Thanks
I figured something got lost in translation
Possibly a great achievement idk, but suddenly it just looks like a boring writing instrument to me head to toe…
You don’t need to pull a “visconti” or a “GG1000” but that clip is spectacularly dull. Come on, Mitsubishi!
Just bought these. Curious to see how the Nib Damper works. Will report back.
I wonder if they will release another version of this with a bit more weight and call it - Heavy Metal
Where’d you find them? Or - what search term did you use?
I got mine from Mercari. There’s already several listings there and some are starting to show up on YAJ as well.
Use the term " クルトガメタル" or M5-KH 1P.
They will be available at online retailers on April 22, so if you can wait till then, you would be able to buy them from Rakuten or Yahoo Shopping for the retail price of JPY 2750.
Also, what’s up with Mitsubishi’s obsession over creating a meaningless new name for blue with every pencil release - we had Grand Blue, Abyss Blue and now, Silent Blue!
Thanks for the heads up!
Yes I almost always watch his videos! Great production quality (although his releases are always overpriced and get memed a ton on the japanese community)
The mechanism seems to be the kurutoga standard improved engine + that “nib damper” unit (seems like that’s just a plastic piece with some lubrication to reduce noise when the nib unit slides when writing).
I’m surprised that the pencil doesn’t weight much, that’s the magic of aluminium! I want to pick up one at some point.
I can see Abysss and Midnight… but “grand” is rather ambiguous. And… “silent?” I guess this is a play on visual noise and this blue is supposed to be very soft on the eyes?
I understand it’s annoying but there’s no way around it, they’re all different blues
From https://x.com/nobu_stationery/status/1783320312781942819
This is an interesting video I found, it’s how to make the metal into a 0.3 pencil by switching the mechanism with that of a kurutoga standard
There is the Tokyu hands metallic dark navy for advance upgrade which also beautiful.
Has anyone here picked up a Kuru Toga Metal yet? If so, how is it relative to the Roulette and the Dive?
Got em but not used yet.
Just started using mine this week. The Metal is all about the finishing and handfeel. It’s an ultra refined ‘tactile turn’. Very finely milled processing along the entire length of the barrel, with nothing that ‘bites’ the fingers, even on the grooves on the grip. Tip is about as stable as it gets for any generation of KT. I still don’t see much benefit from it to be honest. I like stroke variances.
Edit: My pix on X added here:
So would you say… worth about $20 USD (when it was on sale) or $35 USD (the official price)? After reading a number of opinions about the various flavors of Kuru Toga, I picked up a black Roulette super cheap (less than $9 USD on Amazon; now it’s less than $8 USD for the silver model). Testing it out versus my old KT pipe-slide from about 9 years ago, I can honestly say the Roulette is obviously superior body materials-wise and it seems to perform more securely than the older model.
I thought the KT Metal is supposed to have a newer version of the KT engine… or, if it does… is the performance improvement imperceptible?
Unpopular opinion here: I don’t really care very much about the KT Engine at all. I admire it from a technical perspective but I just can’t be bothered to monitor its effectiveness. While using the Metal, I did a perfunctory scribble test, writing out the alphabet in all caps and lowercase, as block letters and then as cursive. Took a peek at the lead and… yup it’s pointed not chiseled. Pass.
Price wise, it’s actually pretty expensive as an import here in Singapore. I’m privileged to have enough disposable income that I WANT to support local stationers like THINK who make the effort to import such specialities along with occasional gems from Luddite etc. 20-25 USD in a store is about right to me, based on the MSRP and shipping involved.
I thought you liked the Dive. Is it just for the marvel of the KT engine with automatic lead advance and no tip wobble or paper drag, yet you don’t like losing the full control of the lead shape?
I do agree that having full control is kind of nice. There are times when I’ve written a bit and gotten a nice chisel tip, then use that ultra fine tip to draw or write something utilizing that fine edge… but really for the most part, when I write with a pencil, I have an autonomic instinct to rotate the pencil. I don’t know if it’s psychological or subconscious… Meaning, is it the “fidget factor” or do I slightly perceive the lead flattening and then instinctively rotate a little to even it out? But I do it without consciously thinking about it.
The chisel tip is the entire point of a mechanical pencil, IMO.
Oh, the Dive is separate and special. It is the purest expression of a mechanical pencil as a fire and forget ‘pen’. Uncap and write, draw, scribble away - as long as you have a piece of lead already fed into the clutch. That it also turns the lead? I think that makes it a journalling rather than an artist’s tool.