Mitsubishi Hi-uni leadholder

[Gunther]

Does anyone know the model number of this Hi-uni lead holder?

Thanks!

[ulfesharpe]

I have the exact same pencil.

I’m not sure there is a model number for it. I’ve always seen it referenced as Hi-uni 2mm.

I believe the sticker tag was ¥800

[Gunther]

Yes, it was ¥800 (I have another one with red button and sticker). – Unfortunately one edge of the clip is slightly corroded on the example shown.

[ulfesharpe]

I was lucky enough to get 3 beautiful specimens of the Hi uni 2mm (2 blacks 1 blue) — I gave away one black one to a person dear to me and sold the blue. The black one remaining is going with me to the grave (or maybe I’ll just ship it to one of you guys 5 minutes before I croak, fedex ups suck though so I’m open to suggestions):

![2|666x500](upload://y7IQ

JkdFshqjvqJUKcwkTH9g8k8.jpeg)

[amjacobs7]

We need succession plans for pencil collections.

Selling them off or willing them to people who don’t care is too much of a let down. I think donating them to a stationery museum could be a good option, if such a thing exists.

But my favorite idea is a specialty lending library that allows vetted enthusiasts to try out rare items without having to spend the time and money to acquire them.

Or maybe geocaches with coordinates shared on this forum… a race to where X marks the spot. Have you seen It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World?

[Gunther]

It looks like you really like that leadholder

The photos are amazing!

[Gunther]

These are great ideas! Very rare pencils may of course not be taken along but only used under supervision

[ulfesharpe]

It is possibly one of my GOAT/top 3 pencils

[Gunther]

Wow! May I ask which are the other two?

[amjacobs7]

Yes, with bait like that we have to know.

[ulfesharpe]

Ahah, well i haven’t tried the top tier Pilots yet (automac E, H-5005 etc) but I’d say the H-1205 is perhaps on my top 3 too… and the Pentel QX is #1

There’s a chance that the Mitsu 2mm is at the same level of the Pilot Holder 2mm or the Uchida D 2mm. I have a soft spot for all those 3 but the Mitsu is simply beautiful (even though the pushbutton is a bit of a show off)

Hard to do this, the Nestler Kaliber is such a unique pencil, probably deserves to be on top too.

[ulfesharpe]

But in reality the pencils I use the most are

• Ohto Horizon (in all its crappy magnificence)
• an old Faber-Castell TK9500 that has the push button in metal
• and a transparent yellow Scott B/2…

So which are really my favourites?..

[amjacobs7]

I agree Pilot H-2105 is one of the coolest drafting pencils ever made.

What Pilot Holder 2mm are you referring to?

I appreciate that ‘favorite in collection’ is different than ‘favorite in use’. Features, aesthetics, rareness, and pedigree are the basis of my feelings for collection favorites. For users, the way a MP lays down graphite in coordination with my thoughts determines its rank.

[ulfesharpe]

Indeed…

Pilot holder is probably in the HH-80x series.

You can see one here with a green turquoise ring in these nice photos from our fellow @drifand

https://www.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/comments/15hszzf/pilots_rings_of_color/

[amjacobs7]

Thought you might mean that one. It is (one of?) the only Pilot 2mm holder. It has a pretty ‘rad’ 80s sensibility, but I haven’t fully warmed to that series for some reason. I guess the design feels half baked to me - as if they cut off the front half of another pencil and screwed on the knurled grip.

I wish the H-X00X had a 2mm offering. And I am not the only one.

[cytherian]

IMHO, that eraser cap really makes the pencil. Just a gorgeous tasteful design. Kudos to Mitsubishi. The complete look of this holder is great. I need to pick up one some day in the future.

[ulfesharpe]

There’s an aspect of usability of this pencil that the photos can’t carry: weight, warmth of the material, pressing the button, the balance, rolling the pencil your hand… in that regard it might be slightly superior to the mitsu even though the design is far less spectacular. Even the rotring 600 2mm doesnt come close (okay maybe perhaps the rotring has a nicer softer “drop” of the lead) becuase it is smaller. This is a big pencil.

Speaking of drop pencils, I forgot to mention the old rotrings 1305 and 1310… Havent found a 1310 yet but the 1305 is a fantastic pencil with all its nice paraphernalia.

[cytherian]

@amjacobs7

I agree Pilot H-2105 is one of the coolest drafting pencils ever made.

There’s so many black knurled grip drafting pencils around, but something about how PILOT crafted this one looks so great. I like the contrast of the steel core to the matte black tip.

[ulfesharpe]

@amjacobs7

I appreciate that ‘favorite in collection’ is different than ‘favorite in use’.

I kept thinking about this — how that is true in most cases but how I’d like it not to be true either —or rather, how perhaps usability (how you simply pick it up because it is the most practical and the “nicest” one) should be part of your consideration of an utensil to make it a favourite in your collection.

After all we collect utensils, just like grandmothers collect brass pans in a line on a wall. (lol okay, I’m pushing it.)

I mean, take a Newman or a refined Sakura Cushion Slide vs. a OHTO Horizon. You cannot be indifferent to the craftsmanship that goes into one of those intricately etched Newmans or how the Cushion Slide is a pre-figuration (like an early scene in a good film) of the hi-tier’d AT Matic. You would easily put any of those in your top list. But at the same time they are a bit old boots too and nothing distinguishes them in terms of usage. They simply become great objects.

Then you pick up a Horizon and you notice right away that it isn’t great, it rattles a bit, the sleeve is soft plastic and all the parts inside are cheap and sometimes it jams (it’s clear the objective was to make a cheap pencil not a museum piece) but it’s just fun and nice to use — the amazing design, moving from a hexagon to a round tip pencil in a perfect seamless gradation that the hand doesn’t notice (that is responding to contemporary industrial design issues)… the clip that has just enough material and machine bends to be called so… either in rest (retracted) or in action such a beautiful pencil to look at… Does it being a rather underperforming shitty pencil when compared to other achievements is enough of a reason not to include it in your faves? Maybe I’m advocating that the distinction between “faves in collection” and “faves in use” should be more indistinct.

I’ve actually come to appreciate how the wobbly tip creates unexpected events and makes your handwriting edgy and new —maybe my training as an artist (*) / painter is now tuned to appreciate that more than a regular very trustworthy pencil tip — but despite my opinion, the way the Horizon lets you write is a value in itself. It’s like a great nib on a fountain pen. That happens because it is a writing pencil not a drafting pencil, it’s not trying to be accurate. As such, hands down, I’m going to include the Horizon in my top 5… Heck, my top 2. There’s the QX, the unisex god or goddess of all pencils and then there’s the Horizon, designed for us humans, a bunch of imperfect creatures. I freakin love it more and more as time passes.

But to speak frankly, it’s kind of absurd to have “favourites”. At least when you’re 50 and making choices and getting rid of all the wtf stuff you’ve accumulated for years… Maybe tomorrow I’ll have a different opinion, idk — maybe I would think differently if I owned a house and accumulation wasn’t a problem. But as it is, I’m liking this metamorphic ability I’m discovering in myself (nothing to do with “woke” or revisionist issues, mind), just being able to be flexible in opinions and likes and expectations — and keeping an eye on how to travel light and free.

Anyway, did I ever mention the Rotring PS-2?

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(*) I don’t like that word too much — I find it terribly posh to announce yourself as such… but there’s no alternatives afaik.

[ulfesharpe]

For reference — pics of a Sakura Cushion Slide