Customer Reviews

I have the Pentel Graphgear 1000 in 0.5, 0.7, & 0.9.
Pros:
Very well made & just looks good. Color coded grips are appealing and helpful. Feels very precise. Retractable nib makes carrying it easy. Solid build, the clip is strong and gives a very satisfying "click" when the nib is retracted.
Cons:
Lighter weight than I expected (not a problem, more of an observation), wish the center of balance was closer to the front. The knurled grip is not quite knurled enough for me, but that's just personal preference & it works fine. Strange but true- the eraser gets very dirty unless the pencil is loaded with a very hard lead- maybe because this is more of a drafting pencil.

When I purchased this pencil I really wanted it to be my favorite, but it's not. But the set has a place in my desk & I use each of them regularly. Better suited to drafting than writing, this is a technical pencil that looks very cool & is a pleasure to use. A definite asset to any collection, you can't go wrong with the Graphgear 1000.

I've been using this pencil for few days and it's excellent, I think most artists will love it. It has a nice weight, length, grip, everything you need for drawing, as well as good for writing.

Although if it weren't for these rubbers on the metal grip, it would be perfect. It feels fine but.. I'm not a very fan of rubber grips, as I know these will deteriorate over time and shorten the lifespan of the pencil.

My main dissatisfaction with this pencil is that the tip piece screws into a plastic body piece, not a metal body piece as I had hoped it would, but that is a feature very few pencils have.

Other than that, it is an excellent pencil. It is unquestionably stylish, easy to hold, and has an excellent clip. The mechanism feels solid and reliable. The barrel above the grip is an attractive textured metal that is comfortable to hold in your hand.

This pencil is heavier than most, but a bit lighter than I guessed by the picture.

Overall, I highly recommend it.

I have this Pentel Graphgear 1000, the Uniball Kurutoga, and the (2) of the Uniball PipeShift mechanical pencils, all ordered from JetPens.

I have to admit, this is probably the best one of the bunch. I thought the Kura Toga would be the best, and it is very good, but this one is longer and feels more precise. It's all made of aluminum I believe, which gives it a sturdy dense feel, but it's not heavier than the Kura toga. It' super precise and has a flashy, durable, quality feel to it.

Definitely, one of the best pencils I ever used and I use it for writing.

PENTEL is Definately My Favorite Pencil Brand - High style/design & Top Quality-overall
I have the whole set of these pencils :) All ranging from lead thicknesses 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7 & 0.9
Incredible pencils i might say.
Best for drafters in Architecture, Interior Design, Landscaping Arch. Engineering, etc. You name it :) These are for you

*Not only are these pencil incased w/aluminum but they also last much much longer than any other "plastic" ones, & by the way did i mention these are "Aluminum" so they are light-weight aswell :)
*Grip is very good, has a lead desity indicator that you are able to rotate & set.
*The retractable tip is great so that the tips wont get damaged.

I have never used a pencil as good as this one. It turns heads in the classroom and its just so cool. The retractable tip and the clip make this a five star product.

I love the pencil. To bad I lost it.

I bought this pencil along with a couple of the graphgear 500s, and it is by far my favorite pencil. It is sturdy, the grip is comfortable, and it just feels good in my hand. I would recommend this pencil to anyone, because they can't use mine!

Pretty solid pencil.
All-metal construction so that it won't be breaking in the near future.
Tip is too long.
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Grip: Fantastic; the rubber dots on the grip make it very comfortable to hold, while the overall texture makes it non-slip

Clip: My favorite feature. It locks on to papers and other things securely. It is also the mechanism that keeps the vanishing point tip for the lead feed to stay out. When clicked, the vanishing point retracts.
*FUN NOTE* If you remove the cap concealing th eraser, and then retract the tip, it will launch the eraser out. I find this particularly entertaining.
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Complaint: The distance from the grip to the point is too far. It requires me to write at an uncomfortably low angle compared to my regular writing style.

A perfectly weighted retractable pencil, this is by far my favorite mechanical pencil (the one I won't let ANYONE use). I got this while I was in architecture school and of all the nifty pens and pencils I've come across, this is the one I still use most, with a hard lead for writing. This is one smooth pencil...

