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Comment by karmakaze | Hacker News Reader

Here's a translation that I found on a page that says 'currently unavailable'[0]

A mysterious pencil whose core is made of a special alloy containing graphite. Since the wear of the core is extremely small, you can continue writing for a long time without the trouble of scraping. It does not blur and can be used for drafts such as watercolors, and can be erased with an eraser. Even if you touch the core with your finger or put it in the chest pocket of the shirt, it will not turn black. You can draw lines for about 30 pencils, so even the retail price of 900 yen is a great deal!

900 Yen converts to about 9.50 USD

[0] https://www.superdelivery.com/en/r/pd_p/10155209/

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This kind of pencil is getting more common here in China, and in some cases selling for less than 1usd. Aimed at students as they are handy for learning characters. My son used to rrplace pencils on a daily basis: at least 2 or 3. We have since move to graphite everlasts from M&G. They are like pencil, can be erased, just longer... But will still need replacement.

I got several myself and love them for reliability. No sharpening, no tip breaking.

Does that just mean it writes a line so light and fine that it's basically invisible?

I'm sure there are uses for that, but it sounds like most people would find it (ahem) pointless.

This is pure speculation, but I would imagine a regular pencil lays down way more graphite than is actually needed for a clear line.

That depends. I give you the graphite grading scale: https://pencils.com/pages/hb-graphite-grading-scale

Remember how standardized tests require you to use a “#2” pencil? That’s an HB pencil (approximately) in the standardized scale. Because it lays down a specific amount of graphite. If you use a harder pencil, it won’t, and you’d fail the test.

Nowadays we do drafting on the computer, but back in the pencil-and-paper days, I remember getting trained on using, for instance, a very hard (7-9H) lead to predraw my figures and put in guide and horizon rays, and then go in later with, say, a 2B to darken up only the real lines. Then finish with drafting powder (eraser shavings, basically) to wipe out the light lines.

Needless to say, even with graphite, harder ones didn’t lay down what you’d call an acceptable line.

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