The PILOT H-3003 was moderately used, a good patina of scratches all over (so it was a pretty good price). Micromesh and polish helped restore it back to a more “gently used” state. Mechanism works perfectly. I had one of these already, in better shape… but I’d been keeping an eye out for a heavily used one hoping for a deal on a daily user. Took me about 2 years for an auction that wasn’t met with much bidding competition. There were some harshly lit photos that exaggerated wear, which turned off bidders. I was able to clean it up pretty well, as you can see. This one will be a user pencil in my arsenal.
The Platinum BelAge (in red) is a neat executive style pencil find. I’d had one of these before in olive drab green. Looked like something an Army officer might use.
During a collection reduction I sold it… and since keeping an eye out periodically, I’ve never seen another… up until this one in red turned up. Supposedly Platinum made these in black, green, red, and blue. The clip has a kind of “sword” shape quality to it (perhaps inspired by Pentel’s Excalibur). They’re tough modest sized pencils, with completely metal internal components.
The smallest ones are Mitsubishi pencils. At the bottom is the one I’d gotten in a pencil lot about 5 years ago. Since then, I’d been curious to see another in better shape… but these have been nearly impossible to find. It’s an all metal bodied pencil. No plastic. There’s no rear button, as the whole back section moves when clicked (called “cap actuated”). Anyway, I never thought there were other colors than black. Turns out there’s silver too. These examples came with stickers, but there was a lot of surface pitting. Some of it was debris that I could clean off. The rest is some tarnish that’ll need more aggressive work. The black one is all matte, with polished steel accents. The silver one has two treatments–a glossy grooved front and a more satin finish grooved rear. On both, the center ring has “M I T S U B I S H I” stamped on it, along with the company 3 diamond logo. They’re really well made and pretty tough for the size.