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Pencil V Pen


Mike-S

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At the risk of being accused of 'blasphemy' I would like to ask are there many (any) out there who like myself prefer to write with a pencil instead of a fountain pen. There I've said it, now wait for the storm of protest ! Should I now go and hide ?

 

Mike-S

Edited by Mike-S

It matters not with what you write,

 

just write.

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Cant say I prefer pencils over fountain pens, but my enormous collection of pencils says something. I have 3 store display racks plus boxes and boxes. I use them off and on and in whatever bag I am using top quality pencils are there with my FP, RB and BP.

Edit: I can say I never like being without a pencil. I dont use graphite pencils for sketching as much as I used to but I keep them on hand for quick notes, ocassional journal entry and for my Rite In The Rain notebooks.

Edited by Studio97
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I always have my Graph Gear 1000 & 500 and a clutch pencil from Staedtler with me everywhere (along with my fp in the case) for writing and sketching. I use the pencils to write if i know i have to edit what i write.

People who know my name, dont know my work. People who know my work, dont know my name.

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Pencils every time! Tucked into my shopping list pad, a container-full on the kitchen table for doing the crossword, a 1949 Sheaffer Tucky in my diary for noting appointments etc. etc. My pen collection gives me pleasure, but my pencils are so much more practical.

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The best writing instruments to carry around are pencils especially mechanical. When you think of the inconvenience of having to uncap a fountain every time for just for jotting down a note.My relatives were born in the latter half of the 19th and first decade of the 20th {that dates me!} who used pencils extensively throughout their lives for writing notes, even letters, a fountain or dip pen would be inconvenient at times. Incidentally one popular pencil during the first half of the 20th centuries became known as indelible. When the tip was moistened it produced a purple "ink" and when dry became waterproof. It was often used before laundering clothes and sheets for identification and became permanent even with frequent washes. It was also popular for writing notes.

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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I have a growing collection of pencils, mostly mechanical. I've never been a wooden pencil person (having had mechanical pencils from fairly early on in school) but my next stationery order will involve some fancy wooden pencils like a Tombow Mono 100 to give them a try.

 

I mostly use my pencils for notes, so a 0.5mm mechanical is perfect for that since it's so easy to deploy and never needs sharpening. I'm getting more into drawing and sketching, so clutch pencils (I love the Staedtler Mars one I have) and wooden pencils are becoming more useful.

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They all (pens, pencils, ballpoints, mobile phone writing apps, typewriters) have their uses. Sometimes switching can change your mood or thinking.

 

There are Facebook groups dedicated to the wooden pencil if you want to go down another rabbit hole.

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The best writing instruments to carry around are pencils especially mechanical. When you think of the inconvenience of having to uncap a fountain every time for just for jotting down a note.My relatives were born in the latter half of the 19th and first decade of the 20th {that dates me!} who used pencils extensively throughout their lives for writing notes, even letters, a fountain or dip pen would be inconvenient at times. Incidentally one popular pencil during the first half of the 20th centuries became known as indelible. When the tip was moistened it produced a purple "ink" and when dry became waterproof. It was often used before laundering clothes and sheets for identification and became permanent even with frequent washes. It was also popular for writing notes.

I've never heard of this before! Very intriguing pencil, is sth like it still in existence?

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I like both pens and pencils, but if I had to pick just one, I'd go with pencils.

 

I could give up fountain pens if I had to. They're fun, but they require enough attention that I rarely have more than 1 or 2 inked up at any time. They're something I like to play with when the mood strikes me, but they're not workhorses for me.

 

Wooden pencils are similar to fountain pens for me. They're interesting to use sometimes (sharpening, especially with a blade, can be strangely satisfying), but I find them a bother to use most of the time.

 

I have a bunch of gel and rollerball pens that I use, but there's no magic with them. They're just workhorses for when I need ink and don't want to bother with a fountain pen.

 

I also have a bunch of porous tip pens (sharpie and similar) that I mostly like because they give me the high contrast of ink and a variety of colors, but still feel kind of like a fountain pen or a drafting pencil with soft lead.

 

My drafting pencils are the writing instruments that I enjoy the most. My 2mm lead holders are growing on me as a category, but the individual lead holders don't have personalities the way my favorite drafting pencils do.

 

Honorable mention goes to my space pen. I've relied on a space pen for almost 20 years as my EDC pen that I just expect to work whenever I need it to. It's not my favorite pen to use by any stretch of the imagination, but it is totally reliable and is with me whenever I'm wearing pants just in case I don't have something better to write with when I need to write.

 

--flatline

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I've never heard of this before! Very intriguing pencil, is sth like it still in existence?

