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A random question about US pencil use


IrisCar

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I'm in Canada, but I see others using mechanical pencils sometimes. I prefer the regular sharpening-required pencils. Don't like those spindly leads

 

Maybe you'd like a nice, vintage mechanical pencil? The old Parker pencils I have take big, fat 0.9mm leads. And the leads are readily available at art supply stores.

 

Hmm, that's an idea. Thanks. I'll take a look around, maybe eBay will have one. Antique stores near me are rubbish for writing instruments. 0.9mm is a good size, definitely will look into it.

 

Pentel makes mechanical pencils that take 0.9mm lead. That's my preferred lead size. I have a Pentel "Twist Erase" that I like. This model has a bit of weight to it, which I like.

 

09mm is also not unusual for drafting pencils. I also have a Alvin Draft/Matic DM09.

 

I started using mechanical pencils because my girlfriend uses them and they are ready to hand.

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I'm in Canada, but I see others using mechanical pencils sometimes. I prefer the regular sharpening-required pencils. Don't like those spindly leads

 

Maybe you'd like a nice, vintage mechanical pencil? The old Parker pencils I have take big, fat 0.9mm leads. And the leads are readily available at art supply stores.

 

Hmm, that's an idea. Thanks. I'll take a look around, maybe eBay will have one. Antique stores near me are rubbish for writing instruments. 0.9mm is a good size, definitely will look into it.

 

Pentel makes mechanical pencils that take 0.9mm lead. That's my preferred lead size. I have a Pentel "Twist Erase" that I like. This model has a bit of weight to it, which I like.

 

09mm is also not unusual for drafting pencils. I also have a Alvin Draft/Matic DM09.

 

I started using mechanical pencils because my girlfriend uses them and they are ready to hand.

 

Well, my dad told me he has a Cross mechanical pencil lying around that takes 0.9mm leads, so that solves that, I'll try it.

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In elementary school it was all wooden pencils. No pens of any kind at all.

 

By the time I got to junior high (middle school), we could use pens or pencils and I started using mechanical pencils after that.

 

In high school it was all mechanical pencil in math & science classes, pens in English, social studies. Same thing in college, except I started using fountain pens for note taking and everything not requiring computation. I got a few friends hooked on Lamy Safaris when they felt how little their hands hurt after taking notes with a fountain pen.

 

By the time I got to grad school, where I was no longer taking any test that gave 'partial credit,' it was all fountain pen. I got known around the department as the guy with the cool pens. I was OK with that nerdy designation...I was married by that time. :)

 

That said, when I was on the phone often at work, it was almost always wooden pencils. Always ready, didn't have to worry about lead breaking when I was taking notes or advancing the lead. Still the same today though I'm not on the phone much.

Edited by jason808
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Wood cased graphite pencils are just great to write with.

 

I agree. But I like mechanical pencils more.

 

Self contained,

 

So are mechainical pencils (you fill it, and done. There is never really a reason to take it apart again until its needs refilling, which is a long time so long as you do not break the graphite.

 

no fuss, no muss,

 

Mechanicals are this way, also. If fact, would consider constantly sharpening a fuss, but it is even becuase you have to refill mechanical pencils. Just not nearly as often.

 

write upside down,

As do mechanical pencils.

 

in the rain,

Mechanical ones do, too.

 

correctable,

This, too, mechanical pencils do.

 

light in the hand or pocket, and on and on....

If you buy the right one, the can be light in the pocket. Or they can be heavy if you like a heavier one. It is much harder to do that with wooden pencils, as they are all around the same weight (not all the same, but not as much variation as mechanical pencils).

 

The actual position for discussion is why anyone is using anything else! In comparison with the wood cased graphite pencil, anything else is at a debating disadvantage..........

 

Comming up on the two hundredth anniversary of their manufacture in the States.

 

People would use something else because they like efficiency. The last thing I ever want to do in the middle of a test or even when I am thinking is get up and sharpen a pencil. Like a fp, make sure they are filled at the beginning of the day, and you are set.

 

Thats cool about the anniversary; I did not know that.

