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We interviewed pencil reviewers with a combined 45 years of experience, and had nearly 70 paid-to-be-particular Wirecutter staffers test our top picks, to confirm that the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide is the best mechanical pencil for everyday writing. Its unique lead-rotating mechanism prevents the pencil’s tip from going blunt as you write, creating the crispest and most consistent strokes for writing and drawing.
Its rotating lead keeps the tip sharp as you write, making for the cleanest and most consistent writing. This newest version also has a pocket-safe retractable tip.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $5.
For people who mostly use a pencil for writing and doodling, the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide is a well-rounded, always-sharp option. It looks and feels nicer than most similarly priced or cheaper mechanical pencils, and it’s readily available online and at office-supply and stationery stores. The Kuru Toga has been our pick since 2013, but the Pipe Slide is a newer version: It has a retractable tip so it won’t stab you through your pocket, and it rotates lead twice as fast as the original so it keeps the tip at a finer point.
Tip width as tested: 0.5 mm
Widths available: 0.5 mm for the Pipe Slide; 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.7 mm for the Kuru Toga standard pencil
If the Kuru Toga’s rotating mechanism sounds appealing but you prefer a differently styled writing implement, we suggest looking at the many other available versions. If you want the Pipe Slide’s twice-as-fast lead-rotation engine and retractable tip, you’re limited to the Kuru Toga Advance, which has a metal-plated clip and tip, giving it more heft and a lower center of gravity. But you have many more options if you don’t mind a slower rotation and don’t need a retractable tip. The Kuru Toga Roulette is great if you want a heavier pencil with a serious grip similar to that of a graphing pencil. Likewise, there’s the self-explanatory Kuru Toga Rubber Grip model, as well as the even-cushier Kuru Toga Alpha Gel Grip. The Kuru Toga High Grade has a polished aluminum look and limits the lead-rotation clutch to a smaller window near the tip. There’s even a Kuru Toga line that has you covered if your problem is that your current pencils don't have Disney characters.
This metal drafting-style pencil doesn’t have any useful lead tricks, but some testers preferred the feel and the refined design details.
If you’re a pencil aesthete, if you draw diagrams and illustrations more than you write words, or if you know you prefer the feel of solid, heavy, cold metal to plastic, the Pentel GraphGear 1000 is a traditional mechanical drafting pencil worth considering. Both expert reviewers and many Wirecutter testers praised its knurled metal and latex-dotted grip, its strong clip and clicking mechanisms, and its better (if also somewhat minimal) eraser. This model is also more useful if you like to keep multiple lead styles on hand, as you can note the style of lead inside the GraphGear 1000 through a rotating window.
Tip width as tested: 0.5 mm
Widths available: 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm, combo pack
Its rotating lead keeps the tip sharp as you write, making for the cleanest and most consistent writing. This newest version also has a pocket-safe retractable tip.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $5.
This metal drafting-style pencil doesn’t have any useful lead tricks, but some testers preferred the feel and the refined design details.
In researching this guide, and our related guides to pens and notebooks, I’ve spent more than 100 hours researching writing tools and stationery. I’ve studied lead advancement, eraser performance, and drafting-pencil history. I’ve read detailed reviews of most mechanical pencils released since Wirecutter first published this guide in 2013, and I’ve asked experienced pencil bloggers about what I might have missed. For two months, I’ve kept a pencil and notebook on me at all times, using them for work, vacation trips, shopping lists, and note-taking. I’ve used pencils a lot more in the past two months than I have in my entire life since college.
I am also an experienced Wirecutter writer and former notepad-scribbling newspaper journalist. Over the past five years, I’ve written dozens of guides, including a larger guide to home-office supplies.
Editor Tim Barribeau wrote the original version of this guide in 2013 and has also covered pens, notebooks, and other stationery for Wirecutter. He became a firm believer in pencils with retractable tips after stabbing himself in the thigh multiple times while pocketing them.
The Uni-ball Jetstream RT is the best pen for most people—it’s affordable, smooth, and quick to dry, and it won’t skip or bleed.
No one notebook is perfect for everyone, so we found 12 in different styles and sizes—all better than what you could grab off the shelf at the pharmacy.
