Fancy Pencils

To keep a long ramble short: a couple weeks ago I heard about the concept of an “Eternal Pencil,” basically, a pencil lead holder with screw on oxidized metal tips that more or less simulate a standard pencil in writing experience (while lasting quite a bit longer, hence the name). I wound up looking into pencils a bit, and turns out it’s quite the rabbit hole. About a week ago I wound up buying a box of relatively premium Mitsubishi pencils, and a few hours short of a week since I first touched them I’m already through the first one. Supposedly a pencil will last upwards of 40k words, and although it’s a 2B (meaning it’ll wear out faster), it should say something about how much I’ve enjoyed writing with it.

I think the thing I’ve most enjoyed about them is the fact they’re a fair bit softer than most pencils, as somebody who usually writes with a pen, the lighter colored lines and the additional pressure pencils usually require had me mainly using pens through my adult life. Apparently, however, the secret pencil Illuminati never bothered to tell me about pencil hardness grading.

(source: MontMart)

The softer grades really changes the process of writing with a pencil. I wound up picking up the wooden pencils in the picture above in 2B, as well as some mechanical pencil lead in 4b, and I’ve found it to be a lot more enjoyable. The 2B wooden pencil seems to be a good mix of longevity and softness, lasting to be about 1 page worth of words before needing to be sharpened while still feeling really smooth on the paper. The 4B mechanical lead feels about the same in terms of scratchiness on the paper (slightly harder full sized wooden pencil vs much smaller 0.5mm mechanical lead), and even though it wears down a lot faster, it really doesn’t matter too much since it just needs to be clicked forward instead of needing to be sharpened.

That’s really about it, like I said, I just wanted to ramble on about pencils for a a couple paragraphs. I’ve been really enjoying the 9800 2Bs, although I haven’t tried a ton of different brands/hardness grades so I can’t really compare it against anything else in the more premium pencil market. But for $6.29 after tax for a dozen I’d certainly say they were worth it.