 

Just my take,

Nkk

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I'm in Canada, but I see others using mechanical pencils sometimes. I prefer the regular sharpening-required pencils. Don't like those spindly leads

 

Maybe you'd like a nice, vintage mechanical pencil? The old Parker pencils I have take big, fat 0.9mm leads. And the leads are readily available at art supply stores.

 

Hmm, that's an idea. Thanks. I'll take a look around, maybe eBay will have one. Antique stores near me are rubbish for writing instruments. 0.9mm is a good size, definitely will look into it.

 

Pentel makes mechanical pencils that take 0.9mm lead. That's my preferred lead size. I have a Pentel "Twist Erase" that I like. This model has a bit of weight to it, which I like.

 

09mm is also not unusual for drafting pencils. I also have a Alvin Draft/Matic DM09.

 

I started using mechanical pencils because my girlfriend uses them and they are ready to hand.

 

Depending on the style you want, Retro 1951 has some .9 pencils. Otherwise Retro and Graf Von Faber-Castell both have some fat leaded pencils, like 1.1mm or in the ballpark. You could always get a Yard-o-Led propelling pencil. There are some good deals to be had from UK collectors unloading their Y-O-L collections.

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I use old growth forest wood cased pencils. When you sharpen a wood cased pencil it smells like fresh cut wood. Last time I sharpened a mechanical pencil it smelled like a decomposing polymer and it ruined my sharpener.

 

Since it is getting difficult and expensive to purchase vintage pencils I strongly encourage everyone to use mechanical pencils.

 

Todd

San Francisco International Pen Show - The next “Funnest Pen Show” is on schedule for August 23-24-25, 2024.  Watch the show website for registration details. 
 

My PM box is usually full. Just email me: my last name at the google mail address.

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People would use something else because they like efficiency. The last thing I ever want to do in the middle of a test or even when I am thinking is get up and sharpen a pencil. Like a fp, make sure they are filled at the beginning of the day, and you are set.

 

I always solved that problem by having extra pencils. Although I seldom needed them, the cost of a wooden pencil is so low that having multiple pencils is trivial.

 

My wife laughs at me - a grocery store we use once had ten-packs of low-end but reasonable quality wooden pencils on sale for 9 cents to clear out excess back-to-school stock. I bought about twenty packs of them, for a whopping $1.80 Canadian. I doubt I have fully used more than a couple of them even though I've had them a few years. :)

Too many pens; too many inks. But at least I've emptied two ink bottles now.

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Hi -- With all due respect to 'dsatco', here's the real deal :

Wooden pencils are preferred by students as they need to be sharpened. Consequently, they can be afoot (out of their seat) wandering about the class room, with the excuse/reason of needing to sharpen their pencil, or recycle the shavings, or ...

-- Bye, S1

 

I agree with that! Also, students lose things constantly, so a wooden pencil is just more disposable. I am appalled by the number of students I have who can't remember to bring a pencil to school every day -- in high school!

"I'm sorry, I don't let anyone borrow my pen."

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Hi -- With all due respect to 'dsatco', here's the real deal :

Wooden pencils are preferred by students as they need to be sharpened. Consequently, they can be afoot (out of their seat) wandering about the class room, with the excuse/reason of needing to sharpen their pencil, or recycle the shavings, or ...

-- Bye, S1

 

I agree with that! Also, students lose things constantly, so a wooden pencil is just more disposable. I am appalled by the number of students I have who can't remember to bring a pencil to school every day -- in high school!

 

I keep at least 5 in my binder and a basic sharpener. Am always lending them out, and very strict about getting them returned. Had an exam Thursday and lent one to someone, an exam!

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I think it's because of movie making own language: you may not want the viewer distracting by a weird pen/pencil. You see one of those yellow pencils with pink eraser and so what? you just carry on with the action.

 

The same applies to zippo lighters, victorinox knifes...

 

Juan

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Hi -- With all due respect to 'dsatco', here's the real deal :

Wooden pencils are preferred by students as they need to be sharpened. Consequently, they can be afoot (out of their seat) wandering about the class room, with the excuse/reason of needing to sharpen their pencil, or recycle the shavings, or ...

