Today I wanted to take a quick look at the Sostanza Amaranth endless pencil made from sustainable materials. Above you can see each of the different materials you can get this in from the picture at the Sostanza website. Unfortunately I received this sample in the Amaranth wood after the Kickstarter project ended. If you want to purchase one, there will be a bit of a waiting game ahead of you.
The Sostanza pencil comes in a pretty unique package. Its a fairly thick cardboard backing with the product showing through on both sides. The main component of the package consists of a test tube with a cork to hold the pencil in place.
The Sostanza measures just about 6 inches long with the lead inserted in a comfortable writing depth. The thickest part of the pen is half an inch wide and at the back end where it tapers to its thinnest, it is one quarter of an inch wide. The reddish color of the wood comes as a result of the oxidation process. The addition of the rose gold finish on the ring is a great contrast against the wood.
The Sostanza pencil takes a 2mm lead, and comes loaded with a 2B version that is easy to replace. Sliding the ring upwards towards the skinny end releases the grip and as a result allows it to slide out.
One of the really cool things about the Sostanza pencil is that it is hand made from natural materials. Because of this, each pencil will have its own unique color tones and look because of the wood grains. The only thing that isn’t hand crafted on the Sostanza pencil is the logo that is etched on the side.
Here is a close up of the rose gold ring pushed down towards the writing end of the Sostanza pencil. The slit narrows as you move closer to the tip of the lead, therefore creating a firm hold. This gave me confidence in the ability of the Sostanza pencil to keep a firm grip on the lead therefore eliminating slippage while writing.
Sostanza Pencil Writing Sample
Writing with the Sostanza pencil was a nice experience, while also being visually pleasant because of its artistic styling. The wood grain of the body combined with the metal ring make for an easy to hold onto grip section. It is also a very light pencil, almost unbelievably light to be honest. My main fear was any slippage of the lead since its only held in by the pressure of the ring and the friction created between the lead and the carved out wood body. In my multiple pages of writing with it, there was absolutely no slippage and it was very simple to loosen up the metal ring in order to advance the lead out further. For more details, check out the Sostanza site, but as I said you will need to hold on before you can order these for now.
©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.
