# Anyone else a fan of Rotring Newton 600 / 500 mechanical pencils & pens?



## tempus edax rerum

Way back in my former lives as an engineer and architect, I had formed an appreciation for good drafting tools. Of course, this was when things were just converting over to the days of digitizing tablets and trackballs. But still...plenty of work that got me familiar with Pentel, & Koh-I-Noor, and Rotring. I kind of got into the Rotring's brass core drafting instruments, and started collecting them. Now I have a small collection that I still use for various projects when I just need to sketch out some quick concepts.










You have some Rotring 600s in there, some 500s, and some of the later models that started becoming more fashion pens rather than true drafting instruments.

Here's some trivia. I hear a lot of ******** about why these old style pencils were shaped the way they were, with the narrow lead sleeve at the tip, and six-sided barrels. six-sided barrels to fit your grip, or whatever, and narrow sleeves bcs they were stronger or whatever. ********. Here's the real deal.

Back when people used these for _*drafting*_, the sleeves worked well with _straight edges_ and_ french curve_ templates. With any pencil that has a tapered tip, how far away from the straight edge the tip lands will vary on how much lead is sticking out. If you draw out a long horizontal line with a tapered mechanical pencil tip using a straight edge to guide you...your line will actually *rise* as the lead shortens, and the straight edge rides higher and higher on the tapered profile of the pencil. It's a stupid shape to make a drafting tool out of. So they put the sleeve on the tip, so that you have a nice straight surface to butt against the straight edge, no matter how long the lead is. So that way, you could use up all of the exposed lead and *still* have your pencil tip the same distance from the straight edge. When you're building F-16s and space shuttles out of hand made blueprints...it's nice to be precise.

And the six-sided barrels...quite simply...stayed put when you put them down on a drafting board @ a 30 degree angle. All drafting pencils were faceted for that reason.

There you have it.


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## heb

*Their cool looks fad quickly when you start writing with them*

Hello,

Absolutely exhausting to write with--very heavy and way out of balance; feels like their CG is four inches above my grip. I got two of their pencils somewhere around the house, both eat lead as fast as I click them.

heb


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## HenryLouis

*Re: Their cool looks fad quickly when you start writing with them*

Really? Heavy pencils feel more solid, but if they eat lead so fast i wouldn't but one


heb said:


> Hello,
> 
> Absolutely exhausting to write with--very heavy and way out of balance; feels like their CG is four inches above my grip. I got two of their pencils somewhere around the house, both eat lead as fast as I click them.
> 
> heb


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## tempus edax rerum

*Re: Their cool looks fad quickly when you start writing with them*



HenryLouis said:


> Really? Heavy pencils feel more solid, but if they eat lead so fast i wouldn't but one


I think he's talking about the pens...which are ridiculously top-heavy if you put the tops on them, I agree. They're actually much more balanced without the tops on. The pencils, on the other hand are quite well balanced. Eating lead...well...that's a function of the lead and hand pressure.


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## DMac

I've got the 4-piece set from Levenger. Some of the most well-made writing instruments I own.

I'm also an engineer in a former life......


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## heb

*Where exactly do "former life engineers" go?*

I am a current life one.

heb


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## tempus edax rerum

*Re: Where exactly do "former life engineers" go?*



heb said:


> I am a current life one.
> 
> heb


Why, they become managers, of course! ;-)


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## heb

*Re: Where exactly do "former life engineers" go?*

Oy


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## DMac

*Re: Where exactly do "former life engineers" go?*



heb said:


> I am a current life one.
> 
> heb


Ha! Just saw this. I changed fields completely. I am in the medical field now.


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## meta4ick

Good explanation on the mech pencils. I am a huge fan of the 600 Old Style, and have a bunch of them myself, all lead sizes. They are excellent writing instruments.



Rick.


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## Krazy8




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## laughinggull

Pretty cool Joe :-!

Man. Rick...where the heck you been???


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## adiabatic

Hey there. Long time forum lurker here... registered to say "me too". I recently treated myself to a silver Rotring 600 after lusting after one for a while.

I'm a closet addict for drafting instruments (I spent way too many hours looking at the Staedtler and Koh-i-Noor catalogues when I was young!) and am starting to collect them again. Now that I'm in a new house with lots of space I'm watching local government surplus auctions to pick up a nice drafting table


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## Lost Cosmonaut

Oh man, I can't tell you how long I've wanted a collection of those Rotrings. Especially the older knurled grip ones.

WANT SO BAD!!


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