Copper weighs 8.96 grams per cubic centimeter. Brass comes in at around 8.5. Those densities mean something when you’re holding a pencil for hours at a time, and Nicholas Hemingway has built an entire design philosophy around that fact. His clutch pencils are machined from solid metal bar stock rather than hollowed-out tubes or plastic barrels wrapped in metallic finishes. The result is a tool that sits differently in your hand, one that uses its own mass to reduce the pressure you need to apply to the page. Hemingway calls it a “gravity-feed” approach, where the weight of the copper body does the work, allowing for longer, more comfortable creative sessions without the hand fatigue that comes from gripping too hard or pressing too firmly.
The 10th anniversary collection includes three pencils, each one a celebration of a decade spent refining manual lathe craftsmanship. The 5.6mm Copper and Brass Hybrid is the heaviest at 58 grams, designed for shading and life drawing, with a built-in lead sharpener in the push button. The 2mm Precision series comes in brass or copper, each weighing around 30 grams, and is aimed at technical drafting and fine-line illustration. Hemingway ships the brass version with an HB lead and the copper version with a 2B lead (the 5.6mm version gets the darkest 5B lead), a pairing he uses in his own studio to avoid having to swap leads mid-workflow. Both are standard clutch formats, fully compatible with any lead brand you prefer.
Designer: Nicholas Hemingway
$115 (31% off). Hurry, only 15/50 left!
The clutch mechanism is simple, proven, and deliberately old-fashioned. Press the top button to release the jaws, advance or retract the lead, then release the button to lock it in place. There are no springs to fatigue, no ratcheting internals to gum up with graphite dust, and no plastic components to crack under pressure. The 5.6mm version includes a sharpening chamber machined directly into the push button, a detail that keeps the pencil self-sufficient without requiring a separate pocket sharpener. The mechanism works identically whether you’re using the factory-supplied HB or a softer 6B lead you’ve swapped in yourself. Hemingway designed these pencils to accept any standard 2mm or 5.6mm lead on the market, which means you can dial in exactly the hardness and texture you prefer without being locked into proprietary refills.
The 5.6mm Copper & Brass Clutch
The material choice drives the entire experience and stands as a direct antidote to disposable culture. C101 copper is a high-conductivity grade typically used in electrical applications, chosen here for its density, workability, and willingness to develop a rich patina over time. The 360 brass, a free-machining alloy, delivers a brighter, more clinical aesthetic and holds its finish longer before tarnishing. Hemingway leaves both materials raw, with no lacquer, no powder coating, and no protective sealant. The copper will darken and mottle as it reacts to the oils in your skin and the humidity of your studio. The brass will develop a warmer, more subdued tone, though it resists the transformation longer than copper does. This is slow design in practice, where the aging process becomes part of the design language, carrying the visible marks of its owner’s journey rather than something to prevent or hide.
The 2mm Brass
The 2mm Copper & Brass
Dimensionally, the 5.6mm Copper and Brass Hybrid measures 115mm in length with a 12mm diameter barrel, while the 2mm Precision series comes in at 140mm long with a 7mm diameter. The 2mm pencils are slimmer and longer, built for precision linework and extended drafting sessions where fine motor control matters. The 5.6mm version is shorter and thicker, designed to sit further back in your hand for broader, more gestural strokes. At 58 grams, the 5.6mm Hybrid has real heft, the kind of weight that anchors your hand to the page and makes you slow down, think about each mark, and commit to your lines. The balance has been engineered around the nib, shifting the center of gravity forward so the pencil glides across the paper rather than requiring constant pressure from your wrist.
Hemingway machines every pencil in-house at his London workshop on a manual lathe, hand-finishing each piece and inspecting it personally before it ships. The production model is bespoke and made-to-order, which eliminates the supply chain drama that plagues most crowdfunded EDC launches. If 100 people order a pencil, Hemingway machines 100 pencils. There are no minimum order quantities with overseas factories, no shipping containers stuck in customs, and no quality control surprises three months into fulfillment. Every tool is built to the same standard Hemingway uses for his own work, and the track record backs that up. This is his 17th Kickstarter campaign, and all 16 previous projects delivered on time. These are engineered to be the last drawing tools a creative will ever need to buy, true heirlooms designed for a lifetime of use and capable of being passed down.
Whether you opt for the copper or brass variant, or even the 5.6mm or 2mm model, Hemingway’s set the pricing at £59 ($79 USD), discounted off its £85 MSRP. Each pencil comes with its own lead, along with a hand-written note in a wonderful gift box. International shipping starts July 2026, and Hemingway packages everything in recycled cardboard with zero single-use plastics. All waste metal from the workshop gets collected and sent back to be melted down and reused, keeping the production cycle as tight and sustainable as the pencils themselves.
$115 (31% off). Hurry, only 15/50 left!
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