I’d like to share with you my old pencil 
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This thing is just beautiful. Together with the Alphamatic it is one of my favorite designs.
Hope to score one in the future, there was one recently on mercari, but the cap had a deep cut.
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While I mostly don’t care about Faber-Castell, the TK-matic L and alphamatic are some of the finest pencils ever produced. And the TK-matic L, in particular, features the best automatic mechanism I’ve used.
Your specimens are gorgeous! 
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Totally agree with everything you said!
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I find Alphamatic tip to be too wobbly. Just like Automac. Anyone else? Maybe somehow mine is a lemon. TK on the other hand is a work of pure functional art. And the best thing is that they don’t cost a ridiculous sum of money.
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The TK-matic is perhaps the best automatic pencil in existence. Like you, I don’t love the alphamatic, and I also think that conical tip style—common on automatics—just isn’t the best tip for the task.
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Have the green, the L and the alpha in Bronce. Definitely among my favourites, by this same order. The L is probably the best one, but I like the touch of the plastic body better and in this case it’s just outstanding. Plus, plastic body and metallic grip section puts the centre of gravity right where it should be imho.
To the touch the L is very good too, a bit like the smooth and solid feel you get from the Lamy Unic in steel.
Just wish the erasers were easier to find, I need to replace one or two.
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I have to wonder if you’ve gotten problematic examples. For instance, the Automac had some complaints of a wobbly tip, while others didn’t experience it. I have 2 of them now (one silver, one black) and they’re good. I don’t really feel any tip wobble. Same goes for my FC Alphamatic.
Btw, speaking of the TK-Matic… anyone see this?
Black! I thought it was produced in only green or as the “L” with metal body.
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Indeed, there is a black version — I think it is known as the TK-Matic “S” (presumably, for “Schwartz”, i.e. black in German) — and is exactly as sleek and stylish as it seems from the pictures. 
You can find info about this variant on this site, I remember at least a couple of thread mentioning it.
The black version seems considerably rarer than the green counterpart, and it can be sometimes found as an advertisement pencil, with secondary markings opposite the silver imprint.
Then there is, if I remember correctly, some sort of TK-Matic prototype with grey barrel (the same grey hue used in the Alphamatic “anthrazit”, or a slightly more pale version), no silver imprint anywhere, and a more unassuming look. (Or it’s just a frankenpencil of some sort, who really knows…)
I deeply love TK-Matics and Alphamatics: the former are among the best drafting pencils around, and the latter, when equipped with soft lead, can provide one of the best jotting experience I could achieve with mechanical pencils. I think those were the first “special” MP’s I read about, and the first “serious” puchases I attempted, even venturing on different-extension Ebay websites to catch one at the right price.
I’ve heard that the Executive Alpha is really something else — even better than the Titanium one — and right on this site I discovered the existence of the Alpha Exclusive, which I now crave hopelessly, because the stock is close to nil, and the prices are gradually ramping up, even for relatively lower-level pencils in that family.
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From the dark side!
Erm… okay… bye…
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Duh! How have I never put that together?
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(I’m going to join Level 1 at the Goethe Institut at the embassy in Lisbon to learn German soon, something I’ve always wanted — I don’t really know why. This need I can’t really explain has always been there.)
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Interesting. Well, given how these two were bidding, I have to expect the high bidder would’ve gone higher… probably stopping around ¥25k. Anyway, knowing their rarity, I’ll keep a more vigilant eye out. Curious that FC never made the TK-matic in navy or red, as seen in the Alphamatic.
I was so glad to finally get a TK-matic L. And I agree, it’s a terrific pencil. The automatic lead feeding works pretty well. They were smart to round the lead pipe perimeter just enough to mitigate rough travel on paper (required to advance lead). I have just one Alphamatic and I really love how it writes. I don’t experience any noticeable tip wobble with mine. Reasonably precise and nicely comfortable. Do you have any TK-matic pencils in the 0.7 mm size? I’ve never come across one.
For a while I’d been watching ebay.fr and ebay.de, but was just not getting lucky. I picked up my Alphamatic and 2nd TK-matic L on YAJ.
I think, but this might be quite a wild guess, that they tended to stick to green (and black) because those were the main colours for their drafting lineup: as far as I remember, basically all FC classic drafting leadholders came just in green, with some rarer/outsider models in a dark shade which ranges between purplish night blue (FC 4802 “Partout” in 2mm) and straight black (FC 9745 in 0.5, FC 4600 “Goldfaber” in 2mm). Hence their choice for the TK-Matics.
The Alphas on the other hand, being free from the drafting sector, could sport other hues, and more flamboyant choices (the red Alpha is delightful, and so are the metal finishes on all the higher-end versions).
To my knowledge, all such pencils strictly came in 0.5mm, and I’ve only seen 0.5 tips in the catalogues available around; other, newer models (e.g. the TK-Fine Vario L) came in 0.7 as well.
I got most of my collection on Ebay (.it & .de), but I happened to find a couple of items in real life: I found one TK-Matic with stuck point and faded imprint at a shop, and convinced the owner to sell it to me for around 6 EUR as a scrap piece (I later unclogged the tip, so that it works fine now), and got one almost pristine TK-Matic L at a local pen show for 10 EUR (the guy was selling FP’s, and had a few pencils he really wanted to get rid of as the result of a bulk purchase of a dying shop, so I just had to hand him the banknote and leave with the MP).
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As Leonov wrote, I also am quite sure they are .5 only.
I have been wondering, if the black one was sold in Germany… I have never (?) seen one at German eBay, but only Japanese or American sources.
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There was a listing for a black TK-Matic on Ebay International not too long ago (within the last couple of years, I think), but it was for an ad pencil with the word “Schütte” written on its back. I found it almost by chance, and only because I regularly visit that seller’s page.
The seller, by the way, is a relatively known pencil retailer on Ebay, from Czech Republic if I remember correctly (Majkycx, maybe?). Apart from that, I agree: this type of pencil pops up way more often on Ebay US than on any European version of the site, at least as far as I know.
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I was very disappointed when I bought an Alpha with plastic body and realised aftrwards the colour was dark grey / anthracite and not black as it looked on the photos. Some sellers on ebay dont add much to the descriptions.