Pencil - HB - Hi-uni
The Hi-uni was introduced by Mitsubishi Pencil Company in 1966 and achieves greatness through exacting standards of lead production. The graphite and clay components of the lead are both uniformly fine, so that line quality is high, and uniformly mixed, so that breakages are minimised.
Mitsubishi's patented graphite production process produces a carbon particle size that is incredibly small and evenly distributed through the lead, which in turn creates Hi-uni's signature smooth feel and generous laydown. No other graphite manufacturer comes close to Hi-uni's combination of creamy texture, strength, and point retention. Even the harder grades feel soft by comparison to their equivalents from other makers.
When sharpening, there is a distinctive cedar fragrance, due to the high grade of wood used. The barrel is painted in a traditional Japanese maroon, likened to wine red, with black and gold accents. The hexagonal barrel changes to cylindrical above the gold ring. The grade is stamped in gold on all six faces.
The Hi-uni is available in 22 grades from 10H to 10B. The HB is the natural starting point - dark enough for everyday writing, smooth enough to remind you immediately that this is a different class of pencil. For other grades and special orders, please contact us.
- Grade: HB (available 10H–10B)
- Barrel: Japanese cedar, burgundy lacquer, hexagonal/cylindrical
- No eraser, unsharpened
- Origin: Made in Japan
Please note: The price is per pencil. For boxed quantities, please contact us.
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MITSUBISHI PENCIL CO., LTD. is a Tokyo-based writing instruments company with no connection to the Mitsubishi industrial conglomerate. Mitsubishi Pencil registered its three-diamond trademark in 1903, ten years before the Mitsubishi industrial group registered theirs. The three diamonds is a family crest, and the company's claim to it predates the name it is more commonly associated with.
The company was founded in 1887 by Niroku Masaki, inspired by Western pencils he first encountered at the 1878 Paris World Fair. It began as the Masaki Pencil Manufacturing Company in Shinjuku, Tokyo, and was renamed Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd. in 1952. In 1958 it launched the uni pencil - named for "unique" and the French word for "smooth," with a logotype designed to be "a house that warmly wraps people up."
The uni brand became the company's corporate identity and today appears on the full range of its products. Mitsubishi Pencil launched Japan's first ballpoint pen in 1959, and has continued to set ballpoint benchmarks ever since - among them the Jetstream ink system, which became one of the world's best-selling ballpoint formulations, and the Jetstream Edge, which pushed the technology to its present limit. In 2024 the company acquired the German writing instrument brand Lamy, extending a global presence that now spans over 100 countries.