Comments on: Koh-I-Noor 2.0mm leadholders and colour leads

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:01:34 +0000

i actually own some Koh-I-Noor woodless colored pencils. Some of the greatest colored pencils I have ever owned to be honest.

By: Chhayanat

Chhayanat — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:11:11 +0000

Blue 2mm lead from Hardtmuth also jammed a Koh-i-noor 5900 pencil which I use. It also jammed a very basic Venus leadholder from the 1950s. Sad to hear the mismatch between lead and leadholder is the probable cause. I also had trouble with Atlas 1.1mm green leads which jammed a 1ate 1920s Parker Duofold mechanical pencil. HB graphite leads from the same company work quite well in the Parker pencil. Is there something about coloured leads in general, in addition to the mismatch in sizes?

By: range

range — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:30:17 +0000

I’ve been using the Koh-I-Noor Rapidomatics for about 18 years now, ever since I started university. I had 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1mm. Of the four, I always come back to the 0.7, as it’s perfectly balanced for my penmanship. The leads rarely break if pressure is exceeded. The 0.3 and 0.5 had a tendency to break off.

By: edd bagenal

edd bagenal — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:55:02 +0000

I have a lovely set of enameled metal body Koh-i-noor pencils with different body colours to match the coloured 2mm leads I get from Andrey’s on ebay. The clutch on these (and the pencil featured) is machined whilst fully retracted and so when opened slightly to accommodate the lead the resulting angle causes only a single part of the interior clutch face to contact the lead. This make it impossible to use the sharpener tool, as the lead is not properly gripped and also causes the lead to snap often as it is held at such a small singular collar of pressure by the jaws of the clutch. This can be resolved by extending the jaws of the clutch and gently bending them inward a fraction, so that their whole inside concave face contacts a sufficient portion of the lead to grip it, holding it during sharpening and preventing breakage. This is ridiculously geeky, I know, but I love their pencils and as an industrial designer I had to share.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:23:20 +0000

Andrey’s as well. Sorry for the error – I’ll correct it.

By: ST

ST — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:11:04 +0000

Note that it’s listed on Cult Pens as 5608, not 5603.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:22:58 +0000

@Penciladmin: Maybe they should rename it the Sputnik or Telstar D’or ? Thanks for the photos – it was really a revelation to me. :-)
@primitiveworker: I’m also looking for Palomino grade leads. IMHO Pentel´s 3b comes close, but I haven’t found any in 2 mm. One day I think I’ll cannibalize a Palomino ;-)

Henrik

By: NateB

NateB — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:59:46 +0000

I’ve been eyeballing the 5603 for some time. I like the compact size. And the lettering is very nice.

By: primitiveworker

primitiveworker — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:57:05 +0000

The Kooh-I-Noor 5900 is my favorite travel lead holder and it goes everywhere with me since it fits quite nicely alongside a Fisher AG-7 in a Levenger international pocket briefcase wallet.

I get my 5900s from Andrey’s ebay store.

I use Mitsubishi 2.0mm Uni leads, and wish to match the Palmomino woodcase pencil’s HB lead characteristics. Maybe I’ll get lucky when experimenting with Uni grades.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:25:16 +0000

Yet another nicely photographed pencil review. Pity the color leads did not live up to expectations, but that lead pointer design is certainly quite original-looking if not too efficient(with a similar working principle to the Koh-I-Noor 25961 Pocket Precision Lead pointer, but lacking a guide to keep the lead centered). Other than the 3.8 mm Caran D’Ache Museum watercolor leads, I have yet to find reliable brightly saturated color leads for any of my leadholders. The few I managed to acquired are rather dull or tend to crumble and jam inside the leadholders’ chambers too.

By: penciladmin

penciladmin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:10:02 +0000

Gunther, it is indeed available – this specimen came from CultPens.

Henrik, perhaps it also resembles a 1950s space satellite? :-)

By: Henrik

Henrik — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:05:18 +0000

Oops! That’s what the thing is for? Silly me, once had a Koh – I – Noor with this device. I considered these “legs” some (annoying) way to secure the push button. :-)

Thanks, today haven’t been a waste: I’ve learned something new!

Sad to see that the Koh – I – Noor has joined the “lack of quality control club”.

Henrik