Some will say this this doesn’t qualify as a gadget because it doesn’t have electronics or use a battery, but it’s a mechanical pencil that uses liquid lead! That has to impart some sort of geeky cachet! The Liquid Graphite Technology in this mechanical pencil from Sharpie lays down the “lead” like ink. Sharpie says it’s erasable for about 24 hours, then it becomes permanent. The Sharpie Liquid Mechanical Pencil delivers the equivalent of a 0.5mm No. 2 lead. You can probably find these in local stores, and Amazon.com has them for $3.59 for one pencil and three replacement erasers.
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Janet and Julie,
If any product vendor wonders ever about the wisdom of supplying you samples of their products, just point them to this comment.
When I first saw the headline and story, I thought this was a terribly silly idea. But having read the review, I adore the product.
The concept of having something that is erasable for a day and then becomes permanent, is BRILLIANT!!!
Forget the liquid lead thing. That’s not a compelling story.
This is a whole new concept. Not a pencil. Not a pen. It’s a pencipen. Starts with the erasing features of a pencil and then switches to the permanence of a pen.
I’m off to Amazon to buy some!
It’s funny, but that’s the exact same thing that i thought. It’s perfect for legal and medical notes (e.g. annotating documents), but also for students, it is great for tests. They can fix things while writing the test, but by the time the teacher/professor gets to grade it and return it, it’s “locked in”.
I wish our local stores had some of these. I’m dying to get my hands on some of these things, but I had no luck finding them today. I guess I’ll have to order some from Amazon.
I’ve tested these already. Even though you can erase what you wrote, it still does make an indentation on the paper since it has a metal tip. The results of an erase is just like when you write with a pencil. You can still see what you have written after an erase. Another product that does the same thing and better in my opinion would be the Pilot Frixion Ball point pen. The ink from that flows like a ball point pen and it erases with a plastic nub on the other end of the pen. What the plastic nub does is create friction which causes the ink on the paper to magically disappear. And it’s a complete erase too! No marks left at all! What I think is that they use some sort of heat induced ink which disappears when friction is applied. Another plus would be that there isn’t any eraser shavings left behind at all!
Parker was making liquid lead pencils in the 1950s
I’ve been using “liquid lead pencils” since I purchased one for my son 5 years ago to avoid his apparent inability to press pencil to paper without snapping the lead and his expert skill at turning an 11″ pencil in to a 2.5″ pencil faster than Rainman can count toothpicks on the ground.
I use them at work now for myself. Very handy. I like the feel better than a pen. They don’t automagically become un-erasable after 24 hours like this product — so this is new. I may need to look at these.