At home I keep my trusty true pointer on the desk (dusty!), and occasionally sketch with the clutch pencil. Haven't bought leads for years... I doubt they stale date.

In the desk drawers I believe I have some eraser bags, eraser pencils, gum and hard erasers, bottle of sepia eraser, probably more (I make a lot of mistakes!). Still have some nibs and nib holders, but the ink bottles have long ago given up their essence.

I hadn't really thought about it, but some old habits seem to die hard.

My experience with ballpoint pens is much like yours. But ... About 30 or 40 years ago I paid a high price for two ballpoints that were able to write in all conditions. I know where one of them is and it still writes flawlessly. The other is missing. It was not too attractive. Closed it looked like a capsule about half the size of a regular pen.

They both wrote underwater and in a vacuum. According to their advert, they used technology developed for the space program.

"They both wrote underwater and in a vacuum. According to their advert, they used technology developed for the space program."

They use nitrogen pressurized ink cartridges.

Yes, I got one of those as a Christmas gift a long time ago. It did write very well at any angle until it developed a leak. I had to retire it.

Until I retired about 18 months ago, I still had a pocket protector with my 6-inch stainless steel scale, my Pentel P205 (0.5 mm lead mechanical pencil), and an array of Uniball Micro pens in black, blue, & red in my shirt pocket five days a week. The pencil and black pen were used EVERY day, other items at least a few times a week. Still have a ball-point and a 3 x 3" pad of Post-Its in my pocket today, and use routinely. Ongoing research project has the ballpoint being used wherever I go, with transcription as needed later and when time permits; that's when I do the sorting of notes into categories and lists.

The Pentel has a metal sheath around the lead, and permits very fine work with little breakage of leads; I can use a rather soft grade and get a dark line that can still be erased. I still have refill leads AND ERASERS for it. Somewhere, I have several more pencils, because when a discount drug store went out of business, they had a partial box of them left. I think I bought ten of the Pentels for about what two would have cost at the office supply store. I've given a couple away, and used just one in roughly twenty years since then!

While at school, I invested in a Parker pen - the only type which the bullies would not put into a metalwork vice! The ads for them stated X miles of use, and one even documented a 'lost' pen turning up several years later in the bilge pump of a boat - and still writing! - And they gave free replacement refills if there was any ink left in one which stopped writing efficiently.

But now I have a massive collection of cheap'n'nasties, bought for peanuts when Woolworth went bust. Adequate for notes & scribbles, all finished work is electronic, then printed.

I also have several oval? woodworkers pencils given out by a short-lived company 20+ years ago. From around a dozen I collected, there are a few still usable after hundreds of projects.

I'm very familiar with buying things you think you may never see again (at least that's usually my mentality! (And the older one gets, the easier it is to fall prey to buying things to hold on to your past.) Pentel... yes, the first mechanical pencil I bought. I haven't had the feed mechanism ever go bad in any mechanical pencil that I've owned, that I can remember.

And Woolworths... that touches a nerve. Takes me back to my childhood when it was one of the stores to visit. Sadly, it was probably a model for the coming of Walmart, which made the Ma/Pa general store a thing of the past. I miss those shops. Sears was another one. I vividly remember my first visit to Santa in the basement of Sears. I liked the neighborly kind of free enterprise.

Many years ago, while studying at the Uni, I was fixed on mechanical pencils for writing programs (before home computers made it far easier!), I started with 0.5mm, but changed to 0.3mm, which I still use occasionally.....I needed to be able to erase errors, then I got time on a terminal to enter and run my program....

Then for a time, I had a ballpoint pen that was erasable!!! I cannot remember the make anymore, nor do I have the pen, but it gave you about 24 hours or so before it became permanent.....

I found this on Youtube and I do believe that my pen could have been the same make:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVCmf-vXlM

The "EraserMate" from PaperMate is great for doing crossword puzzles. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasermate. Article there says it's call "Replay" in Europe & Brazil.

I know I bought erasable pens, just don't remember if it was the EraserMate. Interesting to find all these years later that it was pressurized and could write at angles... just like the "Space" pens.

I still use Pentel 0.5mm, 0.7mm and .9mm mechanical pencils every day for doing calculations on engineering comp paper. I have so much lead stockpiled it isn't funny! I have had only one Pentel ever break on me over the course of the years, and that must have happened when I was manually drafting on mylar drafting film some 25 years ago!

As for pens, I prefer the ultra-fine Uniball pens, usually black.

