Tombow Mono Graph Lead HB 0.5 mm Review

The mechanical pencil lead reviews I’ve taken up this year are leading me down an interesting path. I want to find the best lead out there for me - and hopefully you - and so far, I’m waiting for one to jump out the pencil and grab me and say “I am the one!”

It hasn’t happened yet. And I’m wondering if I am being fair to one of the most basic products on the market. I think I am, for one reason alone: Marketing! With their marketing, manufactures are telling me that they are bringing something new, cool, and/or unique to the graphite market. And honestly, I’m buying what they are selling.

That said, the differences between the leads I’ve tested so far is minimal. I can tell a difference between each lead I’ve tested, but are those differences that great to where I can definitively recommend one over the other? So far, no. But I have a lot more to go.

The Tombow Mono Graph Lead HB 0.5 mm is the latest to get the treatment, and maybe the easiest to explain, while confusing me the most. Kind of like I am doing to you in this review.

This is a really good lead, and that is the issue I am finding. They are all really good! Unlike gel ink pens, for example, the differences between the best in show and the worst are as minute as the leads themselves. When reviewing products, it’s a lot easier for me to discuss products that are exceptional. Exceptionally good, or exceptionally bad. Mechanical pencil leads on the whole all tend to fit in a very narrow range of the review scale. I’m looking for the one that breaks out from the pack - figuratively, of course.

This one is not it, but that doesn’t make it a bad lead. In fact, I’m guessing the Tombow Mono Graph Lead is the stock lead for all Tombow mechanical pencils, which is high praise if you think about it. It has all of the characteristics to give a good first impression. It’s good enough, strong enough, and gosh darn it, people like it!

I do too, yet here I am looking for something more. I want a transformative mechanical pencil lead. That may be one of the silliest sentences I’ve written in all of my years of writing. And it may be unfair, because what’s wrong with really good?

I’m determined to get to the bottom of this. I have a good 20+ leads left to test, and maybe one of them will be the one. And if not, that’s ok too. I’m lucky to have a bunch of really good leads handy to use in my favorite mechanical pencils.

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

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Tombow Mono Edge Dual-tip Highlighter Review

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

Highlighters may not be the most exciting category of stationery, but they're extremely helpful and useful tools. Like any tool, most people like to use the best ones available to them. With the Tombow Mono Edge dual-tip highlighters pack, your highlighting bases are covered.

The Tombow Mono Edge pack contains six different highlighters that all pack two different tips on either end. In the set, you have a wide range of color options, from golden yellow, pink, purple, red, sky blue, and yellow green. These colors provide a lot of contrast when marking up pages, and they seem to play nicely with most inks (fountain pens excluded).

The main selling feature of these highlighters is the dual tip action. On the top of the pen, there's a cap with a clip that houses the larger of the two highlighter tips. This tip is about 4mm wide and has a nicely chiseled shape. You can also turn the tip on the end to get a fine line, and you can also orient the chisel sideways to draw a thinner line.

The bottom cap houses a small 0.8mm highlighter tip. In my experience, this has been great for underlining passages. This requires less ink but still does a great job of calling out the text later. The bottom tip is a plain round shape that doesn't offer much flexibility.

Both ends of every highlighter move across the page with ease, and I have had zero issues with ink delivery. On the other hand, I haven't had any bleed issues either. The tips and ink used in these pens is top notch.

Each cap can securely post onto the other cap while you use the pen. Since they're made of plastic, the pens are very lightweight, but they don't feel delicate or fragile. These have held up great in my daily carry without any other protection.

When testing these highlighters, I was pretty happy with the results. They caused bleed and smearing with most of the fountain pens I tried, but that's the nature of the inks when they mix. Anything non-water-based did fantastic.

I tried several types of paper, and it didn't make much difference with these highlighters. The short poem I used as a demonstration was printed on cheap 20# copy paper from Target, and it performed well.

Whether you're a student, artist, like keeping a journal or daily planner, or anyone who enjoys bright colors, the Tombow Mono Edge highlighters are excellent. They're also a great value. For just under $10, you get six double-tipped highlighter pens that cover the spectrum of colors. No matter your ink combo, you can find a highlighter color in this pack that contrasts well.

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

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Tombow Mono Graph Grip Shaker Mechanical Pencil Review

It the most recent episode of the Pen Addict podcast, Myke and I discussed some of our favorite school supplies. This brought back a ton of memories for me, especially since it has been a VERY long time since I was in school.

My school supply heyday was the late-80’s, and while we discussed a few items from that era, we skipped over one of my primary writing tools: The mechanical pencil.

The Pentel Sharp P205 and the Pentel Quicker Clicker were my workhorses. As someone who was committed to the finest lines I could find, 0.5 mm mechanical pencils were a core option for me. I couldn’t afford the engineering pencils from the college bookstore I frequented, but I could liberate the P205 from my dad’s office (remember when office supplies were good?) And, the Quicker Clicker was inexpensive and available at the grocery store.

So, what does this lead up have to do with the Tombow Mono Graph Grip Shaker? It made me fall in love with durable plastic barrel mechanical pencils. I pick one up today, like this one, and am immediately transformed back to my teenage years.

Don’t get these pencils confused with the trash that is disposable plastic barrel mechanical pencils like the Paper Mate SharpWriter. These are quality pencils with added features that will last years if taken care of.

The feature list of the Tombow Mono Shaker is impressive. The primary feature is even in the name. This is a shaker pencil, meaning a quick flick of the wrist will extend the lead, while keeping your hand in the writing position. There is a knock as well, in this case, in the clip which can be depressed for the same effect.

Speaking of the clip, it has a locking mechanism to keep the shaker from extending the lead when getting tossed around in your backpack. On top of that, it has and extra-large, extra-wide eraser that can be twisted to be extended or stored away. Did I mention that the eraser is the best in the business? That too.

That’s a lot of stuff!

Admittedly, Tombow has confused their own market (and me) with the introduction of this pencil. At $7.25, it is close in price to the $6.00 plastic grip, plastic clip, and similarly named Tombow Mono Graph Shaker. Are the rubber grip and metal clip enough to introduce a completely different pencil? There are metallic paint jobs too, but they are awfully similar.

In the end, either of these pencils are excellent in my book. They offer more than I expect in this mechanical pencil price point, and look great to boot.

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

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!