Staedtler 925-35 2.0 mm Lead Holder Review

(This is a guest post by Nick Folz. You can find more of Nick and his work on his blog, Smallberry Drive, Twitter, and Instagram.)

Staedtler finally pitched me over the edge of Mechanical Pencilville, into Lead Holder Valley. Lead holders, for the uninitiated, are mechanical pencils whose lead is 2.0 mm or larger. They have a couple of lead advancement systems, the most common is a “clutch” system that holds onto the lead like a claw until you hit the knock and then it releases, dropping the lead until you let off the knock and it grabs it again. This is fine if you have a free hand to stop the lead, otherwise it’s hitting the floor. The Staedtler 925 35-20 thankfully has a typical lead advancement, like what you would expect from a regular mechanical pencil; each click extends the lead bit by bit. Its navy blue all metal body and precise construction are attention grabbers from the get go. This pencil is as no nonsense as it is aesthetically pleasing. There are some nitpicks and strange decisions, but Staedtler's 925-35 2.0 mm Lead Holder is one stunner of a tool.

The all metal build is not overly heavy, thanks to aluminum. The knurled grip is a series of textured ring areas. The knurling is not extreme, but just enough to be grippy. The lead guide is fixed, but since it is such a wide diameter it is pocket safe. Toward the body of the pen is the lead grade indicator, so you can mark what type of lead is currently in the pencil (2B for life). The slick blue body features their name and logo. I think just the helmet logo would have looked better, but I am nitpicking.

The clip is okay, not great. It has a tendency to slide a bit, by a bit I mean a few centimeters a week with pocket carrying the whole time. I usually prefer a built in clip so that might be a personal bias. You can remove it if you want. The cap in has “2.0” printed on it, and it has a satisfying resistance to it when advancing the lead.

I am not sure why they opted out of putting a sharpener on the inside of the cap. It is a feature that most mid-level lead holders have, so if you want to put a point on the lead you can do it on the fly without having to grab another tool. I might have understood if they swapped it for an eraser - I would still rather have a sharpener - but even that is absent. The lack of an eraser is not as egregious as the missing sharpener, since it would be eaten alive by this amount of lead. I wound up buying a little plastic sharpener and a kneaded rubber eraser that I keep in an Altoids mini tin. These tins are quickly becoming a favorite storage device of mine.

This goes for all lead holders, but it's worth mentioning, these are garbage for taking notes or writing unless you print very large. I like a thick mechanical pencil lead, .7mm and .9mm usually, but this is too much. I had to adjust the size of my lettering to be able to write anything legible at all. You can get a fine point with a sharpener, but it wears down quick, especially my soft 2B lead. If you are looking primarily for a writing device you should probably look elsewhere, otherwise you'll be sharpening this thing non-stop.

All and all the results are sort of mixed bag. Once I got used to the larger lead size I really enjoyed the experience. I kind of liken it to brushes versus ballpoints, you can get a ton more expression out of a lead holder versus a typical mechanical pencil. The drawbacks weren't enough to keep this thing out of my pocket day in and day out, but if I did more writing than drawing you can bet it would have not lasted long. One of the things that really helps this pencil is the aesthetic and its price. At $20 it is top tier quality at a mid level cost. The blue is very eye catching and the weight and feel is solid. If you are in the market for a quality lead holder that looks as good as it works, this is going to be a serious contender.

The Staedtler 925-35 2.0 mm Lead Holder is available from JetPens and also comes in standard mechanical pencil sizes (which have erasers in the cap).

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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A Different Kind Of Rabbit Hole

(Daniel Lemay is an analog tool enthusiast and enjoys pondering over many things. You can find him on Twitter at @dslemay and his blog at Circumspect Reverie.)

The smooth tip gliding across the page codifying ideas as they synchronize between mind and cellulose. The smell of cedar wafting up to my nose as the graphite provides just the right feedback; now wait a second, what is with all this pencil talk? This is The Pen Addict after all.

How it all Started

For the longest time I resisted pencils for a variety of reasons. They seemed much more impractical than pens, requiring sharpening, and then there was the whole issue of being able to erase them. I abandoned them as quickly as I could in school, reserving them only for those dreaded Scantron tests. I even did my math work in pen, rebel that I was. Mechanical pencils never stuck either; I didn't want to continuously advance lead, have it break, and repeat. These all seemed like unnecessary points of frustration and friction.

I previously shared how I got into quality writing instruments here. The curiosity about quality pencils began during my 2.5 month binge through the entire Pen Addict podcast back catalog and the seemingly out of place episode I'm Attached to Pencils with Andy Welfle from The Erasable Podcast. It's a good thing the show notes clarified "No we haven't gone off our rocker, we just want to learn," because they had me worried for a minute. Of course it proved to be the spark for this addict's mind to wonder what he was missing. Shortly thereafter I went to a local bookstore and glossed over the selection of Blackwing pencils at once mesmerized and also intimidated by the unknown. Eventually I determined the $25 cost of entry too steep for what appeared to be a fleeting curiosity at the time. After all, I was in the midst of my highest ink acquisition period. I loved color and why would I want to trade that for being constricted to a monochromatic world?

