S.T. Dupont Olympio Mechanical Pencil / Ballpoint Pen Review

S.T. Dupont Olympio Mechanical Pencil / Ballpoint Pen Review


Well the Olympics are nearly upon us, so time for me to join the Olympic theme with a review of the S.T. Dupont Olympio.


I guess Waterman would be the most well known luxury brand of writing instruments associated with France, but they are not the only one. S.T. Dupont are a French manufacturer who started out in 1872 making luxury leathergoods, and they released their first pen in 1973. These days they sell leather goods, pens, lighters, eyewear, etc – a rather similar product range to the likes of Mont Blanc and Caran d’Ache.
Firstly, despite the heading, this is not a multi pen / pencil ! Rather, most Dupont ballpoint pens come with a pencil converter cartridge, so you can load them up as either a ballpoint pen or as a mechanical pencil. But they can only be one the other at any one time, they only hold one cartridge, so you have to dissemble them and replace the cartridge to swap formats.My model is the Midnight Blue theme lacquer. The lower half of the body is fully lacquered, but the top half has 4 long rectangular panels of lacquer set into the metal. These panels are very well inserted into the metal surround, a seamless transition. Each panel is ¼ of the way as you go round the circumference of the body. I must admit to being unsure if the metal is platinum or palladium plated – the web just confuses rather than resolves the issue. Either way though it’s certainly a very nice bright shiny chrome/silver sort of plating.

The midnight blue lacquer is very nice indeed. A deep dark dense blue - very midnight. Dupont seem to regard themselves as lacquer specialists, so this is the real thing, Chinese lacquer that started out as tree sap before ending up on my pencil. It looks rather like good quality plastic, but the feel is a bit different. Very smooth and shiny, but yet with quite a lot of grip. Great stuff. Dupont claim that lacquer is very hard wearing and scratch resistant – well I haven’t really put that to the test so, no comment.

Overall I like the looks of this pencil. The geometric aspects of the inserted lacquer appeal to the engineer and art deco in me. I also like the styling of the central band in the middle between the two halves of the body. The various grooves and engravings all look good. ‘S. T. Dupont, Paris’ is engraved on the central band area.

As you might expect, this pencil is heavy. It looks solid, like it should have a substantial weight in the hand, and it doesn’t disappoint. It will ker-thump down on your desk if don’t place it with care. I always enjoy writing with a heavyweight pencil – every time you pick it up you are reminded of its presence. The balance is good, but perhaps a fraction top-heavy for my personal taste.

The Olympio is a twist action ratchet lead advance mechanism. The whole top half of the pencil twists to activate the mechanism. The first twist of about 180 degrees advances the tip or lead sleeve out of the body. It ‘click-locks’ into position. Twisting back the other way will retract the tip. The tip is a small short conical sleeve and is obviously fully pocket-safe. Having advanced the tip, further twists advance the lead. Ten activations will get you about 6mm of the 0.7mm lead. The full range of the twist is still 180 degrees and the spring back is good and powerful. I found this 180 degree range of motion too much to comfortably operate one-handed. The lead actually advances with about 120 degrees of twist but you haven’t reached the stop position and can’t easily be sure what’s happening. Overall I would have to say advancing the lead is a two handed job, particularly if you don’t have good dexterity. Despite my earlier statement, a couple of times I did note that the spring back after twisting was a little laboured. Pulling the top off and on seemed to fix that.

The top half of the body pulls straight off to allow access to the cartridge. There is a small emergency use eraser on the pencil cartridge. You can pull the eraser out to refill the lead cartridge. Dupont do not sell refill leads, just whole refill cartridges so I am surprised they allow this refill method to side-step their cartridge sales. You can buy both 0.5mm and 0.7mm cartridges so your one writing instrument can interchange between BP, 0.5 MP and 0.7 MP at will. Excellent. Photo: Top half of body pulled off and cartdridge removed. Two cartridges shown - pencil and ballpoint.

As you can see in the photo, the ballpoint pen refill is quite thin – more mini capacity than jumbo. The pencil cartridge has “Made in Japan” on it.

The cartridges screw in and out of that long central tube with the spline halfway up it. The body top section push fits easily and securely back on. The pocket clip is a very nice spring loaded job. Very functional. ‘Made in France’ and a serial number are finely engraved on the side of the pocket clip.

The Olympio comes in a very nice presentation box with lots of little booklets and a nice leather pen sleeve for protection when carrying it around.

• Best Points – BP/MP convertibility, sturdy looks don’t disappoint.
• Not So Good Points – see my comments above about the twist action.
• Price Range – Stratospheric.

