deskthority

So we all love mechanical keyboards, but who also loves mechanical pencils? Personally, I can't do without them xD .

My daily drivers

Pentels are good, but I don't use 0.5mm except for light lines at the drawing table.

0.7mm minimum is my heavy-handed style. I have sent several of the blue 0.7mm ones through the washer and dryer multiple times, over the years, and they have always continued to work properly ( bad idea for neighboring fabric, however).

For serious drawing, at triple the price, the metal Koh-I-Nors with knurled finger grips are the way to go.

fohat wrote: ↑Pentels are good, but I don't use 0.5mm except for light lines at the drawing table.

0.7mm minimum is my heavy-handed style. I have sent several of the blue 0.7mm ones through the washer and dryer multiple times, over the years, and they have always continued to work properly ( bad idea for neighboring fabric, however).

For serious drawing, at triple the price, the metal Koh-I-Nors with knurled finger grips are the way to go.

It might be crazy, but I enjoy using 0.3mm for its precision, though leads keeps breaking randomly even on my light-hand.

0.5mm never seem to break on me

For smaller leads I like to pair up with lighter weighted barrels, as the lead is less likely to break.

I find metal ones rather cold to hold, compared to the "warmth" that wooden ones brings.

fohat wrote: ↑Pentels are good, but I don't use 0.5mm except for light lines at the drawing table.

0.7mm minimum is my heavy-handed style. I have sent several of the blue 0.7mm ones through the washer and dryer multiple times, over the years, and they have always continued to work properly ( bad idea for neighboring fabric, however).

For serious drawing, at triple the price, the metal Koh-I-Nors with knurled finger grips are the way to go.

Those are some fat ole lines you lay down with those beasts!

I've used Pentel 120 A3 0.3mm mechanical pencils for decades. I tried a GraphGear 1000 thinking it would be sturdier than the A3s due to the retractable end, but the shaft is all plastic and the bloody thing snapped, so back to A3s it is.

Though to be fair when I was in high school I was always getting yelled at by the teachers for "writing too small"

I use fairly cheap Mitsubishi pencils, 0.5 mm. Thicker is messy for me, and smaller breaks on me constantly xD .

Fohat is one beast of a man. 0.9mm?

I have never seen a 0.9mm on sale before. If I had, I would have bought it. 0.5mm always break on me.

I've been using Staedtler Mars Micro since the 80's. Used it all through engineering school in a time when everything was done on pencil and paper. I have tried a few other's but I am a creature of habit and keep going back the Mars

I love mechanical pencils. I honestly don't know why more people don't use them.

I use a cheap Staedtler.

With that a sharpie and my techpen i am set for anything!

I'm not a scientist like you Chyros, I do still need the percision every once in a while.

Stylish combo ^^ . I tried using the ridge on bigfoots for pencils but it doesn't work properly for me xD .

That ITT Courier board had a virtual pencil case built into the top, though xD .

Chyros wrote: ↑That ITT Courier board had a virtual pencil case built into the top, though xD .

Yeah I remember that, you can fit half your office supplies on there and then some.

Chyros wrote: ↑Stylish combo ^^ . I tried using the ridge on bigfoots for pencils but it doesn't work properly for me xD .

I never actually use it like that, just for the pic.

Uni Kuru Toga - best described here and here. It spins the lead as you write in order to make sure the line width is consistent, quite a clever mechanism.

vaxxi wrote: ↑Uni Kuru Toga - best described here and here. It spins the lead as you write in order to make sure the line width is consistent, quite a clever mechanism.

Yeah, that's the exact one I use . They're not too expensive and pretty comfortable to use.

I have three .05 Kuru Togas and a .03 Kuru Toga. I love them, the lead only really ever breaks for me with the .03. I used to only use .07 and .09 since I sometimes write quite heavily when writing quickly.

andrewjoy wrote: ↑
I honestly don't know why more people don't use them.

I love wooden pencils, but if you are using them seriously the maintenance is just too high.

berserkfan wrote: ↑ Fohat is one beast of a man. 0.9mm?

I use red and blue leads, which are more flexible and weaker, so larger sizes are even more important.

I have a 3.75 kg keyboard, too.

Pencils are crap, unless you’re an artist or something.

Chalk (on a slate blackboard, natch) and pens are the only true writing instruments.

jacobolus wrote: ↑Pencils are crap, unless you’re an artist or something.

Chalk (on a slate blackboard, natch) and pens are the only true writing instruments.

jacobolus wrote: ↑Pencils are crap, unless you’re an artist or something.

Chalk (on a slate blackboard, natch) and pens are the only true writing instruments.

Slate writing pad.

http://www.objectlessons.org/childhood- ... s67/a1016/

( i had one when i was a kid )

But i agree that pens unless you are filling in a form or signing stuff, pencil > pen.

fohat wrote: ↑

I use red and blue leads, which are more flexible and weaker, so larger sizes are even more important.

