Up for review is the Tombow MONO high quality drafting pencil. Tombow was established in Japan in 1913 as a manufacturer of wood-cased lead and colored pencils. Today, they are one of the top five office product manufacturers in Japan with a wide range of pens, pencils, erasers, markers and highlighters. These can be bought in singles via art supply stores or in packs of 12 online. I will be reviewing three lead grades: 2H, B and 2B. I purchased these all as singles from my local art supply here in Northampton, MA called Guild Art Supply.
The MONO is finished beautifully in a glossy black and has gold lettering on two of the five sides. (The etched dragonfly before Tombow is a nice touch!) The MONO’s high-density graphite is strong and stays true to its lead grade. This doesn’t come as a surprise since it is the same lead that is used in the MONO 100, Tombow’s higher end drafting pencil.
My sharpener of choice is the KUM Precision Metal Wedge. They seem to be hard to find online, but I picked mine up at the Guild as well. The great thing about this sharpener is the super fine point you can achieve when you sharpen. I like being able to see where the point is located so I don’t over sharpen. Sharpening your pencil yields neat little curls of shavings which make clean up a breeze.
Writing with the MONOs is pure ecstasy. All three grades I tested were nice and smooth and did not once catch on the paper. I only had a small point breakage with the 2H pencil, but I think it’s because I got a tad carried away with the sharpening. Tombow touts the MONO as smear proof and slow wear. After playing around sketching a bit, both of these points are definitely true. The quality and overall experience with the Tombow MONO Professional does not surprise me. These pencils can be used by everyone: art students, professionals and casual users like myself. Every product in their entire lineup is solid and at $1.25 a pencil, the MONO needs to be in your arsenal.
For general information on where to find the Tombow MONO head to:
Nice review.
A point that has been brought up a number of times is that the lead in the Mono Professional is not the same as that of the Mono 100. The Mono Professional is a repackaged Mono, which is the second-tier model. The confusion appears to have come from a mistake in Tombow USA’s marketing materials. Tombow Japan still makes both the Mono (which is sold by Tombow USA as the Mono Professional and is priced equivalently) and the Mono 100 (which is much more expensive). The marketing literature for the Mono 100 distinguishes its lead from that of the standard Mono (particle density of the latter being about 20% lower than that of the former).