Pentel Ain Stein Lead Review

Pentel Ain Stein Lead Review

Prior to the 1960’s the thinnest commercially successful mechanical pencil lead was 0.9mm. Thinner leads of sufficient customer acceptable strength were just not possible. Then in the 1960’s Pentel developed pencil leads using polymer rather than the traditional ceramic clay as the binding agent. Suddenly leads of 0.5mm and even thinner were possible, and the 0.5mm mechanical pencil as we know it today was born.

Pentel have recently released their latest generation lead, Ain Stein.
S = Strongest
T = Technology
E = Enhanced SiO
I = Integrated
N = Network

Now, I don’t read Japanese so I can’t really say exactly what Pentel claim about Stein, but as far as I can make out from Google Translate, it appears they have incorporated some silica like crystalline regularity into the structure of the lead, thus improving strength, smoothness and darkness. I’m not sure if silica is the main binding agent or if it’s a polymer and silica mix.

Clearly a new product such as this immediately aroused my interest, and I was off on an internet shopping expedition. When I opened the parcel containing my first delivery of Ain Stein I was immediately struck by the sheer colourfulness of it all. It was a mighty pretty sight.

To coincide with the release of Ain Stein, Pentel have also released a Limited Edition Graph 1000 x Stein PG1005S mechanical pencil. There is also an Ain Stein plastic eraser as well. It’s eye-candy. It really is. I can only apologise and say that my photographic ability and equipment is just not up to the task.

The leads come in very nice plastic containers, with a bright colour scheme sweeping through the spectrum by lead hardness. As at the time of writing, in 0.5mm the range is 4B through to 4H, including F and HB Hard and HB Soft as well as normal HB. There is also red and blue coloured lead.

You twist the top of the container to uncover a small hole which the leads are dispensed through. The container is recyclable.

Well, Ain Stein certainly has the style, but does it have the substance? Is it smoother, darker and/or stronger than good ole’ everyday Ain? Time to put our size 0.5mm HB models to the test.

First up, how do they compare when erased by Staedtler Mars plastic eraser? (S = Stein, N/S = Non-Stein)

No difference as far as I can tell.

How about smear resistance?

No real difference. Both are quite smear resistant, although if you twisted my arm I might suggest that maybe Stein had a fraction more smear. Just maybe.

Let’s check out darkness.

Yet again, no difference that I can really tell.

Pentel also seem to be claiming an improvement in smoothness.
Well, here maybe for the first time I did notice some difference. Normal Ain is certainly a smooth lead, but Ain Stein did seem a fraction smoother. I did feel that little more of a glide over the paper.

Finally then the strength test. My lovely assistant loaded my test pencils with Ain and Ain Stein so I didn’t know which was which and I proceeded to snap leads. Over and over. The end result was pretty conclusively inconclusive. I did at times think I noticed a difference in failure mode with Stein being a much cleaner sharper break versus normal Ain tending to crumble and break, but other times they seemed the same. Equally on those occassions when I thought one was stronger than the other it was usually Stein, but not always, and most often I didn't think there was any difference. So, I’m not going to dispute that the lead testers down in Pentel’s lab can show Stein as being stronger, but out in the real world I don’t think your average pencil pusher will notice much difference.

So, final conclusion? Pentel apparently say Ain Stein has improved strength, smoothness, consistency and darkness. I can’t disagree, but overall I can’t really agree either. All of my tests here are very subjective, as is each users own experience with their mechanical pencil, lead, paper and writing style combination. I won’t therefore be surprised to see someone else disagree with my assessment of Ain Stein. As I said, I’m sure the Pentel lead experts can tell the difference, just not ordinary folk like me.

HB, HB and HB

Just how many HB’s do you need? Turns out, a few Japanese companies figure the answer is three.Claes in Lund, Sweden, yeah, it’s all his fault. He sent me an email enquiring about those other grades of HB lead they have in Japan. See, I didn’t really even know about them, but I do now. Not content with 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H etc like most folk, several Japanese lead suppliers have extra grades of HB.

