It pays to visit officemates’ cubicles, especially when they show you their latest pencil find and tell you where they got it. I rushed to Fully Booked over lunch break and bought one for me.
M&G is a giant manufacturer of ballpens and other stationery items. This mechanical pencil, the AMP33701, is the first one I’ve seen with flat lead. The official product page says the lead is 1.8mm in width. Why not 2 mm? I have no idea. Strange are the ways of manufacturers.
The “cap†at the bottom comes off to reveal an eraser. I didn’t see any eraser refills. The only lead hardness available is 2B.
Flat pencils are nothing new in the world of pencils. You can even get a sharpener that gives any pencil a chisel point.
If you’re on your 10th meeting in the same number of hours and have not had much coffee or chocolate, then an italic mechanical pencil can save the day. Really.