Pentel Sharp Kerry Mechanical Pencils

The Pentel Sharp Kerry is a seriously cool mechanical pencil. It dares to be different with a capped design that is both stylish and supremely practical. When you’re not using the pencil, the cap protects the delicate lead sleeve from damage and prevents the lead sleeve from stabbing through your clothes. This makes the Sharp Kerry an excellent pocket EDC pencil. But it’s when it’s time to write that the true genius of the Sharp Kerry shines through. Every part of the pencil is perfectly integrated for a seamless writing experience regardless of whether the cap is posted or unposted.

If you prefer to leave the cap off, simply push the button on the body of the pencil to advance the lead. When you do post the cap, it snaps securely into place with no risk of it flying off during use. Posting reveals a push button on top of the cap that lets you advance the lead even though the cap is covering up the main push button on the body of the pencil. It’s no wonder that the Sharp Kerry is the top pick in our guide to The Best Mechanical Pencils!

Zebra DelGuard Mechanical Pencils

The Zebra DelGuard is the original unbreakable pencil. If you struggle with broken pencil leads, its highly engineered two-part lead guarding system will be a lifesaver. A spring in the barrel cushions lead from too much vertical force by allowing it to slide back inside the pencil instead of breaking. Another spring in the tip of the pencil extends a pipe to reinforce the lead when the writer applies too much sideways pressure. This is slightly different from other lead guard mechanical pencils that use a sliding lead sleeve to prevent breakage.

Sliding lead sleeves are highly effective, but they require you to write with the end of the lead pipe touching the paper at all times. Since the Zebra DelGuard protects your pencil lead no matter how you write, we believe it’s the best unbreakable pencil for most people.

The Zebra DelGuard comes in several different styles, including the lightweight standard plastic version and the ergonomic Type-GR. If you appreciate being able to write in ink or pencil at a moment’s notice, try the Zebra DelGuard +2C Multi Pen. It combines the DelGuard’s lead guarding features with smooth black and red Zebra Surari Emulsion ballpoint ink refills.

Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Drafting Pencils

The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 provides all of the features you need in a drafting pencil for a thoroughly reasonable price. Its solid aluminum construction is sturdy without being overly heavy, so it won’t tire your hand out during use. It’s also comfortable to hold due to a knurled grip section that is inlaid with rubber ovals for extra traction. The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 includes a lead grade indicator as well as a 4 mm lead sleeve that makes it easy to use with a straightedge.

One of the Graph Gear 1000’s unusual features is a spring-loaded binder clip that fastens easily onto thick notebook covers and pockets. Opening the clip retracts the pencil tip, so there’s no danger of accidentally poking yourself through your clothes. The Pentel Graph Gear 1000 comes in tip sizes from 0.3 mm to 0.9 mm for artists and engineers who need a wide range of sizes at their disposal.

Uni Kuru Toga Mechanical Pencils

All pencils suffer from a fundamental flaw: as you write, the pencil lead wears down on one side until you finally turn the pencil to find a sharp edge. The Uni Kuru Toga pencil solves this problem with an internal mechanism that rotates the lead for you every time you lift the pencil tip from the paper. This prevents the lead from ever getting dull so that you can write comfortably without the distraction of constantly adjusting your grip. It also reduces lead breakage and ensures that each letter looks crisp rather than varying in width as the lead wears down.

The Uni Kuru Toga comes in several versions, but two of our favorites are the Uni Kuru Toga Roulette and the Uni Kuru Toga Advance. The Uni Kuru Toga Roulette is consistently the most popular Kuru Toga on our site for its premium look, knurled metal grip, and comfortably low center of gravity. If you’re looking for a fancy mechanical pencil, the Roulette is it. The Uni Kuru Toga Advance features a “W Speed” rotating mechanism that turns the lead twice as fast as standard Kuru Togas. This faster speed is better for people who write in cursive since they don’t lift the pencil from the paper as often as people who print. The Advance also has a sliding lead sleeve that protects against lead breakage and can be retracted to prevent the pencil tip from damage when it’s not in use.

Staedtler Mars Lumograph Graphite Pencils

We usually recommend the Staedtler Mars Lumograph as a drawing pencil, but it’s also an outstanding writing pencil due to its above-average point retention. All wooden pencils need to be sharpened periodically, but the Lumograph stays sharp longer than most. This lets you keep writing without losing your train of thought from frequent pencil-sharpening pauses. The Staedtler Mars Lumograph is also a genuine pleasure to use. Its high-quality lead is smooth while providing just enough grip for control when writing. It also sharpens and erases easily, so your work will always look tidy.

Most people use medium lead grades like HB, F, H, and B for writing, but the Lumograph does come in a full range of lead grades if you prefer harder or softer options. If you like soft leads and want something with a bit more flair, try Palomino Blackwing Pencils. Their distinctive look and smooth, dark leads make even everyday writing feel special.

Pilot Opt Mechanical Pencils

The Pilot Opt is our pick for the best mechanical pencil for students. It is inexpensive enough to fit in most students’ budgets but still has excellent ergonomics to prevent hand fatigue no matter how long you study. Its barrel is wider than most mechanical pencils’. This, together with a low center of gravity and added traction from the tapered rubber grip, allows you to hold the pencil gently while still maintaining control.

