(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
One of the most fun stationery categories to explore the super affordable drafting pencils. I first fell into the pen addiction due to these accessible tools, and that endearment still grabs me today. A drafting pencil is a fairly utilitarian and simple tool, but I like exploring what the different brands offer in the way of their aesthetic take of these classic tools.
The Pilot S3 Drafting Pencil is a $5 mechanical pencil that comes in a variety of colors and lead sizes. To make it easier to identify each pencil's lead size, each lead size is assigned a unique color. If you have several pencils scattered across your workspace, this color coding makes it easy to grab the right pencil instead of being forced to look at the small label on the side of the pencil to determine the lead size. To lay out all the colors and sizes, here they are:
The main thing I love about the aesthetic of this pencil is the clear nature of the barrel material. There's plenty of saturated color, but the see-through quality makes it look like a piece of delicious candy. Aside from the black/gray 0.5mm version, I'm really tempted to collect all the other sizes so I can just enjoy the barrel colors in person. They're just a lot of fun!
Aside from the color of the barrel, the next most important detail is the grip and how it feels when using the pencil. In this case, the grip texture is amazing. It's a soft texture — meaning I can't feel any sharp edges — but it's still really solid between my fingers. I've had zero issues with the grip slipping while using the pencil. It's been quite a while since I've been this happy with how a pen or pencil feels in my hand. Combine the great grip feeling with the light weight of this pencil, and you've got a winning combo. I can't recommend it enough as an entry level drafting pencil for these reasons alone.
Moving around to the back of the pencil, there's a small Pilot logo along with the branding for the S-Series pencil and the lead size. There's a chrome clip that does a great job at doing clip-y things, but it's also easy to remove if you don't want it. If you do choose to remove the clip, there's a small bump on the barrel (at the very top of the grip area, toward the middle of the pen) that prevents it from rolling off when you set it down. This is a great detail for Pilot to include on such an inexpensive pencil.
The cap comes off to reveal the universally useless eraser that comes with nearly every mechanical pencil ever made. If you remove the eraser, the lead reservoir is exposed and you'll also notice that the underside of the eraser also has a lead pipe tool for clearing out debris and lead jams.
The TLDR; of this pencil is simple. If the colors/aesthetic grab you, buy it! I'm really impressed by the build quality of this pencil and the way it feels in my hand. It feels much more expensive than $5, and I've found myself reaching for it more often than my Rotring in the last few days. While it can't replace a premium drafting pencil, it's exceptional for the price and definitely worth checking out if you need to fill out a collection of utilitarian drafting pencils of various lead sizes.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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