Some people leave pencils behind the moment they finish their last standardized test, encountering them only occasionally at a golf course or tied to a clipboard. Many people rely on pens for the limited amount of on-paper writing they do these days. But there are those who still like the feel of lead on paper, who value the ability to erase, or who do work that demands a pencil. And some people simply love mechanical pencils, just as they are.
If you need a mechanical pencil only a few times per year, you can make do with a half-dozen of the cheapest models available at the corner store. Spend a few dollars more on our top pick, or more than 10 times as much on an upgrade pick (but still less than you could spend on many fast-food meals), and you get a markedly better writing experience. Pencils, more than pens, are affected by the weight, angle, and pressure you place on them against the paper. And the components of a better mechanical pencil, such as the lead-advancement mechanism, the clip, and the lead-holding sleeve, will hold up far longer than with 12-per-box models.
And as nearly 70 Wirecutter staffers found out while using pencils for three days, there is a notable difference in how your writing looks, and feels, from pencil to pencil.
As with the original (2013) version of this guide, we relied on experienced pencil and stationery bloggers to sort through everything available and help us establish what’s good. These people have spent more hands-on time with mechanical pencils, and have a wider variety of pencils on hand for comparison, than nearly anyone else:
We checked in with Dowdy, Price, and Gamber for this updated guide, and searched their blogs and others, to see what pencils had received good reviews since the original publication of our guide.
Considering all that input, and checking it against owner reviews, price, availability, and feedback on our picks in the previous version of this guide, we narrowed our testing list down to three pencils:
To get some real-world feedback on our three finalists, we gave all of the Wirecutter employees attending a three-day company meeting and workshop the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide and the Pentel Sharp plus a Field Notes notebook, asking them to use the supplies to take notes during the event. On the third day, we hosted a focused testing session for more than 65 employees, where we provided them with additional Pentel GraphGear 1000 pencils and a variety of high-quality notebooks. We tested all three pencils with the default lead inserted in the most common models. Although this created some variance in the testing—the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide ships with 0.5 mm HB lead, the Pentel Sharp comes with 0.5 mm 2B lead, and the Pentel GraphGear 1000 models we bought had 0.5 mm HB lead—we focused our testing on the qualities of each pencil, mostly ignoring matters of lead hardness.
Each staffer who attended the testing session, after two days of note-taking, filled out a survey. We asked them to compare the three pencils on the following criteria, in this (rough) order:
We also asked Wirecutter employees to pick their One True Pencil and gave them a space to justify their pick. We didn’t ask specifically about the erasers, clips, or lead-advancing clicking mechanisms on the mechanical pencils, but staffers told us a good deal about those features on each pencil regardless.
Its rotating lead keeps the tip sharp as you write, making for the cleanest and most consistent writing. This newest version also has a pocket-safe retractable tip.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $5.
The Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide has a secret weapon that no other pencil can match: It automatically rotates the lead inside the pencil every time you lift the tip from the page, keeping the lead at the tip constantly sharp. Thanks to this feature, your lines and letters come out constantly sharp, rather than getting broader, with your lead more faded-looking, as you write on. Interviewed experts and Wirecutter staffers surveyed in our tests agreed that you can see the difference when you look closely at the Kuru Toga’s writing, as it’s more crisp, precise, and consistent than that of other pencils, mechanical or standard. This model is also pocket-safe, unlike our previous pick, due to a retractable tip unique to the Pipe Slide version.
Our staff testers didn’t love everything about the Kuru Toga Pipe Slide, but after our testing session, more people chose it as their One True Pencil—even over a metal pencil that was more than twice its price. As one staffer said, “[The] readability of the Kuru Toga was the best.” Another wrote: “The writing is crisp, and I ended up appreciating the automatic rotation.” One Wirecutter employee liked many aspects of the GraphGear 1000 they tested but found that the Kuru Toga represented “a better compromise between design and performance.”
The Pipe Slide is a newer version of the standard Kuru Toga pencil, which was our initial pick in 2013. The Pipe Slide rotates its lead twice as fast as the original Kuru Toga, turning the lead fully once every 20 strokes versus 40. In addition to keeping the writing on the page sharp and consistent, this rotation tends to prevent lead breakage, since you’re not pressing hard on one gradually weakening part of the lead. The Pipe Slide also has a retractable tip, so it’s less prone to breaking or stabbing you through your pocket than the original Kuru Toga.