The Opt also has two handy extras: a shaker mechanism and a binder clip for fastening the pencil to notebooks and pockets. The shaker mechanism lets you advance the lead without readjusting your grip, so you don’t have to break your train of thought. In addition to these practical features, the Pilot Opt comes in fun body colors so that you can express your style.

Pentel Orenz Mechanical Pencils

The best mechanical pencil for math lets you write intricate equations clearly and precisely, easily fitting numbers into the small squares of graph paper. The Pentel Orenz is the only pencil to accommodate 0.2 mm lead, which makes even the tiniest notations easy to read. Although the 0.2 mm lead size is delicate, the Pentel Orenz is equipped with a sliding lead sleeve that reinforces the lead along its entire length and retracts as it wears down. As long as you do not extend the lead beyond the sleeve, you can write indefinitely with no breakage.

The Pentel Orenz comes in four different styles, ranging from the lightweight standard Orenz to the premium Orenz Nero. This futuristic pencil is made from a sturdy metal and resin blend and features an automatic advancement mechanism that extends the lead every time you lift the tip from the paper.

Faber-Castell Polychromos Colored Pencils

Faber-Castell Polychromos are the best colored pencils for professional artists whose drawings will be on display. Each pencil is filled with a buttery smooth, richly pigmented core that lays down vibrant color at the slightest touch. Because their cores are oil-based, there’s no need to worry about unsightly wax bloom on your art. Most impressively, Faber-Castell Polychromos are lightfast. Asterisks on each pencil indicate how well that particular color resists degradation from light exposure. This lets you choose hues that will remain vivid over time and show your work to the best effect.

As a bonus, Polychromos pencils are color-matched with other Faber-Castell products for easy mix media work.

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Watercolor Pencils

Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencils are the best watercolor pencils for making stunning, long-lasting watercolor pencil art. Their buttery cores contain intense, high-quality pigments that deliver brilliant color payoff and excellent lightfastness. Like the Faber-Castell Polychromos, each color’s lightfastness rating is printed on the barrel of the pencil for easy reference. Although Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer pencils are a pleasure to use dry, they truly shine when used as watercolor pencils.

Their colors dissolve into even more intense hues when touched with water, allowing you to blend new colors and spread them into lovely watercolor washes.

Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Pencils

Although they’re not as common as wooden colored pencils, mechanical colored pencils do exist—and the Pilot Color Eno is the best mechanical pencil with colored lead that we’ve seen. Each of the eight body colors is matched to the lead inside so that you can easily pick the right pencil. The pencils are filled with 0.7 mm Pilot Color Eno Erasable Lead. It is smudge resistant and wonderfully easy to erase, which makes it perfect for sketching, editing, and color-coding notes or planner entries.

Although we stand by the Pilot Color Eno as the best mechanical colored pencil available, Uni Color Mechanical Pencils have a secret weapon: a multi pencil version called the Uni Color 3 that comes filled with blue, orange, and red Uni NanoDia Color Erasable Lead. This lead erases a little less well than Pilot Color Eno lead but has truer, slightly darker colors.

SHOP THE BEST MECHANICAL COLORED PENCILS: Sketch Starter Kit

Sketch Starter Kit

We put our  Sketch Starter Kit together with artists in mind, but its components could work just as well for writers! This versatile kit comes with a Pilot Color Eno mechanical pencil in Soft Blue, which is known as non-repro blue because most scanners and photocopiers won’t pick it up. This lets you easily make clean copies of sketches and edited documents. The set also includes a box of smooth Palomino Blackwing Pearl pencils, a high-quality Maruman Mnemosyne notebook, and several other sketching tools.

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Platinum OLEeNU Mechanical Pencils

We chose the Platinum OLEeNU as the best mechanical pencil for drawing because it protects lead three ways to keep softer graphite lead grades and colored leads intact. In addition to a sliding lead sleeve, a cushioning spring protects against heavy vertical pressure. This allows artists to get away with using more pressure to blend colored leads. The third protective feature is the OLEeNU Guard clutch system. Most pencils leave leads unsupported between the clutch and the pencil tip, which can lead to fractures when the pencil is dropped.

The OLEeNU Guard includes two extra grasping parts that hold the lead along the entire length of the mechanism to protect it from sudden shocks. A side benefit of the OLEeNU Guard is that the pencil can use much shorter leads than most other pencils. This “Zero Shin” feature reduces lead waste and saves artists money over time.

The Platinum OLEeNU comes in three styles: the standard Platinum OLEeNU, the OLEeNU Shield, and the OLEeNu High Grade. They all share the same lead guarding features, but we particularly like the standard version for sketching due to its lightweight body, comfortable rubber grip, and binder clip that can easily be fastened to sketchbook covers.

Staedtler Silver Series Lead Holder

It’s no wonder that the Staedtler Silver Series lead holder is the top choice in our guide to The Best Lead Holders. It combines excellent build quality with all of the features a lead holder should have, all for a thoroughly reasonable price. Its aluminum body is well balanced and sturdy without being heavy. It is equipped with a knurled grip to reduce slipping. The 4 mm long guide pipe provides a clear view of the paper, and a built-in lead grade indicator lets you easily keep track of which lead is installed in which pencil.

Unlike many lead holders that use a drop clutch mechanism, this 2 mm lead holder has an easy-to-use incremental advance clutch that works just like a 2 mm mechanical pencil would.