
An Always Sharp Pencil: Uni Kuru Toga - apgwoz
http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.com/2008/04/uni-kuru-toga.html
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apgwoz
The more interesting part about this article is the conclusion at the end:

    
    
        You know, to some extent it almost doesn’t matter
        how  well this pencil works or not, it’s the thought
        that counts. These sorts of ideas and innovations are
        occurring in Japan, not elsewhere. Just look at that
        booklet! 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.”

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quant18
Well, it's a nice engineering trick, but it seems kind of like featuritis ---
doing something neat because you can. For me, in fact, pencil bluntness is a
feature, not a defect. Thicker lines disguise the fact that my kanji
handwriting isn't very aesthetical. Thinner lines bring out its ugliness and
lack of balance into sharp relief.

I wonder if this is a problem for any native writers as well. (On the other
hand, the ones who want to show off their nice handwriting will probably be
attracted to this pencil. Then those of us who use blunt/uneven pencils will
be automatically assumed to be ugly-handwriters.)

