Mechanical pencils - your favorite?

[HesNot]

In my particular work environment (tax consulting) there are moments when I have to use a pencil and I have always preferred a .5mm mechanical with generally B lead. In an attempt to apparently mimic the old wooden #2 pencil, however, most mechanical pencil designs are not only "pencil" thin but generally uninspired. Nevertheless, I've generally stuck with the Pentel Forte as a cheap pencil that has a decent size and reliability (wish I had found a Rotring 600 before they went the way of the dodo - oh well...).

 

So what do others here use? Any designs or overlooked gems I should check into?

[PaulK]

I don't have anything special in the way of a mech. pencil. My wife did give me a MB that I use occasionally (when I remember to take it out of the briefcase ). As I recall, it's a .7 mm. Otherwise, I just use a good ol' #2 pencil. I am surprised by the number of options out there though (seems there's as much a variety as there are pen manufacturers).

[BillTheEditor]

You can still get Rotring 600s. See Stylus Central -- $29.95. Found this by doing a Google on "Rotring 600." It was the first one on the list. Plenty of other places, too. Pencil lead is 0.7 mm

 

If you can't get a Rotring 600 online for a price you like, look at Office Depot in the pen section for the Yafa stylus pen -- 0.5 mm pencil, black ballpoint, yellow highlighter, pda stylus. Handy little gadget, fat grip area with those knobbly yellow rubber bits. I think I paid about $10 or less for mine.

 

Another one that a lot of people like is the Faber-Castell e-Motion mechanical pencil. FAT wooden pencil, 1.4 mm pencil lead. Available lots of places. Way more expensive than the first two, which is why I don't own one.

[BobR]

My favorite mechanical pencil for decades has been this Scripto, which has a twist feed and takes .9mm lead I believe. I disliked the yellow pencils in school as I was a math major and did a lot of work with a pencil and never found them comfortable to write with, plus they had to be sharpened. I tried several mechanical pencils (this is in the early '70's) and didn't like them very much, especially the common kind that took 1.1mm lead. Then I found this Scripto which takes a thinner lead and is very comfortable for me. I used it for everything, my job which required working with figures and general writing (this was before I discovered fountain pens). I actually wore out several and then decided I better buy as many as I could find before they were discontinued, as all good products seem to be. Sure enough, they're extinct, and so are most of the stationery stores I used to shop in. But I think I've stashed a lifetime supply of these around the house somewhere. I don't use a pencil much now, but when I do, it's this.

I also quickly discovered that the best lead for them was Sheaffer's, sold in those small yellow "coffins". I bought a lot of these extinct items too (firm is my favorite type), but I've run low. Fortunately I found a seller on Ebay with a huge amount of them and now I have enough lead for my children's lifetime too!

I could just not get into the new style mechanical pencils (I think of Pentel) with the ultra thin lead and push button feed.

Not of much use to you as they're no longer available and I'm not selling mine!

BTW do tax guys still use the green sheets? Got a few of those too.

[MrsKey]

I find that if I have a thicker/fatter pen or pencil I avoid my tendancy to grip to hard. Toward that end I have found that my favourite mechanical pencil is the realtively easy to find Sanford PhD.

 

It uses a .5mm lead, refillable eraser that is of a size that is useful and has a comfortable rubberized grip. I've found it to be comfortable to use for longer periods.

 

Regards,

 

Carole

[*david*]

The Koh-I-Noor pencil is a lot like the original Rotring 600 pencil, though not nearly as nicely finished in my opinion.

[JimStrutton]

Staedtler Mars Tri .5mm pencils for general stuff, they take a standard lead refill and are light and robust, better still they come in packs of ten.

 

I use them to make notes on spreadsheets which are normally call data rather than pure financial figures as such.

 

I also have a couple of Pentel P206 Pencils, but they don't get as much use these days, but the lead choices are many and varied.

 

I do have a couple of Parker "51" and 61 pencils, but the 9mm leads are a bit too big, but they do make a nice black line and can be found for not too much. The Erasers (E16) for the Sonnet pencil fits them and Pentel make 9mm leads that fit too.

 

My .02 worth,

 

Jim

[andyr7]

I use the Pentel Graphgear 1000 very frequently. It is available in 4 lead sizes from 0.3 up to 0.9 mm, has a retractable tip and is the best mechanical pencil I have ever found!

 

Andy

[KCkc]

Hands down 0.5mm B lead for Pilot Kerry

 

Also comfy 0.7mm B Lead for MB 164 (?) MP similar in length as a MB146 FP

[kissing]

MonAmi pacers

 

http://www.korexmall.co.kr/feint/product/400/401673.jpg

 

I have used these types of mechanical pencils since....forever

 

Reliable, cheap and collectable.

[Kees]

Hands down 0.5mm B lead for Pilot Kerry

Yep! Just make the lead 2B...

[HyperCamper]

My 5 Waterman Hemisphere MP's containing HB, B or 2B leads...

[RLTodd]

The $20USD Pentel Kerry Sharp, 0.5mm HB lead.

[*david*]

SumoGrip plastic pencil, good eraser, comes in .5, .7, and .9

[Dan the man]

Faber castel mechanical 1mm canon, thick, black and great for messy kind of sketching. I really enjoy it and use it for sketching ideas for my paintings. /:)

 

Daniel

[jeffuk]

how about one of these

Tiffany 14k circa 1880/90(my favourite)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/tiff2.jpg

 

or maybe something in sterling

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/silver1.jpg

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/silver2.jpg

 

more gold

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/gold1.jpg

 

rolled gold

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/rolled.jpg

 

or maybe something a little differant

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/jwassuk/gun2.jpg

 

can't beat a nice vintage pencil

[Leigh R]

I'm sure you guys have already discovered http://www.leadholder.com/? That site holds many of my dream pencils... um, leadholders.

 

One day I will get the entire Ohto ProMecha set (http://www.jetpens.com/product_info.php/cPath/45_109/products_id/568), not only because of their ultra-funky name, but because they look like they're about to transform into robots.

 

In the meantime, my workhorse is a 2mm Rotring 300 with built-in pointer.

 

http://www.leadholder.com/images/leadholders-drafting/rotring/rotring_300.jpg

 

(Image from leadholder.com)

[BobR]

JeffUK, thanks for posting those, amazing collection!

[randyholhut]

I break leads easily, so I prefer the thicker leaded mechanical pencils.

 

When I was still covering baseball regularly in the 1990s, I loved the old Scripto Classic, the rotary pencils that used 1.1 mm lead, for filling out scorebooks. You have to really work to break those. Great, nearly indistructable pencils.

 

The vintage MPs that are mates to my vintage FPs use mostly 0.9 mm leads, like the Parker 51 and 45 pencils. I also have some Eversharps that take the thick 1.1 mm leads. All those are part of my standard FP/BP/MP carry at work.

 

I use colored lead these days, but it's tough to find 0.9 mm blue or red leads at most stationers. The 1.1 mm lead is even harder to find, but Roger Russell's Scripto and Norma pencil Web pages is a good place to go for both colored and regular lead (usual disclaimer applies).

 

O.5 mm lead is too thin for me. 0.7 is about as thin as I go, and only because the newest Sheaffer, Waterman and Rotring pencils use it.

[kissing]

my goodness, jeffuk

 

The first examples look like something out of a specialist surgeon's kit, and the latter makes you a secret agent

 

amazing collection!