Pearl loot: New Art Knife and couple of new Sketching Supplies

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy browsing through actual art supplies stores? I was able to peruse the aisles of the Pearl corporate store location in Ft. Lauderdale a couple of days ago and picked these few items for my art tool box and reviews.
This Japanese Olfa AK-4 precision knife features an anti-roll device on the yellow handle and the included protective cap for greater safety. Its grip design and heftier weight give it a more balanced feel than my old X-acto knife.
This Olfa set comes with 3 different shaped replacement blades.
Since I was already using my last X-acto No. 11 blade from my spare blades box, it was a good opportunity to also upgrade my paper-cutting studio knife.
The components of the disassembled AK-4 knife.
The Olfa AK-4 Precison Art Knife is easy to control and razor sharp. It should meet most paper-cutting needs at most studios splendidly. Its substantial weight seems to reduce the amount of effort required to make precise cuts. "...slice like a ninja
Cut like a razor blade" (cue in Vanilla Ice)
Buried among the bins loaded with loose pencil accessories, I came across a lonely KUM Onit 233 lead pointer. This type of lead pointer used to be fairly common, but this red model was the first one that I have found at an actual store in years. Thus I just had to add it to the collection.
The KUM Onit 233 lead pointer worked well with a 2 mm Caran D'Ache Fixpencil yielding a nice sharp lead point in not time, though it can be a tad messy to use. It certainly outperformed the built-in sharpeners featured in the push-buttons of many leadholder models. This compact and efficient lead pointer could be easily secured with a lanyard to a pencil case or sketching kit, but it can be rather hard to find in brick-and-mortar stores these days.
After noticing a bucket of General's maroon-colored pencils marked "discontinued", I spotted the same pencils as a carded 2-pack on a nearby peg. Thus I figured to give them a shot, for I had not tried them before.
The General's Draughting Pencil No. G314 single available graphite grade proved to be fairly smooth, but not quite as dark as the Pentel Black Polymer 999 and the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB pencils. Adequate sketching pencil if you can find it locally or care to order it online.
Also got a pack of General's Pencil Sav-A-Point plastic caps that are quite useful to protect the sharp points on my premium graphite pencils. The included red plastic General's All Art pencil sharpener performed so poorly on my regular size graphite pencils breaking the lead points and yielding uneven shavings, that I immediately tossed it in the trash in disgust (side note: it is probably not a good idea to test new supplies and try to do a review when you are tired and grumpy). Though I ended up fishing it back up for further testing since something bugged me about the wobbly fit. I tried it with my wider 8 mm Derwent Drawing and Pastel pencils, and it worked fine. Thus make sure you match the diameter of the sharpener opening to the appropriate size pencils for optimal results.
At the pen aisle I spotted some pens that I had not tried before, so I picked up a pack of Stabilo Sensor extra-fine line porous point pens. All four pens were exactly the same extra fine point size, and a couple were a tad dry. Not too surprising since their copyright label was dated 1997 and by all appearances their design predates the current model offered in the market. It is likely that these pens were manufactured over a decade ago, and these sets probably have been hanging on pegs with the pen nibs pointing up for a long time pooling the ink away from the pen tips. Yet after storing the pouch with the pen points facing down for 24 hours, adequate ink flow was restored to 3 of the pens.The working pens felt quite smooth and readily produced uniform dark lines that were fairly water resistant. Brushing the lines with a waterbrush had no visible effect. Their adequate performance after such a long shelf life is a testament to the fine quality of disposable German pens in the past decade.
Since the rear screw cap could be removed quite easily, I tried refilling the drier pen of the set with some Rapidograph ink.
Carefully adding some ink drop by drop.
Ooops! ended up adding too much ink and spilling through the vent near the pen tip. Good thing I had some scrap paper underneath.
The test marks on the far right did come up darker after adding a couple of ink drops, but sadly the normal ink flow did not last.
Though the refilled pen worked a tad better initially with the Rapidograph Ultradraw ink, it quickly dried on the porous pen nib clogging it.
After repeated unsuccessful attempts to restart continuous ink flow, the porous nib ended rather deformed compared to the pristine pen nib on the right. The test pen finally ceased to function and was only suited for the trash bin. Thus these Stabilo Sensor pens are clearly meant as single use tools and are non-refillable (at least not with the Koh-I-Noor technical pen ink I tried). While not a bad choice for a sketching pen given its adequate performance and inexpensive price point, I would suggest trying instead the reliable and easier-to-find Pigma, Faber Castell, and Prismacolor pigment liner pens that are currently available in a variety of nib sizes and styles.