Sunday night, just got home after an 8 hour drive, feeling a bit run down, getting some stuff ready for work the next morning, time to quickly choose a pencil for the coming week…well there it was, the EnerGize Pencil by Pentel. To make matters worse, Monday was the first day of the new financial year, so lots of reports to write…I was certainly going to need an extra dose of energy.
Well, that was a couple of weeks ago back at the start of month, so now I’ve finally written this review and got it published.
The Energize is a little bit of a change from the pencils I’ve been using lately. It’s a rather plain shape – basically just a long straight tube. No bulbous grips, tapering or curving bodies, etc. Instead Pentel have done a great job with the colour scheme. My silver-grey version really does look great – it’s simple, stylish, and yes, somehow energized looking.
Picking it up, this pencil is lighter than I expected. I know it’s only plastic, but with all that metallic colouring I still sort of half expected a little more weight. As a lightweight pencil the balance is fairly neutral. As for the grip, well, it’s a rubber grip and we all know my opinions of those. Hold on, back it up, change the record - I am impressed with this rubber grip. This is one that gets it right. The surface is not slippery. The concentric wave pattern grooves feel almost like little flanges sticking out to massage your fingers and they do add to the grip. The compound has just that little bit of cushioning to it under finger pressure. This is the grip that other rubber grips aspire to be. This is a rubber grip that I do not object to – coming from me, that probably counts as serious praise. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.
The lead advance is a standard push top ratchet mechanism. 10 clicks will get you 10mm of the 0.7mm lead. That’s quite a bit for Pentel. The tip is a retractable cone, so it’s fully pocket safe. Underneath the top button is the usual small disappointing eraser. You pull that out to load the lead magazine. It’s a fairly wide diameter tube so you can get a decent supply of lead in there. The top button is an unusual one. Firstly it has a sort of click-fit back onto the pencil rather than the usual push type feel. It’s also fairly gentle so you can definitely get it back on without activating the lead advance. 
The cap also has 4 little slots cut into the top of it, similar to the Forte Pro II as recently reviewed on this blog by AndrewJ. After his review was published, Andrew mentioned that he had been told that such slots were breathing slots in case a small child swallowed and chocked on the top button. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but it very well could be, and it’s obviously a good idea. Of course, on the Energize, they also double as cooling vents. :-)One strange thing did happen to my Energize. Twice the front section unscrewed from the body. That’s very strange for me and Pentel, but then the rubber grip does sort of make me twist and rotate the pencil around, so that was probably the cause of it. Giving it a little extra twist when tightening back up did finally cure this problem.
The pocket clip is another piece of superior stuff. It is metal, good and sturdy, works well, and really fits in with the overall look of the pencil. See how the shape of the top of the body, and the graphics all lead your eye out to the pocket clip.
To me, everything about this pencil indicates that one day the Pentel design department assembled their “A-Team” and this is what they came up with. Get yourself one. - Best Points – Lots, but I’ll single out the rubber grip again.
- Not So Good Points – I don’t want to put anything here.
- Price Range – Economy/Low.
Dimensions – Length 150mm, diameter 11mm. Balance point about 75mm up from the tip.
From the markings on the case it appears to be an H & S brand number 485 Copper-Pencil, made in Germany.
The case is wooden, you just pull the two tight fitting halves apart. The auction taught me a new word as the case was described as a treen case. My dictionary says treen = small domestic wooden antique.
The pencil tip is a hard blue substance, quite a beautiful colour really. It doesn’t write though! A little bit of post auction web research has lead me to this conclusion – it’s a copper sulphate pencil, once used by doctors and vets to burn flesh off their patients. Gaarrrrr ! The mind-boggles. Thanks to the long term harmful effects of the local sun, I, like most 
For humans the references I found for these copper pencils are mostly medical journals from the late 1800’s and usually in relation to treating conjunctivitis and other eye-infections. Apply the pencil to the eyelids to burn off the infected and granulated flesh. They ain’t kiddin’. Here’s an extract from the memoirs of a British doctor in the Near East in the late 1930’s. It seems eye infections were extremely common amongst desert peoples.
Pantone Universe coloured pencils. A whole tin of 24.
Sqaure cross-section. Awesome stuff (and priced to match) 
Each pencil is printed with its Pantone colour number and the details of number, name and emotional response are printed on the tin.
Thus we do not merely have light blue, deep red and black, we have:
Right, well let’s start with the mechanism, seeing it’s the main point for me choosing this pencil. Personally I prefer to call such mechanisms vanishing points rather than this crazy “double-knock” that seems to be gaining ground from, presumably, some Japanese mis-translation. Double-action would make sense, but double-knock is just nonsensical. So, usual story with such mechanism – the first push on the push-top button advances the whole tip section out of the body and locks it in place. Subsequent light pushes activate the ratchet lead advance mechanism, 10 clicks will get you 5mm of lead. A heavy full push releases the spring loaded system to retract the whole tip section back up inside the body. Great stuff. The ultimate in pocket safety and lead sleeve protection. In this case the lead sleeve is a thin 2mm tube. There is a fraction of play in the tip section so those who cannot stand any lead wobble and value super-precision should probably not purchase the Technica-X. But really, it’s only a fraction, unnoticeable in normal use.
The push top ratchet lead advance is very nice and smooth. I’m sure the marketing folk would be saying something like “New improved super-smooth easy-action”. Hmmmm, almost too smooth and easy. I actually had a little trouble with being too heavy handed and thus retracting the tip when I only wanted to advance the lead. Still, you get used to such things, and I don’t really want to detract from my overall very favourable impression of this vanishing point mechanism.
As with many rubber grips, I am unimpressed by the surface of the rubber feeling slightly slippery, almost as if it has some oil or silicon on it. I note that a long finger-like part of the rubber grip moulding runs up the main body
This doesn’t appear to have any purpose and makes me suspect it’s simply covering up something – like the slot where a side clicker button would go. I was intending to do some comparisons with my other pencils and see if the PW45 main body was the body of some other pencil, but circumstances have conspired to scotch that idea. So, if you happen to do the comparison, let us know. 
The pocket clip works well. It slides easily onto a shirt pocket, and off when required. The tip of the clip is clearly a bit better than many similar tips that are simply folded under to make the clasp.
Markings on the body are “Pental Japan” moulded in at the top of the body, and “Technica-X, PW45, 0.5, 9b” printed on the body. The “9b” is very small, and I’ve got no idea what it signifies.
Bearing in mind the price range this pencil fits into, it’s a pretty good score. With this in mind I’m surprised Pentel USA only offer it in 2 versions - 0.5mm red body or black body. Does this imply it’s not a great seller? 
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