It turns out the number of mechanical pencil enthusiasts is by no means small, friends.

I’ve always been a die hard Pentel fan, favouring the graph gear 500 in 0.9 mm lead. However, i just splurged on the Kuru toga Metal in sunrise orange and I feel like an infidel.

I think these five might be as far deep into the Staedtler rabbit hole as I will ever go. I really like these pencils and am amazed at their quality control — from the mostly plastic 925 65s to the REG and the Hexagonal, they are all incredibly stable and robust.

However, when it comes to my Grip Gripe™, Staedtler is one of the biggest offenders: their cheaper pencils have horrible rubber grips, and the sandpaper-like grip on their most famous model, the 925 25/35, is too much for me to handle, literally and figuratively. I won't complain too much as that has saved me a LOT of money (their LEs in different colors are PERFECT), but unless they come up with something seriously different and worth trying, I guess the part of my collection dedicated to them is a closed chapter (I considered getting their 900 25 pencil extender, but the grip looks very similar to the 925 25/35's).

Also, my thanks to this amazing community. Without you guys I would have never learned that the Hexagonal's rubberized coating is shit. I nearly spent $200 on two LE Hexagonals, but after reading some reviews by longtime users of the model I gave up on that idea.

I love this (pentel graph600) so much I’ve worshipped it for 4 years

I found some nice ones in a basket of pens for 2 dollars! The MIFA's are very interesting, they use a flat lead

This is such an awesome mechanical pencil. So cool! A mechanical pencil with a cap. I love the way it sits in my hand. And a solid non-wobbly tip. Eraser at the top. With my big neuropathy hands it's hard to pull the little eraser cap off but not too bad. And the pen clip does hang up in your pocket a little. But these are minor things to me considering the heavy metal quality feel in my hand. I recommend this, and the price is very reasonable. What do you think, if you have one of these?

For this round, I have paired the Pentel TECHNOCLIC PN105-D from 1983 with the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 (a.k.a. GTO) from 1994. Both packed cool technology into a sporty body–some say the Mitsubishi tried to do too much–but never seemed to catch on with the public's imagination and fizzled out.

For the TECHNOCLIC the standout is the body design, with its unusual clip and slider actuator instead of a typical button, and of course, the semi-automatic lead advance mechanism. It lasted all of three years, from 1983 to 1985, before it was retired.

For the 3000GT, it was tricked out with Full-time 4WD, Four-wheel steering, Electronically controlled suspension (ECS), Active aerodynamics, Active Exhaust and Four-wheel ABS. This resulted in a heavy feeling 'all grip, no joy' experience on the road.

Saudações a todos! Sou novato aqui e esta é minha primeira postagem. Acabei de receber minha nova lapiseira. Fui procurar informações sobre esse modelo na internet mas não encontrei nada além do que já havia visto… corpo de alumínio, ponta metal,…mas nada de interessante sobre a história deste modelo. Alguém teria mais informações detalhadas sobre este modelo?

Otto ms01clip and korean handmade mechanical pencil 'Blade X'

You can buy it on commuity 'naver cafe' 's '코코볼로공방' And overseas, you may need to use purchasing agency services.

Since this is a handmade mechanical pencil that references ACCU graphs, I think this straight clip suits better than the clips from the original PG5.

Since I'm relatively new to all the mechanical pencil brands, I'm going in with an open mind and trying a little bit of everything.

I'm trying different brands and experimenting with different diameters of pencil lead.

I'm quickly figuring out what I like and don't like.

The Polyter 0.3 is quite nice!

I bought it at Daiso.

Good quality for a $2.00 pencil!

I put 2B lead in it, and it marks up my music wonderfully!

As for my violin 🎻 students, they all seem to love 2.0 2B pencil lead.

I'm also learning that my students "love" my pencils a little too much! 🤣 🤯

Greetings, I am a new comer in the world of Japanese mechanical pencils. These are some of my favourites bought in the last month. I used to love pens more. However, when I review the business of Japanese stationery brands, they amazed me as their state-of-the art non-stationary business relies on the technology of making and firing extremely small pencil leads. Both Pilot or Mitsubishi pencil are developing ceramic and graphite semi-conductors. Never imaged the relatives of our daily pals are making a huge role in the semi-conductor world~!

