Finally got around to sprucing up my old TOMBOW Exta Deluxe collection. Some of the gold plated models had some tarnish and light scratches. Polished them up to near mint shape. This isn’t the full gamut of what was available (missing two of them).
I have to admit I didn’t give a lot of thought to the model order. I probably should’ve reversed them. Anyway, here’s how they’re stacked, from front to back:
SH-3000EL - black leather (leatherette?) grip, rhodium plated steel body.
SH-2000AE - white birch wood grip, brushed steel body
SH-5000EL - leather grip, gold plated body
SH-5000AE - maple birch wood grip, gold plated body
(same as #4) with price sticker
I don’t have the SH-3000AE (rhodium plated steel) or the SH-2000EL (brushed steel). Thanks to @RPD (Diego), for translating the wording of the catalog that identifies the woods used. I thought the maple looked more like mahogany and the white birch more like teak. Still, beautiful wood choices. And I like how the same wood for the grip is also used for the eraser cap surround. The white birch appears to be stained and having seen so many examples over the years, the coloration and patterns vary a lot. I prefer the darker ones. The leather on the ¥5000 model has a slight gloss to it. Looks premium. The rhodium plated ¥3000 model has a stated leather grip, but it’s matte and to my eye I think it’s more of a “leatherette.” It came in black, dark blue, and wine red.
A big thanks to @drifand for finding the catalog scans on Twitter (LINK). Obviously just hand held photos… I wish they’d used a scanner. I had to play with perspective to try making them more pleasing to look at.
There’s something about the combination of gold and wood that evokes childhood memories of cigarettes for me. I think its the look of gold foil wrappers coupled with the woody scent of tobacco… a proper grown up’s territory.
The content creator notices the blemishes. Others not so much.
Regarding polishing, I’ll chime in that I use a polishing rag (super fine material such as sunglasses wipe) and a polishing cream (such as Simichrome, Wenol, or Brasso).
Yeah, there’s a definite period vibe to them. For me, it’s like 1970’s. Brown and gold were king.
One thing I didn’t capture in this was the eraser cap stickers. While the cap band was made of the same wood used for the grip, TOMBOW chose to apply a sticker to the back end. Some of them had a dotted “zipatone” pattern, while others were just solid. I’d expected to find just a small disc of wood or leather applied. Anyway, my bad for not capturing them. I think I’ll pull the caps and take a shot of them clustered together (easier than with them on the pencils) and add tomorrow.
Pretty simple, actually. I tend to use silver polish… which is a very low abrasive. Whitening toothpaste can also work, although it’s slightly more abrasive. Another is from a 3-set of liquid polishing compounds. #3 is chalky and a little abrasive, #2 is softer, and then #1 is more of a finishing polish. I used #1 as I didn’t want to risk sloughing off any of the plating. I followed it with a cotton pad for a final polish. Under very bright light you can still see the patina of usage scratches, but under normal light they’re imperceptible.
But back in 2024 when a seller was unloading enormous lots of OHTO and TOMBOW pencils, I did see that body color coated EXTA in several listings, which included some where that color coating had cracked.
There’s a model priced a little less at ¥1500, which is all stainless steel. And it’s extremely solid, very well made. I wish they’d had a version with polished steel instead of gold plated… but the gold is also a nice contrast to the brushed steel body.
OK. FWIW, the EXTA Deluxe range from ¥2000 to ¥5000. The second one in from the front in my photos is stickered at ¥2000. That’s why I was uncertain by what you meant.
The mechanism on the ¥1500 model looks a little different from the ¥2000 wood grip model. I unscrewed the ¥5000 model and compared… and it’s the exact same design but the brass looks nicer.
I zoomed in a bit to help show the rear stickers on some of the eraser caps. I also included some from the Metal Dimple series, which has an exaggerated dot pattern, much like screentone (or zipatone). You can see a finer dotted quality to the EXTA Deluxe wood models. And with the leather grips, Tombow decided to just leave the end as flat metal.
Somehow I piled up a few. In all the time I came across these, hardly ever saw one with a sticker. I wonder if they were sold sticker-free in MP+BP boxed sets. Finally came across the ballpoint, which has a twist actuator. Extremely smooth! There’s also a “Roll Pen” (rollerball). This EXTA series seems to have been released around 1984.
I’ve been hunting for EXTAs ever since I found this thread. This is what I’ve gathered so far. They all have a high build quality. The three on the right essentially have the same internal mechanism.
I’ve seen the leather grip one a few times, but never felt the need to go after it super hard. What I have never seen, though, are the rhodium-plated models. I’d love to get an SH-3000AE and be done with the series.
I really like the wood EXTA Deluxe series. The wood grain can vary a lot between examples, too. The “leather” version isn’t really leather. It’s simulated, so it’s a synthetic material. I have just one example of it.
I’ve never seen an SH-3000AE in the wild, although I’ve not been actively looking for one – just general TOMBOW browsing and occasionally a wood EXTA turns up, the SH-2000AE being the most common.
The wooden series is definitely the star of the show. At first I wasn’t too enamored with the golden variants, but I’ve warmed up to them and gold colorways a bit more recently.
I’d gotten my SH-1500EE in a lot with a few other pencils and the machining impressed me right away. Enough that I kept an eye out to pick up a few more. I too wasn’t all that enamored with the gold accents at first, but I definitely warmed up. It’s a shame they didn’t offer a silver chromed version.
The mechanism is excellent! Much more premium than I’d expected. It’s interesting from your photo, showing the two black anodized examples where one has a steel screw fitting around the clutch, while one has brass.
