FastCap Fatboy Extreme Carpenter/Mechanical Pencil

Yes, it is just a pencil, but compared to my normal woodworking pencils this one is like having a fancy Monte Blanc brand pen for writing letters with. It feels great in your hand, stays in my shirt pocket when I am doing projects, doesn't roll around, and so far has barely used of the lead. If you can get it for a good price, IMO it is a great upgrade and any woodworker or DIYer would love to get it as a gift!

I tried about 5 pencils before this one and as usual for me, the best one was the last one I tried. That was Fatboy. Most of the others had the more slender lines and feel of standard mechanical pencils. They worked well and had a lead that was more heavy duty than normal lead and came with different colors of lead, from the standard black to red, yellow and white for different applications. The things that make Fatboy different from the others is the size. Like the name says, it's bigger and beefier than the others. If you have ever seen and used the Dr. Grip pens from Pilot, then you have an idea of the size difference between Fatboy and other mechanical pencils. For me, it's easier to hold, and the Fatboy lead is very stout. Unlike other mechanical pencils that uses lead that frequently breaks when you apply much pressure, or use it on rough surfaces, I have yet to break the Fatboy lead. If you had to, you could use the lead alone as a pencil. It is big and strong enough that you can use a standard pencil sharpener to sharpen the lead to a point. I used a small hand sharpener to put a point on it the first time. The type of sharpener that I can carry in my pocket or work bags like the sharpeners that I used to carry around in my pocket many years ago when I was in school. You could also use an electric sharpener, or one of the old wall mounted hand grinders that used to be in every classroom. You can also easily sharpen it on any rough surface like concrete, or sandpaper. The pencil comes with three leads to start with, the usual black, what they call a red crayon for plumbing, and a white soapstone for metal work, but you could use any of them in any situation that requires a different color to stand out better than black. The only thing to watch out for is that it unlike normal mechanical pencils, it doesn't feed the lead out a little at a time when you click the button on top. When you push the button to advance the lead, it completely releases the lead and it will fall out if you aren't ready to stop it with your other hand, but it does make it easy to set the length of the lead to where you want it.I would recommend this pencil to anyone who needs a heavy duty dependable pencil for work.

The pencil is exactly as described. Comfortable to use. Well worth the cost.

Great holder but it took me no time at all to "Lose" the metal cap on the eraser in my pocket I guess and a few days later the eraser disappeared. I have several other 5.6mm lead holders and not one of them lost their cap no matter how careless I am with them. Since I never use an eraser woodworking, the lines are sanded off this is not much of a problem for me.

This lead holder is terrific! I'm a hobbyist woodworker and this lives in my apron pocket. I used to use mechanical pencils and wooden pencils but this is much much better. I often broke the .5 mm leads and the .7mm leads weren't much better. I really like the durability. The other nice feature is that it also comes with a replacement black lead, a red lead, and a white lead. When marking dark woods like walnut the white is the one to use as black on dark brown is really hard to see. I saw this on the Stumpy Nubs woodworking YouTube channel. Two thumbs up!