better than those parallel plastic lines.

The clip is so-so, like the KT Dive, but less strong. The cap has a small hole through which lead could theoretically slip out since there is no eraser, but I challenge anyone to actually make the leads go out through that hole. I don’t know what the purpose of that hole is; every hole should have a purpose. This one isn’t big enough for child-protection regulations, yet it’s small enough to make me question its existence. If I were being pedantic, I would say the hole is there to reduce pressure inside the tube while the pencil is in use. OH WAIT, it’s also for reloading leads into the pencil without removing the cap.

The writing experience is not bad. The tip is very responsive, and since the pipe is not overly refined but well-chamfered at the edge, the scratchy feel is negligible. Regardless, I write mostly on Midori MD paper, which is normally smooth enough to boost every pencil to a whole new level.

Welp, the “short review” was a lie. Anyway, I think this is not a bad pencil, but it isn’t an exceptional one either. I feel like Sun-Star made this pencil to be given away as a gift for someone buying a Gundam.

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Zebra Rint 0.3mm vs Pentel ORENZ PP503 0.3mm

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Two sliding-pipe mechanical pencils for people who like to write without being afraid of lead breakage.

Both have plastic barrel, brass clutch. RINT is a bit lighter but not so significant. While many Zebra pencils focus on “unbreakable lead” (like the DelGuard), the Rint was designed with a completely different philosophy: visibility and posture. Zebra marketed this pencil under the idea that if you can’t see what you’re writing, you slouch and ruin your posture

The pipe : This part is what the ORENZ and the RINT are all about. I test on Oxford and MIDORI papers without any problem, my writing style doesn’t produce any scratchy feeling, but it does make noise, but that noise is music to my ears. Interestingly, the sliding pipe on the ORENZ can be removed without any effort. Meanwhile, the RINT’s part refuses to pop out, but its movement is very unidirectionally smooth. On RINT, the pipe has a fixed part and the moving part which render the whole sleeve a bit longer, I like this approach, as it makes even easier to see where the tip is, useful for drawing small details, 4~5mm exposed (a bit overkill, as ORENZ has already been doing this job very well, 3~4mm exposed). RINT features one of the longest pipes in Zebra’s history.

The cone : ORENZ is 100% metal, RINT has metal tip and a plastic part for the rest. This was intentional, the dark resin coating is to reduce reflection, hence helping to concentrate on writing better. Both has plastic barrel curves inward as it meets the metal tip, further clearing the “visual field” around your paper.

The barrel : nothing much to say, ORENZ has many colors, RINT has some variations. Luckily I found my favourite pigment on both, presented in this set of photos. RINT’s barrel has an opaque finish but there is 1cm near the tip it’s made glossy, and the diameter is slightly expanded there, acting as a stopper for slippery hand (it’s not slippery to begin with anyway). ORENZ’s grip is getting smaller toward the tip, but it does have some indents to increase the friction.

The eraser : for those who care, ORENZ’s eraser is much longer and usable, while RINT’s is shorter (and cuter imo), more likely acting as a lead stopper.

The cap : RINT has a hole on its cap. Not a wow factor, but it reminds me of EU requirement which I strongly support.

The clip : ORENZ has its own design and RINT has a very basic design. From my experience, ORENZ’s clip is very easy to rust.

The lead size (in mm) : ORENZ 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7, RINT 0.3 0.5

Arts, Graphic design

Found a box of old Pentel Sharp

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Lost count of how many P20x in my drawer, but there is always space for more of these. Such timeless design.

Although the inside is not its original content (black P205), but it’s even better, a set of For Film Sharp, these were designed to use on semi-transparent film paper which was quite popular to architects and engineers for technical drawing. And some other retractable Pentel Sharp with out-of-product colors.

Graphic design, Misc, Review corner

Mechanical pencils: Some lessen known manufacturers

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Taking about mechanical pencils, people often hear about big names such as Uni, Pentel, Faber Castell etc. But in fact there are lots of many small business who has unique designs. What they do is manufacturing customized barrel and classical insert (such as Schmidt or Pentel P20x), as a result, we can have some nice metal/wooden pencil instead of commercialized plastic mechanical pencils.

Here is a list of these manufacturers that I know, and this list will be updated whenever I know someone new :

QwerkTools – Heavy Brass Pencils

Toms Studio

S.T. Dupont Line D Medium Mechanical Pencil Black

Blick Studio

Nicolas Hemingway : simple cylindrical design, not really something standout but if you want to metal alternative (also fiber carbon and wood), go have a look.

Modern Fuel

Before Breakfast – Made in England

Everyman Grafton

Meister by Point

Manufactum – Made in Germany

IJ instruments – Very pricey and very solid pencils.

LRD

Parafernalia – Their Revolution Pencil is very uniquement, and this design has something to do with the Centre Pompidou architecture in Paris.

22designstudio – They have concrete body mechanical pencils. Pretty cool.

Review corner

Baignol & Farjon lead holders n°234

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These are some metal lead holders (2mm) which was before the Criterium era.

While I was deep in the hunt for lost Criteriums, I found some even older lead holders, one of them was Baignol & Farjon. They were popular in the 1950s & 1960s, then being grouped with Blanzy-Conté-Gilbert in mars 1979,
and soon after acquired by BIC.

Like those ancient lead holders of the same era, they are metal, super sturdy, and have some special “aura”. Pretty cool to use. The grip is an interesting aspect, on the edge of the hexagonal barrel, instead of on vertex like the Criterium. They’re built like tanks, and after all those years, the paint still stay shiny, much better than any Caran D’Ache I’ve known.

These Baignol et Farjon n°234 were the long version, while there was also n°235 which is shorter. The Criteriums 2603/2613 and 2403/2413 adopted this same approach years later.

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When BIC Criterium was still metal

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BIC Criterium 2mm lead holder

Came across this Criterium by BIC in mint condition this summer, even in its original unsealed package. Back then they made these lead holders in aluminium (Gilbert & Blanzy-Poure, Conté… and some campaigns for S.N.C.F, Baignol et Farjon etc.), adored by french artists. There were 2403 (short) and 2603 (long) ones.

Then, Conté was acquired by BIC in 1979. For a short period, BIC continued the aluminium model, among them was this Criterium 2603, till the year 2001. It was the last time this lead holder was made in metal. Since then the BIC 2mm Criterium has been made in plastic. While Conté à Paris is still there, it now belongs to the group ColArt, but the name Criterium is still in BIC possession.

Though the current plastic version is not bad, decent even, holding this aluminium Criterium in hand, I was amazed at its quality, but also a bit sad about what happened to the fate of this iconic lead holder. Nothing lasts forever, but what could have been.