What type of lead should I buy for my mechanical pencil?

I received a lot of questions recently about lead. In the present post, I deal with this question decisively. Some have suggested that this is a matter of personal taste. I disagree. One essential is buying a lead that will not break too often. No one likes that person who is always click-clacking their mechanical pencil because their lead is constantly breaking. Some people go with HB lead that comes standard with most mechanical pencils. Unless the quality of the lead is extremely high, I see this as a mistake. Usually, I go with the a B grade lead. This is the perfect balance of writing smoothness and lead toughness. If one bears down with even moderate force, one stick of B grade lead will last four 8 hours of writing. This is quite excellent. On a side note, never buy colored leads for mechanical pencils. The technology just isnhasn't progressed that far yet.

47 Mechanical Pencils

Today I saw the McDonald's commercial in which several employees are discussing a trade. Instead of talking about how much money each object was worth, they discussed the trade in terms of hamburgers. It got me thinking. I think I actually think about purchases in terms of the number of mechanical pencils I can obtain for the same price. For example, my sister-in-law recently started selling "elf-on-a-shelf dolls." One might think, "oh, it's only $25" for a personalized doll. Many people are lulled to sleep by such logic. However, a wiser decision would be made if one asked the question, " is this worth 5 pentel 205 mechanical pencils?" Asking it this way makes it more of a rhetorical question.

Don't get carried away with Staplers!

When I first started in this field, America was a culture that cared very little about office supplies. In a very real way, America was uneducated regarding its office supplies. Not so today! Just a quick search on google yields thousands of reviews on office products. There is no shortage of knowledge.

The pendulum has swung. Now America has the reverse problem. Take, for example, the recent flurry of activity in the stapler world. More than a fancy car or a nice house, one's stapler has become a symbol of status. Let me show you the stapler that one of my good friends, Josh Hook, recently purchased.
I was out on a leisurely stroll on the app trail the other day, and I saw a camper with one of these. Are you kidding me?
There is no need for such extravagances when it comes to staplers. I have no problem with people choosing a stapler to represent their own personal taste. Every time I have the opportunity, I buy blue, that being my favorite color. Last Christmas, I put a pink stapler in my wife's stocking.
But I don't want to just tell you what not to do. Let me offer a few suggestions. This stapler, the Paper Pro, illustrates all the essentials of a stapler. It as a sleek, simple, even classic design, but this is no regular stapler. It carries a pop with its punch. Less than an ounce of pressure will release over 75 lbs. of force. The stapler claims to be able to staple 25 sheets, but they must have tested it on card stock. In our labs tests, we have stapled 53 sheets, and probably could have done more, had we not been limited by our staple length. The stapler is safe and can only be fired when pressed against a solid object (do not try this at home, but there is also a way around the safety. When the safety button is taped down, one can eject a staple up to 65 feet).

In short, staplers are important, but one should never draw one's sense of identity, security, and self-esteem, from a stapler. America needs to strive for excellence without extravagance. I have seen to0 many families destroyed when this balance is not quite right.

American Idol: Mechanical Pencil Edition