In this week’s post on pen cases, I mentioned that I use stationery pouches to hold my pencils, as well as any ballpoints and gel pens that I generally take with me on the road for my everyday working needs. Since I rely fairly heavily on pencils, and because pencils have their own set of accessories separate and apart from any sort of pen, I thought it might be fun to break down my preferred pencil travel kit. I’ve photographed two setups that I use - one when I’m using mechanical pencils (which is most of the time on the road), and another for when I’m using mainly woodcase pencils.

Woodcase Pencil Kit — Woodcase pencils will require a longer pouch. Blackwing makes a specialized canvas pencil pouch long enough to hold an unsharpened Blackwing Pencil, which is probably the longest pencil you would want to carry.

Mechanical or Woodcase Pencils. First up - the pencils themselves. Lately I’ve been traveling exclusively with mechanical pencils. I generally write smaller for work purposes, so the finer .5mm lead size suits my hand. My current carry for this week is a Lamy Safari .5mm pencil in Scarlet and a .5mm Pentel Sharp Kerry in light green, and I almost always have at least one Uni Kuru Toga thrown in. While I still love a good woodcase pencil, due to their inherently messy nature I don’t work with them on planes and therefore rarely travel with them. If you do decide to travel with woodcase pencils, you will need a different set of accessories, including a sharpener and possibly a point protector.
Erasers. Very few pencils have decent integrated erasers, so I always carry a separate handheld eraser in my pencil pouch. In my opinion, the best ones are made by Pentel and Tombow. Currently I am using one of the Pentel erasers by Craft Design Technology, and the excellent Tombow Mono comes in a sizes ranging from small (tiny) to Jumbo (friggin’ huge) depending on how much you can carry.
Pencil Caps or Point Protectors. If you prefer woodcase pencils to mechanical, you may want to consider a pencil cap to protect your pencil points. Personally, this isn’t something I’ve worried much about over the years, though we’ve sold so many of the Viarco spring-loaded caps that this is obviously an in-demand item that people use.
Mechanical Pencil Leads. Be sure the lid tightens securely, otherwise you’ll have a dusty mess on your hands because loose mechanical pencil leads simply won’t hold up in a pouch. Uni makes these metal cases that have a sliding closure, which are a favorite of mine for travel.
Pencil Sharpeners. NJK out of Osaka, Japan makes the best portable long-point sharpener on the market, especially for the money. While the Blackwing One-Step Long-Point sharpener is probably my favorite handheld sharpener overall, it’s slightly too large to carry in a pencil pouch.

You can and should design your own “carry kit” to fit your specific needs, but I get so many questions about what I use day-to-day that I wanted to do a couple of layout posts showing exactly what items I carry for which purposes. I will plan on doing a few more of these bag dump-style posts and possibly even some posts on how I set up and format my notebooks and planners.

Uni Kuru-Toga Alpha Gel Switch with Lead Holder — The Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch (another regular carry), plus the metal lead case linked to above.

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What is this madness? The second Gentleman Stationer mechanical pencil review in a month? It's not so much a "new" focus on mechanical pencils, as I've always used them, but rather part of my recent attempt to fill out my years-long review backlog that includes to-date unreviewed pens such as the Pilot Vanishing Point and mechanical pencils such as the Uni Kuru Toga, which I'll talk about today.

Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch Yellow and Black

The Uni Kuru Toga needs no introduction to many stationery enthusiasts. It's been around for years, and is one of the most popular mechanical pencils in both Japan and the U.S. When you see a "Kuru Toga" branded mechanical pencil, that refers to the lead advancement mechanism in the pencil, which rotates the lead as the pencil writes and allows you to maintain a sharp point on the lead without rotating the pencil in your hand. Honestly, many believe that Uni perfected the mechanical pencil with the Kuru-Tog a mechanism, and for general-purpose writing, I may have to agree with them.

I sometimes find myself rotating the pencil out of habit, but when I make a conscious effort not to do so, holding the pencil at a constant angle using the clip as a visual reference, I'm always amazed at how well the Kuru-Toga mechanism works. It really does keep a crisp point on the lead. That said, even if you don’t really care about the “Kuru Toga” aspect, this is a great mechanical pencil nonetheless.