Dimensions – Length 139mm, diameter about 10mm in the main grip area about 12mm at widest point. Balance point about 80mm up from the tip.

Note 1 - It appears the Olympio is also sometimes marketed as the Orpheo? Two names for one thing, no idea why.
Note 2 – In a world awash with counterfeits it’s often hard to know whether you get the real thing or not when buying from anyone but an authorised dealer and paying a huge premium for that privilege. Maybe even that might not be 100% certain either. In my work I have some Asian suppliers who cannot guarantee anything. They buy the real brandname component X from the genuine authorised agent, but then scammers intercept the delivery truck and swap the shipment so you still end up with the counterfeit. It’s got so bad that some of the reputable ones just say, “No, we cannot quote you on the basis of using brand X componentry”.
I did a bit of research on Dupont. Apparently there are plenty of very good Dupont counterfeits, the type that even experts have to take a careful look at, and are actually quite acceptable for the discounted but still expensive price you usually pay for them. Reading some articles on how to spot the counterfeits still leaves a few questions, as like all companies Dupont change things over time, models come and go, the articles don’t always agree with other, they are always about a different specific version to your one, etc. The articles did leave me with a nagging question or two – either I’ve got the real thing or a much better than average counterfeit. No point in loosing too much sleep over it though. I bought it several years ago from a long established reputable retailer. Done is done. I guess maybe though if I buy a Mont Blanc I might buy it from Mont Blanc rather than a very reputable pen retailer, because…well who knows…?

Platinum Mistake Multi-Pencil

Right, time for a quick shufti at a pencil I picked up a few years ago, the Platinum Mistake. I don’t know it’s proper model number, and I believe it was discontinued many years ago. So, it’s just a plain black plastic body, certainly not going to win any awards for originality there. There are some grooves cut for the grip-zone, but the only unusual visual feature is the rather strange shallow U-bend in the steel pocket clip. If you twist the upper half of the body one way you push a 0.5mm pencil tip out, which is then operated as a push top ratchet lead advance mechanism. If you twist the other way you get an eraser tip, utilising a 2.5mm vinyl eraser core. That’s definitely on the fine side of average, makes Mars Plastic look gargantuan. I haven’t actually used the eraser so can't comment on its erasing abilities.Just so that you don’t feel short-changed, there is also an eraser in the traditional place under the screw-off top-cap! Internally the mechanism looks a fairly standard multi-pen type system. So, nothing flash, but something a little unusual and quite interesting none the less. In some ways I am surprised there aren't more of the eraser-pencil multi combinations, but I guess the small diamater eraser limits their usefulness and appeal.

Johnnie Walker Multi Pen

Well this will be my last posting for the year. Its coming up on annual Christmas (summer) holiday time here down under so I wish you all happiness and good fortune over the next month while I’m basically a non-blogger.

Consumption of the “The Water of Life” tends to go up at this time of year, so for those of you who like a sip or two, here’s a little something from Johnnie Walker to help pique your interests in pencils and whisky. I picked it up at a recent auction.

Johnnie Walker Multi Pen
Here we have the Johnnie Walker fountain pen. It’s plastic, but with a woodgrain appearance. I don’t know its age, but I’m guessing it’s from the 1960’s or so. It sort of feels “average” quality, which is what you'd probably expect from an advertising freebie give-away. There are no indications of manufacturer, except it does have “Made in England” pressed into the barrel. (England? - Doesn’t seem entirely appropriate for Scotch whisky.)

The Johnnie Walker name and logo are printed on the barrel in gold.
As is the by-line “Born 1820 – Still Going Strong”.
Now, pull the cap off that end, and put it on the other end and our fountain pen reveals that it is also a propelling pencil. You twist the tip to advance or retract the lead.

Advertisement 4 - Norma 1950

Another old ad sent to me by Glen. This one is from the US magazine Esquire, April 1950. It’s for a Norma 4-colour pencil, a Norma Multikolor as they call it. Black, green, blue, and red. I don’t have a Norma so I’m not sure if the black was usually black, or “black lead” as in normal graphite. The sliders and tip look very similar to a couple of other old multi-colour pencils I’ve got. You push the relevant slider down to push out the tip you want, and then you twist the tip to wind the lead in or out of the tip.

I don’t think their claim of “The Versatile Pencil of Tomorrow” ever really came true.

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?

Rotring Trio Pencil

Rotring Trio Pencil

How have I missed this!!??! In MechFrankenPencil I suggested the idea of a Rotring Newton type gravity selector mechanism multi-pencil but with 3 different pencils instead of different ballpoints. Now I find out they actually made it!!!! How did I miss out?