For signing and dating my PE seal on vellum and mylar drafting sheets I have to use a permanent black ink pen....and they're almost impossible to find. I guard it with my life like it was Platinum. No way no how are my wife and 2 step-kids ever going to get their paws on it, otherwise they'll murder it in short order!!!!

That was part of my curiosity. I can't say for sure why I choose in any instance to use a mechanical pencil over a ballpoint. The erasers on all of my pencils, wooden or mechanical were never big enough to outlast the lead. I was so excited when plastic enclosed, feed-able eraser products appeared. I just had to have those, so I wouldn't fret getting to the end of an erasure way before the pencil lead was used. (The stress of deciding what to erase when your erasure is almost gone! Your gonna keep writing and probably making mistakes... oh, no... then you start crossing through mistakes just like you would with a ballpoint.) Of course, a mechanical pencil supply seems never ending. I just couldn't see buying replaceable erasures, for a Pentel, for instance, after these came along.

I find that if you get some nice pens or mechanical pencils and you work around a lot of people, they have a tendency to disappear.

Even cheap pens have a tendency to disappear.

Basically saying what my live is about.

I usually take notes with ball pens but for some reasons they disapear regularly and never surface again.

But then I found a bag with about 20 ballpens from my old office at home which never made it to the new office. I should have enough now, but even those from the hand bag disappear. I am probably through the 20 pens within a month.

Old fashioned writing implements. I taught myself to write in a cursive style where the best effect is obtained with a pen nib that flexes wider with more pressure. Like a quill. Pentel made a fibre tipped one, that worked ok but wore out quickly. But I noticed and bought an ink pen in a shop in sheffield, in 1970, which did the same. A Brecon Reporter. It leaked after a few years, and I forgot about it, but I have looked for about 10 years now and found nothing like it, no reference anywhere to it. I would have bought them all if I had known they were so rare.

I like to work in the rain, so my space pen is great, but it folds so small it's hard to keep track of.

I purchased at a jumble sale some ancient leads of varying colours, about 3mm dia, which fit into an old clutch pencil which I enjoy using.

I always like a four colour pen though.

My dislike in writing implements is those pens that are dished in just where your fingers need to feel pressure, and they are sold as aids to people who can't hold the pen properly!

I remember the replay eraseable ink pen, now there is the Frixion

nice question.

cnc jim

...in the rain? Interesting.

Yup. always liked it. Keeps mortals off the streets.

cnc

I can definitely relate.

I use both all the time,but I wish that I could find some "Lindy" pens. They seemed to be the best. I remember using them back in grammar school. I guess they went out of business. I have looked on the internet a couple of times for them.......Anyone know of any left out there?

http://estatesalechronicles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lindy-ballpoint-pens.html

At various times I've done circuit layout, mechanical drafting, and the wife was a commercial artist so full drafting equipment as well as lettering guides and Rapidographs; over the years most of it put in storage.

She no longer works and I do avionics systems integration, but we missed our 'tools' as we were both drawing supply 'junkies', who loved them for the touch and feel as much as the work they produced.

We have both gone back to fountain pens.

Pentel pencils have their own place in writing. coming to ball point pen writing issue- I realised when I bought ball point from a store- it used to give lot of difficulties at the beginning. Someone told and me and I use this technique regularly- take the ball point. Hold the tip near the candle (if you hold too near and to long- ball point tip will melt away the plastic behind). You will become expert after a few trials. After gentle heating - try writing and tehreafter - if you use same ball point - it may write smoothly without any problem.

I have one ballpoint pen and keep a refill in the truck.

It is a Zebra telescopic pen.

When it is in its collapsed state (short) it fits perfectly into my Leatherman Knife pouch so I always have a pen and a multitool on me.

It is very durable and writes well on most surfaces too.

Excellent and all those other apps as well. What a multitool!!!!

I bet it has a good knife and pliers app as well.....

Does it have a bottle cap opener in the back built into the case?

Snicker, I assume?

Of course it's a snicker. I expect nothing less. The irony is that he mocks the same technology he uses to post the comments!!

It's okay Wal. Soon you and all the pencil pushers of the planet will have their day in the sun (pun intended!).

When the giant solar flair hits at the end of 2012 and all electronic components are wiped out, only the few who can yield that formidable weapon of the ancients will thrive. Only those with "wooded lead" _{(I made that up!)} in hand will be capable of re-building civilization while the rest of the surviving stragglers from the digital age wander the planet aimlessly, tapping and dragging their bloody fingers across broken plates of glass, on their knees, looking up at the stars and screaming...WHY IS NOTHING HAPPENING!!

