A couple people have reported tip wobble/rattle, but I guess I got lucky. All 3 of my specimens feature airtight knocking and zero perceptible wobble (even when the tip of my index finger slips down onto the interior nose cone).
As far as the slight protrusion on subsequent knocks is concerned, I’m torn—many double-knocks exhibit this behavior (rOtring Tikky metallic, Amazon Basics), but of course, others do not (Blick Premier Pro, Colleen Jib double-knocks, Pentel ROLLY, Pilot hi-mecha).
After messing with a few pencils, I kind of want to judge double-knocks that have this second knock protrusion… but the movement is so slight—especially on my brass specimen—that it barely registers for me. (The aluminum and black specimens are noticeably worse.)
With that said, I stand by my claim that the Manufactum Druckbleistift is a top modern pencil. The first knock action is sublime; the material quality is high enough to pass muster; and it’s unquestionably the finest true double-knock in production today (I do not consider the S30 to be a true double-knock).
Yup I used gun blue and a torch. It’s made for steel but can also oxidate brass.
Bluing brass can be very inconsistent if the surface is too smooth. First I put the parts on my lathe and spun up to jewelers’ 40. Then I hit it with a 400grit wheel on my flex shaft.
Lots of dips and heat and buffing between each.
For some reason the more I reuse the formula the better results I can get. Clean/fresh juice just doesn’t seem to work as well with brass.
Now, is this just a thin layer that will oxidize or wear off over time? Or does the gun blue deeply penetrate into the metal? I once did this to a copper flashlight. It actually turned out pretty well.
I might be inclined to do this just to the grip section. Would be an interesting contrast to the rest of the brass.
Your natural oils will burnish it over time which is a good look. A scratch however, will result in revealing the brass. Also not a bad look in my opinion.
I call this coloring “toasted” and sometimes add a layer of wax to give it an extra layer of seal.
I think that “mushy” tip movement feeling you get with the rOtring 800 when knocking is at the outer limit of tolerance for me. I really don’t use it much any longer, although I still like to fiddle with it from time to time. Too many pencils… But on the Druckbleistift, I agree that it’s not very noticeable.
I have to wonder what’s the design difference that causes that movement. Heck, the BLICK Premier doesn’t have it and that’s a $15 USD pencil. So it’s hard to believe it’s due to cost cutting. Perhaps there are 2 different paths one can take with a double-knock design and in one of them, you can’t avoid that tip movement.
This is what I’m thinking. From the looks of it, the pieces that don’t exhibit the movement while knocking have nose cones that could limit forward travel beyond a certain point.
The Blick Premier Pro, for example, has stepped gradations inside the nose cone that limit interior travel. With enough pressure, you can overcome this limitation to perform the closure knock. Any pressure short of that simply extends the lead… without causing the lead sleeve to bump forward during the knock.
I would love to know if the Druckbleistift’s designers considered this kind of thing when finalizing the knock
For what it’s worth, retractable double-knocks with side buttons seem to exhibit this behavior almost universally, but it seems muted if the retraction button lies under the clip (like the ROLLY or Ohto Grip500).
