What Pencil Are You Using Today?

[mr T.]

Today I am using a Bic Evolution HB/#2 pencil (green one, made in France)

[Claes]

Uni KuruToga 0.5, loaded with their special HBSoft lead.

[Marioferu]

Yard O Led vintage sterling silver pencil from 1957 with 1.1 leads. I purchased this pen in *bay and is in beautiful condition. The pen sports an inscription that say “F.F & P. 1857 - 1957.” Into the very well conserved burgundy box, there is a paper declaring : “FREEMAN, FOX & PARTNERS 1857 - 1957. Presented by the Partners to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the firm.”

[Beechwood]

A made in Japan Sheaffer Javelin Mechanical Pencil in blue, 0.7mm.

 

Had it for years but no recollection of buying it, hope that I didn't just pick it up from someone's desk.

 

Its a pleasure to use, nice click action to advance the lead and a feeling of quality.

[Beechwood]

On 3/15/2024 at 3:03 AM, Marioferu said:

Yard O Led vintage sterling silver pencil from 1957 with 1.1 leads. I purchased this pen in *bay and is in beautiful condition. The pen sports an inscription that say “F.F & P. 1857 - 1957.” Into the very well conserved burgundy box, there is a paper declaring : “FREEMAN, FOX & PARTNERS 1857 - 1957. Presented by the Partners to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the firm.”

 

 

That is a very nice pencil. Freeman Fox were architects and engineers, involved in some of the best bridge design in the world.

 

I saw something similar for sale at Penfriend, Burlington Arcade, London in the 1980s, on sale for silly money.

 

 

[Marioferu]

31 minutes ago, Beechwood said:

 

 

That is a very nice pencil. Freeman Fox were architects and engineers, involved in some of the best bridge design in the world.

 

I saw something similar for sale at Penfriend, Burlington Arcade, London in the 1980s, on sale for silly money.

 

 

Exactly! Don’t you love when they have some history? It should be amazing to be a collector in the 80’s, specially because of the silly prices… 

[Beechwood]

21 minutes ago, Marioferu said:

Exactly! Don’t you love when they have some history? It should be amazing to be a collector in the 80’s, specially because of the silly prices… 

 

 

Pens with an identifiable history are really good,, the trouble is that you end up buying another model as a user!

 

In this case of the Yard O Led this 'silly'  means high, it was £250 forty years ago, that is over USD300, but it was on sale in a store  where there are plenty of well heeled tourists mainly from the Middle East who stay  in London to escape the summer heat in their own countries and spend like there is no tomorrow. One Middle Eastern ruler used to come to a major department store in London and spend £1,000,000 on Visconti pens, that is about USD1.2M, to give to visitors at his palace as gifts.

 

To give you a guide on the YOL pencil price, a Montblanc 149 was half the price of the Yard O Led pencil at that time.

[Doug C]

Parker duofold black and pearl.

[2ouvenir]

I used a Uni Kuru Toga Advance in 0.5 to annotate some stuff today

[Zookie]

An old bullet pencil.

[ParramattaPaul]

Yet again and still - a 0.7 Derwent Precision mechanical pencil.

[AmandaW]

Kitaboshi 4B. I picked up a pack of three at Daiso out of interest in trying the brand. I quite like the look of their 2mm lead holders. This may tempt me to order one. So far it seems rather firm for a 4B, but not unpleasant.

[Marioferu]

On 3/16/2024 at 4:36 AM, Beechwood said:

 

 

Pens with an identifiable history are really good,, the trouble is that you end up buying another model as a user!

 

£250 Wow ! You are make me feel more joyful. It seems like this pen was treasured into its box and almost never used.

[Beechwood]

4 hours ago, Marioferu said:

£250 Wow ! You are make me feel more joyful. It seems like this pen was treasured into its box and almost never used.

 

 

The £250 price tag was unique to that particular retailer in the most expensive part of London. Unless you find a YOL pencil engraved as King Charles III I doubt that you will see that valuation on another silver pencil, maybe, we live in hope.

[Centurion]

Mitsubishi Hi-Uni or Tombow MONO 100? Years ago I talked a friend into us buying boxes (often we couldn’t just buy a single pencil, had to be a whole box) of various wooden pencils ✏️ in different hardnesses, and we concluded Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and Tombow MONO 100 to be the best. The real world practical differences weren’t so great, so we acknowledged that any high quality pencil (e.g. Blackwing, Staedtler Mars Lumigraph) we would be more than happy using. Still, we felt Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and Tombow MONO 100 to be noticeably better. But while we thought Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and Tombow MONO 100 to be at the same level, there are differences and we had trouble describing the difference.
 

How would you describe the difference between Mitsubishi Hi-Uni vs Tombow MONO 100?

 

P.S. We were surprised that we agreed over 90 % of the time during our unscientific testing. We regretted that we didn’t take good notes at that time. It could have been a blog post.

[mariom]

1950s British Parker Duofold, burgundy and gold.

[psimpson130]

On 2/14/2024 at 1:00 AM, Anne-Sophie said:

 

Phileas were made as pencils? Never knew that. 

They also had ballpoints as well. Two of my Phineas have pencils, the third one is just the fountain pen. 

[psimpson130]

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I flew as a USAF navigator on transport type aircraft. I was fussy about my pencils and stayed with mechanical pencils. Had some real good luck with the basic pentel clickers until they put the bump on the base and it wouldn't fit my flight suit pen pocket. I was given a set of the stainless Parker pen and 0.5mm pencil and it was nice, but when your hands dried out they would slip out. I found the inexpensive jotter pairing with the plastic barrels worked the best. Zebra and a good set with rubberized coatings which I used on the last plane I flew. Even with all of these, I had the same Scripto pen and pencil (twist type) that I carried in my flight jacket. Bought then the first week of navigator training and carried them for 20+ years. Still have them although they are not in use. 

[ParramattaPaul]

27 minutes ago, psimpson130 said:

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I flew as a USAF navigator on transport type aircraft. I was fussy about my pencils and stayed with mechanical pencils. Had some real good luck with the basic pentel clickers until they put the bump on the base and it wouldn't fit my flight suit pen pocket. I was given a set of the stainless Parker pen and 0.5mm pencil and it was nice, but when your hands dried out they would slip out. I found the inexpensive jotter pairing with the plastic barrels worked the best. Zebra and a good set with rubberized coatings which I used on the last plane I flew. Even with all of these, I had the same Scripto pen and pencil (twist type) that I carried in my flight jacket. Bought then the first week of navigator training and carried them for 20+ years. Still have them although they are not in use. 

Did you not have access to the 'U.S. Government' stamped dual end mechanical pencils I know are/were issued to FAA air traffic controllers?  The one I . . . um . . . procured worked well.

[lectraplayer]

42 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Did you not have access to the 'U.S. Government' stamped dual end mechanical pencils I know are/were issued to FAA air traffic controllers?  The one I . . . um . . . procured worked well.

I swear. People will steal anything that isn't nailed down. :3

That said, stolen writing implements are probably about as common as rocks in the river.