I wonder how MadMax would have survived if he came from a civilization that depended on Ipads and Iphones and TI86 and computers before the end of civilization came about?

I prefer pen over pencil because I find it annoying when the led breaks.

I just looked through my notebook, and, a rough estimate is about 95% pencil 5% ballpoint.

I much prefer the mechanical pencils with the retractable sleeves to the pentels: as you write the sleeve gradually moves back into the body of the pen so you don't need to extend as often, and, the lead almost never breaks.

I still haven't found a 0.3mm with a good retractable sleeve. Anyone know of one?

Years ago I discovered that the only way to stop all the pens disappearing was to put a huge tub of about 50 on my desk: although they started disappearing quite fast to begin with: after a while the number started to stabilise. That hadn't been my intension: I had decided that I would just keep filling it up every time it emptied, but I never needed to. I don't have a theory to explain this effect.

You wrote:-

I much prefer the mechanical pencils with the retractable sleeves to the pentels: as you write the sleeve gradually moves back into the body of the pen so you don't need to extend as often, and, the lead almost never breaks.

You are quite correct, but with all of the ones I have had like this, they extend the lead themselves every time you lift off from the paper.....That's why you only seldom have to extend the lead yourself....

Check here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_pencil

If you look here:-

http://www.xactsupply.com/Supplies/Alvin-products/10_80-84_Lead_Holders_2012_web.pdf

You will eventually find these:-

I hope this helps as there are several manufacturers, some very cheap and reliable.....

Retractable pencil lead... yes, yes! Wearing T-shirts often in youth, I sometimes had no upper pocket to carry my pen/pencil in, so I put it in my right front pants pocket. Didn't take long for the lead tip to poke a small hole in the bottom of the pocket, which then got larger as time went on. Retractable pencil design helped with that.

I tend to do the same thing with dollar store reading glasses. I kept forgetting where I set the first pair and decided to just have them in every room and in the glove box in the car. Even then, I still occasionally get into a store and find I don't have a pair on me and instead of trudging back to the car to get the pair in the glove box, I lump it. I have been known, in desperation, to "borrow" a pair from the store reading glass display until I'm done shopping.

A good trick, for anyone who needs glasses, but is too vain to have them on always, who hasn't got them with them, is to either get a piece of card/thick paper, push a pin through and look through the hole, or curl your index finger and make as small a hole as possible and look through that!

Slight adjustment of the hole size when using your finger and reasonable lighting will make everything "sharp!"

It is the same principle as a "Pin-Hole" camera.....

Excellent suggestion! The finger trick, that is. I'd probably forget to take the paper and pin to make a hole, although it would fit nicely in my wallet. The stares from others, that might follow, would be a side enjoyment.

Same principle as these glasses (of which I have a pair). Some say they help improve vision. I never used them enough to find out.

What some people do is to bore a tiny hole in a credit card or similar, obviously not in either the magnetic stripe area or the micro chip.....as an emergency help.

Try holes under 0.5 mm and see if it works for you.....I have never done it as the finger trick has always helped me, but I tend to only need to use it in the bathroom to get the shower temp right, everywhere else I am wearing my glasses.....

Sweet. Couldn't get the curled index finger to work, but with each index on each thumb, and pressed close together, you get a diamond shape that works really well.

Interestingly, if you are blowing dust out of your pc, or onto a campfire, hold this same shape to your lips and blow. A high powered jet of air comes out, and you don't have to stick your head in close!

If you lost your specs and your air canister and you need really accurate blowing well ....the mind boggles.

For a pinhole camera, the roundest hole is made with a needle you have ground the point off, in tinfoil. A sharp needle give you those weird five sided shapes.

cnc

The habitual tendencies of intelligent people interest me.

nice read for a monday morning.

I remember already wanting a fountain pen when the first Biro appeared in the shops in London. I wanted one but there was no way I was getting either, it was just after WW2. At school, we used metal pen nibs shaped like quills and ink from an inkwell. It was messy. People who got Biros found that they sometimes leaked and the tar-like ink would not come out of the shirt pocket.

I started work as a draughtsman, we used good quality but ordinary pencils, the ones for lettering with round points, the ones for linework with chisel points. We drew on linen that had been stiffened with some kind of starch, it was a wonderful combination. I took a discarded drawing to a girlfriend and she washed it out and sewed a blouse from it, it was good quality linen. Sometimes we drew in ink with a pen such as I described above for lettering and a ruling pen for linework.