I bought this pencil under impulse mainly because I was sick and tired of my old Zebra 0.5mm mechanical pencils that kept shattering my lead under any form of pressure, an extreme hassle when trying to write very detailed Kanji or Korean characters. I upgraded to this pencil and it was a dream, so much that my friends who were initially skeptical, later was won over by this very same pencil. This pencil is a great drafting pencil, but I do very little sketching or drafting since I'm not an artist nor an engineer. I'm simply a person with a lot of letters to write. The grip is fantastic, it'll never slip, the pencil is heavier than most but I prefer it that way for the center of balance. The design is very well done and it's a lovely mesh of metal, but above all it's very distinct, people stare at if it were from another world. But by far the most important feature of this pencil is it's extended pencil sleeve, if you look at the very fine tip, the sleeve is longer than most, double my old zebra. This allows for lead to not break under pressure and allows for a much faster flow of writing. Since using this pencil for several months, it's been brutalized through dozens of philosophy tests, countless Korean/Japanese letters, and just English in itself, and it never flinched.

The positive reviews are right. This is definitely one of the best mechanical pencils out there. In my experience, Pentel has the best lead sleeves by far. The lead sticks are so snug within the sleeve that it seems as though Pentel has a higher standard for manufacturing tolerances than other companies. Even the Rotring 600 and Rapid PRO series don't have this type of precision in the lead sleeve. So, rest assured, this pencil has that type of build quality (at least in the sleeve area).

Oddly, this seems to be a pencil that was built by visual designers. Whereas, say, the Ohto Super Promecha looks like a group of mechanical engineers got together and came up with the idea of turning an adjustable wrench into a pencil, the GraphGear 1000 looks like a team of graphic designers did an "exquisite corpse" project with a mechanical pencil. It's at once midcentury modern, 80's mod, early 2000's minidisc, etc. etc. Aesthetically, it doesn't really coordinate with itself, and yet it does. It's eccentric and cool.

Weight is in the center, which might be the only serious usability drawback. I prefer a front-heavy pencil (GraphGear 500, SuperPromecha, etc.) It's not a dramatic thing, but you do feel the top end of the pencil trying to force the tip away from the writing surface ever so slightly while writing or drawing. It isn't nearly as bad as the Rotring Rapid PRO, which I found to be almost unusable because of its strange balance and length.

Also, the plastic area underneath the retracting mechanism seems reliable, but plastic is plastic and there is a lot of torque in the spring used to keep the lead sleeve open. Sooner or later, it'll fail. Hopefully not within a couple decades, but it's tough to rate a pencil in this area without using it first.

The silicon ovals inlaid in the grip are nice and they do add a bit of mushy comfort, but I wish they weren't there. I tend to like all metal drafting pencils because there's a sense that they'll last indefinitely. With the silicon grip area, there's always a chance of deterioration in the future.

I ordered this pencil a while back, and it's great. The weight distribution of it is very centered, so you're hand doesn't get tired even after long bouts of writing. Sometimes the clip mechanism scares me, but it turns out it's very sturdy, and isn't going anywhere. The retractable tip is by far the best feature, as it makes it easy to carry around in your pocket, without worrying about damaging the tip of the pencil. It can hold about ten pieces of lead in the barrel with ease so you don't need to worry about running out of lead or carrying around refills. The indicator meter is not a separate mechanism, it is part of the front mechanism, so changing it is actually a little bit difficult. The eraser works well but gets dirty. I'd suggest just using a block eraser. The grip is good, and doesn't slip, but it is not as nice as a classic gnarled grip. I highly suggest this pencil, it's a great addition to any student or architect's collection.

