Customer Reviews

I really, really like this pencil. As an English teacher I write a lot (not "allot") of comments to my students. I only write my comments in graphite. I have had this pencil for one and a half years, but it feels as if I purchased it yesterday. This was a great buy, and I highly recomend it for other teachers, students, etc.

For a while, my dad hated these pencils. he thought there was no comparison between them and Ticonderoga pencils(for some sick, twisted reason). He had never used this pencil before, and we did a test between them. Once he started writing with this Uni, he was immediately hooked on it. I love this pencil, its lead width is superior for writing and it doesn't snap like the 0.3mm I have. It writes really smoothly and doesn't leave your hand tired after hours of drawing and writing because it is so well weighted at the bottom end. The locking mechanism is awesome for protecting the pipe and it is one-hand-friendly, you just have to know how. Cosmetically, the paint wears out on the top after a while, but that has absolutely nothing to do with its performance. For writing and drawing, go with this. It will never let you down and will last you for ever.

This is a great pencil. It has a "bottom-heavy" feel which lessens the force needed to apply the pencil to the paper. The metal bottom half of the pencil (knurled) grip is amazing, it's my favorite feature. The upper part is plastic made, and you can definitely feel that the bottom portion outweights the top portion by a lot.

Like someone else said, when the pencil is locked and the "nib" in retracted ,the pencil has "loose feel" due to the pipe shift mechanism. But when its loaded and ready to go, it has a TIGHT feel.

It's a great concept, and great way to protect the nib and allow it in your pocket. It writes great, and because of the lower weight, you don't have to apply that much pressure. It's really cool looking too, I purchased the one in silver.

I only give it 4 stars because if the upper body where made from a metal, and more tight feeling, it would be perfect.

The Uni-ball Shift wins my vote for most innovative design. It is a very stylish Drafting Pencil that will have people asking you where you bought it mostly in part to the unique locking mechanism.

Pro's:
-Locking mechanism works flawlessly.
-Grip is very comfortable for writing and drawing despite looks.
-Very stylish design.
-When locked in use mode the pencil is very sturdy and the weight very well balanced.

Con's:
-Top part above the grip is plastic that feels very cheap.
-When pencil is locked in non-use mode, the piece that is revealed (blue in this case) also seems very cheap and it feels as if it can break very easy.
-No lead indicator.

Overall:

I must say that overall the Pro's outweigh the Con's and this is a very solid piece to add to any artist or writer's collection, it is a wonderful piece to own.

This is my absolute favorite pencil ever. I am a student with allot of knowledge on Japanese stationary. This is definetely the best mechanical pencil I have ever used.


Pro's:
Great grip
front weighted
guide pipe is protected


Con's:
Top half is plastic
No lead hardness indicator



The cons don't matter to me that much I was just pointing it out for some picky buyers.


Overall: It's a great for its price. It'also a nice sturdy pencil, I highly recommend it for students who have heavy note taking.

Great design, but I find myself not using this pencil as much as the Staetler 925-05, the locking mechanism on this pencil is a little counter-intuitive for me and there are stages of the lock as you twist it, I would prefer more of a push/pull design on the lock. If you have ever used a twist style retractable pen this pencil seems to function similarly but in an opposite direction from what I am used to. I will say that there is NO play in the tip when you are writing with it, it doesnt rattle or anything, so as far as a retractable pencil this is the best design I have seen. But I do wish that the Twist mechanism was more one hand friendly.

I will add that to extend you twist it till it stops, then pull it out (spring loaded so it pushes itself out) and then turn it one more click till it stops again, same for reverse, except opposite directions. To me the twist is counter-intuitive and I would expect to turn the pencil the opposite way to extend it so it would be more friendly if using only one hand.