I recently chanced across the Rotring Trio-Pencil on eBay and my mind boggled.

I rushed to my Rotring catalogue, or rather “Schreibgefühl 2001 / 2002 rotring” as Rotring call it. Apparently that’s a bit of marketing speak, meaning “The feeling of writing”, “That writing feeling”, “The look and feel of writing (instruments)”, well something like that anyway.
LOOK, there, in the catalogue section “rotring Multipen”. Right before my very eyes for all these years! Blind, illiterate, idiot…clearly I am one or more of these. Man, this blog really does keep reminding me how little I know, and how much I don’t know. The shame of it all.
R 502 705 0 trio-pen, Schwarz, 3 Feinminenstifte (0,35mm, 0,5mm, 0,7mm)

Oh the Germanic precision of it. They even use commas instead of decimal points, and spaces instead of commas in their numbers, reminding me just how wrong I am.

Like so much of their range, Rotring apparently stopped making the Trio-pencil quite sometime ago, but good ole eBay still has some “new old stock” available. Obviously price was irrelevant, I had to have one!

Actually mine is slightly different to the picture in the catalogue, having a silver push top button rather than a black one like the catalogue.

The card box that the plastic presentation case comes in states “Sanford rotring GmbH” so it dates after 1998 when Sanford took over Rotring. It also has the old Rotring website on it, “rotring.com”. That’s long since gone. The current Newell Rubbermaid (Sanford) website doesn’t even list the Rotring brand anymore, just Papermate, Parker and Waterman of their “pencil” companies. I’m fairly sure that the website did list Rotring a year or so ago, when I last looked, so who knows what’s going on.

Printed on the body is 0.35, 0.5 and 0.7. Just like the Newton, there is a gravity selector system, so whichever size is held upright is the tip that comes out when you push the top button down. 10 clicks of the push top ratchet lead advance mechanisms extends 6mm of lead, irrespective of lead diameter.
You retract the pencil tip by pushing down the small lever that sticks up in the pocket clip. The spring loaded mechanism then retracts the tip back up inside the body.

There is a small eraser under the top cap. Leads are refilled by unscrewing the body to get to the three pencil units. The grip section is a slightly wider diameter than the rest of the body.

Dimensions – Length 138mm, 10mm diameter body.

Platinum Maki-e Multi Pen Review

Platinum Maki-e Crane Multi Pen Review

Just for the record, and to be precise, I believe the proper designation would be Platinum Maki-e “Crane” Double Action Pen MWB-5000RM black + red ballpoint/0.5 pencil.

What is “Maki-e”? Well I’ve seen the term used quite a lot in reference to those fountain pens that are beautifully decorated in a Japanese or Oriental style. A quick bit of online browsing informs me that maki-e means “sprinkled picture” in Japanese and it is a method of decorating lacquerware with gold, silver and other powders. Originally of course the lacquer was real tree sap lacquer, the gold was real gold, and so on. Naturally if you have a few extra dollars burning a hole in your pocket you can buy “real” maki-e, but the rest of us generally get modern versions made with modern materials, modern manufacturing processes, etc which combine to produce a price more affordable to the average pencil collector like myself.

Platinum are a Japanese manufacturer of writing instruments. You can pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for their top of the range Maki-e fountain pens, or, like me, much more modest prices for their everyday pen and pencil ranges.

So, what does my maki-e “crane” multi pen look like. Well firstly this model was made in a number of bird related scene variants, e.g. Phoenix, Crane. The body is a shiney black lacquer resin with a very detailed beautiful scene of two cranes flying, with river and mountain scenery completing the picture. Very nice indeed. This artwork is slightly raised on the surface so it feels like an appliqué over the top of the base surface. For the price I paid, I don’t imagine this is fancy high grade real traditional tree sap and gold powder hand made maki-e, rather it’s the modern, automated version. I’ve got no idea about the durability of the finish. Will it wear quickly with use? But I’ll be honest and say, assuming this is the “cheap” maki-e, then the real stuff must be utterly fantastic!
The grip on this pencil is fairly good for something without any special grip enhancements. The resin body is smooth and shiny but the material is not slippery. It’s also about average weight for a multi pen, balanced fairly neutral, but a little towards the top. The pocket clip is quite strong, but easily usable. The gold trims are not particularly golden, perhaps a rather low gold content in the alloy?

