What Pencil Are You Using Today?

[gregamckinney]

I don't use pencils very often, but I do keep a couple handy at my desk just in case. Nearest me is an orange Zebra Color Flight C I got from JetPens.

 

greg

[Nek]

I am using a MB LeGrand pencil 0.9mm today.

[a m a r g o]

Wörther Compact 5.6mm...

[flatline]

Alvin "Pro-Matic" MC5 2mm lead holder with 2H lead.

 

It's my goto pencil for projects around the house that involve marking wood or drywall.

 

--flatline

[Zookie]

Staedtler WOPEX 2HB. It's buttery smooth and very nice to write with.

[flatline]

Today I cheated. I put a ballpoint refill intended for a multi-pen into my Alvin Tech DA lead holder (which can accommodate 3mm leads). I was experimenting and the lead holder was a way to reduce the number of variables in the experiment.

 

The first thing I learned is that I have to use noticeably more pressure with a ballpoint than with my regular HB lead.

 

The second thing I learned is that ballpoint pens are a whole lot more pleasant to write with when there is no tip wiggle. I actually enjoyed using the ballpoint in the lead holder when I had sworn off that exact same ballpoint when using it in the multipen it came with. This caused me to pull out all the pens that I like (maxmadco, embassy, fisher bullet) and sure enough, none of those pens had noticeable tip wiggle. The pens I can't stand (multipens and a handful of cheap pens from my desk) often had noticeable tip wiggle, but not all. Some just took crazy amounts of pressure to make them write.

 

The third thing I learned is that my fisher pressurized refill was easily the most comfortable to write with of the dozen or so refills I played with. It took way less pressure to write with and it started working immediately. All the others took some amount of drawing circles on the page before they started laying down ink.

 

The last thing I learned is that I can store a ballpoint refill behind a piece of lead inside my lead holder just in case I need a ballpoint pen for some reason. (Poor man's multi-pen?) I have no idea if this will ever be useful...

 

--flatline

Edited April 10, 2014 by flatline

[Ricardo1962]

Scripto Wordmaster (1947).

[watch_art]

wow that's pretty!

[discopig]

Rotring 600 0.5mm

[Freddy]

 

Striated with Radius clip...

 

 

Fred

[Ricardo1962]

0.9mm Scripto P360 (made in Korea).

[a m a r g o]

0.9mm Scripto P360 (made in Korea).

Beautiful mechanism!

[kulindi]

My Waterman Expert Black with 23k Gold Trim 0.07mm and 2B lead....Purchased new circa 1991and used almost daily since then...

[The Blue Knight]

A Staedtler Mars Micro 0.7mm

A Staedtler Mars Technico 2mm Clutch Pencil

A rotring Visupencil 0.7mm

[flatline]

Sanford Turquoise 2mm lead holder.

 

This was a cheap lead holder I threw into an order just to get to the free shipping mark and it's turned out to be one of my favorites. It's light yet bottom heavy and has great knurling.

 

--flatline

[GlennPen]

A Papermate wooden pencil, you know the orange-ish hex-pencil with the pink smudger eraser and blue foiling? Yeah those, but only because I have a bunch of them and I want to burn through (not literally) all of them by drawing. Good core, bit crumbly but that's about it; wood, finish and eraser are cheapey. Then I can move on to my other wood pencils (you know Staedtler, Hi-Uni, Mono 100, Palomino Blackwings, etc.).

 

As for mechanical pencils, I use Staedtler's line of drafting pencils (925) because I do technical drawing, and they (at least the metal versions) offer everything known in a drafting pencil within $13: replaceable fixed lead-sleeve, knurled grip, lead grade indicator, eraser, and lead-clearing pin for maintenance.

 

Clearing out my stock of office-type pencils so I'm just doing a draw-a-thon.

[flatline]

As for mechanical pencils, I use Staedtler's line of drafting pencils (925) because I do technical drawing, and they (at least the metal versions) offer everything known in a drafting pencil within $13: replaceable fixed lead-sleeve, knurled grip, lead grade indicator, eraser, and lead-clearing pin for maintenance.

Replaceable fixed lead-sleeve? Where do you get replacements?

 

--flatline

[GlennPen]

Replaceable fixed lead-sleeve? Where do you get replacements?

 

--flatline

 

You know I tried contacting Staedlter itself, they didn't respond. So I just looked up on ebay and found this: Staedlter Replacement tip for 925 25 and 925 35

 

These work only for the metal variant of the pencil, not the black plastic one, once those sleeves are bent, either bend it back into shape or buy another pencil. I say this because the tip of the metal variant screws on and off, the plastic one does not allow this.

[flatline]

 

You know I tried contacting Staedlter itself, they didn't respond. So I just looked up on ebay and found this: Staedlter Replacement tip for 925 25 and 925 35

 

I don't actually use my 925 35 all that often now that I've got the Pilot S10, but it's a great pencil and I'd feel terrible if I broke it. I might start using it more now that I know I can replace the tip if it gets damaged.

 

Thanks!

 

Edit: one of the reasons I like the s10 is that if I break the tip, I can buy a much cheaper s3 and swap the tips.

 

--flatline

Edited April 19, 2014 by flatline

[Bookman]

A wooden Faber-Castell 9000 with 6B graphite.