The first time I tried a Papermate Liquid Pencil was because I got it free through one of their promotions. The product had been newly launched, and I guess they were giving some away for people to try.

This is a pencil that is designed like a ballpoint pen. But instead of ink, it has graphite suspended in liquid. When you write, the liquid absorbs into the paper, leaving the graphite (writing) on the surface. I was eager to try it and see what liquid graphite would be like to write with.


First Impressions… and High Expectations

My first thoughts were that this is a really neat idea- a liquid pencil that writes like a pencil and erases like one. But without the hassle of the pencil point wearing down or breaking, and without the hassle of mechanical pencil refills.

This was the first of its kind that I had heard of, so I was excited to try this pencil. The liquid pencil looks like a pen, for the most part, except for the eraser on the cap, which gives it away. The barrel of the pencil is light gray with a sort of black marble design on it. There is a rubbery rest for your fingers, and the back unscrews for refills.


My Thoughts

I really wanted to love this pencil. I wanted something reliable, classy, and convenient. I could really do without pencil sharpeners and broken pencils. But the Papermate Liquid Pencil didn’t do as well as I expected.

Unfortunately, my experience has been that the writing produced with this pencil is not smooth. The ink tends to skip and have variations in light and dark tones. In general, I don’t find that it produces the cleanest lines, and will fade in and out.

I took this pencil with me on a camping trip. It was my only pencil, and I was using it for a crossword puzzle book, which had pages like a coloring book (sort of like really soft newspaper). I was absolutely frustrated at how difficult it was for me to write. At times, the pencil would barely write, and then other times it was ok.

Although the pencil does better on regular paper, it didn’t do very well at critical times when I needed to write on newspaper-type paper. There was more than one occasion where I was relying on this pencil for high-quality performance, and it simply fell through.

Another thing that sometimes bothers me is the cap. It fits on to both sides of the pencil, but when you’re capping the pencil, sometimes it stumbles across some plastic edges- it just doesn’t feel smooth.


The Good Points

I was surprised that this is considered a #2 HB pencil, so if you’re ok to use this on a standardized test. (I wish I had known this when I was taking my Notary Public exam, because my household doesn’t have regular non-mechanical pencils!)

As I said earlier, there’s no maintenance involved with the Papermate Liquid Pencil that you would normally have with your average wood pencil. And the pencil is capped, so even though you’re not worrying about broken pencil tips, it keeps the tip clean and prevents it from marking things. If you’re prone to pencil chewing, at least this one will mean sans-splinters!


Erasing

As I watched the little Liquid Pencil demo on Papermate’s website, I noticed that they said ”Erases cleanly when ink is dry”. I think that’s the key in erasing, and why I haven’t had completely clean erasures. As I read on, I find, ”To improve eras ability, wait 10-15 seconds before erasing”. I think most people automatically go to erase something right away, so (at least for me) this will take some time to remember.

In general, I really don’t think this erases as good as a regular pencil.


Refills

You can refill both the ink and the eraser:
Ink refill: 90062
Eraser refill: 64885

On Papermate’s website, they say that this pencil is more environmentally friendly because of the refills. I don’t know what to think, because plastic doesn’t degrade and people will be throwing these out. Plus, there’s the plastic from the discarded refills.. But I guess overall it can be considered a more “sustainable” pencil.


Overall

I really love this concept, and I definitely like this pencil better than your generic wooden pencil. I never have pencil sharpeners or the patience to keep my pencils sharpened. I don’t want to ruin my shoulder bag that I bring to work, with pencils scraping around on the inside.

However, I’m inclined to like mechanical pencils better. Both require refills, so that’s not a comparative issue. Both have erasers and plastic (or metal) barrels. The only difference really seems to be that the lead in an automatic pencil doesn’t automatically release.





Websites

Papermate: http://www.papermate.com

A whole demo of this pen: http://www.papermate.com/1000/OF2063/index.jhtml

My other pen reviews:
PhD Mechanical Pencil: http://www.epinions.com/content_93861023364
PhD Retractable Ballpoint Pen: http://www.epinions.com/content_93924920964:
Pentel R.S.V.P. Ballpoint Pen: http://www.epinions.com/content_107454697092




Recommended: No