Pen & Pencils

Zed! What are you doing here!? And where’s Tommy!?




“I told him to take the night off. I wanted to surprise you and tell you that I’ve moved myself and my entire family to Earth!”



You have!? Wow! That’s great Zed! I guess we’ll be seeing a good deal more of each other then!?



“That’s right, Geezer!”





Well then, is that my Rotring 600 you’ve got there?





“Sure is, Geezer! Time to give it a review!”





You’re right, Zed! So…





I have been wanting a rotring for some time now. It was a toss up between the 500 and the 600, 0.35 mm of course and silver. Not that I don’t like the black color, I do, but more on that later. The black and silver, very attractive and the other variants are just a little our of my price range. So I took the plunge recently, cracked open the piggy bank and splurged on the 600 model! Did not get it on eBay, instead I found it and the Staedtler REG 925 85 03 Regulator at Smartimports.com. Their selection of pencils just happened to be almost completely limited to the very 2 pencils that I wanted that day! As for the500 model, well it’s only 2/3rds the price of the 600 so maybe I can get one soonish, we’ll see!





The rotring 600 0.35 mm…





“Eh, Geezer? Don’t you mean 0.3 mm?





No, Zed, I mean 0.35 mm! You see 0.35 mm is much closer to the actual diameter of the lead than 0.3 mm is. So the wily Germans decided to confuse everyone and correct, or nearly so, a misconception that has been perpetrated on the entire world for decades!





“That’s confusing, Geezer!”





Welcome to Earth, Zed! Ain’t ‘cha glad ya moved here!?… As I was saying, the rotring 600 0.35 mm drafting pencil is an almost entirely metal pencil, as is the entire 600 series of pencils and pens. The 500 series has a plastic body with a metal grip, pocket clip and a few other parts. The section holding the 3-jawed chuck is of a tough white colored plastic of some sort while the clear connecting tube that connects the white support to the metal lead reservoir is of another. Other than the eraser and the strip the lead grade indications are printed on the pencil is entirely made of metal. Just what, brass, aluminum, steel or a combination of 2 or more I can’t tell. The various parts have been surface treated in such a way as to give the smooth areas a uniform satin finish once chromed. Same goes for the knurled portion of the grip and the lead grade indicator. The color makes the pencil look hard chromed. The obround window in the lead grade indicator reveals the the lead grade indications are gloss white upon a gloss background. Ad to this the red numerals, “0.35” on the left side of the pencil and the ”rot ring” around the Lead grade indicator and you have one very beautiful pencil! The only other adornments visible are the manufactures name on the pocket clip and the lead size on top of the push button, both embossed.