Blackwing Pencils

Blackwing Pencils

If I had to buy one: Blackwing 602

  • Reasonable cost, American-made, high quality product with a cult following

Where to buy:

Differences between the main 3 Blackwings

  • Black (standard): softest and fastest to dull: ~4B

  • White (aka: “Pearl”): next softest: ~3B

  • Grey (aka: “602”): hardest tip, but still soft: ~2B

Mechanical Pencils

Mechanical Pencils

If you had to buy one: Pentel GraphGear .5mm

  • Extremely durable, high build quality, reasonable cost, and looks pretty good – not as good as Alvin or rOtring though 😄

Two others to buy:

  • Alvin Draftmatic – the best pencil in my opinion (if you ignore durability); tips will bend if they got tossed around, or fall on the floor

  • rOtring - amazing beautiful pencil, really stunning. I was turned on to this pencil by a Swedish friend. Mine is not pictured because it broke a few months after I bought it 😢

Other thoughts:

  • Never pay less than $10 for a mechanical pencil, and always get one with a knurled tip

  • The biggest consideration is the diameter of the lead (see below)

  • Always buy HB lead unless you know what you’re doing

  • Small neat lettering: (.3mm - .5mm)

  • Normal lettering: .7mm

  • Large lettering: .9mm

Pens

Pens

If I had to choose 2 pens:

OHTO “The Dude” ($15)

  • WRITES LIKE A DREAM

  • High quality, made in Japan

  • Technically, a ballpoint pen, but this was sold to me as a rollerball. It certainly writes like one. I love this pen!

Le Pen ($2)

  • AWESOME – Felt tip, various widths available

  • Excellent for illustration, jotting down notes, or diagramming

  • Pretty easy to find, and not too expensive – available in lots of colors and different tip sizes

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Blackwing Pencils
Mechanical Pencils
Pens