 

They were known as copying pencils. Amazon are offering an indelible pencil, probably not the same product, also eBay have some old copying pencils on sale which look the same as the ones I remembered..

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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Thank you all on the additional info on indelible pencils!!

 

To the OP, well, I have begun to use pencils much much more than I used to in the last couple of years, as I have started to love them for their erasability, sth I disliked them for before that.

 

Writing sensitive info and being able to erase that is wonderful or mark stuff in books and documents and not ruin the pages forever, also in my planner I use pencil exclusively, but should really switch to some ink for colour coding to make some things easier (I use mechanical pencils only though and have ever since school). Erasable ink is a no-no for me, as it's too fussy (washable blues have always faded for me and erasable inks like Pilot Frixion and similar can be fussy, heat etc).

 

Ink that you can erase usually leaves a residue/ trace and can be brought back with the right treatment (washable blue with certain chemicals and Frixion stuff with cold), whereas pencil is truly gone (unless you half etched stuff into the paper).

 

It always seemed very weird to me how pencils are used by US Americans in school and at work (still is!), because in Europe kids make the progress to proper pens once they master writing and use pencils only, except for mathematics and art. Even in mathematics we'd write our exams in pen. We were always discouraged from using pencils in exams, at university too, because it can be easily erased and fudged with. Professors & teacher sometimes had to issue extra warnings to not use pencils (some students were too careless and didn't prepare their stationery properly beforehand and then used whatever).

 

I'm definitely using pencil more and more all the time, but still not more than ink and don't think that's going to happen.

I dislike when I write with pencil, how when writing on further pages (2, 3 etc) some of the graphite goes on the other pages, I'm sure you know what I mean if you've ever written two or more pages with pencil only.. Then again ink can ghost/ bleedthrough!

:unsure: :rolleyes:

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Thank you all on the additional info on indelible pencils!!

 

To the OP, well, I have begun to use pencils much much more than I used to in the last couple of years, as I have started to love them for their erasability, sth I disliked them for before that.

 

Writing sensitive info and being able to erase that is wonderful or mark stuff in books and documents and not ruin the pages forever, also in my planner I use pencil exclusively, but should really switch to some ink for colour coding to make some things easier (I use mechanical pencils only though and have ever since school). Erasable ink is a no-no for me, as it's too fussy (washable blues have always faded for me and erasable inks like Pilot Frixion and similar can be fussy, heat etc).

 

Ink that you can erase usually leaves a residue/ trace and can be brought back with the right treatment (washable blue with certain chemicals and Frixion stuff with cold), whereas pencil is truly gone (unless you half etched stuff into the paper).

 

It always seemed very weird to me how pencils are used by US Americans in school and at work (still is!), because in Europe kids make the progress to proper pens once they master writing and use pencils only, except for mathematics and art. Even in mathematics we'd write our exams in pen. We were always discouraged from using pencils in exams, at university too, because it can be easily erased and fudged with. Professors & teacher sometimes had to issue extra warnings to not use pencils (some students were too careless and didn't prepare their stationery properly beforehand and then used whatever).

 

I'm definitely using pencil more and more all the time, but still not more than ink and don't think that's going to happen.

I dislike when I write with pencil, how when writing on further pages (2, 3 etc) some of the graphite goes on the other pages, I'm sure you know what I mean if you've ever written two or more pages with pencil only.. Then again ink can ghost/ bleedthrough!

:unsure: :rolleyes:

With regard to paper in this day and age, we all face the same problem trying to find a decent reasonably priced paper for pen and ink, with so much of it recycled now, and made specifically for computer printing. Gone are the days when one could walk into a stationery store and buy writing pads and matching envelopes made for pen and ink before the arrival of reliable ball point pens.

 

I did find a ream of Hammermiill 20lb on offer in Walmart and bought it to give a tryout. I correspond with an FPN member on a frequent basis and seeing I could write on both sides reasonably recommended it to him by sending some blank sheets, The last letter I received showed significant bleed through whereas mine doesn't. We've yet to establish whether it's the ink he's using or the pen.

They came as a boon, and a blessing to men,
The Pickwick, the Owl and the Waverley pen

Sincerely yours,

Pickwick

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  • 2 months later...

For me, it's not a matter of preferring one to the other. It's preferring one for specific writing tasks over the other.

 

 

For most things, I prefer an FP. But when I'm doing math, or when I have a Japanese test, nothing beats a good pencil.

 

I also prefer pencils for drafting my grocery lists. I keep an index card at hand for the working list before committing to buy, with the final list in pen, simply for the greater contrast/visibility. Some of the stores around here have surprisingly poor lighting and I don't need the eye strain of trying to read pencil in those conditions.