When I first got the pencil in the mail, I was surprised at how heavy it was. It is not exceptionally heavy, but it still wasn't right for me. Later on after a few weeks, the tip of the pencil got bent. I was pretty upset about this, as it was very hard to use it without the lead breaking every few minutes. It is a good pencil, but make sure that you actually use the lock function every time that you put it away.

the pencil is heavily weighted on the tip and feels good in the hand. it is a little heavy and is not meant for a lot of writing. it has a tendency to break the lead inside the pencil though, but the color looks fantastic

This pencil is very cool. I have no complaints

Love this pencil so far! Received it this morning and used it all day today taking notes at work and sketching out a nice Spongebob for my daughter. This is my first drafting pencil, but it probably won't be my last. Top notch product. I only wish that the top half of the body was aluminum. 0.5 is the perfect lead size.

I have to say that this pencil is exactly what i thought it would be. Nice and sturdy, nothing has been broken or paint chipping, dropped it couple of times already. The locking mechanism will stay in position, you will most likely feel it click into place. What i've just noticed recently is that the clip on the shaft of the pencil has alittle roller on it for easy clip-ons.

Good pencil that can be safely taken with you everywhere. However, the pencil is a bit pricy and the body is plastic.

This is my absolute favorite pencil ever. I am a student with allot of knowledge on Japanese stationary. This is definetely the best mechanical pencil I have ever used.


Pro's:
Great grip
front weighted
guide pipe is protected


Con's:
Top half is plastic
No lead hardness indicator



The cons don't matter to me that much I was just pointing it out for some picky buyers.


Overall: It's a great for its price. It'also a nice sturdy pencil, I highly recommend it for students who have heavy note taking.

This is the best pencil. Nice looking and also good to write/draw.
Thanks Jetpens. Now i know where to get all my japanese stuff.

I really like this pencil and how sterdy it is. I have bought three of these but only 0.5 but that is my personal favorite. The only complante i have is that if held wrong though the grip can kind of hurt. Otherwise i would recomend it to anyone.

I just got this pencil yesterday and i was amazed with it. The pipe lock mechanism works amazingly. It protects the sleeve from being bent, and prevents it from poking me while i put it in my pocket. The grip is absolutely wonderful. The metal grooves provide a great grip. Overall this pencil just looks stunning and i would recommend it to all my friends.

This pencil is so awesome. I love the shift body and most of all, the GRIP. The metal grip has grooves that are perfect, and the shifting body is perfect for people like me who simply slip their pencil in their pocket. The blue color is also a little lighter than it is in the image, which is perfect for me because I was deciding between the 0.3 version and this version. I settled for this one.

Love this pencil. It is perfect for drawing. I also write with it comfortably, but everyone has a different style when it comes to both drawing and writing. Love the way the tip can be twisted back inside the pencil so no injuries too body from tip.

I do not get why pencil makers do not make more retractable type of pencils, just cannot understand it.

My favorite retractable pencil from Pilot [Vanishing Point] has been discontinued recently [only in the US I guess,, not in Japan] here is a link
http://www.amazon.com/PIL50028-Drafting-Pencil-Refillable-Millimeter/dp/B000 GAU2WU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1255466191&sr=8-1-fkmr0

Anyway, I use the all black and the all red Uni shift pencils instead of the silver one. The red one I often use with red color graphite and the black one with B or 2B Nano Dia Uni graphite.

Perfect.

The tip is too short and the grip feels like it is too close to the paper...almost to the point where it covers your writing or work that you have written.

The shift mechanism is loosely put together and makes the feel really unsolid.

This pencil is good for writers that like to write with the pencil straight, perpendicular to the paper...not good for those that use the pencil at an angle

my favorite pencil yet. AWESOME!

This pencil is BEAST

An excellent pencil. I am a high school senior planning on using this pencil all throughout college, if i can keep it from being stolen that is.

Pros:

- Metal, but somewhat soft grip: It's odd, but the knurled grip, though metal, feels almost soft to the touch. It's less fatiguing too, because it does not give like other soft rubber grips.
- No lead wiggle: The lead sleeve perfectly holds the lead, so I feel no wobbling of the led, making writing to feel much smoother overall.
- Distance between grip and lead: I prefer to hold my pencil lower, where most other pencils' grips end. This pencil gives you this option with a shorter head than most.
- Sleek design: Just look at it, it's so sleek.
- Plastic body, metal grip: This gives a nice weight to the pencil and shifts the weight toward the tip, which feels solid while writing. Though plastic, it doesn't feel cheap either.

