

1. Bagels, that was informative and delightful.

2. Do you really think that the pencil you use matters less than the lead? Really?

3. I tend to snap the leads in my pencils. How do I prevent that?

4. 'Hey, I should ignore the topic and post a picture of my favorite rollerball, like an idiot! Or just say "bic ballpoint atw."'

5. If I've never cared about pencils before, what really makes one mechanical pencil better than another? What am I really looking at here?



6.) Can we expect more of these write-ups?

mechanical pencils

Welcome to part 3 of my growing series on antiquated ways to write junk!Once more,It's actually much easier to answer this question for mechanical pencils, vs. wooden pencils or fountain pens.The mechanical pencil has overtaken just abouttype of writing utensil as the last word in utilitarian writing. Even the ubiquitous cheapy bic ballpoint pen has a tendency to crap out right when you need it most.Mechanical pencils have long been favored by eminently practical folks, like engineers, accountants, scientists, and other professional nerds. On the other hand, you can imagine thewriting enthusiast looking down his nose at such a purely...practical tool. The late Count Roland Lothar Wolfgang Christian Ernst Wilhelm von Faber-Castell undoubtedly spent his declining years sitting in the family castle, caressing a solid gold fountain pen, and silently seething at the unwashed masses and their unceasing demand for their ludicrous "clicky pencils!" HARUMPH!But as handwrittenhas gone the way of the dodo, even mechanical pencils have quietly become serious writing tools. You can now blow as much money as you'd like on a single pencil. At the same time, the big manufacturers in Germany and Japan have really expanded the options in the $5-15 "appeals to students and/or the homeless" segment.There's a little bit less to say here about mechanisms and how individual pencils write (well, hypothetically. It won't stop me from writing 10,000 words). The beauty of mechanical pencils is that you can spend a few cents more on premium leads and pop them in any pencil you like to get a nice writing experience. Things like weight and balance are still important, but you're fundamentally paying for something nice to hold a piece of lead.Mechanical pencil leads are graded just like the leads in wooden pencils.The range is a bit narrower for mechanical pencils. Almost every pencil will come with HB (same as #2 in the moronic US system) leads. Mechanical pencil HB strikes me as quite a bit softer than a wooden pencil HB. You'll find the next few grades towards the softer/darker end of the scale - B, 2B, 3B, 4B - are the easiest to find. Pentel produces premium leads in a range from 4H to 4B, with the curious inclusion of "HB Hard" and "HB soft" grades as well. The specifics of your lead preference are NOT the kind of things I'd recommend discussing on a first date.Just like with wooden pencils, the grading of mechanical pencil leads is by no means uniform. It varies between brands, and even between different product lines from the same manufacturer.A little plastic case with either 20 or 40 leads will cost you $3-4. So if you really want to zero in on the lead FOR YOU, go a grade or two harder or softer than HB and either set aside a few pencils for different grades or palm off the grades you don't like on your cretinous friends. They're shoving more leads in the wrong way with their disposable bic pencils so they can save 10 cents. Are they really going to notice?Most people will be happy with HB. The "premium" leads are made to resist snapping, which is otherwise a problem for heavy-handed writers like me.The bigger divide in pencil leads is, of course, .5 vs .7 mm diameter. Wars have been started over this topic (which ones? All of them). You can actually find 0.3 mm and 0.9 mm pretty easily (1.1 mm is not hard to find, either), if you favor a really needle-y point, or want something approaching a lead holder. You can even find 0.2 mm and 0.4 mm "special edition" pencils for writing down your PUNK ROCK SONG LYRICS, you non-conformist, you!I meet way more people who favor 0.5 than 0.7 mm leads, but with a 0.7 or 0.9 mm, if you hold your pencil at a fair angle, you can get a nice chiseled tip. Then, you can rotate the pencil in your hand to get very thin or very thick lines. I favor 0.5 mm most of the time, but change is the spice of whatever.You can also find colored leads (usually red or blue, but other colors are available), but I have no experience with them.Please hold down the giggling.The final, needle-like lead sleeve on many pencils can cause issues. For starters, putting a pencil with a fixed lead sleeve in your pants pocket is a good way to get unexpectedly jabbed in exactly the kind of place you don't want to be unexpectedly jabbed in.Additionally, I've lost a healthy number of pencils after a drop from a tabletop bent/smashed/otherwise damaged the lead sleeve.I'll go ahead and say,I've had this one for over a decade (you can see the wear) and clicking it is still like working the bolt on a rifle. It's just flawless.

