Pentel Graphgear 500 Drafting Pencil - 0.3 mm

The Pentel Graphgear 500 is an excellent Drafting pencil for drafters. Obviously, as the 4mm lead sleeve is very fragile, extreme care is required, or else a little drop will ruin your 5 dollar pencil. The factory lead is nice & hard, wears fairly nice, and doesn't smudge (Great if you're a lefty). If you're going to bring the Pentel Graphgear 500 to a public place, don't flash your pencil to other people, unless you do want attention from people( " peasants " ) using cheap mechanical pencils. The Pentel Graphgear 500's eraser works decently, however as with most drafting pencils, the erasers are for well... minuscule mistakes, not for erasing an entire essay, or paragraph; for those duties, I use separate block erasers.

The grip has good traction and isn't too rough, however extended use will hurt your fingers.

The weight of the Pentel Graphgear 500 isn't heavy , but it is pretty substantial, especially when you compare the weight to the Pentel Graph 1000 for pro. The Graphgear 500 is top-heavy, and if it does fall, it'll fall tip down, damaging your tip, rendering your Graphgear 500 unusable. ( as brown, plastic barrel is very light, and the metal grip is pretty heavy)

A negative aspect of this pencil is the easily removable clip, as the clip would easily fall off whenever you actually get to use it. That being said, it does give you the option of working without a clip. I also don't like the awkward transition from the barrel to the grip.

If you want something durable, reliable, "fancy", entertaining to stare at when you're bored,and are willing to take care of your Pentel Graphgear 500, I'd highly recommend the Pentel Graphgear 500. If you're looking for something cheap, extremely expensive, light, very heavy, or easily breakable, then I'd not recommend the Pentel Graphgear 500. That being said, the tip is still fragile, and needs some care.

I'd also like to thank Jet pens, for the " Speedy Gonzales" super quick shipping. If your interested in this Pentel Graphgear 500, I'd get yours now, before the Pentel Graphgear 500 gets sold out.

Great pencil. Recommend for drawing.

I bought this pencil for it's unique "syringe" like design. Pentel ruined the design by adding a capped end on the new revised models. You gain a lead hardness indicator, but aesthetically it looks worse. The plunger cap complements the needle nose tip on this design.
For me personally it's not the most comfortable to write with, since I like to grip the pencil as close to tip as possible. For me the thicker barrel at the grip and it's unique needle nose tip are not conducive to comfort... for ME. For most this won't be a problem. I also don't like the unseamly look of where the hexagonal barrel meets the tubular metal grip. However These are very minor criticisms based on personel preferences.
Overall, it has good weight thanks to the metal knurled grip. It's a short pencil at 141mm. It has Pentel's quality brass clutch lead advance mechanism. It's relatively inexpensive and it's got a good-looking profile.

My new favorite pencil. I've been using it for months now and it is very reliable - never gives me any problems at all. Leads last a lot longer that I thought they would. Feels great, easy to handle. It's much better than pencils I paid much more for.

This is simply a great pencil. It doesn't have a lot of features, but those are often superfluous anyway. It, like most Pentel drafting pencils, projects just a fraction of a mm of lead for each press, giving you control over the amount of lead you use. It's bottom heavy, having a metal grip and plastic upper body, which translates into great control. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better pencil for $5.50.

To the previous reviewer, yes, it does have an eraser.