Kuru Toga Wood vs Kuru Toga Metal

[drifand]

This mini review is pretty late relative to the release date, but the Wood Model just arrived on Friday here in Singapore. I picked up the Forest Green edition as I felt the color was a better complement to the brown of the wood grip. The other option is officially Steel Grey but it actually appears bluish in person. I think warmer hues like red and orange will probably work better if the dark brown wood stays constant.

For this quick shootout, I thought it would be fun to mix it up a little for the Metal so that it would have a two-tone look like the Wood. In this case, as an urban or industrial counterpoint to ‘Forest Green / Wood’ I chose ‘Phantom Grey / Nocturne Black’.

The upper shaft has the same mild processing of closely spaced concentric grooves, and Uni has kept the proportions identical, except for a little bit of flare on the wood grip towards the tip. As suggested on Reddit, this could be due to the need for screw threads on the front end of the grip while the rear end is simply a glued down solution.

This results in a slightly heavier front end which shifts the balance point forward by a couple of millimeters for the Wood model. Probably imperceptible in use. The more significant issue is that the change in production design for the interconnect piece means users cannot simply swap the upper from a Metal model onto a Wood grip, alas!

This is a similar situation with earlier models of the KT family. The Roulette (knurled grip or ‘Elite’) had an identical upper half with the High-Grade (sculpted metal grip), but the reversal of glued sections locked out a swap for customised colors. I had wanted to make an all-silver High Grade 0.3 but came to realise I would have to destroy one or more pencils in the process and may still up with subpar results. (puts idea away)

I think one other comment I have seen is that the wood appears to have pitting and occlusions. I think this part is subjective: I find it charming and helps to differentiate from the ‘processed perfection’ of something like the Pilot S20’s wood-resin material. I have no doubt Uni will explore other wood types just like they have on their Jetstream 4+1, or even a crossover with their Pure Malt oak wood series (long may it live!).

[Earl_of_Knurl]

Annoying they switched direction with the thread, I’m not a fan of the Kura Toga because I value variable line width, but I was hoping it would be interchangeable like the Pilot S10 and S2O’s grips - not that it would really be worth it in this case. The wood grip is an unusual design choice in general really but I’m certain it’ll find its fans.

[metal_punching_grip]

I always thought that the KT Metal was in one part. Now you tell me that one can separate the grip from the body… but it’s incompatible with anything else. I don’t know if I should thank you or resent you for that

[RPD]

Thanks for the nice writeup! Always appreciated.

As the wood pencil nerd, I need to comment on this one

The kuru toga wood has a grip from a wood called “Wenge”. It’s a very nice hardwood that can be polished to a high gloss finish. However, it’s also famous for splintering very easily. I think that the small irregularities in the grip are due to this. Most probably in their production process they’re not turning it carefully enough. Of course, this is a cost cutting measure.

Pilot’s take on the wooden pencil mass production is to use what’s called “stabilized wood”. You infuse resin (plastic) in the wood to give it stability and color. This allows them to use cheaper woods (Wenge is definitely not cheap) while achieving better finishes.

I find this wood model a bit lazy, to be honest. It’s like they just wanted to jump on the wooden pencil trend with their popular model. It sold very well, so I guess good is good enough. But I prefer the regular metal model!

[drifand]

Found the closest match to the shade of metallic Forest Green in my Sharbo Nu in Dark Viridian. Luckily it also features matte black accents for its cone and clip.

[cytherian]

Interesting to hear about the wood being wenge. The first time I heard of it was by Acqua di Parma. They had a limited edition cap for a couple of their 180 ml fragrance bottles, made out of wenge wood. Very grainy wood but a nice color. The finish was a little rough in places and now I understand why, based on what you said.

I’ll have to upload some photos later.

[cytherian]

I don’t recall the precise year, but I believe Acqua di Parma released this limited edition wenge-wood cap on a couple of select fragrances sometime in the 2000’s. At the time, you could find mention of it on their website and it lingered for about 6~8 years. But then, mysteriously, it vanished. There’s no archive page of past releases for this brand.

I had posted about it on a couple of fragrance related forum sites, but those pages are no longer searchable due to some sort of site restructuring. I’ve never seen anyone else post about them. I have a watch on eBay for the brand with “wenge” and nothing has come up for about 10 years.

Anyway, Lalique has a fragrance called L’Encre Noir and they used wenge wood for the cap (allegedly).

I know… “what does this have to do with pencils?” You know me, I’ve got all sorts of non-sequitur trivia to offer up.

Anyway, yes… one of my other hobbies was vintage fragrances (men’s and unisex). I’ve since tapered off on that quite a bit, but still enjoy some classics that are either discontinued or have been reformulated to mediocrity or trash.

[drifand]

My exposure to men’s fragrances is limited to Old Spice and Drakkar Noir

[cytherian]

YSL Jazz Prestige (mid 1990’s). Similar to Drakkar Noir, but so much richer & smoother.

[Leonov]

I have a little story about the wenge wood.

I was at a venue along lake Como, for a summer school in theoretical Physics, many years ago, while I was doing my Ph.D.; the organisers had arranged a lecture room with old blackboards, old desks, but above all an old teacher’s pointing stick (around 1m long, and 1cm diameter), with square section instead of round as it always occurs, which every speaker used to highlight the main conclusion of the topic presented session after session.

Being the old-tools-lover I am, I was mesmerised by the stick, and even tempted to try leaving lake Como with it (of course, it was impossible to conceal it, so no chance at becoming a thief there) and as soon as I got back to Trieste, I started plotting a way to add a teacher’s stick to my own collection: I found a woodworker I could trust, took measurements to find the best proportions, looked around for possible varieties of wood, and finally agreed upon an order of one of those sticks.

The woodworker, who turned out to be a bit of an artist, produced three different sticks, with different finishes, lengths and materials, and was unable to decide which one to sell me (he also took the liberty of making two versions with a cylindrical section, and only one with a square section); when presented with the three possibilities, I was unable to decide which one to pick; in the end, I paid for all three sticks, and brought them home with the largest smile on my face.

The longest one, closer to a spear and almost as tall as me (1,65m), was made of wenge wood; all three pieces are lightweight yet powerful, effective and marvellously balanced, pleasant to the touch; they are precise — sharp, I’d say. They are, basically, woodcased pencils to write magic spells in the air. I love them all.

Whenever I bring one of those in a classroom, I get very excited reactions: no one is used to see such teaching implements, and I enjoy their marvel at the unbeatable power of the analog devices.

[Gunther]

That’s a beautiful story!