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).
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| TWSBI Mechanical Pencil, retractable tip (in the retracted position) |
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| 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!
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| 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. |
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| TWSBI logo engraved on the clip |
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| Pencil completely disassembled |
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| Silver Pencil |
I’d love to know what you more hardcore pencil folks think about these pencils and pencils in general, just leave your feedback in the comments.
Write On,
Brian Goulet
