• CaptnNMorgan@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 days ago

    I’ve never touched a mechanical pencil that didn’t suck. 7 is awful, I don’t understand what people like about it. The only choice on this is 2.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      #7 is perfect, the thick lead and the spring is great if you push down on the paper too hard for the other mechanical pencils.

  • swag_money@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 days ago
    1. it rotates the graphite as you write so your lines are always sharp. it’s an absolute game changer and now i can never go back to a standard mechanical pencil
  • simple@lemm.eeEnglish
    774·
    4 days ago

    Two. My experience with mechanical pencils is that they’re often unreliable and a waste of time. I hate having to reload my pencil, I hate when it breaks if you accidentally make the tip longer than it should be, I hate when you accidentally put one more in the pencil and it gets clogged, I hate having to carry refills all the time, I hate buying an expensive pencil and worrying about losing it (as opposed to just buying a dozen regular pencils for backup)…

    Just hand over the regular pencil and a decent sharpener.

    • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.worldOP
      281·
      4 days ago

      If you feel they are unreliable, it may just be that you aren’t using good ones. I use 3 on a regular basis (for Japanese) and never have issues with feeding or lead breaking; I also only have to refill it every few weeks.

      • rtxn@lemmy.world
        14·
        4 days ago

        I’ve had the same mechanical pencil for ten years. It’s comfortable, reliable, easy to reload, but if I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I’d still go with the traditional wood/graphite pencil. It’s cheap, it’s everywhere, it’s durable, and not a great loss if you lose it.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Same, an actual good quality, properly made and assembled mechanical pencil will just keep going and going, and if you treat it well, you never need to replace it.

        Kinda like a decent quality safety razor.

        All you gotta do is treat it right and replace the razors/graphite, nets out to saving money after probably a month or two of decent use.

      • ornery_chemist@mander.xyz
        1·
        4 days ago

        I got one because I was intrigued by its lead rotation, but I found that it really didn’t rotate the lead enough while I wrote. I kept having to rotate the barrel manually to keep a thin line like I do for every other mechanical pencil, and then would get annoyed every time the clip came around to brush my hand. I’ve been wondering if I’m doing something wrong, or if Japanese just uses more shorter strokes. Do you also like it when writing English?

        • KoalaUnknown@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          3 days ago

          I only use my kuru toga when writing in Japanese, I normally just use a pen for english. Japanese does have significantly more strokes.

    • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
      9·
      4 days ago

      On the topic of sharpeners, those battery powered pressure sharpeners are satisfying as fuck. They’re shit and invariably snap the nib, but they’re the sharpening equivalent of shoving a Q-tip in your ear and having a good rake about.

      Or if you’re all about the procrastination, spending a few minutes every lesson at the classroom sharpener like this one brings back the nostalgia:

    • UnityDevice@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      Unreliable? I have two Staedtler Mars Micro pens I bought a good 20 years ago and they both work perfectly.

    • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      Plus a good ol Dixon Ticonderoga can write on stuff other than paper. About the only time I use a pencil is when doing carpentry and mechanical ones just snap.