The Kuru Toga Pipe Slide’s evenly sharp lead is notably useful if you write your letters small, or if you write in a language with dense characters, such as Chinese or Japanese. The ability to write without having to worry about blunted lines means your logograms will turn out more regular and legible.
The Kuru Toga Pipe Slide is comfortable to hold but not notably more so than other good mechanical pencils. It edged out the metal GraphGear 1000 by only one vote for feeling the most comfortable in the hand. The subtly ridged clear-plastic grip plus the small rubber ring near the tip improve the experience over that of a completely round and smooth pencil, but some people may prefer a larger and possibly rubberized grip.
Although the novel lead handling is genuinely useful, we’ve found some notable flaws in the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide—and in the rest of the Kuru Toga line. For one, the erasers are small and not well-liked. The Pipe Slide, like most Kuru Toga pencils, has a plastic cap covering the eraser, which means keeping track of your eraser cap while you’re writing. “If I'm using a pencil instead of a pen, it's usually because I want ready access to an eraser,” wrote one Wirecutter tester. Another tester described the Pipe Slide eraser as “squishy,” while still another said the eraser “dips in and out” under pressure against the paper, making it inconsistent. It’s also shorter than the eraser on our other pencil pick.
If you do a good amount of erasing, and especially if you usually draw or diagram with a pencil, consider buying and packing a separate eraser. JetPens recommends the Sakura Foam Eraser as an all-around performer. A number of the expert pen and pencil bloggers we read and consulted, including those behind The Pen Addict, Dave's Mechanical Pencils, and The Well-Appointed Desk, like the Tombow Mono Zero for making precise erasures.
The auto-rotating mechanism of the Kuru Toga’s lead requires a bit of looseness (play) so that the lead can rotate when you let your hand off the page. Some reviewers, such as Brian Greene of OfficeSupplyGeek, note this. None of Wirecutter’s testers complained about this looseness in their written comments, but some people may notice it and find it bothersome.
Since the rotation mechanism on Kuru Toga pencils engages only when you lift your hand off the page, if you write in cursive the lead rotates less often since the pencil stays down for much longer periods. In this case you still get some of the sharpness benefits, but it isn’t as noticeable if as you were writing in block lettering.
The clip on the Kuru Toga Pipe Slide is a standard metal clip. If you want something that pivots, look no further than our upgrade pick.
A few testers complained that the Kuru Toga Pipe Slide advanced its lead in smaller lengths than the Pentel models they tested, requiring more clicks to get as much lead out. Most people come to learn the quirks of their mechanical pencil as they use it, gaining an instinctive muscle memory for how many clicks they’ll need as they move through a page. But our upgrade pick advances more lead per click.
This metal drafting-style pencil doesn’t have any useful lead tricks, but some testers preferred the feel and the refined design details.
Some people, including many of our testers, prefer the heft and hand feel of a solid metal drafting pencil, even if they know it doesn’t have the same lead-rotating tricks of the Uni Kuru Toga. If you have an affinity for the heavier weight and cool-metal feel of upscale writing implements, and if you tend not to lose your pencils, the Pentel GraphGear 1000 is a good investment in enjoyable writing.
The GraphGear 1000 is usually more than twice the price of the Kuru Toga Pipe Slide, but you’re likely to understand why when you hold the pricier pencil in your hand. It’s a metal drafting pencil with a knurled metal grip dotted with latex pads. The clip turns on a pivot rather than simply being attached to the frame, and pressing on the top of the clip retracts the metal tip with an extremely satisfying spring-click. If you like to keep multiple kinds of lead stocked, whether to use in different pencils or to reslot into a pencil like this, the GraphGear 1000 has a small window on its rotating barrel that you can rotate to track the type of lead inside (HB, B, 2B, and so on). As for looks, the GraphGear 1000 is about as impressive-looking a writing implement as you can buy before you get into Montblanc territory.
