Uni-ball Lead Holder Refill - 2 mm - 2B - Pack of 6

Ok if you haven't tried any of the other graphite grades in the Uni 2 mm range, rest assured this is an awesome product. Flawless performance for sketching while remaining quite smudge-resistant. Sharpened lead smoothly glides on card stock leaving rich dark black marks. It's like having a nice gel pen that you can easily erase. If you already use other Uni leads, these softer leads will expand the expressive range of your sketching kit by allowing you to lay down wider strokes and shading faster. Highly recommended.

I do all my illustration work with a series of mechanical pencils and one HB lead holder. I decided to try out a darker/softer lead for shading and this works like a dream. Its smooth and lays down nice dark lines.

The only complications I ran into was that the little color bands that are on the end of the leads don’t fit in older Staedtler lead holder. They fits perfectly fine in the current Staedtler holders.

While researching for sketching supplies I noticed a lack of reviews everywhere I went. So hopefully this helps someone! Review your purchases people!

I use this lead several times a week when sketching. I use red, blue and black leads while sketching (sometimes all three in one sketch). Red lead is great for value studies!

Pros: Has a great pressure to value ratio (light pressure = light color; hard pressure = dark color). Natural flow of color. Doesn't wear out as fast as other colored lead. Great carrying case (don't take these for granted). Inexpensive.

Personal Cons: Not fully erasable. Marks look more like a classic colored pencil and less like red colored lead.

TL;DR - Surprisingly useful and fun to use. Doesn't erase that well. If you need red lead then you'll be happy!

These leads are individually color-coded (indicating its hardness) with a ring on the end that prevents them from falling off the leadholder. A practical feature I had not seen in decades that prevents accidental drops and lead breakage (when pressing the button absent-mindedly). The leads also fit and work in Staedtler Mars Technico leadholders. I tried fitting them in my Faber-Castell TK 9400 and Caran D'Ache leadholders, but I would have had to snip off the useful stopper ring for them to fit. The leads sharpen easily and glide fairly smoothly over the paper (similar to the graphite from Mitsubishi UniStar pencils and less smoothly that the Hi-Uni grade). Good value for this quality.

Ok if you haven't tried any of the other graphite grades in the Uni 2 mm range, rest assured this is an awesome product. Flawless performance for sketching while remaining fairly smudge-resistant. Sharpened lead smoothly glides on card stock leaving rich dark black marks. It's like having a nice gel pen that you can easily erase. If you already use other Uni leads, these softer leads will expand the expressive range of your sketching kit by allowing you to lay down wider strokes and shading faster. The 3B grade simply wears down a tad faster than the 2B, and is a pretty effective shading tool. Highly recommended.