Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I enjoy sketching and painting, and I'm always on the lookout for new tools to help me work. As of late I’ve been going back through some of my art supply purchased over the years and reviewing the ones that stood out in order to hopefully help other artists make informed purchases. I purchased my first Pentel Graph Gear 1000 mechanical pencil a little over five years ago, and have added many more to my collection in the years since. It's my go-to mechanical pencil for a number of reasons: - It has a comfortable, chiseled metallic grip inlaid with soft latex-free pads provides writing comfort. These pads are different colors depending on the lead size you choose (brown for .3 mm, grey for .5 mm, blue for .7 mm, and yellow for .9 mm), making it easy to identify which size of lead you're using. - The dual-action retractor advances and retracts tip for easy use. This means that you're able to retract the tip when you're storing it, which helps prevent damage to the tip as well as accidental damage (read: holes) in whatever you're storing it in. - The lead and eraser are refillable. - The barrel has a rotating window that allows you to identify the type of lead you've placed in it (2B, HB, etc.), so if you have multiples of these pencils, it's easy at a glance to identify what type of lead is in each without having to test them. Between this and the color-coding for the lead type, it makes it incredibly easy to keep on creating rather than having to take breaks to remember where you put a certain lead size or hardness or softness of lead. It also means that if you have multiples, you can have a variety of them handy, rather than having to regularly swap out lead. - They are extremely well weighted. - I rarely experience breakage. I regularly carry the following Pentel Graph Gear 1000s in my mobile sketch kit: - A .5 mm with 2H lead - A .5 mm with HB lead - A .5 mm with 2B lead - A .3 mm with 2H lead That said, these are by far my favorite mechanical pencils, and they are something I regularly use at home and while on the go. I would highly recommend them to any artist or draftsmen who is interested in adding a solid and long-lasting mechanical pencil to their creative arsenal. I am a longtime Amazon Prime customer who enjoys writing reviews in my free time. If you have any questions or comments about this product or my review, feel free to message me and I'll be glad to help!