Cons:

- Lead sleeve retracting mechanism: If you like to write with a lot of lead advanced, then you should push the lead back in after use, because the point of the lead might stick out after retracting the lead sleeve. This isn't a huge problem though, but a problem nonetheless.
- Price: This could be a con if you tend to lose pencils often, but if not, this pencil will last for many years. I believe that it is an excellent investment to buy a comfortable pencil or pen.

I LOVE THIS PENCIL!!!
I am a sketch artist and an amateur aerospace designer and I have never come across a drafting pencil that is even half as good as these. I know that the price tag on it might seem like a bit much, to any beginning artists out there, but if I had a choice between this pencil and its weight in gold, I would be tempted to choose the pencil. More so than the gold.
I bought this model, the Shift 0.9mm Silver barrel with Red Accent, 0.5mm grade-B Uni-ball NanoDia and 0.9mm grade-B Uni-ball Shu Leads, and the E-Knock eraser. I would be more than happy to buy them all again.
The pencils are great, they might seem a bit heavy when you hold them in your hand, but when you start writing/drawing/sketching/drafting you will start noticing a key difference that makes this pencil unique (besides, of course, the Shift locking mechanism, which has yet to fail me, and its aesthetically pleasing design). The single most helpful aspect, as I believe it to be, is the weight distribution of this pencil. If I were to hold this and an X-acto knife in my hands, without looking, I couldn't tell you which one was was so precise, that it could be used to perform open-heart surgery, and which one was the X-acto knife! The majority of this pencil's weight, like a scalpel, is centered around the grip. This means that when you use it, controlling the tip of the pencil will seem like an effortless task because your fingers will naturally support the weight of the grip (where most of the weight is). If this does not make enough sense, please just take my word for it, buy one of these wonderful pencils, and see for your self just how great they are.
Now when it comes to pencil leads, I like to stick with the same brands. So it seemed only fitting for me to buy Uni-ball leads. Out of all the pencil lead brands that I have used [Foray(6/10), Pentel(8/10), Sharp(7.5/10), Ticonderoga(8/10), etc.] no brand has kept its promises as well as Uni-ball has, thus far. The 0.9mm grade-B Shu leads will only break if you intentionally overload them (or if you write like you're trying to kill the page and the desk beneath it!). The 0.5mm grade-B NanoDia leads are also pretty strong, for their size. Both lead types are extremely low wear (each lead lasts a long time before needing to be replaced) and erase very cleanly with the E-Knock, which I will get to next...
When I was looking for a good eraser I wanted to stay with the Uni-ball brand because, in the past, I learned that using one brand of lead and a different brand of eraser had a tendency to make erasing more like smudging. With the E-Knock eraser I never have that problem so long as I am erasing a mark from a Uni-ball lead. I am not currently sure how well the E-Knock erases most other brands (it doesn't erase Ticonderoga lead quite as well as it erases Uni-ball lead, I have not yet experimented with any brands other than those two), but I am fairly sure it can handle at least one or two other mainstream brand names. It erases with wonderful precision, I would recommend buying it with the Shift drafting pencil, because the eraser on the pencil doesn't look like it would last very long.

I have this one and the silver version in 0.5 It's a cool looking pencil, and the metal grip is awesome. Give's it a bottom heavy feel.

If I were going to nitpick, it would probably be on the plastic top portion, but overall, it's that plastic that gives the bottom heavy feel the pencil. and it's awesome you can retract the tip and put it in your pocket.


If only they could combine the retractable tip + kura toga mechanism, made out of metal, that would be the ultimate pencil.

This pencil is quite pretty and writes very well - unfortunately the main barrel is plastic, and the silver paint comes of very quickly just from being in a bag with other pencils or a pocket. I've had my pencil for two weeks, and it the barrel is already quite worn down. I was hoping, at this price point, that it would be similar quality/construction to the Pentel Graphgear 1000 (which I love) - the barrel on that seems to be more of a metal construction and doesn't wear down, even over a year of use. I guess I'm sticking with the pentel!