They've become harder to find, so I grabbed several extras a few months back. ($5)Some pencils with retractable tips:Pentel Vicuña multipen (0.5) - the only pencil I own named after a relative of the llama.Pentel Technica-X (0.5)Paper Mate Apex (0.7)Paper Mate PhD (0.7)Pentech Syntech (0.7)Paper Mate (unknown) (0.5)Pilot Del Ful (0.5)Some retractables have a lead sleeve (the pointy bit at the end) while others don'tTechnica-X (top) vs.Platinum OLEeNUThe cheap Bic Click Master has a retractable tip, surprisingly.Finding a non-plastic mechanical pencil is one of the things that makes modern life so great. I'd put it a notch ahead of not having small pox and a notch behind not having to drink from water that the rest of my village poops in.The real standout here is wood (again, keep those giggles down, plz). My absolute favorite pencil I own is the Pilot Just Meet Slim, with a body made from ash trees reserved for the production of baseball bats. For realsies. It's great looking pencil, but the real joy is in using it to write. It is absolutely wonderful. You used to be able to buy these things for around $10, and I gave away tons of them to friends and family interested in better writing tools. Unfortunately, I can't find them anywhere any more and I'm kicking myself for not buying a crate or two when I could.The lesson here is that, outside of high-end product lines (Rotring metal hex-body pens and pencils, for example) or very low-end product lines (disposable bic's), manufacturers are constantly phasing in and out different models. If you find something you like, consider buying at least one more to save bitter tears if it breaks or is stolen!Here is my most expensive pencil, the Faber-Castell E-Motion, in chrome-trimmed pearwood. Also available in maple. ($60)This comes in unusual 1.4 mm mega-lead. You advance the lead by twisting the rear cap (which does hold a nice eraser). Extra leads are stored in little slots accessed under the front cap.It feels positively wonderful in your hand and looks classy as balls. Unfortunately, 1.4 mm lead is a tad broad for me and the pencil weighs enough (and I tend to like heavier pencils) that it comes with a 100% hand cramp guarantee (if you do not get a hand cramp after one hour of writing, Count Faber-Castell himself will personally arrange for one of his carriages to run that hand over as he speeds past on the way to hunt pheasants! Truly an honor!)You can find this maple-bodied pencil still available at Jetpens. I'm tempted to order mine before posting this, as it seems like they're running out (there used to be a few more choices...).It's a bit tricky with mechanical pencils, as the workings tend to add a bit of weight. Adding a wooden or metal body is going to result in something on the heavy side. This is fine for some people, but it may drive you crazy and/or destroy your hand.If you're buying a pencil in hopes of getting a nice eraser out of the deal, you're going to be disappointed. There are exceptions, but even the nicest pencils are often going to have teeny-tiny erasers tucked under a cap - fine for erasing a stray line, but not really up to erasing that Pokemon fan art you've just discovered you doodled on a key page in your will. Nice wooden pencils generally lack erasers as they'd just add cost and change the balance, and anyone serious enough to buy a decent pencil has almost certainly put down an extra buck or two for a quality eraser.Having said that, you can find some decent erasers stuck to mechanical pencils.Usual mechanical pencil eraser (Pentel P209)Small cross-section, but advances when you twist it (Paper Mate Apex)Full size eraser; advances when you twist it (Paper Mate PhD)Full Size eraser (Faber-Castell E-Motion)Mechanical pencils are hands down the top choice for writers who can't help fiddling with crap. There's no ink to get all over yourself, they have buttons to press, you can jab yourself in the leg with a sharp lead if you're falling asleep in class, and you can annoy the shit out of everyone in the library with the clicking noise.Here's the big downside to mechanical pencils - in a tense, test-taking environment, the sounds of *click click click* *snap* *click click click* *snap* as you advance and bust your leads, can earn you a swift beating.Japanese