I used to get so frustrated when my pencils kept becoming blunt and hard to use after only a few minutes of intensive scribbling and I had to sharpen them repeatedly- such a tedious waste of time. A simple solution was using a mechanical pencil so that I never had to go near a sharpener ever again. However, I found that most mechanical pencils I tried were hard and uncomfortable to use, with the leads being rather hard to refill- rather more trouble than they were worth.

So when I came across these Papermate Non Stop Pencils a couple of years ago, I was overjoyed. Pencils you could actually twist instead of having to push and pump down the lead, with non stop lead too? These seemed like easily the best option I could possibly choose. I have tried some of the pens made by Papermate, and I have been fairly pleased with them so I was not too concerned about whether or not the quality would be adequate.

Obviously, these are not the cheapest option- buying normal stick pencils and a sturdy sharpener could save you quite a bit of money. Even in mechanical pencil terms, these are quite expensive, since some stores will sell you something like a pack of ten, leads included for £1. You can buy either the clear plastic coloured ones or the yellow barrel ones. Though I have used both, I find myself most often using the clear plastic coloured ones, as they just look more aesthetically pleasing to me. I buy most of my stationery from Amazon since it is generally cheaper for me. At the moment, a twelve pack of the yellow barrel variety costs £5.06 (original price: £5.92), making it less than 50p a pencil. That is not too bad at all, especially since each pencil can last for ages and ages.

How do these pencils work? Well, it is quite simple and easy to figure out, really. You twist the body around the nib structure one way to push it up and the other way to push it down. It is very simple to use and much easier to use than those mechanical pencils you have to pump up. I tend to twist the lead back down after use to protect it from damage. The pencils look quite nice- if you get the clear ones instead of the yellow barrel type, you can see inside with the mechanism working. That way, you can see it being pushed up and also how much lead you have left.

It also comes with a small rubber on the end which is really handy since when you are writing or drawing with the pencil you do not have to bother with bringing a big rubber. The rubber itself is rather good quality, and rubs out the pencil quite well though if used too often it can wear away and leave you with nothing but a little unusable rubber stub.

The lead is good quality, much better than most the mechanical pencil leads that I have used before. It does not snap too easily unless put under too much unnatural pressure, but generally I have found it lasts for a long time. It has the right kind of softness so that you can write comfortably without labouring at all too much.

It is near impossible to shade properly with these pencils, but that is alright, since these are not meant to be sketching pencils. The tip remains rather sharp throughout its rather long life (a few months a pencil, I should think, unless you write solely with this pencil) so you will never need to write with a blunt pencil again!

Another positive to this product is that the pencil always stays the same length. Since it is the lead and the lead only that is being twisted up, the body of the Papermate Non Stop Pencil does not get sharpened away as it would be if it was a regular pencil. This means that even when you reach near the end of the lead, you still have a full size pencil instead of a tiny stub. It kind of feels like you are writing with a pen, only it has lead inside it, instead of ink.

Altogether, I think that these Papermate pencils are worth every single penny paid for them since they have been so useful to me. They have also saved me a lot of time, when I would normally be sharpening my pencil! These have a good design that has been beneficial to me, so I would highly recommend them. I would give these pencils 5 out of 5 dooyoo stars.