Pentel have HB1, HB, and HB3 in their Ain (C255) and Hi-Polymer (C205) ranges, with HB1 being “softer” and HB3 being “harder”. They don’t have HB2, it’s just HB.On the other hand Tombow WX has HBB, HB, and HHB with HBB being “darker” and HHB being “harder” (not “lighter”).How the heck was I supposed to ignore this? More to the point, how come I didn’t really know about them already? Basically the answer is “I don’t read Japanese”. See, they don’t really make it that obvious. No big HB3 or HBB on the front.Just some Japanese characters, which are fairly clear to your average Japanese person, but are meaningless to me. Now I think about it, I think I had seen pictures before but never grasped the significance of those few Japanese characters. I probably just saw HB and that was the end of it. Buried somewhere in the fine print, usually over on the label on the back, though we have… Obviously money had to be spent and leads acquired. Food for body and mind.Maybe I’m just not a sensitive discerning person, but normally I have to skip a lead grade to find a significant difference. By that I mean 3B to B is a difference I can tell, but 3B to 2B is pretty hard for me to tell apart. Thus I had my doubts about these HB’s, but you just can’t ignore the challenge.

Now that I’ve tested them out, the truth is I can’t really tell much difference between the three HB’s. Below is a photo of a test series of Pentel Ain 2B through to H. You can see a gradual change along the series, but there’s not a lot of difference between any one individual and its neighbour on either side. In any one individual test it’s not too hard to convince yourself you can tell the HB's apart, but when you try and repeat it, well it all gets confusing. I didn’t spend hours doing all sorts of tests, but whilst a lot of the results were contradictory I think overall if I was doing some statistical analysis on my results then I suspect it would show that HB3, the harder of the HB’s was a little different to the other two HB’s and was “statistically different”. But HB to HB1, that’s a little more confusing. Plenty of times though I’d pick up HB1 and HB3 and not be able to tell the difference.

Apparently, way up there in Sweden, Claes and his Number One Wife have been doing all sorts of tests too, some involving blindfolds, and they can’t tell much difference either. Still, I think it keeps them happy on those long cold dark Arctic nights.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying there isn’t a difference between these grades of HB. These leads are by reputable Japanese companies. I don’t doubt for a second that their formulations are different, and that their specialist QC staff can tell them apart. What I am saying is that the differences are rather small and most of us would have trouble telling them apart.

My friend in Japan isn’t really sure about these extra HB grades and the rationale for their existence. He thinks they have been around for about 10 years, and perhaps as most schools recommend HB, and many shops only stock HB, the multiple grades of HB allow sales and marketing folk to create (an illusion of) choice and get us to buy different ones. They get to have 3 HB’s on the shelf, more than the other guy who only has one HB. Yeah, well, we all know this worked on me, but I think it’s just a scam to get me to buy more. Marketing wallahs – more contenders for first against the wall when the revolution comes.

A Pentel Question - The Spread Of Ain

I’m curious about the spread ofthe newer Pentel Ain lead versus the old Super Hi-Polymer. To me the Ain packaging is much more eye-catching and marketable, yet I get the impression that Ain has not made it everywhere, some Pentel distribution areas seem to be sticking with the old Hi-Polymer brandname and packaging? So, a little survey, please leave a comment and let me know what Pentel lead is common in your country.

Equally if Pentel lead isn’t common in your country then I’d be very interested to know that, and if not Pentel, what brand is common?

Feel Like You Need A Little Something?

Whoo-Hoo! Mmmmmm…..smelly……refreshing. (Thanks Homer)

Feeling down? Need some rejuvenating? Pencil-pushing getting you down? Pentel have come to your rescue! Ain “Supplio” aromatherapy mechanical pencil leads!

Personally I’m not one who puts much stock in aromatherapy, and my nose is pretty useless. I’ve had some so called aromatic smell-able leads before and couldn’t smell a thing. Neither could anyone else who tried either. Cheap rubbish from China. But these Supplio’s are a different kettle of fish, as you would expect from Pentel. Just open the foiled wrapper and a wave of scent slaps those nostrils.

There are three fragrances – Refresh, Positive and Healing – as below. Sorry about the photo quality, but the reflective foil packaging is really hard to photograph.
Here we have the package, lead container and little sticker.

The leads just look like normal 0.5mm HB polymer graphite leads.

