First impressions of the latest 2200 JPY sharp from Tombow. The FUMI / 文海 (“stationery ocean”) was recently released and features a body made of NAGORI, a kind of bio ceramic recycled from ocean minerals discharged from desalination plants. This material has a speckled marbling and lightly textured surface that feels really nice.
The tip and clip have a matte silver finish that looks like aluminum. The chuck is a nice big hunk of brass, and irony or ironies, I think this pencil feels more substantial than the higher end ZOOM L2. Official specs say it weighs 20g!
The main issue I think, is the way the marbling gets interrupted where the two haves meet. Some examples have much more flecks of silver on one side or the other… and I’m just thankful I have the privilege of manually checking and choosing one tha I am happy with. Amongst the 4 colors, the ‘safest’ is probably the ‘Stone Black’ which has the least amount of contrast flecks.
Overall, a very nice low key release that might very well steal some thunder from the Zoom L2 recolors, which is still playing the “you can’t buy me except in Japan” game.
BTW, this use of bio ceramics (fancy recycled plastics) is not new. Uni, Zebra and Pentel have released ballpoints with similar materials, and of course Swatch did the same for their MoonSwatch and Fifty Fathoms collabs. The FUMI just has the classiest branding and design by far.
