Do You Like To Write With A Wooden Pencil Or A Mechanical Better?

[impossiblebird]

Mechanical as long as the lead is at least 0.7 mm. Otherwise they break, :embarrassed_smile: maybe I put too much pressure, too easily.

 

That doesn't even make sense, you use fountain pens but you put to much pressure with mech pencils...

 

HMMM I think it does, and I've been draughting professionally for decades; That particular sound of a mechanical pencil point breaking, and the short profanity following is one I hear all the time, from those that use them. Personally preferences, and all that.

Maybe you're hearing it from those that use mechanical pencils some of the time, and ballpoints, rather than FPs, the rest of the time? I know 'him indoors' (ballpoint user) breaks mechanical pencil lead far more often than I do. I use more profanity, though, so it all evens out.

[beak]

Mechanical as long as the lead is at least 0.7 mm. Otherwise they break, :embarrassed_smile: maybe I put too much pressure, too easily.

 

That doesn't even make sense, you use fountain pens but you put to much pressure with mech pencils...

 

HMMM I think it does, and I've been draughting professionally for decades; That particular sound of a mechanical pencil point breaking, and the short profanity following is one I hear all the time, from those that use them. Personally preferences, and all that.

Maybe you're hearing it from those that use mechanical pencils some of the time, and ballpoints, rather than FPs, the rest of the time? I know 'him indoors' (ballpoint user) breaks mechanical pencil lead far more often than I do. I use more profanity, though, so it all evens out.

Strangely, no, but from folk that use them all day and everyday at work. Clearly we need a point-break ratio analysis - a breakdown in fact - between wood, 2mm and mechanical.

 

Perhaps I'm biased, but I have found that mech-users who change to 2mm tend never to go back - the reliability and possibility of greater expressiveness offered wins them over IMO. The sharpening of 2mms is off-putting at first of course, but when mastered, which is easy, is rapid and no 'issue' at all.

 

All IMO, of course - not being totalitarian about it.

Edited February 18, 2011 by beak

[Fuddlestack]

Mechanical as long as the lead is at least 0.7 mm. Otherwise they break, :embarrassed_smile: maybe I put too much pressure, too easily.

 

That doesn't even make sense, you use fountain pens but you put to much pressure with mech pencils...

 

HMMM I think it does, and I've been draughting professionally for decades; That particular sound of a mechanical pencil point breaking, and the short profanity following is one I hear all the time, from those that use them. Personally preferences, and all that.

 

My father was a draughtsman. He didn't like "the new stuff" but used wooden pencils all his life. He had ground a freebie penknife blade into a fearsomely sharp 1" scalpel, and with that he could put a fearsomely sharp point on any grade of pencil in half a minute. He disdained pencil sharpeners.

[John B]

Love Ticondaroga wooden pencils. They are the best.

[epo]

mechanical. Saves the need to have a sharpener handy.

By the same logic, ballpoint, saves the need to keep ink handy?

[fromheart2page]

I have always liked #2 or 3 wood pencils. When I was a kid I tried a couple of mechanical pencils but hated them. Maybe if I tried the kind draftsmen use I'll like them better than the run of the mill mechanical pencils you find in the school supply section of Kmart.

Edited February 17, 2011 by fromheart2page

[51ISH]

 

My father was a draughtsman. He didn't like "the new stuff" but used wooden pencils all his life. He had ground a freebie penknife blade into a fearsomely sharp 1" scalpel, and with that he could put a fearsomely sharp point on any grade of pencil in half a minute. He disdained pencil sharpeners.

 

 

Your Father reminds me of my old Technical Drawing teacher......

 

He hated pencil sharpeners, and wouldn't allow them in the classroom. You had to sharpen your 4H wooden pencil with a sharp knife, he said you couldn't get the point sharp enough with a sharpener....

 

If your drawing wasn't perfect....you knew you had no chance of that cherished mark of.... " Ex 10 "

 

Any mark less than an " 8 " and you were in big trouble....and that was after you had probably spent at least 3 hours of homework doing it..

[Ipno Tizer]

I don't use pencils that often but when I do thay are usually mechanical.

 

On the other hand there is one advantage to a wood pencil. The mechanism can't jam.

 

Chris B.

[DonLeone]

both

 

also: Uniball Kuru Toga is the love of my life

[Shangas]

Back when I did a lot of writing with pencils, I always preferred mechanical ones. Provided they didn't jam, they were the best writing instrument outside of a dip pen and fountain pen.

[Silvermink]

My favorite two pencils are a mechanical pencil (Uni Kuru Toga) and a none-of-the-above pencil (Koh-i-noor Progresso). The Progresso is wooden-pencil-esque, but is actually woodless - it's just a lacquered stick of graphite. It has very nice weight and balance.

 

I don't use pencils much, though, on the whole.

[Fmrvette]

I'm pretty traditional so i like to write with wooden pencils most of the time, but i also love my mechanical pencil collection, which do you prefer?

 

Pentel Graph Gear 1000. I use it more than any other writing tool I have (other than my computer keyboard). I keep my planner/calendar in pencil (too many changes during the day to use ink), and I can take meeting notes faster with the Pentel than with a FP.

[fpman]

Never fond of wooden pencils - I'm sharpening-impaired, which is why I never got into 2 mm clutch pencils. Started out with .5mm cheap mechanicals, graduated to technical pencils (also .5mm), then discovered vintage mechanical pencils and grew to love the fatter lead (1.1mm or .045", .9mm or .036" 'thin' lead). Vintage Autopoint or Durolite are the best (with apologies to Sheaffer and Parker).

[ThirdeYe]

I prefer Mechanical Pencils. In particular, some of my favorites are the Pentel Graph Gear 1000, Pentel P20x, and the Pentel Twist-Erase QE40x series. I got through college using the Bic Matics, but they're nothing to write home about.

[Black Rose]

When I need to use a pencil, I use mechanical pencils for everything except when I am marking lumber - for that I use a wooden pencil.

[beak]

Just popping in a note on 2mm and wood pencils concerning draughting and sharpness, for those who have not yet come across the technique...

 

Many beginners have trouble with points blunting too quickly for convenience when using these types of pencil. One thing that helps enormously is to form the habit of drawing lines with the pencil at a very low angle to the paper, and to spin the pencil as you go. This uses the abrasiveness of the paper to sharpen the pencil in the very act of drawing with it. The technique is not at all as difficult as it may sound, and soon becomes second nature.

Edited February 18, 2011 by beak

[arnett7117]

I like mechanical pencils better than a wooden pencil. But I prefer the newish Sharpie liquid pencil that writes like a ball point over either of them.

[epo]

One thing that helps enormously is to form the habit of drawing lines with the pencil at a very low angle to the paper, and to twist the pencil as you go. This uses the abrasiveness of the support to sharpen the pencil in the very act of drawing with it. The technique is not at all as difficult as it may sound, and soon becomes second nature.

The Kuru Toga does this, awesome pencil for the price (£5 in the UK).

[beak]

One thing that helps enormously is to form the habit of drawing lines with the pencil at a very low angle to the paper, and to twist the pencil as you go. This uses the abrasiveness of the support to sharpen the pencil in the very act of drawing with it. The technique is not at all as difficult as it may sound, and soon becomes second nature.

The Kuru Toga does this, awesome pencil for the price (£5 in the UK).

Amazing - shall try one just out of interest!

[jBeckett]

I wish I could like the Kuru Toga, maybe I'm strange but I prefer being able to rotate the pencil myself so I can have a thin or thick line.