I guess these two little peel-off stickers are for your pencil so you know what fragrance lead is in it? If I read Japanese, this stuff on the back of the package would be telling me all about little fragrance beads inside the polymer structure being released as the lead is worn away. If you had a good nose you could probably “smell” your writing as you wrote! Me, I have to stop and hold the paper up to my nose. I imagine this could get you some rather funny looks in the office.
PS – Don’t ask me how to get some of these leads. A friend sent them from Japan. As far as I can tell they are one of the many “Japan only” offerings, with no easy online source for us foreigners. But feel free to tell us all how to buy some if you do know.

Pentel Ain Lead

A few months ago Pentel Ain won the inaugural Lead Cup so it’s time to do an official review of Pentel leads.
Pentel offer a great variety of graphite leads of many different thickness', hardness grades, quality levels, packaging, etc. For example in ordinary mechanical pencil refill leads they offer 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and 1.3mm thickness leads. In 1.3mm they offer hardness 2B, B, HB and H, but in 0.5mm leads the range of hardness offered expands to 4B through to 6H, including an F grade. They label their apparent quality levels as ‘Hi-Polymer’, ‘Super Hi-Polymer / Ain’, and ‘Premium Hi-Polymer’. Despite the name ‘Premium Hi-Polymer’ it appears that ‘Super Hi-Polymer / Ain’ is their top quality level lead.

As far as I can tell, Ain is just a marketing brandname, the Super Hi-Polymer leads are sold in a variety of containers, quantities per container (e.g. 12, 30 or 40 leads per container) and so on, some as ‘Super Hi-Polymer’ and some as ‘Ain’. All in all there’s an awful lot of apparent choice.

I wasn’t really sure about how to review leads, so I decided to spend a week writing with a selection of different hardness Ain 0.5mm leads. For comparison I also used Pentel Hi-Polymer 0.5mm HB lead. In theory the Ain leads are superior to Hi-Polymer.
Well let’s get a few of the technicalities out of the way. Reliving the glory days of The Lead Cup, I put a few sticks of lead to the strength test. It was a clear victory, Ain HB is miles stronger than Hi-Polymer HB, so the cynic in me is wrong, there really must be two different formulations. Right then, what about between the hardness grades of Ain? There was a small but clear difference – as you might suspect, 2H was stronger than 2B.

So that’s strength, what about darkness? Just how much difference is there between the hardness grades? Basically I don’t think there is a lot of difference from one grade to the next on the scale, but if you skip a few out then there definitely is a difference in darkness. Anyone could tell 2B from 2H but its pretty difficult spotting the difference between 2B and B. I think they could probably delete every second hardness and not really affect anyone.
I recently had some difficulty with the diameters of some 0.7mm leads, so since my micrometer was handy I ran it across these 0.5mm leads. Grades 2B, B, HB, F, H, and 2H of Ain were all in the 0.565 to 0.57mm range, and the Hi-Polymer HB was 0.56mm. Strictly speaking, if you were correctly rounding to one decimal place, these are all 0.6mm leads, not 0.5mm.
I must admit I’m rather taken by the Ain packaging. I like the clear sided gently curving container and the bright printed graphics. There appears to be a colour coding system in use for the spine and lever top - varying shades of red for the B grades of lead, greens for the H grades, and blues for the HB and F mid-grades. My containers have quite an array of fine print on the back of them relating to plastic recycling. There is some difference in the container markings, indicating it’s a changing thing at Pentel. The F container has no recycling information on it, but all the others do. Now I’m not much of an expert, but as far as I can tell, the marks indicate they are recyclable, and are in fact made from some recycled material – polypropylene and whatever ‘AS’ is. I am guessing its some sort of acrylic-styrene, but I can’t find any reference to what the code ‘AS’ stands for in the plastics recycling schemes. But then again I don’t read Japanese.

There are 40 pieces of 60mm long lead in each Ain container. You flip the top open by pressing down on the lever with your thumb. Then you give the container a bit of a shake to dispense some lead. Actually this is not really the best. Sometimes you have to give it quite a good shake to get some leads out, and you can get one, or 2 or 3 at a time. Putting surplus leads back in can also be a bit fiddly. I get the impression it’s supposed to be a design that dispenses leads individually, but often lets a few others sneak out.

