Tombow 51508 MONO Drawing Pencil, B, Graphite 12-Pack

Several reviewers have complained that these pencils are not made in Japan any longer but instead in Vietnam. Personally I've never tried the Japanese version but was looking for an alternative to Staedtler 2B Lumigraphs which are my favourites to sketch with as a professional illustrator, but which are also among the priciest pencils you can buy. As such, regardless of their Vietnamese birth place, I find these Tombow Mono pencils very good with no evident flaw in their build or lead quality. The latter is as soft as and possibly even slightly darker than the Lumigraph's, gliding on paper easily without any of the scratchy feel or brittleness of low quality graphite leads. The wood casing seems equally good and sharpening the pencils multiple times with a Kum automatic sharpener produced a nice long fine point each time with no breakage or cracking. The varnish covering the pencil is not slippery and drawing for hours with the Tombow was comfortable and easy. As a bonus, these pencils look sublime: the glossy black casing with white and gold accents feels classy and upscale, and look like they belong among a professional artist's tools.One downside is that they are not actually that significantly cheaper than Lumographs depending on where you buy them from but nevertheless they are perfect alternatives to the latter in quality and, subjectively, they even look better.

These are nearly as good as the Mono 100s.An absolutely excellent pencil, so much so that it's hard to justify paying so much more for the premium 100s, which are just marginally smoother. If this was an American company, they would make the manufacture of these worse to push people toward the top brand, but it isn't, and they don't, so enjoy these!Perfectly centred, break-resistant, dark lines, smooth against the paper, with just enough feedback to keep you in control of your mark-making.

Darker lead and smoother writing than Staedtler or Palomino pencils. Also far less expensive than Palominos. There is no fixed standard for pencil lead hardness or softness, so it can be a hit or miss proposition finding a dark soft lead. Generally, pencils produced in Japan write smoother and darker than those produced in UK, US, or Germany.

I bought a box of the B pencils for marking my wood work. I haven't had a lead break on me and they're a snap to sharpen relative to a carpenter pencil.

I have been looking for a pencil that Won't break and stays sharp. The standard HB pencils now a days are garbage. These are perfect. I haven't broken a tip yet!