Pentel Ain Stein Mechanical Pencil Lead, 0.9mm B, 36 Leads (C279-B)

I found a lovely mechanical pencil that had lain used for over thirty years, but was uncertain of the lead size. I read on a pen-related website that general purpose pencils made in the 70’s and 80’s normally used a 0.9mm lead, so took a chance on these. They fit perfectly and the softness of the B grade makes them ideal for newsprint crosswords. Very pleased.

I am currently using these 2B leads in my pencil for woodworking. The leads are well presented in a clever twist lid dispenser and seem to be robust enough even for marking up wood, but soft enough to give a nice dark line.

Great, these are pencil leads in a pretty dispensing box and they draw nice lines. But can anyone tell me where this mad cost, claimed at £44.76 per box came from? Well worth the £2.. something I paid but I am genuinely curious where the original price came from.

I've fed this into my Pilot 0.9 S-10 and it works really well. Nice, dark line, smooth writing, no breakage, no splintering (and that mechanical pencil gets tossed around quite a bit in my backpack).

Good