Pentel Forte – A Nerdlings Best Friend
Written: May 02 '03 (Updated Oct 27 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice design, sturdy eraser, metal clip, writes smoothly, inexpensive.
Cons: No replacement lead provided, no rubber comfort grip.
The Bottom Line: A nice alternative to standard pencils, the Pentel Forte is a basic but extremely efficient writing tool.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Pentel Forte Automatic Pencil .5mm Lead Blue Barre... |
Normally I’m not a pencil person, I don’t like dealing with broken points, smudged lead and inconsistent shadings on the paper. My sons however are pencil junkies, probably as addicted to them as I am to gel and rollerball pens. While all of my boys are into science and math, my oldest two have started to do a lot of note taking when watching specials about NASA, Egyptian culture and several PBS math shows. This used to mean breaking out the vacuum cleaner when they were done to suck up all the shavings and mess left from their little educational endeavors as they feverishly erased mistakes while trying to keep up with the show [why they don’t record them still baffles me]. They have been big fans of the Pentel Forte series for a long time now and I can never keep enough of these in the house for them. We stared out with just a few of the basic black ones and now we have all the colors and have moved in to the Forte Pro series as well.
Pentel Forte Automatic Pencil
One of the biggest advantages of using an automatic pencil is that you don’t have to sharpen the tip. The Forte is a little different than most regular automatic pencils because it has a metal sleeve the sticks out from the tip that helps to give the lead a little bit of extra protection against snapping or breaking when in use. The lead for the pencil is thinner than that in a standard pencil so people who are just starting to use these might put too much pressure on the tip or advance the lead too far and have it snap. When my boys started using these it was a common occurrence but frustrating for them nonetheless. It took them a little while but they figured out the correct amount of pressure needed as well as the amount of lead to advance. Unlike the Sanford Clickster Grip Mechanical Pencil, you advance the lead at the back of the pencil, not on the side. To retract the lead simply press and hold the eraser part of the pencil and push the lead back into the chamber.
The metal clip on the pencil is fixed so you don’t have to worry about it sliding off or becoming stuck on something else. Being the nerdlings that by boys are, they could care less when people snicker at them for carrying one of these in their shirt pocket or clipped to their backpack and trust me – these clips are put through their paces and we haven’t had one break or snap yet. At the base of the pencil there is a grooved finger area instead of a rubber comfort grip. Since this is textured it does give your fingers a little bit of a massage when you are using it but if you are going to be writing for any extended period of time I suggest getting a comfort grip at your local office supply store. These are about $1.00 and slip on to a pen or pencil easily and can be removed with no effort.
The lead that come with the pencil is 0.5mm and writes nicely but I generally like my pencils to write darker than the supplied Pentel L100BP-HB but in a pinch or when I just need to write a quick note, these work just fine. If you like a thicker line you can also purchase the Pentel Forte with the 0.7mm lead. The downside to this is that you only get one piece of lead with the pencil so you will need to pick up some of the refills leads or ditch the pen all together. You can pick up the refills almost anywhere and they come in different size lots [20, 50 or 100 pieces of lead] for prices between .79 cents to a few dollars. The eraser is nice and doesn’t shed all over the place, these are also refillable [5 per pack, about $1.00]. A piece of lead usually lasts the boys about three or four written pages and the pencils are easily replaced by dropped the lead down the back end of the pencil after you remove the eraser.
The Bottom Line
Personally, pencils are nice but pens are my weakness. My sons love these since they are basic, easy to use and are one solid color. The Sanford Clicksters come in a variety of colors but most of the time they dismiss them as “girlie looking” and won’t use them outside the house. I stopped buy these individually or in the twin packs since they have started using more and more of them. Now I pick them up by the dozen for about $9.00, which is a huge saving over buying them in the smaller quantities. If this sounds like something that you might like to try, you can purchase these individually for about $1.19 or in the two pack for about $1.99. If you need more information on this automatic pencil or are curious about the Forte series, visit the official Pentel website at: www.pentel.com
As always, thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Pentel Pens
R.S.V.P. Retractable Orange
EnerGel, Lancelot, Clarius
Gizmo, Tetra Black, Tradio
Hybrid Metallic Gold Gel Ink Pen
Hybrid DX Metallic Silver Gel Ink
Pentel Pencils
Forte, Pentel Razzle Dazzle Icy
Champ, Clarius, Gizmo
Pentel Presto! Flat Barrel Correction Pen
Recommended:
Yes
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