Pentel GraphGear 500 Mechanical Drafting Pencil, (0.5mm), Fine Line, Black Barrel (PG525A)

Love the feeling of the pen it lasted a long time and a lot of use! Solid choice for a mechanical pencil

A while ago I got four nice 0.5mm mechanical pencils to compare: - Uni Kuru Toga Roulette : Haven't touched this one in months. It's very interesting mechanically, but the lead wiggles too much and the rotating feature doesn't make enough of a difference for that to be worth is for me. Maybe in a larger lead size this would work better. I have to admit it looks cool though. - Uni Shift Pipe Lock : The retractable lead pipe is nice. I have bent the lead pipe on the staedler and pentel pencils, so keeping it away can help with that. The wiggle isn't too bad but the weight distribution is a bit off for me. This would be a great pencil to throw in the bottom of your bag if you need a draft pencil that can take a bit of a beating. Otherwise see the options below. - Staedler 925 25-05 : My solid #2. Very well made, no lead wiggle as long as the tip is screwed on tight, so writing is smooth. The knurling is a bit sharp but personally I enjoy that grip. I keep one of these at my desk so I don't have to take my other pencil out of my bag. My biggest issue is that the eraser feels a bit loose, but it's not too bad. The price is a bit much for me too. - Pentel Graphgear 500 : Instantly my favorite, and has stayed as such for the couple of years I've used them. The lead pipe is totally fixed to the grip so there is no lead wiggle and I've only had it bend once when it flew spinning down onto tile. The knurling is a bit softer than the staedler, it's a nice middle ground. The eraser feels tight but it does wear a bit fast as someone who makes a lot of mistakes. Just a good pencil, and the cheapest of the lot. That's hard to beat. As someone who does a lot of math and diagrams on paper I pretty much stick to the 0.5mm graphgear now. Alongside it I use the Pentel Hi-Polymer eraser for bigger erasing jobs and a MUJI 0.38mm black pen for dark permanent lines. I highly recommend both of these too, no matter what pencil you use.

Context: I wanted to get a nice mechanical pencil in 0.5mm lead that had finer lead advancement and better comfort for long writing sessions than the common bulk mechanical pencil. At first glance, the construction of the Graphgear 500 is what you'd expect for the price. The barrel and lead tube are indeed plastic. The grip is a single piece of machined metal that measures 9mm across, about a millimeter wider than most bulk writing utensils. Beneath the grip is a brass clutch fixed to the barrel. The action is more sophisticated than a typical gravity feed—keeping the button depressed doesn't allow the lead to slide freely, so you only get consistent advancements in what are roughly half-millimeter increments. My biggest complaint with the design of this pencil is the distance between the end of the clutch and the tip of the sleeve is rather long. That's a solid 14mm/half inch of perfectly good lead you'll never get to use. My other complaint is that the weight of the pencil is centered where the grip meets the barrel. While I don't consider this ideal (I'd rather have the weight centered where the barrel rests on my hand) the 500 is light enough for this to not really be a problem to me. In spite of the things I listed above, I really enjoy writing with this pencil. The grip is comfortable to hold and it's nice to not have a pencil shoot out lead by whole millimeters only to break. A fixed sleeve prevents the tip from ever wobbling, which makes it easy to write very small. All in all, the Graphgear 500 is a solid pencil that packs durability in all the right places and has everything I was looking for without any unnecessary frill to introduce points of failure. Post-script: The included Hi-Polymer brand lead writes very smoothly—too smoothly in my opinion. It's certainly high-quality stuff and I'm happy to use it, but I think I'll switch to another brand once I expend the other two sticks. Smoothness is overrated. Don't be afraid to have a little feedback from your writing utensil. I won't comment on the included eraser since I intend to use the remainder of my block.

I bought this to replace a damaged one I'd had for years. Nice to see the quality remained the same when so many manufacturers continually cut corners & their products turn to crap.

Im using the Pentel GraphGear 500 pencil for sketching and it's working great. The pencil feels nice enough for the price. It feels sturdy and it has a good grip. My only complaint is, I thought it would have more graphite in it, but it only had one or two pieces l, which was disappointing. If I were to buy again, I would get one with a refill pack.

My wife loves this pencil! She does a lot of painting and this pencil helps is perfect for drawing a sketch of what she is going to paint.