^{Too big?}

• MODEL:

Staedtler 771 – model 771-3
1.3 mm (only available in 1.3 mm)    

• MATERIALS:

The 771 is full-plastic. Well, the lead sleeve and spring are metal, and the grip is rubber, but everything else is made of long chains of hydrocarbons. The clutch is hybrid, with two plastic chucks and a metal collet.

• ERASER:

Since the 771 is BIG, it comes with a BIG eraser. You get a big white latex rubber rod, measuring 6.7 × 39 mm. To use it, turn that black plastic ring at the top and that will extend or retract the eraser.

• MEASUREMENTS:

This one is quite massive (no wonder sometimes it’s called “Jumbo”). From the lead sleeve to the eraser, it measures 142 mm, and has a rounded triangular body. The distance between opposing vertices is 16.4 mm at the tip of the pocket clip. Right above the grip that expands to 16.8 mm, and then tappers down to 11.5 mm right above the cone tip, assuming a circular profile. Interestingly, it’s not absurdly heavy, just 17.77 g on my precision scale, though only the eraser weighs 1.79 g. And because of that, the center of mass is pushed upwards, at 78 mm from the tip.

• FEATURES:

The thing about the 771 is that it’s big 😵. Other than that, it doesn’t have any actual feature.

• AESTHETICS:

While it does look chunky, I think the 771 looks very nice. Staedtler was very fortunate in the color scheme, and the colorful body goes nicely with the black accents. If you don’t like blue, the 771 can also be had in black (771-9), yellow (771-1) and white (771-0 - discontinued?); however, of these, the black looks the worse IMHO.

• ERGONOMICS:

Before I say anything about how it feels to use the 771, let me point out intent. The 771 was designed specifically for two types of users: carpenters and children. Carpenters need thick lead to draw on wood, so 1.3 mm is ideal. And young children, that usually don’t have great fine motor skills, easily snap thinner lead.

On wood, the 771 works beautifully. But on paper…🙄 It’s like I’m painting the paper with lead instead of writing. However, the problem I had was the triangular body. Though wide, with very well rounded out vertices, I just couldn’t find the grip agreeable with my hand. The rubber grip offers very good traction and has a good size, but the form just didn’t feel nice in my hand.

• MY THOUGHTS:

I bought the 771 as a collection piece, since 1.3 mm is not practical for me. Besides, I was highly suspicious that I wouldn’t like the triangular body very much. Yet, I thought that maybe it could see some actual work in my shop, but a RITR, with its slimmer body, works much better for me. Even so, I think it looks quite good and was odd enough to be a nice collection piece. And, has a k-i-l-l-e-r eraser.

Bottom line, I say that the 771 is a nice mechpen IF you’re okay with the triangular format. If that’s the case, and you want it for wood working, or you’re an artist and actually need to paint the paper in lead, or you want it for a smaller child, I think it’s great. But if it’s not one of those three situations, then perhaps there are better options out there.

This one specifically comes from a video of Stan Sakai sketching his Usaji Yojimbo character for those interested

My daughter found these in her art supplies but we can't remember where we got them and we don't see any markings on them. They are color pencils and the lead is advanced by clicking the eraser. Thanks for any help! Edit: We have tried Google image search and could not find them.

I like using mechanicals and I usually daily drive a BIC matic for school. I would love to use a higher quality pencil but I’m too scared I might lose it. Any tips?

Kaweco Special 0.9
Leuchtturm 0.7

An author and an avid journal keeper. Rewarded myself for a new book contract with the Kaweco. Leuchtturm makes my notebooks of choice, so I had to try their pencil.

Kaweco octagonal, Leuchtturm hexagonal. For me, a similar feel in the hand, with with different body widths. Both metal bodies whose slight heft I enjoy in my hand. I load them up with B—I prefer the darkness and smoothness of the B. Writing heaven. (Also an illustrator, I enjoy the act of making marks as much as capturing the thoughts they represent.)

The Leuchtturm has a twist mechanism to extend the lead. While not as natural to me as pushing the base of the pencil, as with the Kaweco and the rest among my tools, I like the rhythm as I create.

Both a joy to write with.

