Kuru Toga Sweeps the Blogosphere

by Kimberly | post a comment

Kuru Toga Sweeps the Blogosphere

The Kuru Toga is one of our absolute favorite mechanical pencils. It rotates the pencil lead as you write using only the kinetic energy created by your pencil strokes. The rotating lead results in a uniformly sharp point (instead of the chisel-tip that can develop) which means neater lines and a stronger lead. The grip is even clear so you can see the rotating mechanism as you write. It is no wonder that our customers love this pencil.

In the middle of December 2008, news of this pencil hit the internet in a big way, and coverage in blogs erupted. Here are some excerpts from some of our favorite reviews:

"This is clearly the product of a design team and company that really think about their product and their market, see a future, try something new, move forward, and not just think, “Oh, it’s a pencil, we’ll always sell them, but there’s nothing much ever going to happen with pencils! They’re a cash-cow, just milk them.”
-- Dave's Mechanical Pencils

"Designed in response to the problem of uneven lead wear, the Kuro Toga has an ingenuis mechanism in the barrel. As you write the mechanical part that holds the lead slowly rotates. Instead of wearing the lead down to a flat chisel point— you're witnessing this phenomenon when you see your pencil strokes change from super fine narrow lines to more broad calligraphic style strokes— each stroke of the pencil turns the lead a tiny amount allowing the lead to evenly "sharpen" itself on the paper instead of wearing way one side. It's an astoundingly simple concept, but one that seems entirely lacking from any other mechanical pencil we've run into."
-- Life Hacker

"Every time the lead is pushed against the paper, the internal gear automatically rotates the lead 9 degrees. This means that the lead never forms a chiseled edge. The lead face remains sharp, forming a cone instead of a flat surface. Simple, really. But the pencil's internals, the Kuru Toga Engine, is not."
-- One Lone Man's Pens and Pencils

Thank you bloggers for bringing the Kuru Toga to the masses, I love reading reviews from different perspectives and seeing the comments of your readers!

Do you have a comment of your own? I would love to hear it.

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