Like most people who have used mechanical pencils for a long time, I settled into my favorite couple pencils, bought a number of them and used them for years. For me it was the Y&C Double Knock and the Alvin Draftmatic dating back to the mid-90's. But then I started using "luxury" pen and pencil sets from Cross, Parker, Pelican and Waterman and lost touch with the "functional" mechanical pencil market. But both between a realization that these "luxury" brands aren't actually interested in making a good pencil as much as something good looking (don't get me wrong, they're good, but writing quality of their pencils is not what drives them) and my kids getting to the age where they could use a good mechanical pencil, I decided to dig back in and re-learn the current offerings. I decided to give my older kids (as stocking stuffers for Christmas) one of each of the viable contenders and then borrow them on occasion to see what I thought. It's now been a couple months and I'm reviewing them all: Best overall: Pentel GraphGear 500 (this review) Best value: Zebra M301 (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U5S4D5OEPY3F) Best retractable tip: Pentel GraphGear 1000 (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1WGL8ZCB03SQK) Best rubber grip: Staedtler 925-05 (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1ZX77U5OV8OS6) Also rans (in order of preference): Alvin Draftmatic (http://www.amazon.com/review/R1VQY95VWPF0YI) Uni Kuru Tora (http://www.amazon.com/review/R2JV48N3D6KXH3) Pentel P205 (http://www.amazon.com/review/R3C11TD28G7BUT) Click on the links above for my detailed review of each. And now for the actual review for THIS pencil, the Pentel GraphGear 500: This is a medium priced ($5-$10) pencil but minus the clip has the feel of a higher end pencil. It has what the manufacturer calls a "metallic mesh grip" which is one of the three common types (along with ribbed plastic and the rubber grip). I generally like the metal grips because they are very consistent even if your fingers are slick or greasy. They are also very easy to clean and last FOREVER. The downside is that generally it is your fingers that take the beating, not the pencil. The Alvin Draftmatic is the most classic example of that. Many complain about it and one definitely builds up callouses if they use them regularly. However, this pencil's grip has a VERY nice feel to it. Not too aggressive on the mesh, far less so than the Draftmatic, but still nowhere close to slippery. This it what makes it my winning pencil for at home or in the office. Add to that a VERY sturdy/stiff tip, it has the least give in the medium price range by far, and a consistent clicking mechanism and you've got a winner of a pencil. If one is looking for downsides, the size and quality of the barrel leaves a bit to be desired. It's not horrible, appropriate for the price range, but it's a bit on the small side (one of the only ones where the barrel is smaller than the grip) and overall the pencil feels like a higher end tip on a medium grade barrel. But I ask you, if you had to pick, which would you rather have be on the high side? As stated up front, also in the downside category is the clip. In fact, it's the most glaring weakness. It's pretty wimpy, so wimpy I'll end up taking it off. Combine that with the lack of a retractable tip and the very small eraser on the top (frankly, they all do) and it's not your best pocket pencil for carrying around. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a pencil that you leave at your desk where you should have a big polymer eraser at your disposal at all times (and you should) and don't care about the lack of a retractable tip, this is a winner. Thus, this is my favorite (one of only two I gave a 5-star review) and will likely be yours too if you like a metal grip. That you don't have to pay a bunch for it makes it all the sweeter.

I bought this pencil because I wanted to try out an even thinner lead diameter than .5 and this seemed to be a good quality and fairly inexpensive option at only 6 dollars or so. The pencil arrived by itself in a box with a bar code sticker on it, no packaging or anything, so that is somewhat odd. At least it does include lead already inside the pencil but not much, only 2 strips. First impressions are that it is smaller, thinner, and lighter than I expected. The picture made it look like it would be thicker and I assumed the metal parts would make the pencil pretty heavy. It is comfortable to hold and it’s a great weight, light but not cheap or hollow feeling. The texture on the metal grip feels nice. Not too rough which I was worried about. The mechanical action feels solid but precise and delicate. There does not seem to be any looseness in the pencil while writing. I really like how the eraser is very easily removable and extendable; it is also nice and small for detailed erasing. This is the first time I have ever used .3 size lead. The thickness is visually significantly thinner, but when I put it to paper the difference from .5 lead is actually not that apparent. The lines I am getting are not much thinner but they are lighter, and the lead digs into the paper more easily leading to a scratchier feel. I will need to use this pencil for a while and see how I get used to it. The lead breaks more easily but with normal writing pressure I don’t think this is a problem. You will probably tear through the paper with the sharp thin lead if you use it with enough force to come close to breaking it. I keep the lead about 3 clicks in length. The reason why I went for .3 to begin with is because even .5 was just a tiny bit too thick for me at times, so I think I will come to value the .3’s edge over .5 for this. Edit: Now that I have been using it awhile, the .3 is quite nice. I bought some uni dia lead for it and it is much smoother than the stock lead. I find it much easier to cram in tiny words when I start running out of space. Edit: I am still using this as my favorite pencil 5 months later and it still works perfectly. Hope this gives confidence in this product for anyone who wants to try it. I'm surprised I have not lost it yet actually, best $6 I ever spent. BONUS INFO: When peeling off the bar-code there was some residue left over so I immediately took some goo-gone solvent to it to take it off. The plastic is not chemically resistant at all, and immediately smudged and weakened where I applied the solvent. Thankfully I didn't use more than I did. I suggest just using water for the residue and gently scratching it off.

グラフギア500はどの芯経でも紙に食いつくような感触があって好みです。安いのにいい商品。

Best tools ever for sketching. Perfect balance. All size are great: .3, .5, .7 and .9. I ordered them all and use them daily

Muy bueno, resistente y bonito

丁度良い大きさで使いやすい

Really good