Nearly half of Wirecutter staff testers thought the GraphGear 1000 felt smoother for writing than the Uni Kuru Toga Pipe Slide or the Pentel Sharp, and more than half said they preferred the GraphGear 1000’s looks over those of any other pencil. “I really like the stable and sturdy feel of the Graphgear 1000. It glided on the paper better than the others,” wrote one staffer. “The Graph Gear feels like the last mechanical pencil I'd ever have to buy,” said another. “I love the heft, grip, and details that went into the design.” And another tester commented, “I just like the pop of the retracting mechanism on the pocket clip,” adding that it’s “clever and it feels cool.” The GraphGear 1000 also picked up the most compliments on its cap-covered eraser, with many testers noting that eraser’s firmness over the Kuru Toga eraser.
The problems that testers noted with the GraphGear 1000 mostly came down to preference. One did not like “how fancy the Graph Gear feels.” A few noted that it would feel heavy in a shirt pocket, or that it simply felt too heavy in the hand. Reviewers, including Dave's Mechanical Pencils and OfficeSupplyGeek, note that although the clicking and retraction mechanism on the GraphGear 1000 is powerful and reassuring, it can also smart if you catch your finger in it going in, or if it smacks you going back out (something that I know all too well).
We’ve focused a lot on the pencils, but the lead is just as important in determining how well your writing comes out. You can find a continuum of lighter/harder to darker/softer leads, with HB (or #2) lead being the most widely used (and the kind that ships with both our picks). Then there is the thickness of the lead to consider: Although a pencil will take any hardness of graphite, it will take only one size. Our picks, and the other pencils we tested, work with 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm leads, but you can find other models with the same features but different lead sizes to suit your preference.
Not all lead is created equal. A poor-quality lead will break more easily than a high-quality one, which makes for a worse writing experience, what with your constantly having to click through more of the lead, and its breaking before you dispense it. We generally recommend the lead from the makers of our pencil picks, Uni-ball and Pentel, both of which have long histories and good reputations in the field.
The prior version of this guide recommended a number of Pentel pencils for singular features:
If you value a cap and left-handed comfort, side clicking, twist advancement, or a large built-in eraser, those are all reliable pencils you may want to try. But we think most people value the sharpness and clarity of their writing and drawing over such features.
We also recommended the Pentel Sharp P200 Series in our previous guide, for people who wanted a slimmer, sleeker, and more traditional pencil look. The Sharp P200 has been in continuous production for several decades, and definitely has its fans. Wirecutter testers wrote that the Sharp P205 they tested “feels like something a NASA engineer would use in the 50’s, in both a good or bad way,” and that it “was always the one that cool people at school had.” But overall, only a minority of Wirecutter testers rated it the best at anything over our other picks. Staff members wrote that the Sharp “felt cheap and slidey in your hand,” and a half-dozen testers noted that the body and grip were narrow. Some liked the very sharp tip and the larger eraser, and didn’t mind that this pencil was neither retractable nor pocket-safe.
We also previously dismissed a number of pencils recommended to us by experts or readers:
Austin Smith, Art Supply Critic, email interview
Miriam, Kuru Toga: A Comprehensive Guide, JetPens, July 18, 2017
Brian Greene, Kuru Toga Pipe Slide, OfficeSupplyGeek, May 23, 2016
Nick Folz, A Pocket Safe Intro Into The World of Mechanical Drafting Pencils, The Pen Addict, October 9, 2015
Austin Smith, Review - Pentel GraphGear 1000, Art Supply Critic, January 8, 2017
Brian Greene, Pentel Graphgear 1000 Mechanical Pencil, OfficeSupplyGeek, October 15, 2014
Kiwi-d, Pentel Graphgear 1000 PG1015 Mechanical Pencil Review, Dave’s Mechanical Pencils, December 12, 2006
Elizabeth Price, Pentel Graphgear 1000 Drafting Pencil – 0.5 mm, No Pen Intended, October 16, 2013
Graphite Grading Scales Explained, Pencils.com, December 15, 2008
Kevin Purdy is a writer, editor, and repair advocate at iFixit. He previously reviewed products at Wirecutter, including mattresses, standing desks, and bike-commuting gear. He has also written for Lifehacker, Popular Science, Fast Company, and other publications.
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