Dear fellow Knockologists,
It is with great pleasure that I would like to finally introduce my personal project with Lindsay from IJ Instruments: the Elkarios Varidraft.
I first came up with this design during Summer of 2025, after I began brainstorming what the ideal pencil body shape would be for my style of grip. After some ergonomics studies, as well as trying out an extensive number of extant models of mechanical pencils, I finalized the first draft on paper in June:
At this point it was still just an idea that I had, but I had known IJ Instruments to produce custom and finely machined mechanical pencil bodies for Pentel mechanisms, around which I had designed my own model. An e-mail turned into a lengthy chain as we finalized the design for production - 5 pieces, three 0.5mm models in black and two 0.3mm models in silver, machined from aluminium and anodized (a process which Lindsay is incorporating for the first time for this project!).
I had considered other materials, including steel, brass, and titanium, but decided on Aluminium mostly due to the finished weight and finish. During early stages, steel and brass were immediately disqualified due to their projected weights - 43 and 46 grams respectively! - and though titanium was also good, the machining complexity of the design unfortunately precluded it.
These are the renders from the finalized design, which then went into production… for 8 months!
It ended up taking much longer than expected, partially due to the anodization process, but today I finally received images of the completed product, which is to be shipped to me this following week.
Without further ado, the Varidraft!
The project is not fully finished yet, as I intend to experiment with various other Pentel nose cones from compatible models once I receive these pieces in hand. When I do, I will be sure to post more photos here for your enjoyment. Thank you for reading, and welcome to all comments!
