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What Is The Best Mechanical Pencil Lead?
The best mechanical pencil lead is smooth writing with a high break resistance. Japanese and German manufactured lead is highly regarded as being the best in the world.
This guide shows you the top 5 mechanical pencil lead refills, the best mechanical leads for writing and drawing, the best-colored lead, and more.
So let’s dive in.
What do the Different Lead Sizes Mean For Mechanical Pencils?
A mechanical pencil’s lead size refers to the diameter of the lead that the pencil writes with. The diameter of modern mechanical pencil lead is measured in mm.
The lead diameter of a mechanical pencil used to be measured in inches. When the pencil manufacturers converted to mm, this caused confusion as some manufacturers rounded up and others rounded down to the nearest mm for their labels and packaging.
This guide shows all the different lead sizes, what we use them for, and the manufacturers for each size.
So let’s dive in.
Do You Know How to Hold a Pencil Correctly?
The correct way to hold a pencil is by using the tripod grip where the thumb, index, and middle finger hold the pencil.
Schools teach the tripod grip to young children as once mastered. It gives greater control of the pencil.
The tripod grip may be a good way to grasp and control a pencil, but it takes time to learn it properly and many young children find it uncomfortable or painful to write with.
Studies show that it may not enable children to write faster and neater and may not even be the best way to hold a pencil.
In this guide, we will cover all the different ways to hold a pencil with their benefits and drawbacks.
So let’s get started
What is a Drafting Pencil?
A Drafting pencil/Technical pencil is a particular type of mechanical pencil used by architects, drafting technicians, and designers for precision technical drawing.
They have a long slim lead sleeve/guide pipe to aid in marking straight lines with rulers and stencils. It also allows an unobstructed view of the pencil lead for greater precision.
This guide will cover what we use them for and how they differ from regular mechanical pencils, lead grades, and diameters. We also have an extensive list of the best drafting pencils.
Three mini mechanical pencils are tiny compared to all other mechanical pencils:
The OHTO Minimo is the world’s most miniature mechanical pencil, with the Pilot Birdie and Zebra TS-3 being slightly larger but still tiny and compact.
So let’s take a closer look.