Edited by Aquaria
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With regard to paper in this day and age, we all face the same problem trying to find a decent reasonably priced paper for pen and ink, with so much of it recycled now, and made specifically for computer printing. Gone are the days when one could walk into a stationery store and buy writing pads and matching envelopes made for pen and ink before the arrival of reliable ball point pens.

 

I did find a ream of Hammermiill 20lb on offer in Walmart and bought it to give a tryout. I correspond with an FPN member on a frequent basis and seeing I could write on both sides reasonably recommended it to him by sending some blank sheets, The last letter I received showed significant bleed through whereas mine doesn't. We've yet to establish whether it's the ink he's using or the pen.

 

I have some recommendations for lined notebook-type paper, but with one caveat: I don't know how these papers would respond to FPs with broad nibs, with unusually wet writers, or with unusually wet inks. I'm only going with medium or finer nibs, and your average flow and ink wetness.

 

So with that said:

 

Roaring Springs has some FP friendly paper. I took all of my notes for an econ class in FP with an RS notebook that bore our college's name on it, with no bleed through. I can't vouch for any of their other paper products, only that one notebook.

 

Norcom paper is one of the best inexpensive paper brands for FPs, if you can find it. Their Big Scratch Pad is just a step down from Rhodia in quality. It's that good. And that's a scratch pad!

 

For FP networkers in Central and South Texas, the store brand HEB paper, GTC, is FP friendly, at least in the 70 page spiral form--which I think is made by Norcom. My husband, who uses only FPs with medium nibs, has had no feathering, bleedthrough or showthrough with that paper that I know of. The loose leaf GTC paper is weird in that every other sheet is FP friendly, while the other is not. So if you separate them out, you get a great--and still cheap--FP friendly paper. I can't speak for the larger spiral notebooks, but I would guess that they use the same paper as the cheapie notebook. But I only use the cheapie one, because the GTC 70 page spirals always cost around 25 cents each during HEB's big back to school sale, sometimes less if you're vigilant.

 

Plus, we get a discount on all HEB store brand items (food or not), because that's one of the perks of a husband who works for HEB. That's why we have spent as little as .15 cents per notebook for FP friendly paper. We have literally boxes of these notebooks around our house for this reason.

Edited by Aquaria
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For those who are interested in trying the cheapie paper at HEB, they have an online ordering service.

 

GTC 70-count spiral notebooks are running 88 cents right now, but they will drop to around a quarter in July/August:

 

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/gtc-1-subject-college-ruled-spiral-notebook-assorted-colors/538131

 

The current price at HEB for the Norcom Big Scratch pad (4 X 6, 220 pages) is $1.58. It's a terrific little notebook for lists and, well, whatever else you can think of to use this size of notebook for:

 

https://www.heb.com/product-detail/norcom-white-220-ruled-sheet-big-scratch-pad/460647

 

I provide the links not because I'm affiliated with HEB through my husband, but because I'd recommend these products, anyway, to any FP user on a budget, or those simply looking for an inexpensive paper for ordinary writing tasks.

 

Also: I don't know much about the shipping rates. After all, when I need something from HEB, I only have to go into the store that's less than a mile from my front door, or to one of the 50ish other stores in San Antonio. I did order some stuff from them when they gave us free shipping when the service first launched, so that my husband could tell customers what it was like. I only remember that I made use of it to order every non-perishable item on my grocery list rather than having to waste time going through all the aisles for them. Some HEBs are H-U-G-E, like the Bandera/1604 store, which is the size of three football fields (everything's bigger in Texas), so anytime I don't have to take that hike, I make use of the opportunity.

 

Anyway, I don't know why I found it amusing to have toilet paper delivered to my house, but I did. It seemed like such a crazy thing to send through whatever delivery service they use that I couldn't stop laughing about knowing that some poor sod just dropped off toilet paper at my front door.

Edited by Aquaria
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I write with a pen, draw with a pencil; three or four of the latter these days. Two are 90-year old mechanical pencils, plus a modern mechanical pencil with finer lead. A couple of days ago I found my Staedtler clutch pencil with some other tools unpacked. That was standard use for diagrams for decades before the old mechanicals arrived in the last couple of years.

 

The pencils do not get much use. I will almost always prefer a pen for writing, except on a piece of wood.

X

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  • 1 month later...

About the copying and indelible pencils: Aniline was added to the graphite and so became indelible when moistened; however it is not recommended to use saliva since aniline is poisonous to the human race.

I still have a box non-used ones from my old father-in-law...

Very interesting information: go to Wikipedia - copying pencel

hardtmuth-koh-i-noor-copieerst.jpg

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I've never heard of this before! Very intriguing pencil, is sth like it still in existence?

 

Duplicate - delete

Edited by aderoy
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