I used one pencil throughout high school and another throughout college.
The high school piece was a Y&C version of the ubiquitous Grip500 double-knock in cherry red. The grip wore away completely after a couple years. I guess I threw it away or was careless with it at some point (which is uncommon for me), as I never found the pencil to keep for posterity.
In college, I used a Stanford Pro•Touch with rubber grip for 4 years. Because I was in engineering classes, I did an unbelievable amount of math and technical stuff on engineer’s pad sheets; this resulted in an almost unbelievable wear pattern from the grip/barrel joint all the way down to the tip.
Thankfully, I still have that Pro•Touch today. And right before I graduated, I bought a PaperMate Pro•Touch II that I never touched. Prescient purchase, as those are very difficult to find nowadays and are usually quite expensive.
I used a metal Herlitz in the last year of high school and most of college, 25 years ago. Got a NOS one about 3 years ago, shortly after I started collecting.
Constantly rotating the pencils I use day to day is one of the main pleasures of collecting. Over the past six months I’ve been doing less drawing work, and these three have become my core pens, they’re almost always with me.
KAWECO SPECIAL 0.5mm
The feel is excellent. It was originally bought for my child’s homework, but once I started using it myself, I couldn’t put it down. Simple construction, well-balanced weight, and very comfortable for long sessions. The rear button is wide, making it easy to advance the lead with a tap of the chin.
CARAN D’ACHE 844 0.7mm
Perfect for writing while standing, without a desk. I often brace the notebook against my stomach, and the 844 is easy to grip and very stable in that situation.
Montblanc Slimline Noblesse ballpoint
I basically use it only for signing. Occasionally it’s also handy for making quick marks on walls. It lives in the inner pocket of my jacket — the weight and size are just right. That said, I wouldn’t choose such a slim pen for long writing sessions. Lately I’ve also been writing in my journal less… winter has this contagious sense of laziness.
Despite all of my fancy pencils, for daily use and to toss around a bag, I always come back to these (mostly because I don’t mind if they get banged up or lost)
This only really applies to buying models that are currently in stock - and for those I certainly do this (but I still do not consider a “user” spare of a $50 pencil just as disposable as one of my roughly 200 pentel p200s). For example, I do not wish to purchase 3 units of every size of Tombow Variable at current market prices. Though to be fair, maybe I just need to make more money…
This is my daily loadout as a student, part of my pencil-bag.
Rotring 600 0.5mm
A pencil that needs no introduction. My pencil for graphs and numbers. The feeling is incredible, but the tip is prone to bending; to solve that, I bought a handful of metal tubes of inner diameters ranging from 1.0-1.1mm to pry the tip back when it bends.
Uni Kuru Toga Dive
Another pencil that needs no introduction. My pencil for everything else. Yes, it’s a gimmick pencil, but I love it. It feels a bit cheap in the hand, but makes up for it when I’m able to churn out pages of notes at a time without knocking. It’s only annoying that I’m limited to HB lead (2B is too soft and self-advance can’t keep up!), but I’m going to experiment with B lead next week.
Uni Jetstream Edge 3 Multipen
How did a pen sneak in here? The Edge 3 isn’t a very common pen, and I have not seen anyone else main it—which is a shame! The stock 0.28mm tips are surprisingly smooth, but I’ve replaced them all with 0.7mm Green, Red, and Blue, keeping only the very-aesthetic shell.
I tend to rotate my EDC a bit, but the one pencil logging the most hours continues to be the classic PD345(T). Began with Smoke Grey in the early 80’s…lately it’s old blue. I keep a few on hand so I don’t run out…
Nice post. I don’t know how I missed the Yikes pencils!
If you are familiar with Myth Busters, Adam Savage has a YouTube channel (Adam Savage’s Tested); those papermate pencils are his favorite and has done several segments about them….you’ll dig it.
Uni pure malt capped. I love having the ability to use it posted and unposted. Its like the pencil has two writing modes where unposted I can write faster and smaller and posted I write slower and focus on neater hand writing. The pencil is also the most solid feeling wood body pencil that ive used. Its got that nice thud sound you get from a full heavy metal pencil but its wood!
