Pentel GraphGear 1000 Mechanical Pencil, (0.5mm) Point Size, Black Barrel, 1 Each (PG1015A)

The Pentel GraphGear 1000 is easily one of the best mechanical pencils I’ve used for drawing and technical work. It feels solid and well-balanced in the hand, with a metal body that gives it a premium, professional weight without being too heavy. The retractable tip is a huge advantage. It protects the lead and makes it easy to carry in a pocket or pencil case without worrying about bending the sleeve. The grip design is comfortable and secure, allowing for precise control during long sketching sessions. What really stands out is the consistency. The lead advances smoothly, the mechanism feels durable, and the line quality is clean and reliable. Whether you’re drafting, sketching anatomy, or doing detailed line work, it performs at a high level. This isn’t just a school pencil — it’s a serious tool for artists, designers, and anyone who values precision. Highly recommended.

This mechanical pencil appears to be of pretty good quality. It doesn't look or feel cheap. The grip on it is a very nicely textured hollow tube with a window in it. The grip can be turned so that the window shows any of several readings, which seem to be for indicating what kind of lead is in the pencil. I'm using 4B lead in the pencil and the window only shows up to 2B. Anyway, that's probably not important. The following are some things that are probably important: The pencil writes OK with 4B lead, but I have to be careful not to press down too hard because the lead crushes and breaks easily. Putting new lead in the pencil is very difficult, but I found a safer way to do it than just putting the lead into the outside tip of the pencil. What I do is to first remove any remaining loose lead from the pencil by holding the back button down and pulling the protruding end of the lead out. Then I unscrew the outside tip of the pencil and then then the inside tip of the pencil. Then I hold the button in on the back of the pencil while pushing back the brass locking collar on the tube that the lead fits into. I put in the new lead and leave about 1/2" or so sticking out of the tube. Then I carefully put the inside tip back on and then the outside tip back on. I click the button on the back until lead appears at the tip of the pencil and I'm ready to write. On many mechanical pencils (including this one) you will waste something like 1/2" of lead every time you use up an old lead. This is because that much of the lead protrudes into the pencil tip and cannot be locked into place by the locking mechanism. Something else that I should probably mention is that the writing tip of the pencil retracts when the pocket clip is pressed. This would seem to provide valuable protection for the writing tip. If this pencil lasts a long time, then I'll feel that I made a good purchase.

The Pentel GraphGear 1000 (0.5 mm) is an excellent mechanical pencil for anyone who prefers fine, precise lines. The 0.5 mm tip produces crisp, clean writing that is ideal for note-taking, detailed work, and drawing. The metal body gives the pencil a premium feel, while the latex-free grip makes it comfortable to hold during extended writing sessions. It writes smoothly, feels well balanced in the hand, and has quickly become one of my favorite mechanical pencils. If you're looking for a high-quality pencil that delivers precision and comfort, I highly recommend this one.