Now, what about actually writing with the leads! First up I put on my testing hat and did a blind test on the Hi-Polymer HB and Ain HB. Could I tell a difference when just writing under ordinary circumstances? Well, basically no. I had Ain in one pencil and Hi-Polymer in another and swapped them around a few times. I couldn’t tell the difference. Ain was of course stronger, it was undefeated in the strength tests of the Lead Cup, but that doesn’t mean Hi-Polymer was weak and breaking all the time, because it wasn’t. Ain has exceptional strength, but Hi-Polymer is certainly strong enough for normal use.

About 10 years ago I did a year long part-time course in quality assurance. I always remember the time we did a class test on Coke vs Pepsi. This is apparently a standard technique in the food industry. You give the test group three samples each – 2 of one thing and 1 of another and ask them to pick the odd one out. So, my class of 20 or so students were each given three little taster cups of cola – 2 were Coke and 1 was Pepsi. I mean how hard could it be? They taste completely different, don’t they? Well, statistically speaking my class couldn’t tell them apart. Pretty much 1/3rd of the class chose sample A as the odd one out, 1/3rd chose B and 1/3rd C. The lecturer said he had never had a class that could tell them apart, so as much as I can’t believe it, it appears there is no difference between Coke and Pepsi to the taste-buds of the general public. Crazy stuff.

Now note that I said general public. In my class there were two employees from the local Coca-Cola bottling plant. One worked in the laboratory and the other was a genuine ‘taste-tester’. The lady from the laboratory could easily pick the Pepsi by taste, we all watched as she did the three way test a few times and could immediately choose the odd-one out. Then it was the taste-testers turn. He was of course stunned at how useless we all were, a bunch of morons unable to tell Coke from Pepsi. I kid you not, he could tell them apart by sight from a few metres away. Blindfolded he could tell them apart by listening to them – the different levels of carbonation making different bubble sounds! Blindfolded and fingers in ears he could sniff them and tell them apart by smell. So, I’m sure the lead experts at Pentel can tell Hi-Polymer from Ain in the blink of eye, but as for the rest of us….

Well that’s Hi-Polymer out of the way, what about the different grades of Ain? I spent the rest of the week using two identical pencils, one with Ain HB in it and the other with a different grade – 2H, F or 2B.

All the grades are good smooth writing. 2B was slightly smoother than the harder grades, particularly 2H, and if you rotated the pencil to start on a new part of the leads chisel point then you can tell that the harder the grade the more it dug into the paper and took longer to wear down. When I was using the 2H lead I did keep wanting to press harder to darken things up. I put a page of mixed 2H and HB writing through the photocopier and the 2H copies noticeably lighter. Grade 2B definitely wore down faster than HB, so you get more words per stick of lead with HB. I’d guess about a 25% difference. Actually 2B isn’t all that much darker than HB with normal writing, as HB is already quite dark. I did occasionally notice a couple of specks of graphite dust on the page when writing with 2B, and that didn’t happen with the others. Overall I think there is more general difference in 2H to HB than HB to 2B. What about that most unusual of grades, F? It’s really quite hard to tell any difference from HB. I recall a drawing tutor saying that F had the hardness of H and the darkness of HB, but it’s a close call.

Footnote:
Just to clarify the situation, I asked Pentel customer services if there was any difference in the actual leads of Ain and Super Hi-Polymer. They replied, “There is no real difference in the leads, however, the AIN leads are stronger and darker than our original Hi polymer leads.”

The Lead Cup - Finals

At last, Cup Final day was here. Would Switzerland’s Caran d’Ache finish the day like David in his match with Goliath, or would Japan’s Pentel continue their seemingly inexorable march to victory? Many felt that the match was there for Pentel to lose, that whatever happened, Caran d’Ache would be heroes as they had already far exceeded all expectations, whilst anything other than victory for Pentel would be an ignominious disaster.

