TWSBI Precision Mechanical Pencil Review
27 June 2018In a world that contains hundreds of different mechanical pencil designs, how does this pencil from TWSBI hold up?
Many thanks to Scribble for lending me this pencil to review.
Price: £25
Lead size: 0.5mm or 0.7mm
Barrel options: matt silver or black
Eraser: yes
Size: 14cm long, 0.8cm diameter
Weight: 28g
TWSBI’s Precision range is defined by the use of hexagonal metal barrels.
This pencil is slim and light, with fairly tasteful branding on one side and on the clip. The finish is matt silver and the overall effect is one of neat precision. Not very exciting but pleasant enough.
The clip looks as if it should be removable but it isn’t. It might be possible to take it off, with enough force, but as I don’t own this pencil I didn’t want to risk damaging it. The clip is quite strong and useable.
There’s the usual petite eraser underneath the knock. It does actually erase, which is always a pleasant surprise in a mechanical pencil.
The tip is retractable.
It’s deployed by pressing the knock, which then needs to be pressed a second time to extend a usable length of lead. It extends something like 1.5mm a time. You need to push the tip back in with your nail or finger tip in order to retract it. This usually means you end up with a pencil mark on your finger.
The grip a neat ridged pattern. It’s grippy without being uncomfortable.
In use the pencil is comfortable as it’s so light. It’s easy to twist as you write or draw. The lead is held tight.
The TWSBI Precision is a decent looking pencil that’s comfortable to hold. Everything works as it should. Having to retract the tip by hand isn’t great and, for me, if a clip looks removable it should be. There are lots of mechanical pencils in the world and the Precision, while perfectly okay, doesn’t stand out from the crowd.
Pros
Comfortable grip
Eraser works
Lead held firmly
Retractable
Cons
Have to retract tip manually
You really can’t remove the clip without violence, correct.If you look under the clip you will notice that it is mechanically pressed into the body of the pen. Con: you can’t remove it. Pro: you can’t lose it. Oh well. The eraser might be petite but there is a long amount of petite as opposed to almost all other petite erasers.
What you could have mentioned is that even when retractable there is very little wobble if even noticeable and the pencil has absolute zero spring. In that respect it is like a P205 – quite a nail. Also worth mentioning is that it comes with a couple of extra erasers and extra replacement leads in the package making this a pencil that is good to go for a long while without having to buy consumables.
Finally, this pen also comes in black and both silver and black ones come in a retractable and a non-retractable version in 0.5 and 0.7 mm.
Thanks for all the good points! Yes it’s well made and rock solid. I did say about the different colours and lead sizes but didn’t think to say about the non-retractable version. The inclusion of the spares does indeed make it good value.
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