Meet the pencil that will last you a lifetime

Andrew Sanderson is so confident in his pencil that he has promised if anyone's breaks in their lifetime, they can send it back to him and he will fix or replace it, no questions asked.

The designer, who is based in Austin, Texas, but has a distinct Yorkshire twang that makes him sound like Ryan Jarman, launched a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to get funding for his project.

There are two types of mechanical pencil that Sanderson is hoping to make - aluminium and brass - both made from one solid piece of metal to give it a sleek finish.

The aluminium piece is from the same material that is used for aeroplane fuselage, Sanderson explains, and the brass one is slightly heavier and extremely durable and should therefore not break or wear away.

It's better for everything. Better for the environment, better for local manufacturing, more longlasting. You spend more time with something it becomes part of you, so rather than just use something, it gets broken and you throw it away.

Having a single mechanical pencil that replaces the endless packs of plastic that end up sitting it landfills and floating in our oceans has to be a good thing.

• Andrew Sanderson, designer

Sanderson hopes to have the first batch of pencils ready for 15 December and plans to start shipping them in the US early next year.

You will have to replace the pencil's lead when it runs out though, unless someone else has invented pencil lead that will last a lifetime too.

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