No, these are expensive pencils that have high quality assurance to make sure the graphite is as hard as it's supposed to be. You use a jig to hold the pencil in a specific way each time. Don't think of it as a pencil, it's a kit of rods made from graduated compositions of graphite and clay. You could write with one but that's like making a PB&J with the NIST peanut butter, a waste of money.