Thanks a lot. Do you know why pencil manufactures are not including them anymore? They can't be that expensive of an item, can they?

Is there anywhere to purchase cleaning pins without buying a pencil. It drives me crazy when pencils, especially 0.3 mm pencils are shipped without one.

You are of course referring to clean out rods! And yes there is a place to purchase them, of a sorts. JetPens carries at least 3 types of Pilot mechanical pencil eraser refills that come 5 to a small plastic box. In each box are 2 short small gage wires that have a wire look on one end. They are approximately 28 mm long. One is 84 gage, for 0.3mm pencils and the other is 76 gage for 0.5 mm pencils and above! If you have any of the Pilot mechanical pencils the erasers happen to fit then I suggest that you get that particular box of erasers. If not then get the cheapest box. The erasers are sold here.

If you want a clean out rod for each individual pencil then you will have to go to www.smallparts.com and buy a five foot length of 0.0114" diameter stainless steel rod and make your own as I did! Pentel supplies only this sized rod for all the lead sizes, when it supplies one at all!

No, they are not an expensive item at all. Even retail I bought enough 0.0114" dia. rod to make 60 one inch clean out rods for about $5.00. That's under $0.09 each. That's probably what it cost to make 6,000 by the manufacturer!

The reason given to me by a rep from Pentel was that it was a safety issue! That's all they said about it. My guess is that some customers have stuck themselves with the ultra thin rods that come with 0.3 mm pencils (I know that I have) and probably complained to the manufacturer or threatened law suites. I know that some Pentel, Ohto, Platinum, Koh-I-Noor and Mitsubishi pencils have not come with a clean out rod! So it's my guess that the Pilot eraser packs will the last bastion for clean out rods in the near future, unless you make your own! :roll: