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0.2 Mechanical Pencils... Just How Freaking Small Can We Get..


Algester

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0.2mm? Pfft! I have, in my pen cup on my desk, a range of pigment marker going from 0.8mm through 0.5, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1 and to 0.05mm. Now that's a thin line!

actually the range of liner pens goes up to 0.03mm smallness and a 0.2 liner is a bit different than a .2 mm lead for some reason.

New to fountain pens, older to dip pens.

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As I stated earlier, the 0.1mm lead was a limited edition from Pentel. Here is a quote from Project Gutenberg:

 

DIAMETER

Mechanical pencil mechanisms use only a single lead diameter. Some pencils, such as the Pentel Function 357, place several mechanisms within the same housing, so as to offer a range of thicknesses (in this case three: 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 mm). 1.00 mm leads also exist, but they are very rare. (See table below.)

Different sizes of lead diameters are available to accommodate various preferences and pencil builds, as shown in the table below. The most popular lead sizes are 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm, whose line widths allow for precise writing and drawing. There are also rare 0.2 mm leads and limited edition 0.1 mm leads (manufactured by Pentel).

The RavenLunatic


Semper insanit omnes tempore.


http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/5642/postcardde9.pnghttp://img525.imageshack.us/img525/606/letterji9.png

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That's taken from this WikiPedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_pencil#Diameter

 

No citation. One or two other results are copies of that article, including the self-published one on Gutenberg:

 

http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/Mechanical_pencil

 

The citation there is for World Heritage Encyclopedia. Searching there turns up precisely the same text:

 

http://www.worldheritage.org/article/WHEBN0001298450/pencil

 

Still with no citation regarding that "limited edition 0.1 mm leads (manufactured by Pentel)" bit. Oddly, though, the article cites *itself* as the source, but links WikiPedia as the "Citational Source."

 

Got anything else? I *really* want this to be fact and not hearsay.

Mike Hungerford

Model Zips - Google Drive

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  • 1 year later...

I've searched re the Pentel 0.1 mm and only seen a reference that it may have been a prototype that was only brought out during a trade show.

 

I enjoy the 0.2 mm pencils I have and don't imagine anything much smaller would be easy to use.

 

However, the absolute finest pencil lines I've seen were created by epigraphers from the Oriental Institute who were documenting temples in Egypt. They would annotate images and drawings with mark-ups prior to publication. Their trick? Use a very hard (>= 4B) 2.0 mm lead in a lead holder sharpened to a pin point. A good sharpener will do this, and the very hard lead holds the point acceptably for a few paragraphs. Of course, you could use softer leads, but you'd be sharpening constantly. I've tried it and this produces the finest pencil line I've been able to write.

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Thread necromancy at its finest, but I'll jump in anyways.

 

I enjoy playing with my 0.2 pencil, but my handwriting isn't small enough to really benefit from the 0.2 lead. 0.3 has been my main writing lead size since about 1996 but it turns out that I can go as large as 0.4 without having to make any adjustments. Of course I didn't discover 0.4 lead until 15 years after I started using 0.3. A shame, really.

 

0.5 is tolerable.

0.7 is infuriating.

0.9 is fine since the rounded edge gives me a line about equivalent to the 0.4 as long as I'm careful to rotate the pencil and not use lead that's too soft.

2mm is fine as long as I'm near a sharpener, but mostly I use it for doodling.

 

I'm not an artist, so the 0.2 lead's ability to give fine fine lines is sort of lost on me.

 

--flatline

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Pentel introduced 0.2 mm mechanical pencils back in 1973, they've been around for 42 years. The first pencil was the PS1042, the second the PG2 and recently the Orenz. Besides these, I only know of other two 0.2 mm pencils. One made by Sakura and the other made by Tombow. I think they both date back from the 70's as well.

Before the advent of the internet .2's where virtually impossible to find outside Japan. I always saw them as a Japanese specialty, mostly because they are extremely useful to write Kanji!

 

0.2 mm leads are also amazing for extremely detailed art work. In the following picture, a section of a portrait I did a few years ago (the original is A4, smaller than this image), the blown up portion shows the thinner lines made with 0.2 mm HB lead. I use Pentel PG2 mp's. ;)

This is absolutely amazing. I assume that you are an artist.

 

fpn_1423152679__portrait_detail_2.jpg

 

R.

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I first read this thread years ago and was very interested in it. I tried searching for it online too, but, like most, only found vague references to it being a trade show prototype. So I gave up. Since a 0.1mm pencil seems like alomost impossible anyway.

 

The recent interest on this thread, though, has got my intrest up as well. So I went Google and imagine my surprise when I actually found this elusive pencil! And a picture of it too! Here it is:

 

http://getnavi.jp/wps/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/20170216-a07-11.jpg

 

If you're wondering what that text non the box is, here's a flipped version. This confirms it to be the pencil we're looking for.

20170216_a07_11.jpg

"0.1 concept model

CAUTION handle with care !"

That must be referring to the pencil itself and the lead :lol:

 

Here's the page where I got it from:

http://getnavi.jp/stationery/108883/

Or if you prefer the translated link

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fgetnavi.jp%2Fstationery%2F108883%2F&sandbox=1

 

The article said that it was made in 2015, so the OP must have got some very fresh news. And no wonder there was no mention of it anywhere. The articles I've found are from 2016-2017. And I've had to look for Japanese articles.

 

About the pencil itself, that one COOL looking pencil! I wonder what's that 2nd smaller piece. It doesn't look to be the cap, since there was no opening?

Edited by stuck-in-time
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heh so the new thing for orenznero is actually a working sliding sleeve... I wonder if pentel will integrate that into the orenz basic but for what I'm seeing now Pentel is concentrating on their orenz than the ain-stein mechanical pencil after giving up on local manufacturing of the P200 series

as for the .1mm concept chances of it having a cap is 60% after all they have the mannencil/kerry lineup

but right now I think the Del-guard is better

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The sliding sleeve isn't necessary. I routinely write with the lead extended past the sleeve and don't have trouble with lead breakage unless the lead digs into the paper.

 

--flatline

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Thanks for the heads-up. My daughter and I both like extremely fine lead. I ordered one for her (she will use it primarily for sketching) and one for me because why not?

 

ftnpenfan

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The sliding sleeve isn't necessary. I routinely write with the lead extended past the sleeve and don't have trouble with lead breakage unless the lead digs into the paper.

 

--flatline

the orenznero's sliding sleeve makes it also an automatic pencil so... no much plunger pushing but what ever floats your boat
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I used to animate with a .09 mm Pentel - the ones with the ugly yellow barrels. Still my go-to pencil.

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