I never considered my seld a pencil snob (I use them until they are sharpened down, then toss em). I've used a number of .05 and .07 pencils but never liked any one especially as I have a heavy hand and always snap the lead (I wanted to like them, told myself I liked them, but was never truely pleased), until now! Holy cow do I love this pencil. It is so comfortable to grip. The perfect combo of metal knurling, and gel grip. The pencil has a nice weight (heavy enough to be steady, light enough to prevent fatigue). I try to find excuses to use it! I originally got it to mark wood for cutting, but can't even dream of using it in the shop. It has been reserved for tracing tremplates, and working up shopping lists. About the only thing I don't like is the pocket clip/ retractor clip. This sticks out WAY too far and is to tempting to play with (click click click). I have to make a concsious effort not to click this as I'm sure it is a wear issue over time. Yes this was expensive, yes it was shipped loose in the package (no directions, no package just a UPC label on it), yes the glue from the label was difficult to remove. and YES I LOVE THIS PENCIL. if it ever gets lost or stolen I will cry and order a new one right away. Oh and BONUS it was made in Japan (not China!). Yep guess I'm becoming a pencil snob now. Update 6 months later: Up still in Love. My pencil came up missing about a month ago. I was really bummed. Actually POed! Accused my wife and kids and grandkid of stealing it!! Actually thought of putting them all on trial. Well I reserved myself to living without it until after the Holidays. Yup I would just order a new one for my birthday. I was in the shop working on some Christmas gifts and my shop pencil (Alvin Draftmatic) fell to the 20 deg concrete floor and broke. "Oh the humanity" I cried- now I was without a .9mm pencil. I took it apart and epoxeid the palstic and metal back together (there by rendering dissassembaly impossible from this point forward). While wait for the epoxy to cure I decided to make one last effort to find my precious. Low and behold- one late night I was figuring out some motor/pully ratios and tucked my pentel inside my pocket engineer book and slid it between the sofa and the end table. There it was!!! Still in perfect condition! I humbly apologized to all accused. With my tail between my legs I took this writing wonder out to the shop to finish my work. It still preformed flawlessly. After the Alvin was repaired the pentel came back inside and now travels with me. No way this thing is getting out of my sight again.

I have chosen this sharp pencil after a vigilantly careful 3-4 hour session in a department store. I went into several stores and compared all the mechanical pencils they had at that time. I took 10+ pencils for a ride (CDT, Cross, Faber Castell, Mitsubishi Kuru Toga, Ohto Promecha, Parker, Pelikan, Pilot, Pentel Graph Limited 1000, Rotring, Staedtler 885, Zebra Tect 2way etc. ). For whatever reasons drawing with the Graphgear 1000 just feels right the very moment you take this pen into your hand. When I made my decision I decided for the feature I REALLY need for a long term relationship. ;-) While the "obvious" feature would certainly include the visual design you will be surprised to find out how much more there is to it, as I will elaborate below. Hard factors: 1) Heavy usage of hand and/or rheumatoid arthritis: If you or a good friend happen to play guitar daily for many hours and take notes at the same time or are unfortunate enough to already have rheumatoid arthritis in your hands, then this is "The pencil you don't want to leave the house without". I am not talking about the reliability itself but about how comfortable it is to use. This pen allows you to do more with much less effort !! 2) You can hide the sharp and sensitive penfront inside the pen. While this may not be an obvious advantage, consider that you may accidently drop it once during its lifecycle. The fact that the pens tip is hidden on the inside does not only protect your investment itself it also somewhat lessens the likelyhood of an actual damage to your other inventory, your expensive new shirt - or worse an injury to a family members eye (kids) etc. I can not stress enough that this first feature alone is the one that is selling the pen for me. I tried many things to avoid that our almost 4 year old is taking my pencils. The "hidden" lead is a cool feature, so the kids dont play with the pens (because they are unusable). 3) The metal case is robust enough to handle when its dropped on the floor and makes sure the pen is still usable after it. 4) The pen has an adjustable lead type indicator for users that tend to forget what lead they filled it with last time, which is also handy if you own several of those. 5) Best Price-Performance value on the market. You will be hard pressed to find another pen that provides similar or even more quality for less. This pencil easily beats any current competitions products that are priced at even ten times the price !! Soft factors: 6) The overall visual design is nice and the pen is very slim which makes it look elegant. (one exception is that the clip could be designed more elegant) 7) The feeling that comes with it when you draw and when you hold it is amazing. F.e while other pencils have a certain resistance on the media this one "glides" over it. Summary: Pentels Graphgear 1000 has many appealing points. In a super short summary, "IT JUST FEELS RIGHT". Users with heavy daily drawing activity by hand and/or rheumatoid arthritis will be sold on the sole fact that they can do more with less efforts. Or in other words it avoids stress to your hand and - more important - the likelyhood of an accident. The Graphgear 1000 has also unmatched "real" advantages over the competition that protect your "investment". I am well aware that other pens have features like adjustment of the length of the outcoming lead or automatically pushing out the lead when shaking etc. But when you want to have a pencil that has all the features you MUST have and provides you with a suberb support than the choice becomes amazingly clear. The Pentel Graphgear 1000 is a tough, reliable lifestyle partner that lets you feel that you are the one in charge !! It also does easily pay for itself over and over by the time others have replaced their counterparts. So if you are looking for a serious long term relationship than you have just found your partner ;-)

