The Newton pencil takes a standard 0.5mm lead (at least that's the size I bought) but it makes much more satisfying to write because of the Newton's grippyness and sheer density- it's a long, thin brass flechette, with precisely machined hexagonal sides of what I've been told is brass.

The Newton's weightiness utterly transforms writing with lead: you feel it being smashed satisfyingly under you instead of skidding over the paper. It still doesn't compare to writing in ink, but it's much better than any other pencil I've used and turns a Moleskine into a user friendly write-many-times device.

I suspect other people may react even more positively than I to the Newton, as generally I don't like heavy pens.

Another *very* nice feature is that the pencil retracts like a ballpoint - a deep press of the button on top makes the lead and lead sleeve vanish, leaving an weighty but blunt object.

I think the Newton is being discontinued, so at the moment you can get some real bargins on ebay - the seller I used, lewertowski aka The Pen Seller From France, was excellent - you might have to go to UK ebay to find him rather than US. He's also selling Newton FPs etc, and a wide range of other pens (it seems bizarre to see a Rotring Core sitting next to a yummy Parker Centennial Edition Duofold, even on ebay, but there you go.)


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OUCH! THis should obviously have been in the Reviews section: my mistake. (This was my second post.) If there is a moderator here who moves such things, please do so -sorry!

I'll look for it. I use mech. pencils often and I like allot of Rotring's stuff.

thanks -- I've been shopping for pencils lately, so your comments are nice to find!
Petra