Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Lead Display

I have accumulated a few kilometers of lead over the years and decided that my leads should have their day in the sun too. So here's a few - some old, some new.
mechanical pencil lead display

From the back row to the front, left to right.

pentel blue leads
Pentel blue leads. The first is just 'color leads', the second has a blue band and says blue but the third is black band and says blue. Modern Ain and Ain Stein.


pilot mechanical pencil leads

Some old Pilot. Does the second from left container look familiar? The Neo-Xu and Eno are the same containers just relabeled. Colour coded tops by diameter.

pilot leads

I like the yellow container with its little window. Ecomate and BeGreen, more relabeling.

staedtler mechanical pencil lead refills

Good old Staedtler. The bulk injector dispenser holds 40 leads. Then Mars Micrograph 'Super Hi Polymer'... sounding a bit Pentel-ish there. Then  just 'Super' and finally 'Carbon'. 
Up above I asked if that Pilot container looked familiar. At first glance the Pilot container looks identical, but upon close inspection it is merely exceptionally similar, clearly someone is copying someone.

4 comments:

Stefano said...

Ahh, the leads: the best friends of every mechanical pencil!
Collecting mechanical pencils, I also found myself accumulating a considerable number of different leads.
The vintage containers you showed are beautiful, especially Pilot and Staedtler whit their retro-style labels!

LivingEntity said...

Not just best friends, but crucial to the functioning of the pencils. A mechanical pencil is almost nothing without the leads!

LivingEntity said...

I have only the followings leads:
(India)
Camlin Hi Par 0.5 B, 0.7 B
Uni Nano Dia blended 0.5 HB
Tombow Mono Graph 0.5 HB
Classmate 0.7 B
Faber-Castell 0.5 HB (75 mm len)

Stefano said...

You're absolutely right, Mayur.
I also find that even the best mechanical pencil doesn't offer the best writing experience without a good lead!
I prefer soft leads (mainly 2B) and Nano Dia are one of my favourites.