Favorite Mechanical Pencil And Lead

[OakIris]

I like my Pentel Sharp Kerry Pencils (I have the .5mm and .7mm models) and my Lamy 2000 .7mm MP. For lead I normally use Pentel lead but also have some Uni lead. I agree with lovemy51: the softer the lead, the better, as I like a nice dark line with a soft, smooth feel to it when I write. Almost all of my lead canisters are B or 2B since the 4B is harder to find. I can actually get lead in local art stores, one of the few things related to writing instruments that I don't normally have to buy on line, and I have yet to find anything softer than 2B there. All the local office supply stores seem to have is the ubiquitous HB lead which is way too hard for me.

 

I would like to get the Lamy Scribbler, too, as well as some of the lovely wooden bodied MPs available, such as the Pilot S20 drafting pencil, but it seems all of my spare and not-so-spare cash is going into fountain pens, ink and fountain pen paraphernalia these days.

 

Holly

[sunrise]

My favourite mechanical pencil is a Soennecken, made of aluminium. It has 2B leads from Faber-Castell in it.

[WriterProspect]

Waterman Expert 2 with Pentel Hi-Polymer B lead in .5 mm.

[praxim]

My choice is basically of the preferred lead at the time, and which pen is nice to hold and use. I have collected (not all by specific choice), Inoxcrom, Papermate, Pentel, Staedtler, Wahl-Eversharp and Waterman Expert pencils, listed alphabetically, ranging in lead diameter through 0.5, 0.7, 0.9 and ~1.1 mm in HB and 2B, in polymer, hi-polymer and polycarbon (probably much the same things). I had not the slightest idea until I looked that I had gathered so many.

 

I like the Waterman (0.7 mm) to hold (although some others give me a 0.5 mm line) and the Eversharp for a thicker shading (1.1 mm), with the Pentel (0.5 mm) and Staedtler (0.9 mm) in the shed serving similar thicknesses in a less tolerant environment (i.e. I do not care much if they get damaged). I may as well discard the other ones.

 

ETA: Oops, I just discovered another, a Scheaffer 0.5 mm silver-look pen whose set companion ballpoint I lost on a business trip many years ago. That can go too. Sorry, brother-in-law.

Edited April 28, 2016 by praxim