When I was in college I really wanted to get into drawing/sketching as a hobby. I was going to go for Computer Science at the time, but my heart called for a combination of tech and art. When I eventually switched over to a Graphic Design degree, I thought about buying a drafting pencil for this change. I originally thought that I wouldn't get any fancy drafting pencils like the Rotring series; they were pretty expensive and getting the R300 or R500 felt like I wasn't going to get the full experience. I did try and look around for recommendations on YouTube to see if any were worth it, but I wasn't rolling in any cash at the time and many of the recommendations were simply out of my budget.

It wasn't until I walked into my college's on-campus store that I made a great discovery. There were budget drafting pencils made by Pentel, the "Graphgear 300s" (GG300). The white one came in a kit with extra lead and an eraser. The red one had both plus a double-sided highlighter. Go Team Red by the way, red's my favorite color. They were incredibly cheap for what they offered. I felt great having purchased them both; they were reliable, they were clean, and they were great for both art-related assignments and general uses.

At one point during my semester I lost them. It was a great pain because they felt amazing and going back to a normal No. 2 pencil or a standard Bic mechanical pencil was a huge downgrade. It wasn't until a little while after I got the white one, as that was the only one they had. I know colors aren't important, but you HAVE to give me a red variant of something for me to be in love with it. By the end of my time at the college I decided to check back and there was the red kit, as if it had been waiting for me its entire life.

A few months after college. I was emptying out my bag to reuse it, and wouldn't you know it, the original pencils were there. I was a bit baffled as to how I missed them, but in a way I felt very happy. I now have TWO red ones. It was after this that I wanted even more, especially in red. I decided to look for them on Amazon and it wasn't until then that I realized they didn't sell them anymore. Individually, kits, they just had different listings. Either you just had to get a plain blank one or you had to buy them in sets of 12. Though 12 extra red ones sound cool, it wasn't what I was looking for and strangely enough, pentel had a product that's IDENTICAL to the GG300 and that's the "PG-Metal 350" (PM 350). There isn't a difference between them, they just have a different logo.

Two sets of two Graphgear 300 drafting pencils. The top set being the originally purchased set and the bottom being the replacements.

Top two pencils were the initial set I got. The bottom two were the ones I got as a replacement.

Interestingly, only specific colors have specific lead sizes for the GG300s, and the PM350s have lead sizes for colors that didn't have those sizes initially. So, it's a bit odd that Pentel has two of the same product, under different names, with unique differences like this. Overall, I'd say give these a shot if you're in the market for a budget graphing pencil, an art pencil, or even a strong pencil for writing. Get them on Amazon. More than likely, you're just going to get the black one because that's the only one, that's 0.5mm, that's an individual item. If you want to get it in another color, like red, you're probably going to have to get them in a pack of 12. Which is 35 US bucks average.

There's plenty of other stationery I got here, but that's a story for another blog post. Until then, I sees you all next time.

- Angie Lazie