Parker Esprit Mechanical Pencil Review

Parker Esprit Mechanical Pencil Review

So here I am, back again nearly four years on from my last review, and I am effectively picking up where I left off because back when I gave up on this blog, the Parker Esprit was next in line for review.

Parker launched the Esprit back in 2008, and some sites suggest the target market was businesswomen looking for a small relatively minimalistic but colourful writing instrument. 

First thing out of the box, a very nice protective carry case for your Esprit. That certainly does strike me as something suited to a ladies handbag.

Open up and we have the mechanical pencil, or pen. It certainly is a bright colourful object in metallic blue and chrome trim.

The Esprit is a telescoping design, so you carry it retracted and then you extend it to write. Officially to me it is a mini-pencil. The Esprit is though fully functional when retracted, so if you just have to scribble a quick note or you are happy with a short pencil then the lead advances whilst retracted and you can write away.

Retracted

To extend the pencil you simply pull the front section out of the main body. It has a rather satisfying suction sort of feel as you pull the front section out and a definite stop at the end. You then twist the two sections through about a quarter turn to lock them in position.

Extended

I really like the little graphic printed on the barrel showing the lead size and indicating the direction of turn to lock the extension in place.

To retract you simply reverse the process, but that worries me a little. My Esprit mechanical pencil has a rather metal on metal sort of feel and sound during the retraction process and I wonder over time if somehow the barrel is going to get scuffed. I must stress there’s not actual physical sign of that; it’s just a suggestion from the feel and sound of it. If you are a bit heavy handed then when the barrel hits the retracting end stop you can accidently activate the lead advance.

The lead advance mechanism is a standard push top ratchet. 10 clicks will get you 7mm of lead. As usual there is a small eraser under the top cap, and you remove it to access the lead refill chamber. The pocket clip is quite strong.

In the hand the Esprit feels quite light. The grip section does not feel particularly positive and the ringed grooves are certainly a necessary feature.

Well, I am not a businesswoman, and might not be the target market, but I liked the Esprit well enough. It is a lightweight colourful attractive interesting mechanical pencil for carrying around in a purse or bag. Apart from the carry case it’s certainly as unisex as most other mechanical pencils out there. I suspect though that Parker have decided the Esprit is on its way out so availability will decline.

•    Best Points – Interesting telescoping design
•    Not So Good Points – Not pocket safe without the carry case.
•    Price Range – Mid
•    Does this pencil make it into the Top 5? – No

Dimensions – Length 124mm extended and 106mm retracted, diameter 10mm across the grip section. Balance point about 70mm up from the tip when extended.

Back With Triple Sets

I shut this blog down a few years ago and took it offline a while back, but I have recently been trying to get my "pencil-life" better organized. Part of that has been the long overdue decision to reorganize (down size) my collection. Over the years I have ended up with a lot of stuff I don't really want. Things that looked good online but aren't in the hand, duplicates, minor variations, etc, etc, etc.

The review of things to keep or sell got me thinking about triple sets - fountain pen, ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil. Not that they were ever that common 30 - 50 years ago, but I guess they are basically a thing of the past now unless you make up your own one by buying three separates. I do have a couple of triple sets... but not for much longer :)

Conway Stewart

Pilot

Faber-Castell E-Motion - the one I'm keeping, although it is a make up of three separates in a flip top hard case.

So, someone who knows about ink, why isn't the Faber-Castell nib gold?

He's Back, He's Bad

Blog is back online

1940 - A Centenary

I have been wanting one of these souvenir mechanical pencils for quite a while now, and finally found one that is in reasonable condition that still works. The problem is that they are not particularly good quality pencils and many of them no longer work and/or they are in poor condition. Also there do not really seem to be that many of them about, so perhaps they were not a big seller back in the day.

The New Zealand Centennial Exhibition celebrated the centenary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which is generaly regarded as the founding of New Zealand, and ran from 8 November 1939 to 4 May 1940. It was hugely popular, with 2.6 million visitors at a time when the population of New Zealand was only 1.6 million. The exhibition emphasised the Britishness of New Zealand, it's independance as a Dominion, but its commitment to, and pride in being, a nation within The Empire. Despite all that, reports indicate that most visitors went straight to the Crazy House and roller coaster in the Playland amusement park that was part of the exhibition.

The certificate of attendance is a background image

There was some speculation that the Exhibition would be cancelled due to the outbreak of World War Two, but it was felt cancellation might have a negative effect on morale so it went ahead as planned. Of course during the exhibition morale was high - off the coast of South America the navy had the victory of the Battle of the River Plate, and the first echelons of the army had arrived in Egypt. Of course a few weeks after the exhibition finished it all started going wrong, the Fall of France, the disasters for the New Zealand Army in the Battle of Greece and of Crete, etc.

Imprint in good but rather unimpressive original state

A good quality instruction sheet is always a bonus

Not surprisingly the pencil is a 1.18mm screw mechanism. Note the "Made entirely in England" on the instructions. I was surprised to see that the instructions are repeated in five other European languages. Presumably the unknown manufacturer had a substantial export business. I have seen this same model mechanical pencil without Centenary markings.

Farewell... RIP?

Enough procrastination. I really enjoyed this blog for the six or so years that I regularly updated it, but those days are gone. It is time to admit this blog has run its course and close it down. So, this is my final post. Comments will be closed down in a month or so. I will of course leave the blog up on the net, and who knows, maybe at some future date I will resurrect it, but for the moment, it is game over.

