Heute ein kurzer Blick auf Blei- und Rotstifte von Shinwa, einem japanischen Anbieter von Messgeräten.
Die Stifte haben die übliche Länge von 17,5 cm, den Durchmesser von 7,7 mm und Minen in den Stärken 2,5 mm (Bleistift) bzw. 3 mm (Rotstift). Neben den englischen Kennzeichnungen finden sich „工事用鉛筆 PRO“ (etwa „Konstruktionsbleistift PRO“) sowie das Logo und der Name „シンワ” des Anbieters. Die Tauchkappe des Bleistifts trägt „HB“ und die des Rotstifts „〈赤〉ふつう“, grob übersetzt „Rot normal“. Ich nehme an, dass diese Stifte für den Gebrauch z. B. in der Werkstatt gedacht sind, und so sei das an die 1980er Jahre erinnernde Design verziehen.
Die Verarbeitungsqualität der Stifte könnte etwas besser sein. Der dünne Lack hat einige Unregelmäßigkeiten und an manchen Kappen gibt es rote und blaue Flecken; zudem ist ein Rotstift leicht verzogen.
Gespitzt mit dem Kurbelspitzer CARL Decade DE-100 …
Die Qualität von Holz und Mine ist jedoch erfreulich. Beide Stifte machen im Kurbel- und im Handspitzer eine gute Figur, sind recht bruchfest und haben eine saubere Abgabe. Der Bleistift, dessen Härte etwa der des STAEDTLER Mars Lumograph B entspricht, gleitet und schwärzt gut, und der Rotstift, der wischfester ist als der Bleistift, hat eine ordentliche Sättigung und ist vergleichsweise weich. Erwartungsgemäß lässt sich nur der Bleistift radieren. – Beim Holz dürfte es sich um Weihrauch-Zeder handeln.
… und dem Pollux von Möbius+Ruppert
Gekauft habe ich diese Stifte beim deutschen Versender Dieter Schmidt, wo sie im Dreierpack zu 1,95 Euro (Bleistift) und 2,45 Euro (Rotstift) angeboten werden. Den Bleistift gibt es in H und HB und den Rotstift in Hart und Mittel. – Vermutlich wurden diese Stifte von einem OEM für Shinwa gefertigt, doch wer das ist, konnte ich nicht herausfinden.
I just bought these, thanks to your review.
I’m always looking for good red writing pencils, and I have hope these will be great, since you pointed them with the Pollux!
This red colour pencil is good but to me it’s not the best choice for writing. Do you know the Mitsubishi 2451 (red) and 2453 (blue) pencils? To me these are much better for that purpose. Or have a look at the Mitsubishi 7700 which is quite hard too.
I have the 2451, which is, well, good, but not my favorite, and still need to find the famous 7700, which proves quite elusive!
I found an old Caran d’Ache Prismalo I, hard red lead, but newer versions of the Prismalo seem softer.
I’m waiting to receive these, to compare with the 2451…and then I’ll see if my perfect red pencil quest will continue or not ;)
Although the discontinuation of the 7700 has been announced in December 2015 Mitsubishi has later backed down and kept some in production, including the red one. I hope you will get one soon! It’s an amazing colour pencil, although with a little purple note. – Have you tried the Staedtler Lumochrom? It has been discontinued many years ago but now an then some appear on eBay. It’s worth looking for!
I’ve never tried the Staedtler Lumochrom, but I have some „vintage“ Mars Lumochrom 2mm leads. Do you think they could be similar?
They produce a very nice red, without being too soft, or too hard! And they compare favorably to Uni or Kitaboshi 2mm red leads.
I see these leads are still available in a modern version, I’ll try them!
As far as I know the individual Lumochrom leads are identical to the woodcased ones. – You can still get the red and the blue Lumochrom leads.
I have now received the Shinwa pencils, and while the finish could be better like you said, I appreciate the quality of the leads.
The HB reminds me a lot the Mitsubishi Mark Sheet HB : the design is very similar, and the lead has a comparable feeling, although the paint of the Mitsubishi seem thicker. Bot are cedar, but I’m not so sure Mitsubishi could be the OEM there…
The red is very usable, and resist perfectly to be sharpened with the Pollux, which is a sign of a very certain quality! It is adequately pigmented, but could be a little harder.
In the meantime I also tried the Mitsubishi 7700, and I guess my expectations were too high…It is probably the best of both worlds, pigmented enough, and hard enough, but I don’t know, doesn’t feel that nice for me.
I compared it to the Kitaboshi 9352, and I have to say, between the 2 I most often pick the Kitaboshi…but neither of them are able to recreate the feeling of the old school copying red pencils (which unfortunately are rare nowadays).
It’s great to hear that you like the leads of the Shinwa pencils!
Thank you for making me aware of the Kitaboshi 9352; I haven’t tried it yet. – There are still manufacturers of copying pencils (albeit only very few). I’m curious: What are the most important aspects of copying pencils to you?
This pencil is one of the most beautiful I ever seen (alongside with the Tombow Mono KKS).
I love the technological theme of the typography, the bird logo, the spaced HB and even the package.
I will look forward to get one!
There’s a thing about copying pencils, I don’t know…something about how some of them write.
I am mostly interested in those who write the same color as they copy, which makes them basically water soluble color pencils!
I only have a few purple, and one red, but they all write beautifully, leave a highly pigmented line, and are actually usable to write. Better IMO than the best of the usual red or blue you can find today, except maybe the Mitsubishis we talked about earlier.
Unfortunately, except for the purple, copying pencils are hard to come by nowadays. The Koh-I-Noor red and blue copying pencils you can buy new…they fall far from the tree. I still need to try the Viarco, maybe you tried them? Or do you know some others? I see some Faber-Castell which write in black, but they are only sold on the German website :(
(That is to say, I don’t use them for the copying part, just use them as writing color pencils. Maybe they just made it better in the past, haha)
Aluisio, your comment makes me want to look at and try the Kitaboshi 9352 even more!
Matt, thank you for these details. Do you know the ones made by Faber-Castell, e. g. the red Document 9609 or the blue Document 9608? – I haven’t tried the Viarco copying pencils yet.
I like the F-C 9609 and 9608, they are easy to get and still of good quality :) I’d like them to be slightly larger…cost reduction I guess.
I still have to buy the black version, which sounds promising
Gunther if you want I can send you half a Kitaboshi 9352. I know offering half a pencil is a bit cheap, but that’s all I have left from these! So you could try and decide if you want to buy more.
Matt, I’m happy to hear that you like these copying pencils. – Thank you for your offer! It would be great to test the Kitaboshi 9352, and for that purpose half of it would suffice.