Sunday, April 5, 2009
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.
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2 comments:
Donnie,
I couldn't be more pleased to see that you have started back up the blog, and with a concentrated focus on mechanical pencils, nonetheless. I applaud your concerted effort for graphite-based writing, though I would enjoy seeing you branch out into all form of utensils (e.g., pens, markers, crayons).
Also, I'd like to see that guest editorial on determining the success of one's job based on the office supply procurement on first day. It sounds fascinating.
Daryl
Your information is both entertaining and factually accurate. I was trying to mark up some construction drawings with 0.5 red lead in my PENTEL A79 FORTE PRO II, which by the way i am surprised has not come up in your research. Needless to say i quickly became discouraged by the frequent breaking, and switched to a felt pen.
On the advantages of the PENTEL A79 FORTE PRO II, or "FO PRO DUO", as we affectionately call it in the office, it does great when working primarily with graphic projects, and is slightly less expensive than some of the models you discussed (http://content.etilize.com/Large/11966700.jpg).
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