I used this pencil for art and sketching for around 2 years before I lost it last week from accidentally leaving it on the bus. I got it for around $9 at the time and while it is a bit expensive I think it may be worth the price. HOWEVER, there are a few cons that I found while using it. Keep in mind this is just what I experienced as a hobby artist who has very long and prolonged drawing sessions. My biggest con for this pencil was that it’s very heavy. This may not be a concern to some. However, when you have long drawing sessions, you start feeling the fatigue in your hand from the weight of the pencil. In comparison to other pencils for drawing this pencil was very heavy. I also didn’t enjoy the texture of the “grip” as I grip my pencils relatively tightly and the little metal bumps on the grip would make my fingers feel uncomfortable or hurt sometimes. I personally would’ve preferred a smooth surface. Cons- Very visually appealing, I feel like the fine point of this pencil was like no other, for whatever reason it felt like I could get into better details with this than other pencils. I also liked the “slimness” of the pencil, it was not too thick in girth and comfortable to grip if you ignore my other concerns with it. It’s also very durable, I never had any issues with the pencil getting stuck or breaking in any sort of way, and I like that the tip is retractable. I know some people complained that it broke but I genuinely had 0 issues with this pencil breaking or even malfunctioning in the 2 years that I used it. I overall really recommend this pencil as it lasted me a very long time with no issues outside of just personal preferences when it comes to pencil weight and grip.

I saw this being used by a quilter and decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did. It is a solid, comfortable feel to hold in your hand. It writes beautiful (even on fabric). That's my main way of using it. I mark the back of fabric for half-square triangles and stitch and flip blocks. It works great. I think I've bought 3 of these and a couple others in different sizes. I like the way the barrels are different colors for different sizes. You close the lead after use like any other mechanical pencil but the very top of pocket clip (when pushed) will pull the thin metal tip back in as well. When ready to use again, click the top to push out the metal part and again to get the led out. If you pull on the top, you'll find an eraser. It also has a lead harness indicator that you can turn to show you what type of lead you have in the pencil. I have not had to use a refill yet so can't speak on that. It has a nice point on it. I am extremely happy with these pencils and would definitely recommend!

Best mechanical pencil I’ve ever owned. I work in construction and always have used mechanical pencils in the field. Switched to pens and it was good but taking notes or making drawings it didn’t work. I was a fan of the Zebra pencils back in the late 2000s but they were lost in a move. Couldn’t find anything close until now. Sturdy construction, very smooth writing, lead is great and the size is right, not too heavy, not too light, makes writing easy.

L'article est conforme à la commande, bien emballé et il correspond à mes attentes. Très qualitatif et fonctionnel.

