I bought this box of leads on eBay and then spent many weeks locating and then considering lead holders. The size of the leads is 1.1 mm, which is a, now, no longer well supported lead. If you go to an office supply store, you’ll find the more common .5, .7, and .9 mm leads. 1.1 mm leads dropped from the mainstream at some point.
The reason I bought the leads was that I wanted to try out the IBM Electrographic lead, but could never find a decent, well-priced, well-cared for pencil collection on eBay. The Electrographic is one of the fondly remembered and admired pencil from yesterday.
A few more words on lead holders. A couple of companies sell 1.1 mm lead holders, like Rite in the Rain , but these are stubby pencils meant to be carried in a pocket. The leads these guys come with are 3 inches long. The Electrographic leads are 4 inches. I didn’t want to risk having to snap off an inch to make the leads I got fit an $11 pencil. I eventually found a modern box of 12 Skilcraft mechanical pencils for 24 dollars, online. I filled up all 12 mechanical pencils with the Electrographic leads and stashed away the original leads (doubt I’ll ever use them).
The leads are very soft and very dark and very smooth. In terms of darkness, it’s as dark as a 7B Mars Lumograph, a German art pencil, but it’s much, much smoother than that. The Lumograph is unbearably squeaky at 7B. Unfortunately, I can’t readily see my set of Hi-uni pencils to compare the smoothness of a dark one of those with the Electrographic. It’s also a very smudgy pencil (smudgier than the Lumograph, which is formulated not to smudge as much). Can it be used for art? Sure and I should try that on a finished piece. I’ve done some quick drawings but that’s about it in terms of art. I’ve primarily used these for writing notes on notecards. I’ve developed a practice of taking notes for work and these leads stand out very well. Would I use them for writing long form, like for my story writing on notebooks? No. Too smudgy.
Advice, if you need a super dark and smooth pencil line, get these leads on eBay when they turn up. In general, you’ll get a better deal on eBay for old leads, like the 2mm leads that artists use, than what you’ll find anywhere else. Grab what other people overlook!
Perfect Pencil 