Whats Your Choice Of Mechanical Pencil?

[Dillo]

 

Cheers.

 

Yes, the stock photos are very flattering. They felt imbalanced and looked very cheap in person.

 

I had a similar experience with the Kaweco Sport Ice clutch pencils. Every time I extended the tip, there was a grinding noise, and pieces of the plastic near the tip would fall out into my hand. I also got cut by the clutch a few times. It was sharp! The mechanism made pretty awful noises when I used it. Also, the spring slipped off one of the plastic pieces holding it in place and it made grinding noises after that. Also, it wasn't very comfortable, the shape of the body wasn't very nice. What can I say, it was £11. Now I have two Lamy Scribble 3.15 mm palladium pencils, and they are the very best 3.15 mm pencils I've ever used. The balance is very nice, the feel of the material is very nice, and they are very comfortable to hold. I also had an experience with a few other pencils, the Zebra Color Flight and the Faber Castell E-motion. The Zebra was very poorly balanced for me. The mechanism was also very poor quality. It would let out random amounts of lead when you pushed the button. It was unpredictable, and the pencil would rattle. For the E-motion, I really liked it, but when I held one, I found that because my hands are quite small, the pencil was quite unbalanced. I ended up getting the kids' model instead which was quite excellent. I think I will get another one of those next time I get something from Cultpens. The Caran d'ache Fixpencil 3 was also a bit of a disappointment to me. It may be made of metal, but it makes odd noises whenever I put it down. The metal parts hit each other. I only keep one so that I can use it to sharpen my 3.15 mm leads in my Gedess lead pointer. The leads don't exactly fit since the pencil is designed for 3 mm leads, but it works decently. With the upper-end Staedtler leadholders, I found that my hand would make the knurled grip portion brass. I lost all the nickel on my grips. Also, I found that a smooth, plastic body was more comfortable for me.

 

Dillon

[Fabienne]

BIC disposable. Love the dark, soft graphite; very light weight.

[Dillo]

BIC disposable. Love the dark, soft graphite; very light weight.

I've also enjoyed using them when I've used them. They have a very nice weight and very nice balance. Sadly, they don't last very long, and mine fell apart not long after I had finished all the lead in it. I guess that's why they are disposable. I still miss them sometimes. I used to have a purple one that I wanted to keep using. Also interesting is that they use really long leads. The leads they use are crazy long.

 

Dillon

Edited October 14, 2013 by Dillo

[bernardo]

You say you want a revolution.............

 

Interesting design, thanks for sharing. What brand is that?

[Dillo]

 

Interesting design, thanks for sharing. What brand is that?

 

That's the Parafernalia Revolution. You can find it here. It's a bit expensive though. There's a review of it here. Often I hesitate when I see a mechanical pencil over £30 (unless it is a clutch pencil), since I can get a very excellently built Pilot for under £5 with a very nice mechanism and fit and finish.

 

Dillon

Edited October 14, 2013 by Dillo

[MisterBoll]

Interesting design, thanks for sharing. What brand is that?

 

It's the Revolution pencil by Parafernalia. It's very comfortable to hold despite the delightful design.

[bernardo]

 

That's the Parafernalia Revolution. You can find it here. It's a bit expensive though. There's a review of it here. Often I hesitate when I see a mechanical pencil over £30 (unless it is a clutch pencil), since I can get a very excellently built Pilot for under £5 with a very nice mechanism and fit and finish.

 

Dillon

 

 

It's the Revolution pencil by Parafernalia. It's very comfortable to hold despite the delightful design.

 

Thanks for the info. It's a pitty that it doesn't take 0.7 or 0.9 leads...

[whitedot]

 

It's the Revolution pencil by Parafernalia. It's very comfortable to hold despite the delightful design.

 

Sadly, I cannot agree.

[warblerick]

What's a pencil???

[Dillo]

What's a pencil???

 

A device with a long history that makes marks on the paper using a soft form of carbon called graphite? I heard that some of them require you to remove the wood casing with a blade or a device called a sharpener to expose the carbon. Others have a permanent casing with some mechanism that moves the carbon outside of the casing. Some odd types don't use carbon but instead some other materials to make marks on the paper.

