Pentel Stein Enhanced Silica Pencil Lead - 0.5 mm - Blue

This is one of the smoothest blue leads I have used - definitely great for drawing and sketching. An added bonus is the reformulation did make them stronger than Pentel's previous blue leads. They can actually hold their own under pressure and on a rough tooth paper..

Blues being a wax-based lead, they never do erase quite as well as graphite, but these ones do erase better than other blues I've used. They also don't cause ink to bead up and roll off the lines like other blues...

All in all, the best blue leads I've used.

Nice thin line, but unerasable.

Awesome lead! I repurposed one of my old SumoGrips just for blue lead and it worked out spectacularly. Only thing is, is that if you let it sit for an extended period, it will stick to the sides of the container and require some work to get it out. Oh, and it tends to snap while in use.. But overall a great buy, and the color is amazing!

I have tried any and all blue leads. The blue 0.5 lead Mars Micro Color by Staedtler remains unsurpassable. Sorry: Pentel is still far away

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.