Pencil Talk

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on something related. My cousin found a mechanical pencil (in my recently deceased uncles desk) with my late father's name on it. My father's been gone for nearly 60 years so this pencil went way back. I managed to make out some writing on the cap so I took a picture of it (my method of magnifying things otherwise too small to identify) and made out the brand "Autopoint." I did a little digging along the way and discovered that Autopoint was owned by Bakelite and indeed, it looks like the barrel of the pencil is made from Bakelite. I also read that Autopoint used to make promotional items. Since my father was working as an engineer at a manufacturer that probably used Bakelite in some of their products, I speculate that this was a promotional item that Autopoint provided to engineers (and probably buyers) at the company to pump their product. (We also got tubular collapsing fiberglass fishing poles since they used fiberglass tubes for some of their products.)

Along the way I discovered that there is a Reddit devoted to mechanical pencils and they were happy to hear this story. And even happier to see that the pencil was well used.

I'm a fan of mechanical pencils myself. In school we were issued Pentel P205's and every few years I buy something new to try and always end up returning to my 30 year old P205 pencils.

I get that they are kinda looked down upon, but I really like my Rotring 800 in .7mm, paired with 2B lead. The disappearing point is a must have for portability. If you have some patience they do go on sale, I didn’t pay even close to MSRP. It’s pretty much the grail of handwriting for me.

I am also a fan of the Pentel Tuffstuff stick erasers. Unlike other stick erasers they are very fine, so you can get details/letters. For bulk erasing an Artist’s Gum eraser and a Magic Rub if the Gum doesn't do a good enough job.

It's difficult for whole sites to get traction here. Which is your favorite post of the blog?

I like https://www.penciltalk.org/2023/03/apuntes because the pencils have a weird shape. (Is there an explanation of the shape?)

If you use pencils a lot, do yourself a favor and get a dedicated eraser. I personally like the Sakura SumoGrip block erasers, but even a $3 Pentel Clic from your local big box store will be an upgrade from what is typically on the back of a pencil.

I'm a fan of the rotating lead feature of the Koru Toga

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/Uni-Kuru-Toga-A-Comprehensive-G...

I dove pretty deeply into wood case pencils for a few years (then I got tired of carrying around a good sharpener). Musgrave [https://musgravepencil.com/collections/the-heritage-collecti...] makes some good pencils, though some folks don't like the pronounced hex shape. Mitsu-bishi and Tombow produce some very nice, affordable pencils, though they can be hard to find at times. Everyone knows about Blackwings, but they were never my cup of tea -- the pencil is longer than the average wood case, and the eraser, for as nifty as it is, isn't that great.

Though I use pencils less these days, my current favorites are the Tombow 2558 in 2B and the Musgrave Greenbelt.

The Blackwing 602 is my favorite pencil. One very nifty feature is its swappable eraser - it’s also rectangular.

https://blackwing602.com/products/blackwing-602-set-of-12

How can penciltalk be a blog about pencils? That really disrupted my perception of HN.

I expected penciltalk to be some framework or package management/deployment tool.

I’m a fan of Alvin Draftmatics.

Lots of Pentel fans… I dunno, I really like the metal grip.

Apparently this site reflects the real world well, since Alvin was, I think, not popular enough to stay in business and was bought by somebody else… they started up production again, though!

This treatise on artisanal pencil-sharpening is relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spMaP-_Cq_8

Okay, wo, that’s freaky.

I’m a pencil fan insofar as when I use one, it’s probably for something semi-important, like a to-do list. Otherwise it goes into my phone, or computer, or cloud.

So I like to use really good pencils for such things, and Blackwings are my favorite. The California incense cedar smells great when you sharpen them, and the soft (but not too soft) graphite makes nice, dark lines and text.

My problem with mechanical pencils is they never seem to do well in my pocket if I'm on the bus running around and such, and I rarely need a pencil at home.

Is there any mechanical pencil that's meant to toss around in a bag and survive? Or do people use padded cases?

Love these but they have gotten very hard to find! https://unsharpen.com/pentel-wood-pencils/

PaperMate LOGO was a great mechanical pencil. Large white eraser. Retracting metal nib (when not in use). Why they killed this pencil is beyond me.

For those that don't want to read too much on this blog to find answers, the simple answer is nothing beats a quality mechanical drafting pencil if you're using it for writing and not for art. The Rotring 600, the Pentel Graphgear, and the Pentel Sharp (P205) are all fantastic choices. For art pencils it's hard to beat Staedtler.

It's an interesting blog, but after spending way too much of my energy on pencils and pens over the years, I've realized there's some great Goldilocks choices out there, so hopefully I save someone reading this the rabbit hole.

Pentel Graphgear 1000 & a Pentel Hi-Polymer block eraser are goated to the max.

Boutique pencils. Sure.