Writing tip selection is achieved by a twist mechanism. You twist the top half of the pencil to extend the tip. It is marked “M <> B” on the centre band so you know which way to twist to get which tip. The ballpoints are very fine tips and they write well. The red ballpoint is coloured red on its tip for easy identification, but the black one is just plain metal. If you extend the pencil tip, then the lead advance is activated by a normal push top ratchet mechanism. Mine is 0.5mm lead. It is rather stiff and not “precise” feeling, but that seems to be common to many multi-pen pencil mechanisms. Actually, activating it is a bit of a pain. The lead sleeve is a short sleeve, obviously for general writing purposes. Equally obviously it retracts for pocket safety.
The instruction leaflet is in Japanese, but the diagrams are clearly understandable. However, there is no diagram for the multi-pen! Fountain pen, mechanical pencil, rollerball and so on, but not the multi pen. This really annoys me, because multi pens need proper instructions on how to disassemble them for refilling , etc. It’s certainly possible to ruin them if you don’t know what you are doing. I have figured this Platinum one out by experience with other brands and by looking at the diagrams for the other pen modes, but still, it really is second rate not to include the instructions.
There is a small eraser under the top cap. You unscrew the cap to get at it, so its certainly not quick and easy access! I only discovered this eraser by inquisitive investigation.

This multi pen comes in a plastic presentation box – nice enough, but plain and forgettable really.

• Best Points – It looks great.
• Not So Good Points – Poor instructions, slightly annoying lead advance.
• Price Range – Mid.

Dimensions – Length 149mm, diameter 9mm. Balance point about 85mm up from the tip.

Footnote: To be honest, I ordered a black ballpoint/0.7mm twin combination, but received black + red ballpoint/0.5mm triple combination. Ahhh, the vagaries of online shopping! It really is a lottery, you order "X", then cross your fingers and hope that when "Y" arrives bears some resemblence to "X" that you ordered!

Photos = "Crane + Albatross & chick"and "Crane + Ducks"

Lamy CP1 Twin Pen Review

Lamy CP1 Twin Pen Review

Lamy have gone for the plain austere look with their CP1 Twin Pen (model 656). The body is metal, round in cross-section, and mine is the matt black lacquer finish. The metal body gives it a bit of weight and a cool to the touch feel, while the lacquer gives it a little more grip than a plain metal finish would.

My CP1 Twin Pen is fitted with a black ballpoint pen refill and a 0.5mm pencil system. You twist the lower half of the body one way to push out the pen tip, and the other way for the pencil. You reverse the action to retract the tip and stopping in the central position leaves both tips retracted for transport mode. You can do all this one-handed if you are reasonably dextrous. There are no markings on the pen body to indicate which way you twist to get which tip, so you have to learn to remember which way is which. Replacing the refills is by unscrewing the bottom half of the body so you can get at them.

The pencil system is a 0.5mm push top ratchet. Like most multi pens the push top action is rather drawn out and tough compared to normal pencil mechanisms. There is a small pretty useless eraser under the top cap. The pen refill writes OK, but it is a very small refill so you won’t get a lot of kilometres of ink out of it. There is black around the tip to indicate its ink colour but I don’t think that looks very good. It reminds me of a ballpoint that’s leaked ink and smeared over the tip.

Now, in my earlier review of the Rotring Newton Trio, Michael from Pigpog commented that he had trouble with lead breakage in a multi-pen. I hadn’t ever really thought about that before, but now that he’s planted the seed, I think there might be a tendency for multi-pen pencil leads to break a bit easier than those of normal pencils. Something to keep in mind for future investigation.

The pocket clip on the CP1 is the standard Lamy spring loaded clip, as functional as ever. I have always been surprised that the small “LAMY” stamped into the side of the pocket clip is the only branding on so many Lamy pens and pencils. They never seem to really push their branding on their products.

Lamy market their multi-functional instruments as helping you survive in the corporate jungle, saving time and space by only having to carry the one writing tool. I thought this photo went with that theme.

• Best Points – I like the good positive click as you twist and select the tips.
• Not So Good Points – I have a small worry about the twist action to select tips being the same type of action as unscrewing the body to get at the refills. Over time will twisting inadvertently start the unscrewing process?
• Price Range – Mid/High

Dimensions – Length 144mm, diameter 10mm. Balance point about 80mm up from the tip.

