I recently chanced on a listing for a rather obscure Mitsubishi mechanical pencil, which the seller described as a ‘prototype’. Called the “MITSU-BISHI Orena–.5”, the use of a dash before the lead size made me think it could be an import by Yasutomo, the folks who brought in the Mitsubishi Holder 305, aka DEMI–.5 series.
To be honest, I wasn’t all that taken by the design, but the name… the NAME really hooked me. Why? Because ‘Orena’ shared some etymological roots with 2 other modern day ‘gimmick’ MPs: the Platinum OLEeNu from 2009, and Pentel’s Orenz series from 2014. To be sure, I’m not 100% clear about the story behind ‘Orenz’ — something about the pencil being a creative lens? But I personally believe that ‘Ore’ and ‘Ole…’ are drawn from the Japanese word '折れ’、meaning ‘break’. And thus, ‘unbreakable’ would be ‘折れない’ / Ore-nai.
In this close-up, you can see that the Mitsubishi used the whole of the ‘cone’ as a slider support for the lead, which, I found to my surprise, sits in a resin plug instead of a mechanical clutch. It was nerve wrecking removing the fragile plastic shroud to insert the very short piece of ancient 0.5mm lead!
As for the Platinum, ‘OLEeNu’ was a progression from their previous flagship ZeroShin double-clutch series. OLEeNu would somewhat retain that lead-saving function by implementing a spring cushioned supporting sleeve between the tip and the clutch. Pentel, of course, revived the classic solution of a precision machined sliding sleeve as the means to effectively use 0.2mm leads.
Although I have first-gen OLEeNu and Orenz pencils, I decided to pick the darkest / most serious looking ones for this gathering of Ore-kin. The mostly plastic OLEeNu+ MOLS-450 came out in 2016 and was put out to pasture in 2022, while the v2 Orenz Metal Grip 0.2mm came out in 2020.
As far I have been able to research, Yasutomo first partnered Mitsubishi in 1966. So the Orena could have been pre-DEMI given its lack of an actual working clutch.
Every once in a while I crawl back to this post, and marvel at the sight of the Orena-.5 like a sniper spying on its next target.
@drifand , could you please elaborate on what is the feeling while writing with this contraption? — And rest assured I mean the sweetest meaning of the word “contraption” when I utter it in this thread, with even more sympathy than the usual level of awkward attachment to anything vaguely steampunk I come into contact with.
I am particularly puzzled by the writing tip and (missing) grip area: where do the fingers rest or move while the pencil is in use? Does the tip move (i.e. advance or retract) while the tool is operated? Is the bump annoying like some stepped-cone tips where the index fingers can never find a comfortable position?
After all this time, this remains one of the specimens I circle around more, of all the rare oddities I have seen so fare here. Fantastic find, and true conversation piece.
‘Orenn’ / 折れん is a colloquial form of ‘orenai’, while ‘orezu’ / 折れず is a slightly more formal and old-Japanese-ish expression of ‘orenai’ (if you wanna sound like a samurai, use that). When you want to attach a noun after ‘orezu’, the ‘zu’ becomes ‘nu’, forming ‘orenu’ / 折れぬ. The OLEeNU shield actually reads ‘オ・レーヌ’ / O re-nu, the O being separated out from the rest, maybe to sound more foreign and stylish.
Ok I’ve been typing too many ‘ore’ things, might need to refresh myself with some different words like delguard
OK, I finally emerged from storage labyrinth and recovered my Orena pencils and took some pictures of the red version. Here are additional details on the patent pending sliding tip mechanism.
The translucent sliding tip has detents to ‘lock’ it in place to prevent accidental movement. This photo shows the forward locked position so that the pre-cut lead pieces do not protrude.
Here’s the slider piece fully removed with a gentle tug. Note the dovetail cutout at the back, which needs to be aligned to the ‘arrow’ when re-inserted. This is detailed in the instruction sheet below.
Wait a second. Is that an “-s” at the end of the word?
How many pencils are we talking about exactly here? I count one in red and one in black now. Is there anything else? Is there a lesser-quality specimen available for trade? Asking for a friend…
@Leonov … but, it has a CLIP!
I got the Orena in red and black as a pair in an auction, but they only came with one set of papers. As stated in the instruction sheet, there is supposed to be one more variant in green! Strangely enough, I have not seen the Orena for sale anywhere else, although I keep checking radomly every couple of weeks. With its history I would think it is more likely to be found in the USA and on eBay rather than anywhere else…
A removable clip. The adjective makes all the difference. I can already picture the clip seamlessly sliding off, leaving a bare and smooth barrel rotating in one’s hand while writing. This trick has worked with almost all of my pencils.
Alas, that plural had me hoping for a surplus of a few more pieces, but I reckon that, in such a specific case, two is the bare minimum number of specimens one may want to keep, even just only in case of breakage, to fix the favourite one with pieces from the spare. I shall keep an eye on the Bay for such arcane monstrosities, maybe the green lizard will manifest some day.
[The red one is magnificent, but in this case I lean towards the black piece more, seems to me it better suits the colour of the sliding front plastic shield. I wonder what shade of green could be the green one.]
I can already picture the clip seamlessly sliding off, leaving a bare and smooth barrel rotating in one’s hand while writing. This trick has worked with almost all of my pencils.