Luddite TechDraw2 review: the drafting pencil that started at 7.4 mm

Luddite is a Japanese brand best known for pen cases made from Okayama denim and Kurashiki canvas. Its first writing instrument was TechDraw, a drafting mechanical pencil launched in August 2020 under the slogan "thinner, easier to write with, more modern." What arrived was a barrel just 7.4 mm across — unheard of for a drafting pencil.

Thinner than a wooden pencil

Seasar Stationery (1.06 million subscribers) points out that an ordinary mechanical pencil measures around 10 mm across, so TechDraw's barrel has roughly half the cross-sectional area. Masayuki Takahata, better known as Bungu-o (37,600 subscribers), held it against his usual benchmark, the Pentel Graph 1000, whose grip is about 9.1 mm: 7.4 mm, he noted, is close to the circle inscribed in a hexagonal wooden pencil. Drafting pencils bottom out around 9 mm, and in his reckoning anything thinner is usually a pocket model meant to travel with a planner.

A thin barrel ends up too light. TechDraw uses aluminium for the barrel and brass for the cone, grip and cap, landing at 14.3 g with the balance point about 7 cm from the tip. Seasar Stationery suspects the dense brass grip is there precisely to settle the weight and the balance. Together with the 4 mm guide pipe, both reviewers rate the view of the tip very highly.

Familiar parts inside

Taken apart, the story shifts. The lead-grade window looks a great deal like the one on Ohto's Super Promecha, and Seasar Stationery found the clip and the cone genuinely interchangeable with an Ohto Promecha. Takahata assumes production is outsourced, since Luddite is not a pen maker, and praises the choice to compete on thinness alone rather than on a new mechanism.

Both reviewers land on the same flaw: a gap between the knock cap and the barrel that rattles with every stroke. Seasar Stationery calls it a clear minus, while adding that a strip of tape in the gap quiets it down.

One millimetre wider

TechDraw2, from 2023, widened the barrel to 8.4 mm while keeping the same overall length. According to HEROTV Stationery (30,300 subscribers), the first model tied colour to lead size — silver for 0.5 mm, black for 0.3 mm — whereas the second lets you choose black or silver. The cone is rounded, the clip stiffer, and the cleaning pin has been dropped.

As for the rattle: the gap at the cap has been closed, but the wider barrel leaves more room for the lead tank to move, and the channel reports the vibration now travelling as far as the grip. TechDraw sold for 1,760 yen including tax; TechDraw2 launched at 2,530 yen and lists today at 2,750 yen.

Watch the video (Seasar Stationery)

Watch the video (Masayuki Takahata / Bungu-o)

Watch the video (HEROTV Stationery)