Fantástico , muy buena calidad

Die Rezension bezieht sich auf den Pentel Graphgear 1000 mit Minenstärke 0,3 mm Grundlegend positiv hervorzuheben ist die hohe Verarbeitungsqualität: Das massive Metallgehäuse macht einen ausgesprochen stabilen und wertigen Eindruck. Das Finish des Stiftes ist mattsilber, während der Taschenclip und Teile des Druckmechanismus glänzend gehalten sind. Die Griffzone ist mit einer sehr feinen, rautenförmigen Maserung auf dem Metall und Silikonnoppen versehen. Die Maserung wirkt nicht ausgefranst oder unpräzise gefräst - ganz im Gegenteil -, was den guten Eindruck bezüglich der allgemeinen Verarbeitungsqualität bestätigt. An der Griffzone ist zudem eine Vorrichtung angebracht, bei der durch Drehen die verwendete Minenstärke angezeigt werden kann. Teile des Innenlebens bestehen aus (massivem) Kunststoff. Sobald der Taschenclip gedrückt wird, fährt die Spitze des Bleistifts vollständig in das Gehäuse zurück, was ebenfalls einen sehr positiven Eindruck hinterlässt - hierdurch wird einerseits Verhindert, dass Kleidung durch den Graphitstaub der Mine verschmutzt werden kann (beim Transport in der Hemdtasche z. B.) und andererseits wird die Spitze des Stiftes so beim Transport sicher vor Beschädigungen geschützt. Der Federmechanismus des Taschenclips ist auf jeden Fall stark genug, um ein versehentliches Auslösen der Transportsicherung zu verhindern. Unter der Kappe des Druckmechanismus ist ein Radiergummi angebracht. Dieser ist ca. 2 cm lang, kann also bei "Verbrauch" nach oben nachgeschoben werden (zum präzisen Radieren gibt es natürlich auch Radierstifte - diese sind nicht teuer, ich habe mir gleich einen mitbestellt). Im Inneren des Stiftes ist am Ende des Radiergummis ein ca. 2 cm langer Metallstab in Minenstärke angebracht. Er dient dazu, ggf. abgebrochene Minenreste aus der Spitze des Stiftes zu entfernen, sehr nützlich. Wer mit günstigeren Druckbleistiften gearbeitet hat, kennt sicherlich das Problem, dass die Mine "zu weit" vorgeschoben wird - und gerade bei festerem Aufdrücken oder der Verwendung dünner Minen gerne abbricht. Bei diesem Stift ist das anders: Es wird genug der Mine vorgeschoben, um den Stift kontinuierlich benutzen zu können, aber nicht so viel, dass die Mine bei der Benutzung abbricht. Für die intensive Arbeit auf jeden Fall sehr angenehm (zum Vergleich: Bei einem günstigeren Druckbleistift eines namhaften Herstellers wird bei einmaliger Betätigung die Mine ca. 4x weiter vorgeschoben als beim Graphgear). Für meinen Geschmack dürfte der Stift etwas "kopflastiger" sein, die Gewichtsverteilung liegt - meiner Meinung nach - nicht weit genug vorne. Das fällt beim Gebrauch allerdings kaum auf. Im Gegensatz zu (Voll-)Kunststoffstiften ist der Graphgear 1000 (natürlich) merklich schwerer. Einziger Kritikpunkt ist der Reibwiderstand auf der Griffzone: Im Gegensatz zu gummierten Stiften (hier im Vergleich zum Rotring Tikky) muss mehr Kraft aufgewendet werden, um den Stift sicher zu führen, da er sich etwas "rutschig" anfühlt. Das ist mit Sicherheit auch Gewöhnungssache, jedoch hätten die Silikonnoppen aus diesem Grund für meinen Geschmack etwas weiter aus dem Metall der Griffzone herausstehen dürfen (sie schließen gefühlt fast bündig mit der Metalloberfläche ab). Gerade wegen der guten Verarbeitungsqualität und dem angenehmen Arbeiten (Stichwort: Vorschub der Mine) bleibt es dennoch bei der guten Bewertung.

The auto lead retract feature of this pencil was the reason I bought it in the first place. The feature works flawlessly and saves broken leads when putting it in my pocket when working on projects. The description in review is from the original ad but I ordered the 0.5 mm pencil.

I love this mechanical pencil…was just surprised to see that it was in a big box together with my order of a roll of rice paper which is heavy! It was loose rolling around in the box with no bubble wrap and not secured by tape! I was panicking, thinking my $30 mechanical pencil would have been damaged but thankfully it was OK. I think more care needs to be taken with the packing of art goods…perhaps they thought it was a biro pen in which case it would have been different. Also, the delivery guy threw it down on the garage entrance where I was about to take it of him! They also need to be careful placing packages, not throwing them! I would have given 5 stars others.