Pentel Graphgear 1000 Drafting Pencil – 0.5 mm

If I knew any drafting, I would have done that for the drawing sample. Should’ve drawn some hex nuts and bolts, but it’s too late now.

I love the look of drafting pencils. They’re always so fancy—far beyond what I ever need in a pencil.

Is drafting still a thing that’s done by hand?

In appearance, the Pentel Graphgear 1000 clocks in somewhere between futuristic and Art Deco. Where to start on these features? You’ve got a secure metal cap hiding an adjustable emergency eraser, with a sticker on top conveniently indicating lead size. You’ve got a little window to indicate lead hardness, from 2H to 2B. And you’ve got this sweet grip—

Adjustable emergency eraser! Better than your standard shoddy crumblet-sized eraser

Which combines the grippability of a knurled grip with the comfort of a rubbery grip. The little ovals go down when you press on them. I don’t know how useful that is, but it’s insanely fun to play with.

A stronger clip is not yet known to man in the pencil world

The big deal with this Graphgear is the retractable lead sleeve. To deploy, push down on the eraser knock, and the lead sleeve clicks neatly into place. To retract, open up the clip—the whole mechanism retracts violently. Time has not reduced the forcefulness of this retraction.

Pencil lead, as would be expected

The lead sleeve is very sturdy. The lead in the sleeve is sturdy. The pencil is solid, the weight, well balanced.

Pretend that I drew a building for you

The Graphgear 1000 is a classy, well-made pencil. I don’t know much about drafting pencils to compare it to, but the GraphGear seems to me like quite the fine utensil.

Thanks to Pentel for providing this sample for review!

 

Pentel Graphgear 1000 at Pentel.com

Pentel Graphgear 1000 at JetPens

Pentel Graphgear 1000 at Amazon, thru Pentel, cheaper than Pentel’s own website?!?