Who Else Thinks That A Mechanical Pencil Is The Next-Best Thing To A Fountain Pen?

[orangos]

Absolutely. Some years ago my wife bought me a Faber Castell e-motion twist pencil -- 1.4mm in pearwood barrel. It's still in use alongside another favourite -- a Lamy 2K 0.7mm. It was also the first step off the collecting precipice that turned me into the FP devotee I am today...

[lurcho]

What's the advantage of a clutch pencil over a MP? All that sharpening, like you have with woodcase.

 

I'm not being snipey at all. There must be adavantages, and I'm inquisitive. I suppose they're stronger, but the newer MP leads, while they do snap if you're careless, are amazingly strong and soft/dark.

[samuelkim0814]

As a student I have different uses for a mechanical pencil and a fountain pen. Fountain pens are for taking notes, and the mechanical pencil is for taking tests. Pretty simple arrangement and works well.

[RMN]

What's the advantage of a clutch pencil over a MP? All that sharpening, like you have with woodcase.

 

I'm not being snipey at all. There must be adavantages, and I'm inquisitive. I suppose they're stronger, but the newer MP leads, while they do snap if you're careless, are amazingly strong and soft/dark.

The clutch pencils are more useful for sketching, filling in large areas and such. The mp's are more for writing and precision drawing.

 

D.ick

[migo984]

For all you P205 fans, Cultpens are doing a good offer on the metallic barrel special edition, limited production run of these MPs. 30% off at £4.99. Not for P205 purists I suspect, but I like them.

 

http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Pentel-P205M-Pencil-Metallic.html

[NedC]

What's the advantage of a clutch pencil over a MP? All that sharpening, like you have with woodcase.

 

I'm not being snipey at all. There must be adavantages, and I'm inquisitive. I suppose they're stronger, but the newer MP leads, while they do snap if you're careless, are amazingly strong and soft/dark.

A mechanical rotary pointer is much quicker than a sharpener for a wood cased pencil and doesn't change the length of the pencil. It's much easier to use blunted clutch pencil leads for blending and burnishing, to get a broad wedge point, etc. And the thicker, 2mm or greater, clutch pencil leads come in a wider range of hardnesses and behave differently to the thinner polymer fortified leads in the 'sharp' mechanical pencils, they behave like and their hardness grades more closely match those of wood cased pencils, especially those of the same brand, and again, they come in a much wider range of hardnesses than can be found in thin mechanical pencil leads - just try finding an 8B 0.9mm or a 7H 0.3mm.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I'm a big fan of mechanical pencils, and I have a lot of them. (The picture is only a few of mine. I have a lot more). When I was little, my mom got me one. We both love mechanical pencils. I think we both use fountain pens more often now though.

 

Here are a bunch of my favorites: Pilot S3 0.4 mm, Pilot Couleur 0.5 mm (matches my Pilot Capless Décimo), Uni Kuru Toga 0.5 mm (this one is made in China, unlike my blue 0.3 mm which is from Japan. I get a lot of compliments on it), Uni α gel 0.3 mm, Faber Castell Scribolino 1.4 mm, Pilot Air Blanc 0.3 mm, Uni α gel 0.5 mm, and Pilot Couleur 0.5 mm.

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7405/9234028101_4313fd47c9_b.jpg

More favorites: From top, Faber Castell Scribolino 1.4 mm, Lamy Scribble 3.15 mm, Uchida 2.0 mm, Pilot S3 0.4 mm, Pilot Air Blanc 0.3 mm, Pilot Symmetry 0.5 mm, Uni Kuru Toga 0.3 mm, Uni α gel 0.3 mm, Pilot Couleur 0.5 mm, and Cross Classic Century 0.9 mm

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7248/7850403900_a54fb3239c_b.jpg

My newest pencils. They are also new favorites. The top is a Zebra Prefill with four 0.7 mm pencil units with regular lead, pink Pilot color eno, purple Pilot color eno, and turquoise Pilot color eno. The second is my favorite shaker pencil, the Pilot Fure Fure Corone 0.5 mm.

 

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5330/9236887446_50bf42cc73_b.jpg

 

Dillon

Edited September 18, 2013 by Dillo

[flatline]

What's a "shaker" pencil?

 

--flatline

[Chthulhu]

What's a "shaker" pencil?

 

--flatline

 

One that will advance the lead by shaking the pencil axially, as well as by pushing the button.

[flatline]

 

One that will advance the lead by shaking the pencil axially, as well as by pushing the button.

 

What's to keep the lead from advancing when the pencil is in your pocket or backpack?

 

--flatline

[Chthulhu]

Nothing at all, though a shirt-pocket carry would be unlikely to bounce it hard enough to advance the lead. If you're in the habit of carrying writing insturments in a pants pocket or backpack, you may want to consider a pencil without this feature.

