Tombow Mono Graph Fine Mechanical Pencil Review

Tombow has been on quite the run with their mechanical pencil lineup for the last several years, and that run continues with the Tombow Mono Graph Fine Mechanical Pencil.

This pencil has everything I am looking for in a drafting-style pencil: a lightweight barrel with the weight balanced toward the front, good visual clearance of the tip, and a comfortable grip section. The Mono Graph Fine checks all of those boxes, and adds in Tombow’s amazing eraser - a twist eraser, at that - a solid clip, and a clean aesthetic.

What’s not to love? For me, I can’t think of a single thing.

The only question I had after unboxing this pencil was how the grip was going to feel. Would it be too smooth and slick? Is that weird depression really needed? It’s definitely not too slick. According to the product description, it is coated with a “grippy soft-touch finish,” and while I’m not sure that is the proper technical term, it is an accurate description of how it feels. I’ve had no slipping so far.

The low profile notch is nice in the fact that it doesn’t get in the way if your fingers are not seated in it perfectly at all times. Mine aren’t, and I never noticed it. I tended to start right in the middle of it, but my fingers move up and down the grip and the notch edges are so minimal it never bothered me. In fact, I never noticed it while writing at all.

One design decision companies make at this price point is to use a metal grip section in combination with a plastic upper barrel, and that’s what Tombow has done here. This gives the pencil that front-weighted feel that technical pencils need for good line control. You know, for all of the engineering I do. Still, this is expectation for this design, and it feels great in hand.

As someone who is eraser agnostic when it comes to any type of pencil, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how fantastic Tombow’s erasers are. I used this one more than I hoped, and it performed brilliantly. Most, if not all, of the graphite was removed from the page, and no eraser dust was left behind to brush off - it sticks to the eraser.

Top to bottom: Rotring 600, Tombow Mono Graph Fine, Pentel Sharp P205, Spoke Model 6.

Like with many of their other pencils, the eraser is part of a twist mechanism to extend and retract as needed. A feature of the Mono Graph Fine is that when the eraser is extended, the pencil knock locks in place so you don’t accidentally extend the lead when erasing. Does anyone press down that hard with their eraser to have this problem? Chalk this feature up to marketing, not necessity.

The final piece of the puzzle is price, an area that Tombow is extremely competitive in. The Mono Graph Fine is $13.75, which positions it perfectly against the competition. While I’d go as far as saying their other pencils such as the Mono Graph Grip Shaker and Mono Graph Lite are underpriced, this model is bang on price-wise. And, like those other two pencils, it would make a great addition to your mechanical pencil collection.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Tombow Mono Graph Lite Mechanical Pencil Review

Is there a more underrated stationery maker than Tombow?

Their product lineup is not the biggest, and they don’t cover every corner of the stationery world. They are more Zebra than Pilot, for comparison. But everything they make, especially in the sub $10 price point, is outstanding. Often, that product is the best in its category.

Is the Tombow Mono Graph Lite Mechanical Pencil the best in its category? If not, it’s close. When I pick it up and use it, I smile. Sometimes stationery is that simple.

Oh, did I mention this is a $3 mechanical pencil? That’s right. This pencil would be right at home on a students desk as much as it would be on the drafting tables of an architectural firm. They still have those, right?

Why do I like this mechanical pencil so much? Design execution. You’d think companies wouldn’t obsess over a $3 pen or pencil, but the ones that do are clear. The plastic barrel is light and smooth. The rubber grip hits in the right spot and feels nice. The fixed lead pipe is long, but proportional to the overall length of the pencil. The clip color is designed to match the barrel across the lineup. And finally, a Tombow staple, the eraser doesn’t have a cap, it twists to extend and retract.

If I can overthink a $3 mechanical pencil this much, they must be doing something right.

The stock 0.5 mm Tombow graphite is crisp and firm - exactly what I’m looking for. Written on the Kobeha Graphilo Square Notebook.

This isn’t the first time I’ve gushed over a Tombow mechanical pencil or ballpoint pen. Their woodcase pencils and brush pens are pretty darn good to. They also make my all-time favorite color pencil in the Tombow Irojiten, so yeah, you could say I’m a fan.

Tombow isn’t the largest stationery brand in the world, but not everyone needs to be Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour to be important. Sometimes, three friends loading in and out from their Econoline every night, heading from Athens to Asheville to Amherst, is exactly what you need. Like a Tombow.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Tombow Mono Graph Lite Ballpoint Pen 0.38 mm Review

Micro tip pens (sub-0.5mm) are my favorite category of pens. Yes, ahead of fountain pens, and other most-used products like fineliners and mechanical pencils. So when I saw these 0.38 mm Tombow Mono Graph Lite Ballpoints pop up on JetPens, I ordered a few right away.

Now, within the micro tip category, gel ink pens are my favorite (Uni-ball Signo DX 0.38 mm take a bow.) After that come ballpoints, then way down the line are the few rollerball options on the market. Gel pens have dominated this market for ages, but ballpoints have made headway, led by the Uni-ball Jetstream. The 0.7 mm Jetstream has long been my go to for standard writing, and they have created some exceptional tiny-writers in pens like the Jetstream Edge.

Where Uni leads, others will follow, and Tombow put an excellent option on the market with the Graph Lite. It comes in 0.5 mm and 0.38 mm tip sizes, and in black, blue, and red ballpoint ink colors. There are various barrel color options featuring solid metallic colors, or the traditional Tombow tri-color blue/white/black flag stripes.

I went for the traditional, as the Mono logo is one of my favorites in all of the stationery world, and, as the title states, grabbed the 0.38 mm tip size.

One quick note on ballpoint tip sizes as compared to gel: An 0.38 mm ballpoint tip writes finer than an 0.38 mm gel tip. The general assumption you can make across the board is that ballpoint pens will write one tip size finer than their gel ink counterparts. An 0.7 mm ballpoint writes like an 0.5 mm gel. An 0.5 mm ballpoint writes like an 0.38 mm gel. And so on down the line. Make sure you are buying a size that is good for you because these are some of the finest writing pens on the market.

The Tombow Mono Graph Lite handles that fineness with ease. The lines are sharp, solid, clean, and shockingly smooth. Smooth is relative at this tip size, but I’m not sure I could expect anything better. Blue is far and away my favorite ballpoint ink color, and I think it is the standout of this group. Black is a close second, and red brings up the rear, but not far behind the other two. Red would make for an excellent margin pen, for example.

I’m a big fan of the grip Tombow uses for this pen. It’s like a knurled rubber, which makes for excellent grippiness. That’s appreciated when this pen is designed for fine lines or detailed drawing. It’s also very light, comfortable in the hand, and has a solid knock and clip.

At $3.00 each (either tip size, any barrel color,) that’s right in line with the going rate for a pen like this. I would happily pay that for a handful of the Tombow Mono Graph Lite pens, because really, who buys just one?

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!