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My Kuru Toga pencil purchase was an impulse buy – I was browsing Amazon.com looking for a gift for a friend when I noticed the Kuru Toga pencil set.  I figured that my desk could use a touch of class and so decided to order it.  At $3.88 it is a decent investment in a pencil considering that I can get 10 BiC mechanical pencils for $4.67.  However I justified this extravagant purchase by noting the box of lead and two erasers (+1 in the pencil) that came in the package.  Additional justification was provided by the fact that the lead was infused with diamond (!) and according to its description it is ‘the most advanced mechanical pencil ever‘.

Kuru Toga Engine

The Kuru Toga pencil’s highlight is the Kuru Toga engine – based on my non-knowledge of Japanese I’d say that the name comes from Kuru which means to turn and Toga which means to sharpen.  I also found this out by searching Google for five minutes.  True to its name, the Kuru Toga engine rotates the pencil lead a tiny bit every time you lift up while writing.  This means that you’ll always have a sharp edge to write with as long as you remember to push down hard enough to prime the engine and lift up sometime during your writing.  The rotation of the lead can be observed by viewing the logo through the translucent window or by squinting your eyes and looking at the lead while pushing the tip in and letting it pop out.  In practice the Kuru Toga engine doesn’t always give you the sharp tip – it generally rotates to give you a enough of an edge  to keep your writing sharp.  The mechanism makes no noise and is generally invisible in its operation, just lean back and enjoy the sharpness of lead.

Details

The pencil comes in a package that looks exactly like the package shown on the Amazon website.  There are two pieces of lead in the pencil and an eraser so the pencil is ready to go out of the box.  The eraser is small and won’t last long, but when working at this level you really should have a separate eraser in your writing arsenal.  The diamond infused lead is tough yet soft, it writes well like a HB grade should but doesn’t break and leave that annoying little piece in the tip like most other soft leads.  Despite being almost all plastic, the pencil has slight-to-decent heft to it and is balanced towards the writing end.

The eraser is visible through the translucent top which gives you a real time view of its status.  Pulling the eraser off reveals a hole through which additional lead is inserted.  The traditional backdoor of inserting the lead through the writing side is also supported, giving you two methods to support lead insertion.

Overall

I’m pleased with the Kuru Toga pencil.  The dark cylinder with the blue and chrome highlights adds style and a touch of class to my desk.  The writing is smooth with a well balanced pencil.  The build quality is excellent, much better than those 10 for $4.67 pencils.  I carry it around with me and it just screams out ‘class!’ and ‘high technology’ in every meeting I attend.  This is my first foray into the world of designer pencils so I don’t know if it is a good value but at $3.88 it doesn’t break the bank.

Pros
Class!
High Technology!
the most advanced pencil ever
Value pack comes with lead and extra erasers

Cons
Expensive?