Customer Reviews

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.

Awesome lead-- once you sample the Uni Ball leads, it's hard to settle for anything else. They seem darker in each grade than other leads I have experienced (disclaimer: not much experience)

I am new to lead holders and am not an artist. I am engineer that just likes pencils, always searching for the perfect one. I'm pretty sure that I didn't even know that lead came in so many grades until a couple years ago.

This UNI-ball lead in grade F is about as close to a perfect all-around lead as there can be. It seems to reside in that elusive sweet spot where it's dark enough, hard enough, and smooth enough all at the same time.

This lead is not only as dark as an HB, it's as dark as some Bs that are out there, yet smoother and harder. Writing with this lead is quite the revelation is you're used to the cheap Pentel Hi Polymer HM you see in every office supply store for a thinlead (0.5mm, 0.7mm).

Realistically, the difference between this and the UNI in HB is so subtle that I'd choose the F because it's slightly more durable and just a smooth.

I am a rookie at higher end leads (and 2mm products in general), but this impressed me greatly.

A smooth lead that is true to labeling - a solid HB, not too light, not too dark.

This F grade is an excellent writer's lead. It is smooth, dark and slightly oily. Like what the others have said, this lead has the darkness of a B with the wear of an H. This lead gives the writer a glimpse into what the Japanese leads are like such as in the Tombow Mono and Mitsubishi Hi-Uni wooden pencils.

I have a set of 4H pencils that were probably made in 50s or 60s. They are supper smooth and lay down a line that is probably a lot fainter then what a 4H lead should. I only have a few left so I have been looking for a replacement. The Uni-ball 3H leads are a decent substitute. The leads don’t tare the paper like most current 3H pencils will. The line is darker then what I would like but that something I can adjust too.

a very smooth soft lead. very consistent from one piece to the next. this has become my go to lead. a joy to draw with.

mariochavez.deviantart.com

Beautiful smooth high quality graphite. My favorite 2mm brand. I would love to see some softer 5B and up graphite available too...but for now this is as good as it gets. Mitsubishi is outstanding. Nice dispenser also.

These were the last Uni 2mm leads I tried. This grade may be H according to Uni, but it\'s blacker like most other makes HBs or Fs.

It\'s still rather smooth. For example, compare it to a Mars 2H from Staedtler, and you\'d swear they were 4 or 5 grade apart, rather than one-- the Mars is *much* less smooth than the Uni.

For general writing and note-taking, it\'s the best 2mm lead I have found. It\'s still dark enough to be useful, but last a long time between re-sharpenings.

I\'m using this in a Staedtler 925 25 20, which is not sharpener-friendly, so I tend to part a little harder grade in that unit.

To echo \"betolung\", these Uni leads really are fantastic value. The compare favorably (or better) to leads much more expensive.

MUCH CHEAPER AND MUCH BETTER THAN OTHER LEADS
seriously if you have a 2 mm lead holder this is definitely the way to go without any hesitation. the lead is perfect

Very good graphite 2mm refills. Right after Steadtler and Caran D'ache in my opinion.
Too bad JetPens only carries choices that are too close to each other, for example HB, B and even F are all very similar, even H comes close. I use to get the same Uni leads from ebay in 3H, HB, and 3B strength. Uni even makes red leads.

Anyway, very good leads.

After reading some of Alberto's reviews about the Uni, praising it compared to the Staedtler, Faber-Castell, Koh-I-Noor, etc. alternatives, I decided to give them a shot, since I hoped for a dark, smooth lead that would compare with my high-end pencils (Hi-Uni, Palomino, Craft Design Technology).

I was a bit reluctant at first since Mitsubishi also had marketed a Hi-Uni lead alongside the standard Uni, and also for a brief time sold a variety called the "Uni Artis". Both were higher-priced and supposedly came with correspondingly higher performance, but now both are discontinued and becoming rare. I lucked out and sourced some of all three offerings, and spent some time comparing them to discern differences.

While there were some slight differences between the leads, I think that much of it is negated through the use of a substantial leadholder (I use a Staedtler 925-25). The Uni holds its own pretty well, and in HB is quite good. This was a bit of a relief, since I don't know how my luck will be in sourcing the discontinued offerings.

That said, I would still prefer the Hi-Uni or Uni Artis leads if they were readily available and cheaper, but since the Uni is much cheaper, much easier to get, and very very nearly as good as the "premium" versions, it seems to be a no-brainer for anyone who wants to use high-end tools without fear of suddenly running out (Blackwing 602 lovers know what I'm talking about).

Finally got around trying these H grade leads, and was not disappointed. No question about it, these UNI graphite leads and leadholders are the best quality and value available anywhere. If you like using 2.0 mm leads, you can do no wrong by getting all four degrees. They are long-lasting and a joy to use.

6 pieces for $3.50 is quite a deal, at least for where I live. (10 pieces of Faber-Castell cost me $9.25.) The lead is all I could ask for: it writes smooth and consistently, and leaves a nice dark line. Compared to Faber-Castell and Staedtler lead of the same hardness it's noticeably darker, and consequently it wears down a little faster, but not by much. The lead can fit with the stopper in my Staedtler Mars 780 and my Rotring 300, though it has to be modified to fit into a Caran d'Ache Fixpencil 22. Compared to Caran d'Ache's lead, which isn't easy to find and costs quite a bit when found, the Uni lead costs about half as much for the same amount and of the same quality.

This hard to find graphite grade lead provides excellent control for writing and line sketching since it retains its sharp point longer while producing nice dark marks like an HB grade lead (I recall an article on drafting materials that defined the F grade as having the HB darknes with the hardness of an H lead, yet these Uniball leads are not scratchy at all like some H leads from other manufacturers can be).