2d ago

Definitely didn't waste half an hour making this

341 comments

Two. My experience with mechanical pencils is that they're often unreliable and a waste of time. I hate having to reload my pencil, I hate when it breaks if you accidentally make the tip longer than it should be, I hate when you accidentally put one more in the pencil and it gets clogged, I hate having to carry refills all the time, I hate buying an expensive pencil and worrying about losing it (as opposed to just buying a dozen regular pencils for backup)...
Just hand over the regular pencil and a decent sharpener.
- Bonus points for #2 being #2
- If you feel they are unreliable, it may just be that you aren’t using good ones. I use 3 on a regular basis (for Japanese) and never have issues with feeding or lead breaking; I also only have to refill it every few weeks.
  
  Same, an actual good quality, properly made and assembled mechanical pencil will just keep going and going, and if you treat it well, you never need to replace it.
  Kinda like a decent quality safety razor.
  All you gotta do is treat it right and replace the razors/graphite, nets out to saving money after probably a month or two of decent use.
  
  I've had the same mechanical pencil for ten years. It's comfortable, reliable, easy to reload, but if I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I'd still go with the traditional wood/graphite pencil. It's cheap, it's everywhere, it's durable, and not a great loss if you lose it.
  
  What pencil?
  
  I got one because I was intrigued by its lead rotation, but I found that it really didn't rotate the lead enough while I wrote. I kept having to rotate the barrel manually to keep a thin line like I do for every other mechanical pencil, and then would get annoyed every time the clip came around to brush my hand. I've been wondering if I'm doing something wrong, or if Japanese just uses more shorter strokes. Do you also like it when writing English?
  
  I only use my kuru toga when writing in Japanese, I normally just use a pen for english. Japanese does have significantly more strokes.
- On the topic of sharpeners, those battery powered pressure sharpeners are satisfying as fuck. They're shit and invariably snap the nib, but they're the sharpening equivalent of shoving a Q-tip in your ear and having a good rake about.
  Or if you're all about the procrastination, spending a few minutes every lesson at the classroom sharpener like this one brings back the nostalgia:
  
  The pull out drawer for shavings is top tier.
  
  Nothing beats these though:
  Just gotta use them over the waste basket.
  
  I had exactly one of these through my entire education period. Reliable and utterly indestructible.
- Unreliable? I have two Staedtler Mars Micro pens I bought a good 20 years ago and they both work perfectly.
- Back at my school in the 90's you just bought a 10 pack of the cheap black Bic mechanical pencils for like $3 (pic #5) and you were set for the year if you didn't lose too many. They never really broke and you didn't have to refill them if you didn't want to. They also never clogged and if you weren't an idiot you didn't try to use too much lead length to where it would break off.
  They were simple and easy and always sharp.
- Since I switched to using 0.9 mm, I almost never break a lead unless I drop it onto a hard floor; it even holds up to some aggressive tapping. Consequently, I hardly ever have to refill. I also never worry about the point snapping or stabbing when tossed loose into a bag, or keeping a sharpener on hand.
  Just my #2 cents.
- It also always ends mid-word/stroke, and you start etching the paper with the metal end. Very annoying.
- Plus a good ol Dixon Ticonderoga can write on stuff other than paper. About the only time I use a pencil is when doing carpentry and mechanical ones just snap.
  
  When I was doing roofing the pica dry mechanical pencils made things so much better. Sure a pencil works good on wood, but what about when I have to mark gray sheet metal? You need something that comes with different colors.
  
  That’s what sharpies are for
  
  Those get clogged up on pre patinad copper unfortunately, and a sharpie does not work well on black prefa unless you are trying to hide a scratch. sharpie also doesn't always wipe off well.
- "Decent sharpener" aka box cutters.

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