Part Five of my reviews...... October 25, 2016

Part Five of my reviews... following on from the Uni Shift.



A lot of people have been raving about the Kuru Toga so I was curious. I only bought the least expensive plastic version to try.



Even if it is the entry-level version, it feels nicely solid and well-made. In fact, it feels more solid and well-made than its much more expensive stable-mate, the Shift. It's comfortable in use, even for quite long writing sessions and it's been reliable.



But it all rides on the special lead rotation mechanism which is supposed to automatically keep an even, sharp point on the lead as you write.



The mechanism definitely works but for me it only works when I'm making an effort to write so that it will.



The first issue I had is that I am used to writing with pencils and found it quite difficult to stop rotating the pencil and let the mechanism do it for me.



The next is that I tend to write in cursive. The mechanism works by rotating the lead each time you lift the pencil from the page. If you don't lift the pencil much, it doesn't rotate the lead enough. I found that even doing pages of maths (as I do) it wasn't working. Printing in capitals showed off the mechanism best. It formed a perfect conical point on the lead and produced fine, even lettering. It's just a pity that I rarely write in capitals.



I also made things worse by swapping to 4B lead. I love the 4B lead because it produces a nice line with very little pressure but, unfortunately, very little pressure is not ideal for the Kuru Toga mechanism and tends to result in very little rotation of the lead.



Finally I also realised that I don't particularly want a fine line all the time. I like the way the soft leads make a chisel point so I can have a wider line most of the time or as fine as I like if I turn the pencil.



None of this is really a flaw of the pencil and if you write in the right way, with enough pressure and want the fine line then it is very good. For example, I assume that it was invented for complicated multi-stroke Japanese characters and I imagine it is excellent for that.



Even if the rotation mechanism didn't really work for me, I would have been tempted to keep using the Kuru Toga anyway because I just like the feel of it - except for one thing. Presumably because of the rotation mechanism, the tip has a LOT of play in it.



The wobbly imprecise tip is too much of a price to pay, for me, for a rotation mechanism that doesn't do a lot for me in a pencil which isn't pocket safe.



Next... Staedtler 925-35

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