-- Bye, S1

 

The OP asked:

 

I just have a random question about something that has been a mystery to me for a while: in every American movie, especially in scenes set in high schools or colleges I always see Americans using just regular pencils that require sharpening and never mechanical pencils. Why is that? Is the use of mechanical pencils really that scarce in the US?

 

My "real deal" is the "real deal" with regard to the OP's question. It's about movies, not about what kids prefer.

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additional to origninal post.

 

California Incense Cedar, Wood cased, No. 3 pencil.

 

Another advantage is their very light weight.

 

I think I read that Steinbeck used to go through twenty a day.

YMMV

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I'm a college student in engineering, and I use 0.3mm pencils when not taking notes with my pens. I find the thinner lead requires less pressure to write with, and I like the fine line. Most people I see use cheap plastic mechanical pencils or ballpoints. Most of the engineering people use 0.5mm mechanical pencils. I do keep an 0.5 or 0.7 on hand for those annoying ScanTron tests, though.

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Whenever I use a pencil (which is relatively rarely) I use a mechanical pencil. Much finer point and it never needs sharpening. That being said, as a woodworker, I always use a regular wooden pencil in the shop and have an old electric pencil sharpener (well, that is relative too, I guess...if it were REALLY old it would be one of the crank models!). That's probably only because of tradition and aesthetic, I guess, as a mechanical pencil would work equally well in the shop, too!!!!

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IrisCar, on 28 January 2010 - 03:13 PM, said:

 

I'm just asking because in Europe I've very rarely seen anyone use regular pencils in schools or colleges or just for personal use (except for drawing) - for a while I thought it was required by schools - there's often a line in movies that the student have to use pencil no.2 or something like that for tests.

 

My Parisian ex-boyfriend has written with a mechanical pencil exclusively since he was issued with one in high school in the early 70s, in much the same way I was issued with a fountain pen at high school in the UK. We were expected not to lose them, and we didn't. But I suppose teenagers these days are fully paid-up members of the consumer society, just like the adults; it's probably fair to say they don't feel quite the same need as we did then to keep their belongings safe from accidental loss.

 

I use mechanical pencils myself, pretty much exclusively: 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9mm at the desk; 0.9mm and 5mm at the woodbench, and in the garden (much more use-friendly than a permanent marker, and no fear it'll dry out).

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If I use a pencil at all, it's a .3mm disposable mechanical. In grammar and high schools in the 70's, you had to take tests and complete math work in pencil, and there was a crank-handled pencil sharpener bolted into the window sill in every classroom. If you ran out, the school book store always sold No. 2's. My own kids -- despite my buying them bags upon bags of mechanical pencils -- prefer to use wooden stick pencils. It's just an American idiocyncracy, I s'pose.

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If I am using a pencil I use a wooden one I just like the feel of the wood but just about everybody else uses mechanical pencils. Out of about 40 kids in my first period only 6 or 7 are using a regular wooden pencil. I don't know about college but I would assume it's a similar situation. Here in the U.S. scantrons (multiple choice answer sheets readable by computers) are the standard for testing and most testers require you to use a wooden pencil so as to make 100% sure the student is using H.B. #2 lead which must be used for the computer to be able to read the test so this could be the reason for your seeing so many regular pencils.

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additional to origninal post.

 

California Incense Cedar, Wood cased, No. 3 pencil.

 

Another advantage is their very light weight.

 

I think I read that Steinbeck used to go through twenty a day.

 

I love how those pencils smell, it feels good to smell a little bit of the outdoors inside.

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I am not among the young. I am old. And I learned to write in the early 1950's. I also learned to write with (what today we call) a dip FP. (Then it was commonly called just a FP, which we forget.) The average wood case pencil has a diameter similar to a dip pen. I assume that (commonalty) was itentional. To this day, my first choice for a non-FP writing instrument is a wood case pencil. I have, love and use a number of MP's, mostly vintage Parkers and Sheaffers. But, I reach first for a wood case pencil. My favorite is, and remains, simple Papermate "American Naturals, HB #2."

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