I have chosen this sharp pencil after a vigilantly careful 3-4 hour session in a department store.
I went into several stores and compared all the mechanical pencils they had at that time.
I took 10+ pencils for a ride (CDT, Cross, Faber Castell, Mitsubishi Kuru Toga, Ohto Promecha, Parker, Pelikan, Pilot, Pentel Graph Limited 1000, Rotring, Staedtler 885, Zebra Tect 2way etc. ).
For whatever reasons drawing with the Graphgear 1000 just feels right the very moment you take this pen into your hand.
When I made my decision I decided for the feature I REALLY need for a long term relationship. ;-)
While the "obvious" feature would certainly include the visual design you will be surprised to find out how much more there is to it, as I will elaborate below.
Hard factors:
1) Heavy usage of hand and/or rheumatoid arthritis:
If you or a good friend happen to play guitar daily for many hours and take notes at the same time or are unfortunate enough to already have rheumatoid arthritis in your hands, then this is "The pencil you don't want to leave the house without". I am not talking about the reliability itself but about how comfortable it is to use. This pen allows you to do more with much less effort !!
2) You can hide the sharp and sensitive penfront inside the pen.
While this may not be an obvious advantage, consider that you may accidently drop it once during its lifecycle.
The fact that the pens tip is hidden on the inside does not only protect your investment itself it also somewhat lessens the likelyhood of an actual damage to your other inventory, your expensive new shirt - or worse an injury to a family members eye (kids) etc.
I can not stress enough that this first feature alone is the one that is selling the pen for me. I tried many things to avoid that our almost 4 year old is taking my pencils. The "hidden" lead is a cool feature, so the kids dont play with the pens (because they are unusable).
3) The metal case is robust enough to handle when its dropped on the floor and makes sure the pen is still usable after it.
4) The pen has an adjustable lead type indicator for users that tend to forget what lead they filled it with last time, which is also handy if you own several of those.
5) Best Price-Performance value on the market. You will be hard pressed to find another pen that provides similar or even more quality for less.
This pencil easily beats any current competitions products that are priced at even ten times the price !!
Soft factors:
6) The overall visual design is nice and the pen is very slim which makes it look elegant.
(one exception is that the clip could be designed more elegant)
7) The feeling that comes with it when you draw and when you hold it is amazing. F.e while other pencils have a certain resistance on the media this one "glides" over it.
Summary:
Pentels Graphgear 1000 has many appealing points. In a super short summary, "IT JUST FEELS RIGHT".
Users with heavy daily drawing activity by hand and/or rheumatoid arthritis will be sold on the sole fact that they can do more with less efforts.
Or in other words it avoids stress to your hand and - more important - the likelyhood of an accident.
The Graphgear 1000 has also unmatched "real" advantages over the competition that protect your "investment".
I am well aware that other pens have features like adjustment of the length of the outcoming lead or automatically pushing out the lead when shaking etc.
But when you want to have a pencil that has all the features you MUST have and provides you with a suberb support than the choice becomes amazingly clear.
The Pentel Graphgear 1000 is a tough, reliable lifestyle partner that lets you feel that you are the one in charge !!
It also does easily pay for itself over and over by the time others have replaced their counterparts.
So if you are looking for a serious long term relationship than you have just found your partner ;-) Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil, 0.5mm Lead Size, Brushed Metal Barrel, 1 Each (PG1015A)
This is a great product in almost every way with one important exception: the clip. The clip on this pencil is used to retract the metal tip of the pencil so if you have it in your pocket or your pencil bag you don't stick yourself reaching in. You do this by pushing the top of the clip which raises the bottom of the clip which is essentially 'holding' the metal tip in place for drawing, so it retracts. But if you are using the clip regularly to clip it onto your pocket or whatever else, it becomes loose, and the bottom of the clip will no longer hold the tip in place without forcing the clip into the hole. Really, it's pretty annoying. And at a certain point, holding it in place won't even work.
I own 8 of these pencils, in the .3 .5 and .7 variety, and it has been a problem with all of them. So it definitely isn't one faulty pencil I am having issues with. I think you are better off dropping your money on a super promecha, it's more expensive but if you care enough about your pencil to spend so much on a Graph Gear 1000 you probably don't mind spending the extra cash on a better product. It's also a much better looking pencil aesthetically.
Hope this helps someone who likes to keep their pencils clipped inside the pocket of their pants shirt or bag. - Pentel - Drafting - Pencil - Mechanical Pencils'
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