 

Dillon

[Fabienne]

I just bought a big bag of those Bic pencils today. I have not tried them out but they are now silver instead of black, but they do have multi colored eraser holders and clips like they used to. I hope they are as good as the old ones. I loved drawing with them.

[flatline]

What's a pencil???

 

A device that functions on the same principle as a dog with an itchy bottom.

 

--flatline

[lovemy51]

What's a pencil???

un lápiz... instrumento para escribir -o dibujar- que contiene grafito...

[WirsPlm]

Draft-Matic mechanical pencils are quickly turning into my favorite. They're heavier, and the point is always visible due to the long, thing (and metal, so it stays sturdy) tip. The only downside is that they've got a very sharp textured metal grip section, and if I use them for too long at a time that becomes a problem (feels like gripping a cheese grater).

Edited October 18, 2013 by WirsPlm

[flatline]

Draft-Matic mechanical pencils are quickly turning into my favorite. They're heavier, and the point is always visible due to the long, thing (and metal, so it stays sturdy) tip. The only downside is that they've got a very sharp textured metal grip section, and if I use them for too long at a time that becomes a problem (feels like gripping a cheese grater).

 

I adore the knurling on my Draft-Matic. In fact, I just purchased the Alvin Pro-Matic leadholder specifically for the knurling. I find that with aggressive knurling, I actually use less pressure to hold the pencil and am far less likely to experience fatigue.

 

Nobody else seems to make aggressive knurling like Alvin. Anaemic knurling is my main complaint against Rotring.

 

Edit: I take that back. Koh-i-noor has some models with excellent knurling. In fact, I suspect that some Koh-i-noor and Alvin models are identical except for the branding (but I can't back that up with any facts).

 

--flatline

Edited October 18, 2013 by flatline

[WirsPlm]

 

I adore the knurling on my Draft-Matic. In fact, I just purchased the Alvin Pro-Matic leadholder specifically for the knurling. I find that with aggressive knurling, I actually use less pressure to hold the pencil and am far less likely to experience fatigue.

 

Nobody else seems to make aggressive knurling like Alvin. Anaemic knurling is my main complaint against Rotring.

 

--flatline

Different strokes (or knurling) for different folks. I don't tend to grip lighter until it's too late and I've got an imprint in my hand that'll take a bit to go away.

[flatline]

Different strokes (or knurling) for different folks. I don't tend to grip lighter until it's too late and I've got an imprint in my hand that'll take a bit to go away.

 

If you like the Draft-matic but wish for less aggressive knurling, you might like the Rotring drafting pencils. The Rotring 500 has a knurled metal grip with plastic body like the Draft-matic, but the knurling is much smoother. The 300 is all plastic and the 600 is all metal, but all the Rotring drafting pencils have similar shape.

 

The 500 is my favorite of these because it is the most bottom heavy.

 

--flatline

[Dillo]

Different strokes (or knurling) for different folks. I don't tend to grip lighter until it's too late and I've got an imprint in my hand that'll take a bit to go away.

Personally, I like smooth grips a lot more than knurled grips. Although I don't grip my pencils tightly, I often get marks from the knurling on my fingers, and I find that I can write longer with a smooth grip. My dad and my brother like the knurling. I've also used my pencils enough that I wore the knurling (and all the chrome plating) off the grip of my knurled pencils. The company that made them was nice enough to look at them, and they told me that it wasn't a defect. I had just completely worn the pencils out. They were also nice and sent me new pencils, but they didn't need to do that.

 

Dillon

[mhphoto]

My two favorites are the Rotring 800 or a big ol' Waterman hard rubber pencils.

[Aquinata]

Well...nothing beats PaperMate Sharpwriter #2 for writing on the frosted ends of Hematology slides. Ever since the first time I used them in the lab, I've always loved them. Of course, now that I'm hanging around you folks, maybe it's time I moved up to something a little more sophisticated!