manufacturers have taken this to the next level with the shaker mechanism - a weight and clutch inside the pencil advances the lead when you shake it up and down. Why on Earth anyone would seek this out is beyond me, but there you go."Bad Boy," with engrish text: "I pass a gentle timbre..." (0.5)Pilot Del Ful (0.5)Uni alpha-gel (o.5)You can just use the lead advance like a normal person with every shaker pencil I've ever owned. The shaking mechanism is only apparent if you try to engage it, so its presence shouldn't dissuade you from an excellent pencil like the Uni alpha-gel.This particular pencil is interesting ("interesting") because the shaker mechanism does not engage unless you click the lead advance button all the way down.Press to advanceShakeIt's all part of the full HD experience that Uni offers, no doubt.The venerable Pentel Quicker Clicker is the first mechanical pencil I ever owned. Some people really dig the unique side-mounted lead advance.You don't see this copied much, actually.The cheapo Bic Click Master lets you use either the eraser at the back, or two small buttons, which you squeeze towards each other, that presumably fit right beneath other people's thumb and first finger.You can find a few pencils that use a twist to advance mechanism (like the Faber-Castell E-motion)Thank you, Bagels!I used to have three Pilot Just Meet pencils, differing only in the stain applied to the body. I gave one to a dear friend and I'm still in mourning. What do you think?I do too. Pencils with lead sleeves are better if you press really hard. Spending a few bucks on better leads is also key. They're made to snap less.Please fall down a well. It's a topic specifically about mechanical pencils! Go make your own topic, you moron!I'll admit to writing things by hand more than most people, so I spend more time thinking about this stuff. If you write a lot, you will notice things over time - weight, balance, how different materials feel in your hand. It can all be subtle at first, but the end result is that I find myself writing more simply because my Pilot Just Meets just feel so damn good to hold and use. It's a nice incentive to improve your writing.There are 3 basic types of things to pay attention to:1) Feel. This is the most utilitarian part. Most people prefer 0.5 mm or 0.7 mm lead. Some people like a really light pencil while others want a brick that can hold a piece of lead. Some people find a plastic grip gross, some prefer a gel grip, some want rubber, and so on. A pencil can be front-heavy, back-heavy, or neutral. Some things are just nice to write with, you know? In the same way that people prefer different switches in their mechanical keyboards, certain things will just feel good to write with.2.) Features. Some people have to have a good eraser. Some people really want something that won't jab them in the bits if they carry it in their trousers. There are pencils that will automatically rotate the lead as you write, if you're really insufferable.3.) Aesthetics. Some pens and pencils are just really beautiful.I'm not going to tell you that a cool pencil is going to help you pick up chicks (even if that's TOTALLY TRUE), but I've had a surprising number of conversations start because someone noticed my pencil (WINK WINK!), told me it was cool, and wanted to know where I got it. Those conversations obviously ended abruptly when I launched into my description of how the earliest mechanical pencil was found in the wreckage of HMS Pandora, which sank in 1791...but it was fun while it lasted.Why not use things that look nice, given the choice?Possibly? People seem to enjoy them, and they're fun to write, if time-consuming.People wanted some thoughts on paper, which is the other big part in the writing equation. There are a zillion considerations there and I'm not in any way an artist or professional. Rhodia makes all sorts of different pads, the paper is great, and their products are pretty easy to find.My incredible "Leonard Visits Space" sketchbook, which features as my photo backdrop, is from Ex Libris Anonymous . They make notebooks out of vintage books. They mix a few of the pages from the original book in with new, acid-free paper. Highly recommended!-------------------------------------------Just to be clear,