I would like to thank all of you who have had some interraction with this blog - commented on, corresponded about, read - I've enjoyed all the contact with you.

I leave you with some images of my two most recent acquisitions... one for a dollar and the other for... well a couple of extra zeroes were involved.

An old Sailor from the 1980's or so. Virtually "as new" condition. Fantastic value for the next to nothing you can pick them up for. The Sailor pocket clips always seem oversized to me, frequently out of propprtion or clunky, but on this one it seems to work. Perhaps though I have just got used to the Sailor look over time.

An old Parker Duofold ballpoint pen/pencil set. NIB or near enough. Made in England, I guess from the 1990's or early 2000's.

RIP DMP

Autopoint All-American Mechanical Pencil Review

Autopoint All-American Mechanical Pencil Review

Two Autopoint articles in a row, what’s going on? Well, when Jason Bender of Autopoint contacted me a few months ago and I suggested an interview to him, he also offered to send me a pencil for review, and I said “Yes thanks”. So, here we have the Autopoint All-American mechanical pencil.

Autopoint All-American Mechanical Pencil, light blue, 0.5mm

The All-American is available in a variety of colours and in four lead sizes – 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and 1.1mm. Multiple lead sizes per model is definitely something I approve of. There is also the related model, the Jumbo All-American. For this review I am using a 0.5mm light blue All-American, which was supplied in a cardboard package.

Like most Autopoints, the current All-American is a child of the 1970’s, and it looks it. I don’t mean that in a negative way, I mean that in the good way - it looks like what it is; a design object of its times, a contemporary of the Pentel P205, vinyl LPs and the Apollo spacecraft.

The main plastic body of the All-American mechanical pencil is 10 sided, a decahedron in cross section. It transitions rapidly to a conical tip section which itself finishes with a metal tip. At the other end of the pencil there is a round metal eraser housing and non-removable pocket clip. The plastic is hard and shiny, a good quality product. The pocket clip and body shape combine so that this pencil does not tend to roll on your desk.

Autopoint of Janesville

In the hand the All-American is a fairly lightweight pencil. The grip zone is smooth without any enhancements so that might be a problem for some when held for a long time. The lead sleeve is a short fixed 2.5mm long metal pipe, so this pencil is not pocket safe. Although shorter than the usual 3 – 4mm long draughting sleeves, the sleeve is probably just long enough for draughting work so this pencil is something of a generalist, suitable for general writing and some technical work.

I believe Autopoints main point of differentiation and claim to fame is their Grip-Tite lead holding mechanism. The lead advance is a screw mechanism, you hold the tip and twist it to advance the lead. To retract the lead you twist the tip the other way and then press the lead back into the tip. The metal pipe tip itself has a small slit in it. The split pipe tip is essentially fractionally undersize for the lead and so squeezes and holds the lead right at the extreme end of the pipe. This prevents lead wobble and rotation, and Autopoint claims it reduces lead breakage. I agree with them. I certainly did feel that lead breakage was much less than usual during the two weeks I used the All-American as my daily mechanical pencil. On the down side, the screw mechanism is not as convenient as a push top ratchet mechanism, but I certainly did get used to it, particularly as recently I was using the Uchida Drawing Sharp S which also has a screw mechanism. The Autopoint mechanism is markedly firmer and stiffer to rotate than the Uchida, which I found to be good, and means you are less likely to over extend the lead. Overall then, I am impressed by the Grip-Tite system.

To replace your lead with a new stick you must remove the tip section of the pencil and reassemble. It is not difficult, so nothing to be too scared of. Just a note though about the leads. The Grip-Tite system requires that the lead and metal tip match together. As we know, the various lead manufacturers around the world have some differing and wide tolerances on the diameters of their leads and as such you may encounter problems using brands of lead other than Autopoint brand lead refills.

Autopoint Grip-Tite refill instructions

The All-American’s eraser is uncovered and obviously intended for general use rather than the tiny emergency only use erasers that many mechanical pencils have. I am not a fan of the appearance of uncovered erasers, but this one is coloured grey so won’t show unsightly graphite smears on white when it has been used. Putting the eraser to the test, it performs quite well as shown below. The eraser is replaceable, and the holder allows you to extend it a small amount.

You remove the eraser to access the lead storage chamber. Remember though, this pencil is a tip feeder, so the lead is stored inside the body but it does not self-feed when your current stick of lead is used up.

With the name All-American, and Autopoint being both proud Americans and that rare beast, a survivor of the American writing instrument industry decline, I am a little surprised that their American origin is not featured more prominently. The packaging has no reference to country of origin and the pencil body is unmarked with any model number or name. The markings on the pencil are all on the metal pocket clip – “Autopoint” and the lead size e.g. “.5” on the face of the clip, and in very small letters on the side of the clip, there it is, “USA”.

Pocket clip markings, note USA on the side edge.

Overall then, the Autopoint All-American is good pencil, and you should have one in your collection.

•    Best Points – The Grip-Tite system.
•    Not So Good Points – Requirement to use Autopoint brand lead
•    Price Range – Low.
•    Does this pencil make it into the Top 5? – No.

Dimensions – Length 143mm, diameter 8mm across flats of body. Balance point about 80mm up from the tip.

Disclaimer – For the purposes of this review, Autopoint supplied 2 All-American pencils and 2 tubes of lead refills to me free of charge.