[Pen Review] Uni-Ball COLORS Pencil Lead – from JetPens.Com
I really am trying to be good about getting pen/pencil reviews more regular. Part of that is thanks to Brad at JetPens.com and the care package he sent me a couple of weeks ago in the middle of my GoDaddy battle from hades.
One of the interesting bits Brad sent me was colored pencil lead for a mechanical pencil. As I’ve mentioned before, I like FINE points to my writing instruments. This includes pencil lead. In mechanical pencils, I don’t like getting much denser than 0.5 mm – though I’ll USE a 0.7 mm, but I can’t stand anything thicker than that. I also like softer leads – give me 2B pencil lead in a 0.3 mm pencil and I’m the happiest camper. But I digress…
I mentioned the colored pencil lead to Brad because UNI-BALL does 0.5 mm colored pencil lead that I’ve been wanting to try. Why? In years past I’ve done editing in colored pencil – especially in collaborative efforts. Different colors for different versions and/or people’s notes. Currently I’m working on a four-author collaboration, my notes are in Green. The UNI-BALL COLORS has green pencil lead – in 0.5 mm. 
What I was most interested in was depth of color and “sturdiness” of the lead. That’s the problem I have with most mechanical colored pencil leads (especially at 0.5 mm) is that the line is very, very light and the lead breaks very easily – especially with reds.
So far, I’m pretty impressed with the UNI-BALL COLORS. The green I’m using is (obviously) lighter than your basic lead and ink – there’s not going to be getting around that. EVER. It’s the nature of colored pencils. But in moderate desk light, it’s legible. You don’t have to strain to read it. The lead erases as cleanly as a colored pencil lead can be – there is some residuals left behind on the page, but that will be true of any color but cleaner than I expected.
What is impressing me most though is that the lead wears down before it breaks. I’m hard on lead. I write with a firm hand. I press down hard. That’s what I’ve NOT liked about most red and blue colored pencil leads is that the lead snaps quickly. Not the case here so far. I’ll go through the lead faster from wear than breakage, which makes me very happy. It is weird to say the lead is both SOFT and HARD, but it is. The lines are soft and a little smudgy, but again — nature of colored pencils — but tough. I love that. A lot. But I expect that kind of “quality” from UNI-BALL.
I’m looking forward to playing with the other colors – I was sent a “multi-pack” of colors to see if they all hold up as well as the green, but that would also require finding my red and blue (specifically) pencil bodies that I currently have my colored lead in … you know, for editing purposes. Yeah. That’s it. Editing.
So if you need to color code anything in pencil, yeah, I recommend the UNI-BALL COLORS. Over time I’ll stock up on the reds, blues, and greens for what I use those for in editing and just use them. 4 out of 5 Bronze Pencils