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I have a feeling if you spoke to some artists/draftsmen you'd hear about the "Mont Blanc" of pencils.

Also, you might find such a thing here: http://www.penciltalk.org/

But I am not talking about draftsmen - the "Mont Blanc" exists _per se_ not in some specific demographic.

I like penciltalk, because the other site which I have seen - davesmechanicalpencils - has good reviews, but invariably all the pencils look uncool. I am sure it's not the poor bloke's fault - rather that companies dont make pencils with sex appeal.

Montblanc make mechanical pencils. As do most of the luxury brand manufacturers (there are many who make more expensive pens than Montblanc.)

This is potentially better then lead in that it's permanent after a while. I wonder how permanent, but it's certainly true that pencil notes on paper don't come close to archival quality.

There's also the appeal of going back to your lab notebooks after six months and not finding them a smear of graphite. To me, pencils feel the best when writing, but the smudging over time is too annoying.