[beak]

What's the advantage of a clutch pencil over a MP? All that sharpening, like you have with woodcase.

 

I'm not being snipey at all. There must be adavantages, and I'm inquisitive. I suppose they're stronger, but the newer MP leads, while they do snap if you're careless, are amazingly strong and soft/dark.

Fair question.

 

2mm, though of thicker lead, are no less 'accurate' than thin MPs, and many would argue that they are more so, given that the lead is habitually brought to a very fine point for detail work - a point finer than naturally available on a thin lead. If the MP is brought to a finer point than offered by the lead's diameter, then sharpening is the same issue for both.

 

But this assumes accuracy has something to do with the thinness or pointy-ness of the lead, and it doesn't. Accuracy is in the user, not the tool.

 

Generally, the 2mm offers greater flexibility of line to those who have mastered it, and this is why I reported earlier that the 2mm is often the preferred weapon of draughters and designers who have long experience of their trade.

 

It depends, however, on one's style of work; those whose object is to reproduce the sterile look of CAD drawings may well find the MP helps them to achieve this goal.

 

ETA some draughting images all done with 2mm clutch

Edited September 19, 2013 by beak

[cellmatrix]

Yes mechanical pencil and fountain pen are my main two writing tools. For pencil I love the sharp Kerry from pentel, really smooth writer and sturdy too.

[Garageboy]

beak, those sketches are awesome, how do you learn to do that? (I'm a CAD monkey)

 

My prefer field measure up pencils for architecture work are now the Pentel Twist Erase with the retractable sleeve and Pentel AIN leads

[Blade Runner]

What's a Clutch pencil?

[RobertP]

What's a Clutch pencil?

 

Clutch pencils have two or three "jaws" gripping a fairly thick lead at the tip of the pencil. These jaws are opened by pressing the cap at the end of the pencil allowing the lead to slide in or out as required.

 

Here are a bunch of clutch pencils at CultPens.

 

http://www.cultpens.com/acatalog/Clutch-Pencils.html

[beak]

.............. how do you learn to do that? (I'm a CAD monkey)

.................

Thanks. By practise and by being around experienced people, when I was young, who were not afraid to let others in on what they knew. Neither did they feel threatened by trainees, but naturally felt it their place to help them and bring them along in the industry. Not so much of that attitude around these days, so I hear, and it seems far more common for teachers to guard what they know and keep it from getting to their students!

 

Advise, if you want it; learn to draw well (both technically and freely) with a simple pencil - it will improve your CAD work beyond belief.

[Mastiff]

This is a very interesting, and yet dangerous topic of discussion!

 

I do remember using MPs as a kid mostly because I couldn't be bothered using pencil sharpeners.

 

Fountain pen hobbying is already expensive. Adding MP would be too much

 

Anyway, let me go and start searching for the mechanical pencils now!

[firebug]

For me, it's about whether something catches me fancy or not....

 

When I write this, I write with a lot of ignorance (which is bliss) about pencils (sans what my son makes me buy because he's 5, and those are simple wooden ones).

 

To make something a part of my life it has to be a part of my belief system, and unfortunately, pencils are not. That's despite being an engineer. There were days when I drew a lot of Machine Diagrams using a drafter and a mechanical pencil and used to understand leads by their thickness, but unfortunately those were a decade and a half back.

 

Then suddenly pencils vanished out of my life. Because I never did any assignment on core engineering. Post Engineering I took onto the beaten path of being an MBA. An MBA effectively rules out almost any kind of writing instrument for most of it happens electronically. Then onto a normal job of being a generalist - again only thing that mattered was a diary and a pen (luckily for me, it became FPs) to have the schedule in place, else it was always a computer...

 

Having read this thread, I am now left with a tinge of sadness. Why didn't I try pencils earlier? Till about I read this thread, I had a notion that pencils always have the dark grey graphite leads and hence are a world of monotone and I'm a sucker for panorama. Then I realised that all of the colors are available, infact saw a pink, a purple and a turquoise.

 

This rouses me to hunt for a few pencils now..... I think I'll be giving it a shot with a clutch kinda mechanical pencil....

 

Today I leave this thread with a note that I'll probably never come to love pencils as much as I love FPs, but who knows.....

 

Tomorrow's gonna be different and this might just change!

[pencils+pens]

Till about I read this thread, I had a notion that pencils always have the dark grey graphite leads and hence are a world of monotone and I'm a sucker for panorama. Then I realised that all of the colors are available, infact saw a pink, a purple and a turquoise.

 

This rouses me to hunt for a few pencils now..... I think I'll be giving it a shot with a clutch kinda mechanical pencil....

 

How about 8 colors - all in one pencil? It is a clutch pencil to boot.