After spotting them in the
Jet Pens clearance section, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity of trying the
4B grade of a now discontinued pencil line that I personally considered part of the
Triad of Supreme Japanese Wooden Pencils (consisting of the
Mitsubishi Hi-Uni,
Tombow Mono 100, and the
Pentel Black Polymer 999 premium wooden pencil lines) for their generally ultra-smooth smudge-resistant graphite cores that put conventional pencils to shame that suggested the presence of some wax component in their formulation.
While this
Alvin brass bullet sharpener is one of the newest tools in my kit, it kept breaking the wood casing around the pencil point after repeated sharpening attempts.
After a few more sharpening tests, this
KUM wedge sharpener proved to be the best fit for this particular pencil model yielding smooth tapered points with no breaks on the wood surface.
Test sketch drawn on a
Maruman Croquis pocket sketchbook.
Couple of test doodles on
Strathmore 300 smooth bristol paper.
The
Pentel Black Polymer 999 4B pencil featured a strong lead that yielded rich dark strokes. Smooth sharpening required trying out a number of German sharpener models (
Alvin,
Faber-Castell, and
KUM) in my collection to find the right fit. While all the sharpeners had fairly new sharpening blades, several models tended to snap the wood casing near the tip. A problem I also experience when trying out the
HB pencil grade of the
Black Polymer 999 line. While this line has reportedly been discontinued, there are luckily still several premium Japanese wooden pencils with comparable or superior performance still featured at
Jet Pens.
After spotting them in the Jet Pens clearance section, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity of trying the 4B grade of a now discontinued pencil line that I personally considered part of the Triad of Supreme Japanese Wooden Pencils (consisting of the Mitsubishi Hi-Uni, Tombow Mono 100, and the Pentel Black Polymer 999 premium wooden pencil lines) for their generally ultra-smooth smudge-resistant graphite cores that put conventional pencils to shame that suggested the presence of some wax component in their formulation.
While this Alvin brass bullet sharpener is one of the newest tools in my kit, it kept breaking the wood casing around the pencil point after repeated sharpening attempts.
After a few more sharpening tests, this KUM wedge sharpener proved to be the best fit for this particular pencil model yielding smooth tapered points with no breaks on the wood surface.
Test sketch drawn on a Maruman Croquis pocket sketchbook.
Couple of test doodles on Strathmore 300 smooth bristol paper.
The Pentel Black Polymer 999 4B pencil featured a strong lead that yielded rich dark strokes. Smooth sharpening required trying out a number of German sharpener models (Alvin, Faber-Castell, and KUM) in my collection to find the right fit. While all the sharpeners had fairly new sharpening blades, several models tended to snap the wood casing near the tip. A problem I also experience when trying out the HB pencil grade of the Black Polymer 999 line. While this line has reportedly been discontinued, there are luckily still several premium Japanese wooden pencils with comparable or superior performance still featured at Jet Pens.
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