What do I look for in a mechanical pencil?

Balanced Feel. Balance is important in a mechanical pencil. The pencil can be heavy or light, but it needs to be balanced in the sense that it's not overly front- or back-weighted. Especially on a .5mm or .38mm pencil, if the balance is off the lead tends to catch on the paper and will break frequently.
Protective Sleeve, or Pipe, to Reduce Lead Breakage. While most important in finer .5mm and .38mm (or even .28mm!) mechanical pencils, a metal pipe or sleeve will help to reduce lead breakage. Sometimes this sleeve is retractable, though not on this particular pencil.
Comfortable Grip Section. Many people favor mechanical pencils as precision tools for drafting or annotating rather than longer writing sessions. Often, you’ll find them with a knurled metal grip that’s hard to use for more than short bursts of writing. Other mechanical pencils have a non-textured plastic or metal grip, which some find slippery. Here, you have a gel pad, which is somewhat unique and extremely comfortable.

Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch Taupe — For my second Alpha Gel Switch, I picked up this neutral version. It’s less eye-catching but also less likely to be “borrowed” than the bright yellow one. ;)

The Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch ticks all three of these boxes. It's balanced and also extremely lightweight, making it an ideal choice for a pencil you'd want to use for writing. Combined with the accessible $14 price point, this pencil would shoot to the top of the list of recommendations for office or school use. The gel grip is insanely comfortable, as I mentioned above. The section is slightly firmer than a Pilot Dr. Grip, and the gel strikes a good balance between adequately conforming to your hand without becoming squishy or distorted over time. So far, it’s not developed that "sticky" feeling, or collected a ton of dust and debris. (If you've used one of the older Sensa pens, you'll know exactly what I'm referencing here.)

Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch Hold mechanism pictured

Ok, so what does the "Switch" refer to?

The "switchability" of this pencil is not a huge selling point to me personally, but some might find it useful. The "Switch" in the name refers to the ability to turn the Kuru Toga rotation mechanism on or off by rotating the clip. In "hold" mode, the lead won't rotate, which some people supposedly prefer for longer writing sessions? Honestly, I can't tell that much of a difference, and prefer the feel of the sharper lead so I leave the Kuru Toga mechanism engaged.

Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch Hold Mechanism Activated — Uni provides a directional arrow showing you how to put the pencil into "hold" mode. Here I’ve rotated the clip on the yellow model.

Takeaways and Where to Buy

It's hard to go wrong with the Alpha Gel Switch for an everyday mechanical pencil. When you combine Uni's rotating mechanism with a comfortable grip and a gorgeous range of colors (including both muted options as well as brighter color combinations such as yellow and black), you have a quality workhorse mechanical pencil priced at less than $15 that you can take anywhere because it’s both reliable and inexpensive to replace if you lose it or it “walks off your desk” at work. I have two in my personal rotation, and used these nearly exclusively at the professional conference I attended last week.

Uni Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Switch Pictured Full Range of Colors Available

We currently have seven different colors of the Kuru-Toga Alpha Gel Switch available for purchase in our recently expanded pencil section of the shop, along with at least one other version of the Kuru-Toga: the "Elite" or "Roulette" model which features a more traditional, technical-style knurled grip for those who prefer that finish. Both pencils are priced at $14.50. While we carry the .5mm lead size (which I've found to be the most popular), .38mm and even .28mm sizes are also available. The larger diameter .7mm is less common in a Japanese mechanical pencil. Our shop also carries the full range of Uni mechanical pencil refills, including both the basic “smudge-proof” formulation and the higher-end “Hi-Uni” leads.

Mechanical Pencil Writing Samples .7mm through .38mm. — You don’t see many comparisons of mechanical pencil lead sizes. For me, .5mm is the “sweet spot”, as .7mm tends to be too “dull” of a point, while .38mm requires lighter pressure or else you end up with lead breakage, especially on rougher paper. I’ve never been brave enough to try a .28mm mechanical pencil.

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