I have had the Titanium Mechanical Pencil in my hands for a few weeks now thanks to the team at Cogent Industries, and have found this pencil to be extremely hard to review. It’s not because it isn’t a good pencil, it’s engineered to very high standards, but there are a few things that are keeping me from backing this pencil myself.
There is no doubt this is a high quality titanium pencil. The manufacturing quality is as nice as I have seen on any Kickstarter project, and Magnus Macdonald, the project creator, clearly knows what he is doing. The design is clean, the tolerances are tight, and the finishing is perfect. It’s extremely well done.
That said, I can’t use it regularly. The primary issue is with the clip. First off, there is a sizeable gap between the clip end and the barrel. That may allow it to clip well on thick fabric like jeans, but shirts and thinner materials are a no go. It slides all over. You are going to have a hard time bending the thick titanium too. The Titanium Pen Magnus offers uses the same design, so this is a design choice.
Secondly, and the more serious issue, is that the clip bulge hits your hand in an uncomfortable way. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t twist the pencil in their hand when writing (aside from the Kuru Toga of course), and when you rotate the Titanium Menchanical Pencil you are going to run into the protruding clip frequently. It’s a completely different pencil when the clip is in the top position as opposed to the bottom position digging into your hand. You can get away with this on a pen, but not on a mechanical pencil.
I’m not a huge fan of the short end cap in use on this design either. Aesthtically it is fine, but functionally, like when removing it to add lead, it is hard to grip and pull off. Luckily, you don’t have to change lead that often.
If you can overlook these issues, the is one final hurdle to clear: The price. $129 is too much for me to pay for a pencil that isn’t a game changer. The Titanium Mechanical Pencil is not for me, but 433 backers at the time of this writing are all aboard. Give me the Rotring 600 for 1/4th the price every time.
(Cogent Industries provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
