Monday, June 11, 2007

Pentel Function .357 PC1001 3C Mechanical Pencil

Pentel Function .357 PC1001 3C Mechanical Pencil

Well this is another one from my “Japanese Sampler”, another one I have never seen before. It’s a multi-pen, but the tips are 0.3mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm pencil. The tip selector system is a basic set of three slider buttons. 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 are printed on the top of the end cap of the pencil, by the slider in question.

So, up at the top of the pencil there are the three black slider buttons, and you simply slide one down and the relevant pencil tip is propelled out ready for use. Down on the clear section of the body in the middle of the pencil, a black printed dotted line extends down from the slider and is labelled as “0.7 sharp”, “0.5 sharp” or “0.3 sharp” as appropriate. In a thoughtful touch, the width of the printed lines also varies, so the “0.7 sharp” printed line is much wider than the “0.3 sharp line. Sharp is of course the Japanese term for mechanical pencil. Once the chosen tip is extended out, you “click” the slider button down to operate the ratchet lead advance mechanism. To retract the tip back inside the pencil body you partially slide one of the other two slider buttons down and this triggers the spring loaded retraction mechanism.

The grip is slightly contoured, but its rather smooth and slippery feeling. It’s quite a lightweight pencil overall.

I’m not sure of the price of this pencil, but being a lightweight plastic Pentel it obviously won’t bust the bank, and would be an awful lot cheaper than something like a Rotring Trio or a Platinum multi pencil.

Now if only they could get a fourth pencil inside there, the 357+20?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave, nice post. Interesting to see again how many to the rest of the world unknown Japanese models there are. Think I'll have to go to Japan for that :D
I recently got two Rotring trio-pencils from a stationary shop here in Germany at very low price. Loaded with 0.3/2H 0.5/HB 0.7/2B making them even more useful.

mallicos said...

Hi Dave,
Great to see your PC1001 detail, I just ordered one from www.jetpens.com for $15. I found (in Tokyo,1999)a couple of other models that have been since discontinued: PC1002 (.3/.5/.9RED) and a PC1003 (.5/.9/.9RED), the latter my favorite with the larger lead diameters.
I'll have to check out your Rotring wei.guan, sounds cool!

Matthew R said...

I'd much rather have the same size (0.5, probably) and have each button give you different softness leads. For example, 4H + HB + 2B.

I wonder if I could buy three and make my own...

Kiwi-d said...

Matthew R - I agree, I'd rather have 3 different grades of the same diameter lead. I haven't pulled mine apart, but I imagine you probably could convert all three to be the same diameter as you suggest. However, an alternative would be the uni colour or similar which already has 3 tips the same diameter.

Anonymous said...

kiwi-d - I can't seem to find the model of the uni color or another other 3 tip same diameter. Do you know where I could buy some?

Cheryl Ruth W. said...

Did they stop selling this type of pencil?