1st off, I like this pencil mostly, but the thing that bothers me the most about this pencil makes it unpleasant to use. The length of it is fine, the weight of it is fine. I do like how it made with metal, gives it that upper tier feeling, love the lead indicator, the fact that the pipe can retract. Even the clip is strong, a little bulky but strong. But what makes it unusable for is the grip. Dont get me wrong, it looks cool, decent in theory even, but in my daily use, the grip is far too smooth. My fingers end up sliding down a lot, the the point that I just put it away and grab another drafting pencil. Mind you, I own many, many drafting pencils (more than I care to think about the amount of money I've spent on them), so I can say that if I hadn't thrown away the packing and used it (I tried using it for a month just to see if it would grow on me) I would have returned it. If I hold it just right, its manageable, but at that rate, I'm having to change my writing style for just this drafting pencil, which isn't enough reason to adopt to it. I have too many other pencils to use where I dont have to change my writing grip.

So thats my thoughts on it. Its cool, lots of good features, just wish that they would have made the knurling more aggressive and the rubber less predominant.

It's a fantastic pen. It looks sleek, it looks awesome, and it feels great. But writing with it quickly grows tiresome as the pen itself is just SO FRIGGIN HEAVY.

This pencil was pretty good for writing, but perfect for drafting. The only set back is that the grip is very hard.

A very good pencil to write with. Lighter than expected though.

THIS PENCIL IS AMAZING!!!
It is very to comfortable tool to write with as it has a PERFECT weight in my opinion.
The retractable tip is also very good to have as this protects the tip.
The clip is a movable one so you could clip this to a thick object such as a notebook.

I bought one of these for the retractable tip. The mechanics works well with a very positive 'click and snap'. But I find this pencil to be too long with a bulky grip. The feel of this pencil in my hand is not comfortable at all. If it was'nt so long it would'nt need a retractable tip. To add to the unattractive appearance is a huge protruding pocket clip. I bought this pencil at the same time I bought my Alvin Draftmatic, which I have used extensively while this one has always sat in a jar. I have since moved on to the Staedtler 925. Try the Uni Shift, I have one and like it as well.

Amazing. It combines looks with performance. Just amazing

My favorite pencil. The grip is metal with rubber dots. You unscrew the tip and twist the grip to denote which lead type is in your pencil. Includes labels from 2b to 2h. This pencil is just so beautiful and feels great to hold. I've never had any kind of jam and the lead never breaks compared to normal pencils. For just taking notes for long periods of time, I would suggest the kurutoga since this pencil is heavy and has rough grip.

For the negative comments out there forget about them. This pencil is a beauty. It carries a nice weight and the retractable feature is great so you wont break or bend the tip. I have dropped this pencil while the tip was out and it still did not break. I am an architecture major so when I buy something Im looking to buy great quality. And Pentel did a great job with this one. Whoever is complaining about the plastic tube inside the pencil is an idiot. Don't take out the internals and play with them or things like that will happen, there is no need for it. Buy this pencil, you will not regret it.

The pencil broke in half , although it have a rigid body the inside is plastic that doesn't last long.

Finally a winner! I've tried the staetler silver series and and Ohto here, as well as the 500 graphgear series. I prefer a heavier pencil (obviously) and am pleased with the balance. I use drafting pencils to make complicated diagrams with tiny notations. With this pencil I have control, with the grip and the weight it doesn't slip and I can focus on the notation without squeezing the life out of the pencil.

Being retractable is great -- I'm tired of stabbing myself when reaching in my schoolbag and find pencils unexpectedly upside-down. One caveat: with my tiny notations I often need the eraser and leave the caps off. But, if you use the clip to retract the pencil, the eraser will shoot out the end. :-)

I resisted these pencils for a long time because I had thought I had already found THE pencils for me. Oh foolish mortal....

They are hefty but not so much as to tired out my hand. The grip is perfect for my sweaty paws - it never slips! I never liked the squishy or rubbery grips even though I grip my writing utensils as if I am crushing their heads. The long tip is so much nicer for drawing and sketching - it gives me the distance I need (I like to hold my fingers far from the tip). I am surprised by how little the clip gets in my way. I love that the tip is retractable. I carry these with me everywhere, they take up so much less room than my other pencils, and I never have to worry about pencil marks in my bag or the leads breaking off.

These are very sturdy and well made and work smoothly. They have survived my purse and me so I know they will last!

I had really thought I would hate these but I have to say they are my go to pencils now. I have fallen entirely in love with them.