From the Knockology archives
This post revisits conversations from our smaller community before we moved to this forum. I’ve brought the discoveries and memorable moments together, with credit to the members who contributed. These discussions reflect what we knew at the time. Please add any newer information, corrections, or photos below!
Lead diameter sounds like a small technical preference until you ask a roomful of mechanical-pencil collectors about their favorite. In our early conversations, the space between 0.3 and 0.5 mm became both a serious discussion about writing feel and an excellent opportunity to tease @pearsonified.
Pearsonified knew his weaknesses:
“2 things I’ll overpay for every time: [1] 0.4mm and [2] double knocks”
@Heath had never used anything smaller than 0.5 mm and asked whether 0.4 was the sweet spot: smaller, but not too small.
Pearsonified said it had been “love at first write.”
Naturally, I informed him that any 0.4 mm pencil might qualify for the title of worst pencil ever created.
For the avoidance of a mechanical-pencil diplomatic incident: I was teasing him. I even labeled it “fighting words” at the time.
One tenth of a millimeter, strongly felt
Pearsonified explained his preference in terms of his own writing. He had always liked 0.5 mm, found 0.3 a little too fine for the way he used it, and enjoyed 0.4 as the compromise. Lead breakage was part of his experience with the smaller size.
He knew what suited his writing, and he had found a whole collecting direction in that tenth of a millimeter. We could tease him about it because the enthusiasm was so familiar.
It also affected what he collected. In another conversation, he said he generally didn’t pursue the 0.7 and 0.9 versions of vintage drafting families. He especially liked families covering 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5, or pairs in the sizes he used most.
The sizes shape the collection
Once you collect by lead size, the gaps become different from the gaps seen by someone collecting colors or every model in a series.
A family with an unusual 0.4 member can become especially attractive. A lineup in larger sizes may be interesting historically without demanding a place in the same collector’s drawer. That is not inconsistency; it is a collection organized around use and personal taste.
The same group included my regularly used 0.9 mm Spoke 4. We were not all converging on one correct answer. We had enough different preferences to keep the conversation lively.
“We are adversaries now”
My entirely unfair 0.4 remark came during a wide-ranging unboxing conversation. Pearsonified had been describing mechanisms he liked and a cartridge pencil he very much did not.
I saw an opportunity to insult his favorite size. He replied:
“omg we are adversaries now”
Then announced he was finishing a 10,000-word defense of 0.4’s greatness.
The surviving exchange ends without the essay. The threat was enough.
The joke worked because the enthusiasm underneath it was real. He could explain precisely what he enjoyed, and the rest of us knew the feeling even when we preferred a different pencil.
Knock on!