Now, Lamy is of course a German company, so you know what that means. This time we have Hochstetter – no, not the enemy of Colonels Hogan and Klink – rather the geologist, Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand von Hochstetter (1829-1884). Recruited into the Austrian geological survey in 1853, Hochstetter was appointed to the Austrian scientific expedition of the Novara, and visited New Zealand in 1858 where he was persuaded to leave the expedition and remain to carry out geological and mineral surveys. He stayed in NZ for a short while, surveying energetically, before returning to Austria in 1860, and later publishing his works to great success. In 1872 he was a tutor to Crown Prince Rudolf, an unusual appointment by the Catholic emperor given Hochstetter's Lutheran background. His time in New Zealand is commemorated by many place and organism names.

Hochstetters Dome (2827m, 9275 feet) versus Hochstetters Frog (0.05m, 2 inches)

Rotring Newton Trio Review

Yes, well, this is a mechanical pencil blog so even though it’s seemingly always referred to as the Rotring Newton Trio Pen, I am going to call it pen / pencil. After all this review will be with a pencil bias, not pen.

The Rotring Newton is named after Sir Isaac Newton, the great 17th Century physicist, scientist and “thinker”. Personally I find the look of the Trio rather reflective of this idea. The round metal body has longitudinal lines along it and is shiny chrome plated, unlike the central “sleeve” section which is matt. Viewed side on, the hexagonal sleeve section looks as though it is a part of an equilateral triangle and the pocket clip attachment continues this triangular line. It all combines so the whole look of this pen/pencil is very scientific or mathematical, and I take my hat off to the stylists at Rotring, they have really come up with the goods on this one.

That hexagonal central section also stops the pen/pencil rolling around on your desk, and adds more weight giving a top heavy feel. The pocket clip is a good solid spring loaded item, no worries there. The grip is OK, about what you would expect from a plain metal finish barrel – it can get a little slippery after extended use.

My Trio has black and red ballpoints and a 0.5mm pencil. I believe other configurations are available. As a ballpoint, the refills write well, but they did seem to be the type that collects stuff on the ballpoint so you often get a small blob when you start writing again. It does seem to me that some ballpoints are more prone to this than others, but obviously the paper and other factors are also important. Being a multi-pen, the refills are only very small, probably only holding about 1/10th of a normal pen. Likewise the pencil cartridge only holds 1 or 2 spare leads, but that’s probably not a big deal. I imagine the pen refill size is more of an issue for your average user. To refill the pencil, or replace a pen refill, you have to unscrew the body from the sleeve section to access the cartridges.

How do you select the pencil or red or black pen? Well back in 1666 when apocryphal apples were bouncing off Isaac’s head, he got to thinking and came up with the theory of gravity. So, it’s entirely appropriate that the Newton Trio has a gravity controlled selector system. Up at the top of the pen/pencil there are three “dots” (‘black’, ‘red’ and ‘0.5’) set at 90 degrees to each other. You hold the body horizontal with the appropriate dot on top and that’s the tip that will come out when you push the top cap down. Obviously a little weighted spindle orientates the refills inside the body. Very cool. No twisting a section around or anything like that. I am sure the great man himself would approve. If you want the pencil you just hold it so ‘0.5’ is on top and push that big top cap down. There is a little raised button that you push to retract the tip when you have finished writing or want to select a new tip. It is spring loaded retraction, and produces a very satisfying “K-chink” as the tip slams back home inside the body. When you push down on the top cap to extend the selected tip, it’s quite easy for the pens, but you have to push fairly hard to extend the pencil out. The pencil is a push top ratchet, and it’s the same when you use the top cap to activate the lead advance, you have to give it a bit of extra oomph.

There is a small “better than nothing” eraser under the top cap, but it’s very difficult to get the top cap off when the pencil is in use because the cap is depressed into the body. You have to retract the pencil tip, and then take the top cap off. Pushing the top cap back on nearly always advances a tip out of the body so you need to be aware of what dots facing up at the time!

The Newton Trio comes in a small metal presentation tin - adequate, but nothing fancy. Overall this is a great multi pen/pencil.

• Best Points – The looks and selector system. Surely Sir Isaac would approve?
• Not So Good Points – The push top ratchet lead advance mechanism is not as sharp and precise feeling as a normal pencil.
• Price Range – Mid/high.

Dimensions – Length 129mm, diameter 9mm barrel, hex section 11mm across the flats. Balance point about 75mm up from the tip.

Well finally of course we need the German / NZ connection for a good German Rotring instrument. Carl Sylvius Volkner (1819 – 1865) was a German Protestant missionary sent to New Zealand in 1849. During the period of the New Zealand Wars he effectively became a government informant against his Maori parish and certain heretical Christian sects. This culminated in his murder / execution by anti-government forces, and then of course subsequent government military actions to punish the offenders.