Koh-I-Noor Toison d'Or Notebook Incremental Clutch Lead Holder with 2mm x 90mm Lead, Black, 1 Each (5608CN1005KK)

Got this after deciding I wanted a 2mm pencil that has an incremental clutch and a small footprint for my pocket. This was what I came to after doing a bit of searching, and WOAH, I am impressed. It was way smaller than I thought it would be - a big plus - and feels substantial and high quality. It fits super snugly in my pocket, and for the first time in any writing utensil, I actually use the pocket clip because it is so low profile - you can hardly notice it's there. As you can see in my pictures, it is quite small, but just large enough to be very comfortable to write with. You should know, however, that the holder does NOT have the cool font logo that the amazon listing shows, the text looks like the pictures I took - and there is NOT a bar code on the other side, in case you were curious.A small note: I couldn't find anywhere what kind of lead the included single stick was, but I found it to be too hard for my tastes, and replaced it with 2B lead. Using the utensil now feels like I am writing with a standard wooden pencil that we all used in school, quite a satisfying writing experience.

Love the colors, most 2mm clutches are dull

I got both this and the other variant, the 5228. This one has a rather nasty feeling incremental mechanical "click" feed with a plastic inner sleeve, that takes 7-9 clicks to extend the lead from hidden, which is not good for portable use, but it feels much more solid and substantial on the body than the clutch fed version, the 5228. The 5228 has a nice, clean, smooth clutch, with a solid brass inner sleeve. But the body of that one has a cheap, nasty clip that rubs the webbing of your hand and is very uncomfortable. And I found the smooth barrel to lack control. I also found unscrewing the sharpener and using it annoying with this one as it would freely spin the mechanism around and not come unscrewed.So out of boredom, I noticed that the nose cone from the clutch fed 5228 fits this one! And with two pairs of needlenose pliers and a sturdy pair of scissors or wire snips (I used flush cuts but anything will work) and about two minutes, you can convert the lovely body of this, the 5608, into a proper clutch fed 2mm.First, take the 5228's nose cone off. it can require some finesse, but some tape on a pair of pliers should do the trick without marking it up. slide the mechanism out of the pencil. Then unscrew the nose cone from the grip and the grip from the barrel on the 5608. using pliers, pop the tail cap off the plastic tube in the 5608 (just wiggle it, and it'll pop right off) and slide the grip off of the plastic tube.Next, using a pair of scissors, make one cut in the brass washer that sits on the barrel of the clutch tube from the 5228. It's a very thin piece of metal, it should be super easy. Then, using two pairs of needle nose pliers, push the two parts apart in an up/down motion, and carefully (don't break this part) remove it. It's brass, so it's soft. be gentle and it comes right off. Slide the metal grip over the brass tube, and once it's on, put the washer back on, between the grip and the jaws, and using the pliers, push the washer closed.Now, just screw the nose cone from the 5228 onto the grip from the 5608, and screw the grip into the 5608 barrel and you're done! you now have a freaking clutch powered 5228! It looks and feels factory fresh, and only costs $20 total.The clutch feed works perfectly, it's faster and smoother than the stupid clicky lead advance, it fits a steadler rotary sharpener, and the built-in pointer can be removed easily now without making the whole mechanism spin. It's better in every way.

Great little lead holder but do not carry in back pocket as it can dent and bend. This was the case with mine so I order a replacement and will retire the original to garage for wood working.

I didn't have the sharpening issues described by others. For me the mechanism holds tight, and the pencil in general feels well built.....But I do have other issues with the design. As a pocket or "notebook" pencil, it really needs to be able to function on it's own, but it can't. The lack of eraser means you have to carry a separate eraser, which negates the the point of making the pencil as small as it is (if you have room to spare for a separate eraser, you can afford to carry a full size pencil). The built-in sharpener is inefficient and messy, and feels perfunctory as a result, which means you're sort of also better off carrying a separate sharpener as well. Id rather have an eraser in place of the sharpener... but that would leave you with no way to sharpen it.A full-size version of his design would make a great functional artist's pencil or classy desk pencil. As a pocket pencil it's pretty self defeating, and any context bigger than a pocket (i.e.a notebook, backpack, etc.) doesn't need this degree of compactness. It has no practical use case. You're far better off carrying a regular mechanical pencil if you need a pocket pencil, and for anything else it's awkwardly small for no reason.It's very classy looking and solid feeling, but the omni-impracticality of it makes it kinda useless.

Like many others, I found this a great little pencil except for one, major and insurmountable problem. It is IMPOSSIBLE to sharpen the lead. Trying to do so results in the hole mechanism rotating and coming unscrewed. It is a major design flaw, I have no clue how it could possibly have been overlooked, and IMHO Koh I Noor should recall these and discontinue selling until they get it right. It's really too bad, because this would be a great addition to the lineup of 2mm lead holders. I disassembled mined entirely and tried to troubleshoot, but was unsuccessful.

Just a word of warning: if you’re buying this for the cool font, make sure you ask the seller if they’ve got the one in the picture. I was sent the Versatile model, which is pretty much the same, but not what I wanted.

Perfect to have with you. Pocket sized for in Asher pocket.