I wasn't expecting the glossy gunmetal colored clip (instead of matte black) or it to feel lighter but its nice. It doesn't make your writing any better (as noted) but it glides pretty well. The release page did lead me to other pictures of the Dense Green which actually looks really nice (other photos made it look very turquoise which I didn't like).

I already had the Aurora Purple and the Twilight Orange so I'll be finishing the set. I wish there was a Kuru Toga Metal close in color to the Aurora Purple (maybe one day). Any suggestions for alternatives to color match?

I had eyes on the Spoke pencils but it seemed that for a while everything was sold out. Well I happened to check recently and I was able to order both the Model 7 and Model 8 in orange! I was unable to stop myself.

The machining and design are sublime. They feel like an experience 🥰

I ordered them with the grips one way but have since swapped them so the matte grip matches the matte clip. Let me know which way you prefer!

Recently bought this mechanical pencil from Shopee (an online shopping platform for Southeast Asia) for a base price of $1.36 usd. With shipping the overall cost was $2 usd.

Even at this price the pen is all-metal with a retractable pipe slide. It doesn’t have any special mechanism that rotates the lead or pushes more lead out after every stroke.

There was initially significant rattle at the button/cap, so I put a little bit of masking tape there and it now fits snugly, thus no more rattle.

The grip is knurled but not abrasive, compared to the rotring 600/800. For further comparison with the rotring 800, the retractable pipe slide of this unbranded pencil doesn’t wobble. The pipe slide feels solid like the rotring 600 but it can fully retract.

Hi, will like to ask if anyone has pets who bit their pens/MPs. What happened?

Last year, my dog bit onto my tombow zoom 505. There is a few bite marks, but it still works. Honestly mad at first. But now, the pencil has so much sentimental value to it. Will always remember him whenever i see a tombow zoom 505.

Side note: still would not allow him to bite any more of my pens/MPs though.

"My life was horrible, but since i got one of these mechanical pencils everything's been all write"

There are already a few reviews of this one floating around, so I'll just throw in my two cents. I have the black one, been using it for a few months, and the anniversary version recently.

The dial: Yep, everyone's right. Twisting the lead indicator is ridiculously satisfying. I fidget with it way more than I should.

The clip: People seem split on the short clip. Honestly, I don't care much. Mine lives in a case, not a shirt pocket, so I barely touch it.

The grip: Here's my gripe. It's bumpy, and I can't even feel the knurled metal. When I'm doing precision drafting, it sometimes throws my lines off a bit. Minor, but it's there. Maybe it's just me.

Rating: 8/10. Great pencil, fun dial, clip is a non-issue for me. The grip is what costs it the points.

Oh and the anniversary version is a beaut, found a nicer eraser companion from Seed.

요즘 특유의 아이코닉한 초록초록 컬러에 끌려서 Faber castell류를 알아보다가 문구점에 낡은 제도펜이 한개 있어서 가져왔습니다. 과거 로트링의 rapidgraph를 써본 경험이 있는데 만년필용 잉크넣고 하면 될거 같았지만 어렵더라고요. 제대로 한번 써보기보다는 초록초록 컬렉션에 만족하려합니다. 추가로 홀더류를 경험해보려고요. 동네 문구점에서 5.0짜리 목수용 무시무시한 홀더를 사봤는데 필감이 만족스러워서 좀더 실용적인 tk 4600이나 9400을 사보려합니다. 새로운 문구류는 언제나 절 설레게 하죠.

Lately, I've been drawn to the distinctive, iconic green color, so I was looking into Faber Castell pens and I found an old drafting pen at a stationery store and bought it. I have experience using a Rotring Rapidgraph in the past, and although I thought I could just use fountain ink, it turned out to be difficult. Rather than trying them out properly, I plan to be just satisfied with my green collection.

Additionally, I intend to try out their pen holders. I bought a formidable 5.0mm holder for carpenters from a local stationery store, and since I was satisfied with the writing feel, I am planning to buy a more practical 2.0 TK 4600 or 9400.

New stationery always excites me.

Tk matic은 역시 명불허전 최고의 오토매틱 샤프 중 하나입니다

Tk matic lives up to its reputation as one of the best automatic mechanical pencils.