Rotring 600 - was there a 1mm mech pencil? In lava?

[riswam...@gmail.com]

I am madly and deeply in love with .9mm/1mm pencils. I currently use a
rapidly wearing (but gorgeous!) cheapo Ticonderoga, with a twist-erase
Pilot as a backup, but would like something more... substantive. I
have heard tell of the Rotring 600 being made in 1mm, which I
understand is identical to the .9mm used by everyone else. Is it true?
And if so, were they made in Lava? How difficult is it to come by an
example NIB, either in Lava or black finish?

Determined nerds need to know!

~ Mad Poet of Newport

[Alan Dye]

Rotring made them in 0.5 and 0.7mm leads, but no 0.9, 1.0 or 1.1.

If you like the 0.9mm lead, you might look for a vintage parker 51 or
21 pencil as they used 0.9. If you like 1.1mm the vintage parker
Duofold pencil used 1.1 leads. Vintage 21's run around $20 and $51's
around $40. Vintage Duofolds run around $40 on ebay.

Modern pencils, the Duofold Pencil from Parker comes in a 0.9mm. On
ebay they're running about $100 each. They aren't the rotring styling
and are brass and acrylic rather than a metal exterior, but feel good
to the hand and quite comfortable. I'd go for the ones manufactured in
the 1990's (usually a swirled green, blue or red color) as the current
production from Duofold with the design on the top that looks like a
spade, aren't as good in my opinion. Like all acquired firms
(Rubbermaid now owns Parker and Waterman) the accountants have gotten
ahold of things and quality has gone down while prices have risen.

Current production Waterman pencils are offered in 0.5mm or 0.7mm I
think. I have one in 0.5 and it is nice, but on the heavy side.

Best,

Alan

[srri...@gmail.com]

[Mike S.]

In article <95fbf7ff-414c-4b39...@googlegroups.com>,

The only 600 pencil I've ever seen was 0.5mm just like everything else of
that day.

[Alan J]

They definitely did 0.7mm in the silver finish - I've got one.

[Stephen Hust]

Alan J <donn...@notused.invalid> wrote:

[Rotring 600 pencil with 0.9 mm lead]

>> The only 600 pencil I've ever seen was 0.5mm just like
>> everything else of that day.

> They definitely did 0.7mm in the silver finish - I've got one.

This expired Ebay (Germany) listing *appears* to show 0.5 mm, 0.7
mm, and 0.9 mm pencils, though the "600" is unreadable on two of
them.

<http://tinyurl.com/lehlles>

or

<http://www.ebay.de/itm/Rotring-600-Druckbleistifte-Old-Style-Set-0-5-0-7-0-9-Lederetui-/141036824648?nma=true&si=VTHL9vuZMOIMxXsmxe9DuffadEg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557>

--
Steve

My e-mail address works as is.

[Alan J]

I've also got a matt black one which is either 0.3 or 0.35mm - it's hidden away somewhere in a box that never got unpacked, so I can't check which.

--
Alan

[wireless...@gmail.com]

I had the same search on my end. The Lava is actually a newton, not a Rotring 600 ( https://unsharpen.com/pencil/rotring-600-drafting-pencil/ ), which should help with your search.

The Rotring 600 was made in 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and 2mm. The Newton pencil, in lava, was sold 0.5 and 0.7mm

This might help as well: https://unsharpen.com/rotring-600-vs-rotring-newton-comparison/