Rather, it’s a chimera. The Vat19 Inkless Metal Pen features a tip made out of lead. Wait, if it writes in lead, it should be a pencil, right? Wrong. Pencils have never been made of lead, but thanks to a mix-up back in Shakespearean times when the Brits misidentified a huge deposit of graphite as lead and made pencils out of it, people have been misidentifying the pencil’s contents ever since.

Remember that amazing Sharpie Liquid Pencil that we wrote about last week, which is as erasable as a trusty Number 2 for the first three days and becomes permanent thereafter? We’ve got another cool, 21st-century pencil technology to tell you about. Grab the seat of your pants… because it’s arguably not a pencil at all!

In actuality, writing with lead is pretty unique, as is the Inkless Metal Pen, which sheds minute particles of lead as you write. How minute? The Inkless Metal Pen works so well that it will pretty much never need sharpening or a refill, and it’s “ink” is also solid, so you never need to worry about it exploding like a pulverized squid in your pants pocket. It doesn’t smudge either.

Terribly neat. The Inkless Metal Pen costs $28, and we think that’s an excellent deal. Pen, pencil, whatever you want to call it: this is one writing instrument that will last you a lifetime.