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Pencil Talk

penciltalk.org

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21–30 of 45 posts

Re: Pencil Talk

#21

Post by riversflow »

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.

Re: Pencil Talk

#23

Post by eternityforest »

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?

Re: Pencil Talk

#24

Post by wrp »

eternityforest wrote: post #23

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?

Pentel Kerry (https://www.amazon.com/Pentel-Sharp-Kerry-Mechanical-Pencil/...)

Re: Pencil Talk

#25

Post by privong »

eternityforest wrote: post #23

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?

> Is there any mechanical pencil that's meant to toss around in a bag and survive?

I'm not sure exactly what the failure mode is that you're experiencing, but the Rotring 800[0] is retractable. I've gotten a lot of use out of my Rotring 600 but wish I had bought the 800 to be able to retract and protect the lead sleeve.

[0] https://www.rotring.com/pens-pencils/pencils/rotring-800/SAP...

Re: Pencil Talk

#26

Post by iancmceachern »

eternityforest wrote: post #23

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?

Gotta get a pencil bag or pen sleeve

Re: Pencil Talk

#27

Post by chrisweekly »

tristor wrote: post #20

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 pe…

Pentel GraphGear 1000 is phenomenal.

Re: Pencil Talk

#28

Post by borlox »

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.

Re: Pencil Talk

#30

Post by HankB99 »

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.

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