Posts filed under Kokuyo

Kokuyo Hakoake 2Way Cutter + Mini Scissors

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

Spare your good craft scissors! I'm terribly guilty of using the good scissors to open boxes, which everyone knows is not cool. This handy gadget is a box opener and scissors in one, so you can snip or slice as needed.

The Kokuyo Hakoake 2Way Cutter looks like a standard box cutter, though it's smaller and a lot more lightweight. The body is made of plastic. It has a textured finish that makes it easy to grip, and there's a loop on the back end for attaching a strap. The top edge has a black plastic slider that moves along a track to extend the blades.

The body is labeled with the three stations for the slider. The back end has the "lock" setting, where the blades are locked completely inside the body. If you push down on the slider and move it forward, it slides into the next setting, "cutter," which extends just a short edge of blade from the tip of the case. If you push down and move the slider all the way forward, it pops up and becomes the lever for operating the scissors. Each station locks into place, so you don't have to worry about any slipping.

The design is simple but clever and it's a conveniently compact tool for opening all those stationery packages that find their way to your porch.

The blades on the cutters are made from either stainless steel or titanium, depending on which model you select. The stainless steel model has a beige handle, and the other titanium model has a forest green handle with brown blades. Both the cutter and the scissors cut well, though neither are very sharp. This tool isn't meant to replace a pocketknife or proper scissors. It's meant to do the dirty work of opening packaging, so your knife and scissors stay nice.

The titanium blade models sell for $13.25 on JetPens, and the stainless steel model is $9.25. It's a very fair price for such a handy thing. I've found myself reaching for it often to open boxes or letters, snip tape or tags or yarn tails. My youngest recently had a birthday, so there was a lot to open, and this was the perfect thing to have on hand. It now has a permanent spot on my desk, next to my scissors, which are probably very relieved that they'll never again have to struggle through packing tape.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on March 13, 2025 by Sarah Read and filed under Kokuyo, Scissors.

Kokuyo Book Weight Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)

As the end of the year draws near, readers across the world are frantically tearing through their to-read lists in order to meet ambitious reading goals we set for our own darn selves before the arbitrary deadline of the calendar runs out. Or so I hear. Anything that makes the task easier is welcome. This Kokuyo Book Weight helps, though I've found other practical uses for it, as well.

This seagull-shaped book weight is designed to fit the curves of your book pages, weighing them down so that your page stays open neatly for easy reading. The thin design makes it less obtrusive than clip-style book holders. It fits nicely in the margins of the page so it doesn't get in the way of the words.

It comes in three colors. The black one that I received is made of cast iron and has a wonderfully rustic look to it. The rough texture keeps it from sliding on the pages. There is a silver colored one that is also made of a coated iron. Both the iron ones sell for $29. There is also a raw brass one, which sells for $60, which is more than I'd personally want to pay for a book weight, but it's very pretty and screams "welcome to my elegant book parlor." I dig it.

This book weight isn't perfect for all books. Its distinctive mustachio shape works very well with standard hardcover books, or with larger books, but it doesn't work as well with smaller paperbacks. It will still weigh the page open, but the silhouette doesn't fit right, making it less stable.

It is very good for weighing down the pages on books that require you to be hands-free. I've used it for knitting pattern books and cookbooks already, and it was perfect for the task. It will also be amazing to have on hand the next time that I have to type up a handwritten manuscript. I also used it to hold my planner open while a very wet ink took its time drying.

Overall, I think this is a great tool. I'm a fan of page weights, and the one I've been using for the last few years is much wider, which covers part of the text. I have to move it around a bit to get to all the words, which defeats part of its purpose. I don't expect I'll have that problem as often with this one.

I hope you're all enjoying your end-of-the-year reads. Snowy days make me want to read even more, and as it is currently blizzarding out, that's what I'm off to do, with my handy book weight. Happy reading!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on December 5, 2024 by Sarah Read and filed under Kokuyo, Accessories Review.

Kokuyo Me 0.5mm Gel Pen Review

(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)

It's not often at all that you see a new gel pen manufacturer enter the market. At this point, the big companies that operate in the stationery space already have various ballpoint refill pens available en mass, and they regularly churn new and updated variations on these. Bringing a new, cheap semi-disposable pen to market must be an extraordinarily large cost. So, when I see a pen from a manufacturer that I haven't previously associated with writing instruments, I jump at it.

Kokuyo is near and dear to my heart for the paper products they sell. Their paper is a good "middle of the road" quality, but it's paired with lower prices. It's nearly impossible to compare Japanese stationery culture with the American version, but Kokuyo feels like the ubiquitous brand that you can find at any office supply store. It's nothing special, but it's good at what is does. At any rate, it's about a thousand percent better than the paper products you find at any generic office supply store in the US.

Remember when Moleskine started selling pens? And they turned out to actually be pretty good? Well, that's kind of what's happening here with Kokuyo. The Kokuyo Me gel pen is fairly new, seems like a sleeper, but it actually hangs with the best gel pen options out there.

The Kokuyo Me pens are fairly new for the US market (forgive me if these pens are something that are really old news in Japan!), and I haven't seen much info or reviews on them so far. After trying one out for a while, I can tell you that Kokuyo's gel pen game is strong.

The 0.5mm black gel refill included with this pen is fantastic. It writes instantly and has no issues with starting, skipping, or bleeding. The ink is black and consistent in hue. The line edges are sharp and crisp. The only gripe I have about the refill is that I don't agree with the 0.5mm label they've given it. It's more akin to most 0.7mm refills, but that's a minor gripe.

The shape of the refill is very familiar. It's just a tiny bit different than the common Pilot G-2 refill, but it's essentially a complete match for other common pen/refill types. I've tried swapping with Uni Signos and Zebra Sarasas with great success. In theory, you could use the Kokuyo refill in other pens, or in machined pens made to use specific refills (like the Signo, for example). The only problem is, there aren't a lot of options in terms of Kokuyo's refills at the moment (at least for the US market). Black 0.5mm is the only option, unfortunately. I really hope that Kokuyo expands on their options for refill colors and sizes, but I guess it's still early days.

Getting back to the actual pen body, it's pretty standard fare with a couple of unique touches. The grip section is hard plastic instead of a rubberized, textured grip, and one side of the grip is faceted. This flat side of the grip is a nice place for a finger to rest while writing, but unobtrusive for those that prefer a different grip.

There's also a small round window between the clip and the grip section that shows you the numeric designation of the refill inside. It's easy to see the "05" through the window whether the refill is extended or retracted. This is possible because they've actually printed the 05 on the refill dozens of times to account for basically any possible placement of the refill inside the pen. Seems to me like something that was over-thought or over-designed as it doesn't really provide much value. Most pens in this price range have the refill size printed somewhere on the pen, but I guess being able to see the refill label is more accurate.

The "bell pepper" color I picked is a nice basic green. The pen body color has no bearing on the ink color — they're all black ink refills. There are several other pen body colors to pick from.

Vanness sell the Kokuyo Me gel pens for $4.50, which is in the ballpark for other comparable gel pens from the more well-known brands. Even if it's a little more than some options, I'd still say it's worth checking out. The refill that Kokuyo are using in this pen is promising, and I can't wait to see more options in terms of point size and color. Keep it up, Kokuyo!

(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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