Faber-Castell TK-Fine Vario L Mechanical Pencil Review
The TK-Fine Vario L is Faber-Castells top of the line offering in technical or draughting pencils, and judging by comments and emails I have received over the corse of this blog, it certainly has its share of fans. 
I first thing that struck me when I picked up my TK-Fine Vario L was how light it was. The kitchen scales make it 15grams. From its length and amount of metal componentry I just expected something more weighty and substantial in the hand. Having said that, the metallic componentry is mostly at the front end so it does have a reasonably front-heavy balance. 
The other first impression I get from this pencil is its overall “look”. It looks quite good – a long, slim, technical appearance. It also looks “well made” – the metal and plastic components all look like they are good quality items, that this a pencil that was made to last. Mr Penny-Pincher was not involved in its manufacture. No one would be surprised to see this pencil in the hand of a prominent designer. But it is also a rather dated appearance, a sort of 1960’s or 70’s industrial look, although some might suggest that is actually also a rather current look.I must also say that one time as I was looking down the length of the pencil I was suddenly struck by the similarity to a Sky Tower type building. The looks grew on me even more after that architectural revelation.
The lead sleeve is a 4mm metal tube for draughting work. It isn’t retractable. This pencil is super pocket unsafe. The tip section includes a lead hardness indicator window. You can rotate it around to show 2B to 4H, including F. Personally I think this hardness indicator is at the wrong end of the pencil. If you have a couple of pencils loaded with different lead grades and store them in a cup or holder point down then you can’t tell which is which until you pull it out of the cup. I also tend to find the indicator a little distracting in general use, as its right down there in the line of sight of the tip as you write or draw. However, others may argue you should store your pencils upside down to protect the long thin lead sleeve from damage. If that is your practice, then the indicator is correctly positioned.
OK, well up at the other end of the pencil there is a twist out eraser. The twist action is very smooth and easy, and the eraser is a little under 4mm diameter with about 26mm of usable length. The compound appears to be vinyl and erases quite well. The thin diameter means you can do some reasonably detailed fine erasing, but the compound does seem to have a slightly annoying habit of sticking to the paper. As the top of the pencil, the eraser cartridge is also the push top that activates the ratchet lead advance mechanism. It is a very positive noisy ‘clicky’ type, 10 clicks will get you 7mm of lead. My pencil is a 0.5mm model, but 0.3, 0.7 and 0.9mm are also available. You pull the whole eraser cartridge out of the body to access the lead refill magazine. The metal pocket clip is quite stiff but functional. 
Perhaps the TK-Fine Vario L’s main point of difference is its rather unusual adjustable lead cushioning system. You hold the metal grip section and twist the body one way for the “hard” setting and the other for the “soft” setting. On hard setting the lead is rigid, but on soft setting there is several millimetres of spring loaded retraction up into the lead sleeve if you push down hard on the lead. The theory is that this cushioning reduces lead breakages, etc. I’m not entirely convinced by this variable cushioning feature. When set to soft, the amount of lead movement sometimes seems excessive. I’m tempted to think this is all a bit pointless, just a marketing ploy, that a standard “fixed” cushioning system, or even no cushioning, would have been fine. Call me crazy, but I also thought there was a little bit more sideways play in the lead on “soft” setting than on “hard”, but someone will probably tell me that’s impossible.
The upper part of the body is a hexagonal plastic section, but the lower part is a nice round cross-section shiny metallic (chrome?) grip zone. It has some shallow circumferential grooves cut into it and flares out slightly at the base. The grip section is about 8mm in diameter which is relatively thin. Back at the beginning of this review I said, “...and judging by comments and emails…it certainly has its share of fans.” Well, unfortunately, I’m not really one of them. I’m afraid that in my book, the grip section is a complete let down, and ultimately ruins this pencil for me. The small diameter and shiny surface somehow combine to produce a very unsatisfactory insecure slippery grip. Faber-Castell have manufactured this pencil for a very long time so it must be a successful seller and many will disagree with my assessment, and maybe I am going overboard here, but this is the worst grip I have used in a very long time. Sorry, but that’s my personal opinion. I’ve got other plain shiny metal pencils, but they tend to be fatter. I think the problem is the combination of thin pencil and shiny metal grip.- Best Points – the looks, the eraser.
- Not So Good Points – the grip.
- Price Range – Low/Medium.
Dimensions – Length 154mm, diameter 8mm at grip section. Balance point about 65mm up from the tip.
“Onoto” is stamped into the pocket clip, but there are no other markings. Overall though it is in pretty good condition for something thats over 50 years old.
The second pencil is a little more picturesque, a light and dark sort of pink burgundy marble with gold trim. The company logo is stamped into the pocket clip, but this time the wording “Onoto The Pencil” and “Made in Gt Britain” is stamped into the plastic body. The marble effect is quite nice, with flashes of an almost silver effect at certain angles. The lighter sections give an appearance of real “depth”.
Both pencils are tip twist mechanisms to advance and retract the lead. The lead is 1.18mm and spare leads are stored loose inside the body. You unscrew the little top cap holding the pocket clip to access the leads, and feed one new lead into the tip. No auto-feeding like todays modern push-top ratchets. Also you can see how short the old style leads are, just 25mm or 1 inch long, and they have a sharpened tip.
The sharp eyed amongst you might have noticed the background to the photo above is the letterhead of the Inland Revenue Department. That letter was just sitting there when I went to take these photos and somehow, I imagine the taxman of old was likely to have been an Onoto type of guy, signing all those officious demanding letters that brought sorrow and dismay to the recipients. You may also note the words 'Te Tari Taaki' below Inland Revenue. Here I go again, meandering off-topic, but anyway… as part of the campaign to maintain the “health” of the Maori language (Maori are NZ’s indigenous people), the government entities all have dual English-Maori names. Many of these names make great translations. Historic Maori has no words for many modern societal and technological terms, so there have been some very creative creations. Now I don’t speak Maori at all, and a basic dictionary translation of these particular three words is quite difficult, but would suggest the Maori version literally translates as something conceptual like “The Department for Taking Personal Things from Below, in an Upwards Direction”. The truth is out! It is just the big guy on top takes it from the little guy down below!
Here we have the “1932 New Zealand Rough Diary”. Don’t ask me what a “Rough Diary” is, it seems to be a reasonably normal sort of large desk diary to me. No idea what the “Rough” bit means. 
I own two Pilot Clickers, both 0.5mm lead, one is red and labelled a Pilot HCK-50R-R5, the other is black and labelled H-545-B. Apart from the colour and the label I can’t see any difference between them despite their seemingly different model designations. Probably just old and new, or different codes in different countries.
Another obvious feature of the Clicker is the long black rubber grip section, basically covering the whole bottom half of the pencil. Its not a particularly “grippy” compound, it’s not contoured (except for a minor flare out at the tip), and it’s a fairly hard compound so there isn’t much give under normal finger pressure. So, overall it’s one of those rubber grips that leave me a little confused. Why did they bother? Is it just a current fad – “rubber grip = better”? One thing about the uncontoured grip though is that it does allow you to grip the pencil down low or higher up.
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