About six months passed before pencils re-entered the forefront of my mind. July 2015 came and brought with it the "Portland pen show." It's not really much of a show and sports maybe fifteen vendors, and almost exclusively vintage. I did find a beautiful blue clouds Waterman with stub nib that I couldn't leave without. To my surprise at purchase it came with the matching mechanical pencil. "Ok, I suppose I will give it a try since I am getting it any way," I thought to myself. I used it a couple times but found the experience unsatisfying and unlike the exterior, lackluster. Once again, pencils failed to stick for me.

Another five months went by before pencils again attempted to gain some traction. This past December I inquired with the Slack group and Caroline Weaver at CW Pencil Enterprise for recommendations on introductory pencils and sharpeners. Around that time I also began writing out the drafts of my initial blog posts in their entirety longhand. Disappointed by the low quality paper and feathering in the notebook I had just bought for the purpose, I decided that there was no better time to try them out. I quickly determined that this was my ideal tool for long form writing.

The Draw of Pencils

There are so many draws to using quality pencils, even for a person primarily using fountain pens. Similar to pens, there is a big divide between crappy and good ones. The first major draw is the intoxicating smell of the wood. It adds another dimension to the writing experience and is much more pleasant than the chemical smell of some inks. I'll admit that sometimes I will smell the pencil while formulating my next thoughts. Secondly, the build quality and aesthetic variance is plentiful. Pencils range from natural finish to lacquered beauties, to different styles of ferrule (what attaches the eraser to the pencil) or no ferrule at all. There is so much room for artistry, even though it isn't maki-e or urushi lacquered; then again a dozen of really nice pencils might set me back $25-30 not $1,500. I also love the sound of the slight audio feedback reinforcing each fluid line. Maybe it's influenced by my love of dip nibs. Don't get me wrong, I love my smooth fountain pen nibs too. However, that is just a small part of the available writing experiences and isn't always the unicorn it is made out to be. Lastly, I love the permanence of pencils and wish I had not succumbed to misinformation for so long. Like many people, I believed that pencils erasability equated to not being a lasting medium, However, unless it is erased pencil is a lasting medium. It is not as susceptible to humidity or UV light and won't run across the page at the slightest sign of moisture as some fountain pen inks do.

So that's how I finally became a pencil nerd on top of my love for fountain pens. They have expanded in use beyond blog writing. I find myself reaching for them consistently for my primary tool of the day. I love the process of sharpening them into a fresh point while collecting my thoughts. I love experimenting with different graphite grades and point lengths. I still use fountain pens primarily, but rapidly cannot imagine my writing life without pencils.

Zebra DelGuard 0.3 mm Mechanical Pencil Review

There is no getting around the fact that 0.3 mm lead is fragile. It’s my preferred lead width when available, and I accept that it is going to break more often than wider diameter lead. The Zebra DelGuard proposes to fix that issue with a special internal mechanism to prevent breakage, and it works like a champ.

I previously reviewed the 0.5 mm Zebra DelGuard and found the same thing - the mechanism worked as advertised. But I don’t have a breakage problem with 0.5 mm lead to begin with. So yes, the mechanism worked fine in the 0.5 mm, but it wasn’t the best test. 0.3 mm lead, on the other hand, is very fragile and needs the added benefit of what the DelGuard offers.

I haven’t written novel-length notes with the 0.3 mm DelGuard yet, but in the time I have used it, I haven’t broken the lead one time. With my previous favorite 0.3 mm mechanical pencil - the Alvin Draft-Matic - breaking the lead every now and then was the price of admission, and I accepted it. I don’t have to accept that as fact anymore with the DelGuard.

The Pentel Orenz 0.2 mm Mechanical Pencil solved this problem a different way by having an extended pipe where the lead barely poked out, but the look and feel of writing with metal as opposed to graphite didn’t work for me. The DelGuard does it in a more traditional style and functional manner.

As far as negatives go I only have minor design quibbles. Why have a white clip with gold writing when the rest of the pencil has a black and silver style? It’s not egregious and doesn’t keep me from using the pencil, but that’s one of those things I find odd. I’m guessing the clip color is to designate between the 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm sizes. Otherwise, it is a comfortable pencil to write with, and the eraser is actually works. If you like the plastic barrel Uni-ball Kuru Toga then you will like the DelGuard as well.

Innovation in basic writing instruments is a challenge for most companies, so it’s nice to see brands try things like this from time to time. Especially when it solves a problem and works this well.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)