Graphite Fine Art
Palomino Graphite Drawing Pencils are made in Japan from incense cedar. They’re available in grades from 2H to 6B and cost around $12 for a dozen. Theses pencils look pretty good, with a bright orange-red barrel and black end. One side is printed simply ‘Palomino’ and the other side has the ugly but sadly ubiquitous…
The Rotring 600 perhaps needs no introduction. But just in case… it’s a mechanical pencil made from brass that’s available in black or silver. Different versions can take 0.35mm, 0.5mm and 0.7mm. There’s also a clutch pencil version that takes 2mm lead. It costs around £23 in the UK and $33 in the US. The…
The Uni Kuru Toga is a mechanical pencil that’s available in a range of styles and a range of lead sizes (0.3mm, 0.5mm or 0.7mm). This is the High Grade version which costs around £16 in the UK ($24-ish). You can however buy an all plastic version for less than half that. The unique feature…
The OHTO Auto Sharp Pencil, catchily named the AP-205, is a 0.5mm mechanical pencil. It’s available with black, blue, green or red barrels and costs £1.60 ($2.50ish) from Cult Pens, who sponsored this post. The Auto Sharp part of the name refers not to a fancy Kuru-Toga style rotating system but to an auto-advance system. The…
The Caran d’Ache Frosty is a 0.7mm mechanical pencil available with a black, blue or red barrel. Even though it’s from Caran d’Ache it’s quite cheap, available for about £5 from Cult Pens, who sponsored this review. It certainly looks good and it’s also well made. The frosty look that gives the pencil its name…