Pentel Stein Enhanced Silica Pencil Lead - 0.4 mm - HB

with such thin lead, i use a canister of ain stein lead because it is EXTREMELY strong. i am a big fan of uni low wear nano dia lead, but if i use any thing thinner than 0.5, this is the stuff you want to use.

This is a good lead. It writes smoothly and lays a nice dark line. Most importantly, it is strong. I haven't broken any yet.

My only qualm with this lead, if I can describe this correctly, is this: I like to write on the "edge" of the lead. When I first load the lead I scribble on a piece of paper to get a nice 45 degree angle on it. I then write with the edge of that 45 degree angle to give me more precision, and I like how it "grips" the paper a bit more. With this lead though, it seems too soft and when I write it builds up lead particles on the lead itself which needs to be blown away after writing a few lines. Not a huge issue, but my Uni lead does not do this on 0.4 or my 0.3.

Hopefully this all makes sense. Besides that it is a very good lead.

This is the HB lead I've been looking for all my life. Smooth, very little smear if any, and strong! I just ordered the HB Soft and B as well. I annotate in the margins as I read, and prefer to use pencil on the books that have thin paper (my scriptures). This lead is the best for that purpose that I have found.

Personally, this lead suits me perfectly. It has never broken on me except for when I've accidentally dropped the pencil and it landed at an awkward angle. I'm a little heavy handed when it comes to drawing but it's still held up strong for me as long as the lead isn't way too far out.

While it claims that it doesn't smudge, it does, but far, far less than any other lead I've ever used does. Normally I'm covered in graphite, but this lead reduces it by at least 90%, making my paper much cleaner when I draw.

You get 15 leads per tube which is 3 more than you'll get with other leads from Pentel.

Also, the case these come in is perfect. You twist the cap, not pop it open, making accidentally spilling and losing all of your lead much harder to do. As I wrote this, I popped open a case of the o.7mm leads to compare them to this lead, and they spilled everywhere.

Well I don't agree with the whole "smear resistant" deal, I'm an artist primarily and this lead seams to smear just as much as any though it does smear "lighter" in terms of color. Regardless I still swear by this lead its become the only lead brand I use now, highly recommended.