The format of the final was significantly different to all previous matches. The contestants would compete for points in the following events:
Blackness – Heavy Pressure – 1pt
Blackness – Light Pressure – 1pt
Smear Resistance – 3pts
Erasability – PVC – 2pts
Erasability – PVC Free – 1pt
Erasability – Rubber – 1pt
“Writing Feel” – 1pt
Packaging – 1pt
Life – 3pts
Strength – Drop – 1pt
Strength – Long Length – 1pt
Strength – Short Length – 4pts
This gave a total of 20 judging points, the highest score winning, and taking home The Lead Cup.

The opening match up of the blackness test was hard fought, but Pentel won by a small but clear margin. Caran d’Ache immediately fought back with an emphatic victory in the smear resistance test. Stung by the Swiss counter-attack, the Japanese pulled out all the stops to win the PVC and rubber erasability tests, and tie the PVC free test. So at the half way point the Japanese had a handy lead over the Swiss.

Photo - competitors, officials and judges inspecting the blackness and erasability results.

After the halftime interval things started slowly, the “Writing” test was a draw with both being judged good smooth writers. Then packaging was a win to Pentel. The judges felt that Caran d’Ache’s minimalist approach just went too far and they should at least put their name on their product. The Pentel packaging was good visually, but sometimes it was a little difficult to dispense leads. The “Life test” was closely fought, but a winning draw to Pentel, who managed to squeeze a few extra words out of the set length of lead.

With a total of 6 points at stake in the strength tests, it was not too late for Caran d’Ache to reel Pentel back in, but it would be a massive task. The drop test ended in a draw with both exhibiting great strength when dropped from heights, but from then on things went Pentels way. Although the Swiss racked up a few points, Pentel were clear winners in both short and long length strength tests, and the crowds went wild. The final score was 7.7 judging points to Caran d’Ache and 12.3 to Pentel.

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE. The pre-cup favourites had come through to win the inaugural Lead Cup. The Japanese were clearly elated and relieved at their win, but the Swiss took solace in the fact they had exceeded all expectations to reach the finals. See you again in 4 years time!

Some photographs of the awards ceremony. The victorious captain of Pentel collecting the Lead Cup and hoisting it in victory as a salute to the fans.

The Lead Cup - Semi-Finals

Semi-final day dawned cold, clear and crisp, the last day for two of our competitors. The fans streamed into the arena knowing they were in for some competition with back to back semi-final matches. Commentators, “experts”, betting agencies and fans alike were all in reasonable agreement about the match ups. In Semi-Final A, the lesser known Caran d’Ache was expected to put up a creditable fight, but eventually succumb to the corporate weight of Papermate. The all Japanese Semi-Final B was expected to be a fairly one sided affair with surprise semi-finalists Zebra going down to Pentel, who were the favourites to eventually win the finals.

Semi-Final A kicked off with a clear win to Caran d’Ache in the Blackness test and sent a murmur of “upset” through the crowds, but Papermate immediately countered with a win in the Erasability test. The Swiss then took the narrowest of leads in the Smear Resistance test, so all the elements were in place for a real race right down to the finish line. The Strength test started with Papermate scoring an emphatic opening goal which silenced the growing buzz of an upset win, but the match hardened Swiss marshalled their forces and came back with a withering counter attack. Although no one knew it at the time, the match was over, for Caran d’Ache then continued on and utterly destroyed Papermate in the strength test, taking out the semi-final 6 points to 8. Standing proud, the Swiss felt they were ready for whichever Japanese opponent they were to face in the final.

After a short intermission the crowds were again hushed and ready for the Japanese teams to slug it out toe to toe in Semi-Final B. The Blackness test went into extra time and still no winner emerged so eventually it was called a tie. The stalemate was then broken when Zebra won the Erasability test. The crowds could barely contain themselves with excitement. Several elderly spectators were overcome and required medical assistance. Pentel then evened the contest up with a win in the Smear Resistance test. As was the case in so many other matches, the Strength test would decide the winner. Although it was more even than the previous semi-final strength test, there was no doubt that Pentel was the stronger of the two, and so they booked their place in the final with a 6 to 8 win over Zebra.

Whilst no one was surprised to see Pentel in the final, at the start of the tournament Caran d’Ache were a rank outsider. Could the giant killing Swiss take out the ultimate prize?