Pentel Stein Enhanced Silica Pencil Lead - 0.7 mm - 2B

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.

Ok, it's a 4H. So if you bought this lead expecting to get a discount at the next county fair, you will be disappointed:)

Seriously, though this is a hard lead that is remarkably strong. One common complaint against hard leads is that once they wear to a chisel point, the sharp point can grab the paper and cause lead breakage.

Well, this stuff is strong enough that it's more likely to tear the paper than to break. Newsprint or similarly cheap paper is a bad idea, as this lead isn't the right tool for that.

It's not very dark (which is why you buy this lead), but it is remarkably less scratchy than I expected. Heretofore, the hardest lead I had regularly used was a Mars 2H in 2mm.

I would say this lead is about as smooth as the Mars 2H--not nearly as scratchy as a 4H has a right to be.

Also, it is a 4H, so it wears like iron. This one tube will probably be willed to my kids.

All in all, pretty impressive for an uber-hard 0.5mm lead.

If it were purely a question of quality, I would give this product a 5/5 star rating. However, the cost of this lead ($3.30 for 15 sticks) makes it nearly a quarter for every stick of lead you use. I think the prices are too high.

The quality of the lead is outstanding. This lead rarely breaks, chips, or smears. The lead is quite noticeably darker than HB, something more in between what I would call B and 2B. Maybe we need to call it 1.5B (hahaha). But in all seriousness, if you're looking for a darker lead for every day writing, this lead isn't too soft at all for practical use.

I use this lead almost every day in Kokuyo notebooks, I find it improves my small handwriting and provides a darker line without being more difficult to erase whatsoever or more easily smudged.