This pencil is great and even though Amazon took 2 months to send it to me i cant complain, much. It worked perfectly for a few weeks and unlike others who don't like to take off the metal cap i have no problem. After a few weeks however the elongated metal tip actually snapped off. I don't know if it was because of my writing style or manufacturer defect but I'm writing and the tip tears off. Im not sure if to order again but it has been a real problem because it wont write now. I say buy it, but be careful. Pentel(R) Sharp™ Automatic Drafting Pencil, 0.5 mm, Black
What can I say? this is the classic Pentel P205. It's a wonderful pencil. So much good has been said about it I can't really add to that, so I'll point out some cons:
Eraser is sub-par. I understand some people who claim to be pencil enthusiasts believe you should never use the eraser on a quality pencil. This is nonsense. There are great pencils, Staedtler, Faber-Castell, etc, that have great erasers. It's not the size I have a problem with, the size is great and they are easily replaceable, but the compound used in the eraser is just not very good.
The body is plastic. It feels like it gives quite a bit while writing. Perhaps some people like this as it softens writing, but it feels somewhat flimsy and it not my kind of thing.
The mechanism could use some improvement. It's unfortunate no progress seems to be made on these pencils in 20 years. There is still the glaring and unforgiveable problem of how when a piece of lead is about used up the last few centimeters get stuck in the tip, outside the advancer, so you have to pull it out. This is absurd and ridiculous, and so many pencils still do this. The pentel eSharp is pretty good at keeping lead alive longer, but it's an even cheaper pencil and rather unattractive.
I can't give the product five stars because the old adage "don't fix what ain't broke" doesn't apply here: there are some big improvements that should be being made about pencils, and unfortunately Pentel is resting on its laurels.
I am, by no means, a pencil expert. That being said, this is the best pencil I have ever used! I have used the same pencil for about a year, and it shows no signs of breaking down.
In a moment of boredom, I shoved a gum wrapper in the metal cap that covers the eraser. Whenever I attempted to put the cap on the pencil, the eraser would be shoved into the pencil. I originally decides to retire the pencil after many failed attempts to remove the wrapper. But after using many other inferior pencils, I desperately returned to fishing out the wrapper in the cap. Several minutes later, I succeeded and was able to have the cap and an eraser at the same time.
I will definitely be buying more of these pencils!
I discovered Pentel pencils back in art school. I do fine detailed drawings and this is my pencil! I have tried other products but nothing works as well and you can't beat the price for value. I would recommend this product to anyone that needs to use pencils for work... it will not fail you.
For 4 years of engineering this was my *second* most favored drafting/writing instrument. It was the also one of the most sought after mech-pencil in engg schools from 10yrs ago till date.
But for $ value it is tough to beat.
Rotring Tikky is considered holy grail of mech-pencils by a lot of engineering graduates:
perfect balance/weight, great build quality (built like a tank), ideal grip and thickness.
This one is nearly the same except it is light but better than the rest of the mech pencils with its near perfect balance (cap end is slightly heavier)
Built out of plastic makes it the only reason i dont prefer it over the Tikky.
The P205 pencil feels great and writes well. However, the price and the extremely small eraser make this product not worth it. Within one week and very little use, the eraser had buried itself within the pencil. My guess is because I did not put the metal tip back on the eraser when I pushed to extend the lead. But the idea of the metal tip cover doesn't make sense since a pencil should be efficient. So why would anyone want to remove the tip every time they need to erase something? One could argue just don't make mistakes, but if that's the case, why use a pencil at all then? Currently, the eraser is nested within the pencil and I'll need tweezers to get it back out. Again, the handling of the pencil is amazing! But the eraser head lasted less than a week, making this pencil pretty useless in the end. I'm still searching for the best writing utensils!'
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