TWSBI Mechanical Pencils

I’m a fountain pen guy through and through, but I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions lately about the TWSBI mechanical pencils. TWSBI is a popular brand of fountain pen and I do like the design and functionality of their pens, so I thought “what the heck, I’ll check out their pencils”. I’m not a pencil aficionado (is there even a thing?), but here’s a video of me sharing my impression.

There are two different pencils, fixed and retractable tip. The difference is that one has a fixed lead guide that sticks out of the pen (more stable/accurate), the retractable has a lead guide that can push back into the pen (better for putting in your shirt pocket).

TWSBI Mechanical Pencil, retractable tip (in the retracted position)

TWSBI Mechanical Pencil, fixed tip

The pens come in either black or silver, and also come in .5mm or .7mm. That makes a total of 8 different combinations of pencil features. The one I personally chose for myself was the fixed tip, in black and .7mm. For $25, this seems to me to be a pretty solid performing pencil. But then, I don’t have vast pencil knowledge so keep that in mind.If you’re curious how much lead will fit in these pencils, I made a rather entertaining video here where I discover for myself how much…by jamming as much lead in them as I can!

TWSBI Pencils come with the pencil, two sticks of lead and an eraser (inside the pencil), a spare pack of lead (12 pc), and 3 spare erasers in a tube.