In den vergangenen Wochen habe ich fast ausschließlich Fallminenstifte benutzt. Dabei hat es mir der minimalistische Uchida 1-848-5100 besonders angetan.
Der Uchida macht den Eindruck eines No-name-Produkts, trägt er doch weder Kennzeichnungen noch herstellertypische Merkmale. Die konische Spitze und der zylindrische Korpus sind glatt und schmucklos, und die Eindrehungen am Druckknopf wirken nur auf den ersten Blick wie eine Verzierung: Er sitzt so fest, dass man ihn, wäre er ebenfalls glatt, nur mit Mühe abziehen könnte. Auch der hemdentaschenfreundliche Clip ist schlicht und funktionell.
Mine gespitzt mit dem uni DPS-600
Mit einem Leergewicht von knapp 24 g ist der 135 mm lange und 7 mm dicke Stift vergleichsweise schwer, denn bis auf den Kunststoff-Korpus besteht er aus Metall. Die Verarbeitung meines Exemplars ist gut, wenn auch nicht ohne Mängel, da das Gewinde im Korpus nicht exakt mittig ist. Diese Abweichung fällt jedoch kaum auf und beeinflusst die Gebrauchseigenschaften nicht.
Da sich der Stift von hinten befüllen lässt, nimmt er 2-mm-Minen mit Zwingchen auf, die nicht herausfallen können. – Das Fehlen eines integrierten Spitzers bedaure ich nicht; separate Minenspitzer wie den uni DPS-600 oder den alten Faber-Castell Minfix 50/65 halte ich für wesentlich praktischer und sauberer.
Mine STAEDTLER Mars carbon B mit dem Kunststoff-Zwingchen einer Mitsubishi/uni-Mine
Es ist eine Freude, den Uchida zu benutzen, denn er liegt gut in der Hand, lässt sich trotz des glatten Korpus gut halten, greift die Mine sicher und hat keine beim Schreiben klappernden Teile.
Leider hat Uchida den Stift vor nicht allzu langer Zeit aus dem Sortiment genommen, doch bei manchen Versendern gibt es noch Restbestände. – Für meinen habe ich etwa 17 Euro bezahlt.
Somehow I find this kind of unassuming, understated design very attractive. With the metal claws at the tip of the pencil I thought it must use gravity to advance lead, but then there’s the spring, so does it have the ratchet mechanism after all? About other Uchida offerings, I’m quite fascinated by their continuous feed 0.5mm and 0.7mm mechanical pencils. My impression is that small diameter continuous feed pencils are hard to come by.
I am happy to hear that you like this unpretentious design too. – It’s a plain leadholder. There is no ratched mechanism; the spring keeps the cluth locked (the 1-848-5002 has a ratched mechanism).
Do Uchida really have continuous feed pencils? I haven’t heard of them yet. However, since there is no German distributor for Uchida’s drawing items very few websites are my only source. How is their quality? If I remember correctly the continuous feed pencils which were available in Germany – first and foremost Staedtler’s Marsmatic and Faber Castell’s alpha-matic and TK-matic models – were prone to problems (but this doesn’t keep them from fetching tremendous prices, e.g. on eBay).
Ah, so all the gravity advancement holders should have spring too. That makes sense, it’s silly of me to think otherwise :p
Sorry continuous feed is the wrong word then, I didn’t mean automatic, although that would be indeed make a very special offering. Twist lead advancement might be a more accurate description. By continuous I meant there’s no fixed increment length, but one can continuously rotate and advance as much lead as desired. Uchida Drawing Sharp *, Papermate Sharpwriter and All-American pencils fit this description. From my limited knowledge, the continuous twist mechanism is most often seen on 1.2 – 2.0mm pencils. 0.5 and 0.7mm ‚twist‘ pencils often only use twist for activation and lead is still advanced by ratchet mechanism, consequently lead is advanced at intervals.
Ah, now I see – thank you for the explanation. I have some Uchida Drawing Sharps and a Papermate Sharpwriter, and so far these are the only 0.5 mm mechanical pencils with a twist mechanism I know of; all the other twist-advanced pencils I came across start at 0.7 mm (e.g. the ones from Kaweco). – By the way, the design of the Uchida Drawing Sharp is very unsual.
I totally agree with you. Uchida Drawing Sharp D or S for example are hard to beat in terms of design. What a shame that such great mechanical pencils aren’t produced anymore.
Compared to the design e. g. of the Uchida Drawing Sharp D and S or the Tombow Monotech 500 current mechanical pencils seem to be designed quite conventional as if the manufactures don’t want to take risks.
After reading your review of this Uchida leadholder I ordered it through another site (in English language) which belonged or still belong to bundoki, unfortunately they ran out of stock although it was listed on their website. I got a message that I had to wait, so I have waited for at least 2 months and then came the message: Sorry this lead holder is not available anymore.
Hopefully I will be lucky to get one some day. It is really a very well designed leadholder!
Did you order it at pencils.jp? If yes: It belongs to Bundoki. – What a pity that this great leadholder is discontinued. However, it is great to hear that they have replied – my contact to Bundoki has suddenly broke off last year and I haven’t got a reply to an inquiry at pencils.jp this year.