I have a 3.75 kg keyboard, too.

OH darn, you are even more amazing than I thought. I don't see red and blue leads around much in the market.

But your keyboard can't be 3.75kg. You use a Model F-122 with teensy which is 2.75kg, and I know you cut your plate up.

The keyboards that are 3+kg, I'm selling on my thread (and no one is buying). Deko Pinnacle, Grass Valley Metal Casing keyboard. These are the serious monsters that I don't even begin to understand why I wanted to collect, except they looked cool and feel like battleship control stations when I put on my desk.

I am having a lot of trouble finding the colored leads in the larger sizes, particularly the 0.9mm size, these days. I don't use too much of them, but they are getting scarce as fewer and fewer people actually do construction drawings with pencils. I have enough 0.5mm red lead for at least a year, but am very low on blue.

I got on the bathroom scale with and without my F-122, and it weighed 8.25 pounds = 3.75 kg.

The cut plate specimen that I have left certainly weighs more, with top shell on, and probably almost as much with top shell off, because the infills and buttresses that I added are much more massive than the small amount of sheet metal that I removed (since I put most of it back somewhere else). Also, I add as much insulation and padding inside the case as I can. At least 2 of my F-122s have fitted sheets of my 60 mil EPDM at the bottom and it is quite hefty.

fohat wrote: ↑I am having a lot of trouble finding the colored leads in the larger sizes, particularly the 0.9mm size, these days. I don't use too much of them, but they are getting scarce as fewer and fewer people actually do construction drawings with pencils. I have enough 0.5mm red lead for at least a year, but am very low on blue.

I got on the bathroom scale with and without my F-122, and it weighed 8.25 pounds = 3.75 kg.

The cut plate specimen that I have left certainly weighs more, with top shell on, and probably almost as much with top shell off, because the infills and buttresses that I added are much more massive than the small amount of sheet metal that I removed (since I put most of it back somewhere else). Also, I add as much insulation and padding inside the case as I can. At least 2 of my F-122s have fitted sheets of my 60 mil EPDM at the bottom and it is quite hefty.

OKAY... no wonder... you did a lot of stuff that I never did. I am a very simply utilitarian kind of person. If it works better it is enough for me. That EPDM mat you were selling last year - just ridiculous. That put you in full industrial category and I bet no geek who buys an Industrial Model M for $1000 will ever use your kind of hardcore padding.

My F122 is just under 4 kg.

berserkfan wrote: ↑
That EPDM mat you were selling last year - just ridiculous. That put you in full industrial category and I bet no geek who buys an Industrial Model M for $1000 will ever use your kind of hardcore padding.

I really don't understand what this means. My keyboard mats (still for sale, and I got a new supply of surplus material a couple of weeks ago) are hardly ridiculous - everyone who has bought one has sent me a glowing report and recommendation. I am lucky to have the luxury of enough pieces to line the bottom interiors of some of my favorite keyboards.

But I agree that anyone paying a super-premium price for a collectible keyboard is not likely to want to alter it.

Chyros wrote: ↑
My F122 is just under 4 kg.

A stock cable probably weighs nearly half a kilogram on its own!

fohat wrote: ↑

berserkfan wrote: ↑
That EPDM mat you were selling last year - just ridiculous. That put you in full industrial category and I bet no geek who buys an Industrial Model M for $1000 will ever use your kind of hardcore padding.

I really don't understand what this means. My keyboard mats (still for sale, and I got a new supply of surplus material a couple of weeks ago) are hardly ridiculous - everyone who has bought one has sent me a glowing report and recommendation. I am lucky to have the luxury of enough pieces to line the bottom interiors of some of my favorite keyboards.

But I agree that anyone paying a super-premium price for a collectible keyboard is not likely to want to alter it.

Chyros wrote: ↑
My F122 is just under 4 kg.

A stock cable probably weighs nearly half a kilogram on its own!

I didn't even weight it with the cable xD . But yeah, those are super heavy xD .

Does that Grass Valley you mentioned have the video editing keys?

fohat wrote: ↑I really don't understand what this means.

He’s complimenting your mats, suggesting they are more properly “industrial strength” than any dark gray shelled Model M.

Chyros wrote: ↑

vaxxi wrote: ↑Uni Kuru Toga - best described here and here. It spins the lead as you write in order to make sure the line width is consistent, quite a clever mechanism.

Yeah, that's the exact one I use . They're not too expensive and pretty comfortable to use.

...and now I want one!!

I ride with that one

I've been using a bunch of Pentel GraphGear 500s (I've got one of each 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 mm) since when I started my university studies. It was the best pen I could find in the university paper shop, so I just went with it and it stuck with me. Pretty nice, despite the upper part being plastic.