Zebra Mini Mechanical Pencil, 0.5 mm, Silver Body (TS-3)

This pencil is the right diameter to use with Starrett No. 59 trammel points. The pocket clip can get in the way of advancing the lead while installed in the points but it still works well overall. It is very sturdy for such a small pencil.

Bought one to "try it out" to see if it would be good in my small paint palette. As this pencil is made of stainless steel and the inner workings are plastic and brass, moisture should not be a problem with it. It fits perfectly in a standard 12 half pan metal palette (6 over 6) with a travel brush inside as well. What I wanted it for was for something even smaller though and by just taking off the cap (leaving the eraser intact) it fits inside my Mini palette at only 3 19/32" long. As you can see in the photo my Mini Palette holds 15 half pans but in a 5 wide by 3 high configuration which does not leave a lot of room (I even shortened the Meeden Travel Brush by about 3/8" so it would fit in the Mini Palette (it is not necessary to shorten either if using a normal 12 pan palette with a 6 half pan wide over 6 configuration). It is great to have a mechanical pencil in my palette so I don't need to sharpen it like a wood pencil. You can leave off the cap IF needed but then you will need to push on the eraser to advance the lead (it is possible but a little harder). I just leave it off to reduce the length but keep the cap in the palette just under the pencil and replace it to make using it easier. I have since bought 4 more for other palettes and as a gift.And just to note: I did remove the label on the pencil. I just cut down the length of the label with the blade of a knife held flat against the pencil thereby cutting a strip of the label off. Scraped off a remaining corner with a thumb nail and pulled off the remaining label. I then used the large piece of label to pull off the remaining adhesive by sticking it to adhered residue and pulled and restuck, pulled and restuck, until all of the residue was removed. It took only about 5 minutes to remove all of the adhesive this way. BUT, I will NOT be removing the labels from any of the other pencils as there is useful information on the label: it contains the model number of the pencil and it also has the size of the lead the pencil uses (0.5 mm) AND it has the Zebra customer telephone number on it (though it is in Japan). Still, I regret removing the label as it is well attached and made of clear plastic so will not easily be spoiled by using the pencil.I hope this has been helpful to everyone. Enjoy using this excellent pencil, I know I already am.

Absolutely exceeded all my expectations. Writes with dark pencil and feeds perfectly.

My main writing instrument of choice is a pencil, more specifically a mechanical pencil. I've usually found myself very pleased with the Zebra line of writing tools be it pen or pencil and it's why I picked this mini mechanical pencil up to keep around in my pocket while working at the office or a small writing journal. The size is compact enough to keep on my person, but potentially easy to lose as well. This is a nice little pencil, but might be a too small for some people that do a lot of non-stop continuous writing. The main body of the pencil seems pretty sound but I do worry about the clip at the top as it's very thin and appears delicate to break off a bit too easy during day-to-day use. I usually keep this tucked away without using the clip as I'm concerned it'd potentially snap off when not in use and moving around throughout my day. It's also a bit disappointing that I can't use a slightly larger thin eraser refill in this particular pencil. While it does have an eraser, and you can purchase additional special sized refills for this pencil-- it feels a little too delicate when in use to erase a word or two from an entry. It works for being a simple pencil I can keep on my person easily, but there could be room for improvement.

This pencil is adorable! Works great so far! Fits perfectly in my journal that zips all the way around! My kids are wanting one now too!

Perfect for my shirt pocket sketch pad! It's 4" length fits inside a pocket notebook spiral binding for convenience. It has a very small eraser so you may want to bring along an extra if you do much erasing.

I love zebra products and when I saw this I had to have it. Super sturdy and durable, love the size. See photo for what it looks like in my hand. I’m 5’5” and have average sized hands. Very comfortable to hold the pencil

The size was perfect for my id holder (roughly 4 1/2'' by 2 1/2'') but broke after applying too much pressure or being in my pocket and getting bent in the wrong spot. More specifically this spot is where the tip of the pencil screws to the body, the connecting threaded piece between the two is made of black plastic with one large thread to screw into the body and a smaller thread to screw the tip onto. with that amount of threads the plastic piece broke right along where the two threads met. At first it was manageable, starting as a crack that caused the tip to flex every now and then, but then it completely broke off making it impossible to extend the pencil lead without using your other hand to hold the tip in place and even then the lead became more prone to breaking as the threaded piece also helped keep horizontal pressure off the lead. If you write with lots of pressure on your pencil or don't plan on keeping this pencil in a harder case or shirt pocket I'd suggest to look elsewhere (Pilot has a mini mechanical pencil that appears to be more robust).UPDATE: I bought a second one awhile ago that lasted much longer being in my id holder pocket, but still broke at the same spot! I had initially thought that the thread had worn out which would explained why clicking the top of the pencil would eject the the whole thing, but on closer inspection it was the black internal piece that broke, now below it’s thread that connected the internals of the mechanical pencil to the body. I was able to salvage it by taking my previously broken pencil and using its body to house the newly broken one’s internals, the pencil works fine but I would’ve had to buy another one if I didn’t know how to swap the internals. Definitely not heavy handwriting friendly in its current design.