Later, the linen was replaced with mylar and the regular pencils with a waxy "lead". This was not friendly stuff, no way to make drawings as beautiful as on the linen.

With both pencils, I used the clutch type of lead holder but for calculations I used the Pentel type.

I don't write much manually now, the arthritisis in my thumbs is enough to inhibit good writing but I use gel pens when I have to.

You've certainly spanned the spectrum. I've never written on linen. Anyone else here?

As a side note, it is interesting that you use the term pen "nibs." I had a brief job where I "maintained" hand-writing machines -- servo controlled pen holder that had a transmitter and a receiver. Whatever you wrote on a "tablet" surface would be reasonably well reproduced on the receiver. It was used in high noise environment, like refineries. I think the company that made them was called Telautograph. I just tried to see if they still exist and/or if there is info. on the web. I was surprised to find that the idea is quite old. The machines I worked with were solid-state stuff, in the early '70's. The fiber tips used in the equipment were referred to as pen "nibs." Just shows you when your young you don't care so much about the history of what you are working with unless you have some obsession with it. I didn't.

I used to use Rapido-Graph pens for technical drawing and used to illustrate part time for pay. The ruby-tip pens were my fave. Anyone here ever used an HD* Research Alternator Analyser? (c 1975) I drew the master artwork for the hookup diagram! Ta da! Coldest damn office I ever worked, too. Cheapskate was too tight-fisted to heat it! :) ----- * If you have used HD Research's automotive test gear and have always wondered what the 'HD' stood for, wonder no longer: "Hound Dog."

I have a pen with glitter and a little cat inside. You can shake it to make it snow. It lights up when you write.

I like to use the Zebra F-301 retractable ballpoint pen in black ink by Papermate. It has fine and smooth line and doesn't give blotches of ink after a long period of taking notes. It also writes in cold weather which is a plus. I like a mechanical pencil in a thicker lead as I tend to break the thinner ones, but I haven't used one in years. I like to add things in my head to exercise my brain and use the calculator on my phone if necessary.

I started out as a draftsman and became an engineer. It was true that draftsmen didn't carry pencils but engineers did. I made the switch.

I say, "It was true" because we now have CAD.

I like sharp, old-fashioned wooden pencils the best and keep lots on hand, alongside an electric pencil sharpener. I like the smell of a freshly-sharpened pencil and the way it writes. I do all my thinking on paper, untrammelled by the confines of a screen and the unrelated, distracting minutae of attending to a computer. When I'm doing long calculations, I do them on a continuous roll of paper, so that I can see everything at once, rather than using cut sheets where I have to page through them to find some distant piece of an equation. Only when I've worked out whatever it is I'm working on, do I condense it on the computer. The one exception is when I'm using spreadsheets, but most of my work on paper is in the abstract where spreadsheets aren't as useful - yet. Pens dislike me nearly as much as I dislike them! They never last more than a few hours, mostly because of the angle at which I write. It doesn't matter much who makes them or whether they're expensive or cheap. I tried mech pencils but the leads always seemed so fragile. Wooden pencils with good erasers and rolls of paper - fanfold in a pinch - and I'm happy! :-)

You're right. I'd forgotten the odor aspect of wooden pencils. Aromatherapy as a bonus!

Since you do like a freshly-sharpened point, how often do you sharpen? (And I guess that could be measured both in time and length of paper.) Also, how do you store the continuous paper... or do you? (Songwriters have a tendency to save the hand-written copies of their songs. And I doubt if any songwriter sits at a computer first to compose -- maybe later as you do with your calculations. And most scientists keep their hand-written notes. Looking at notes of a scientist, or musician is like really witnessing the birth of whatever is on that piece of paper. I feel, there is a conveyance of the the living presence in hand-written information. Type-written, it becomes sterile. More readable in a lot of cases, but more sterile, too.)

Since length would vary per session, do you roll them or flatten them to a certain size, if you store them? You mention fan fold "in a pinch."

(Can't help noting that whether I type, type-written or typewritten, the spell checker doesn't flinch -- no error for either. So I looked at the grammatical rules for hyphens and couldn't read through all of it. Hyphens seem a bit fast and loose. I never liked grammar. My tendency for run-on sentences is probably a deep-seated rebellion. Gee, I just tried putting hyphens between words I know don't require or have a hyphen and the spell checker leaves them alone -- and didn't catch the lack of one in spell checker. Try it. Ex.: my-friend, or crazy-swan. Surely, if a computer can play world-class chess we can program it to decipher hyphen usage.)

I use two rolls - one for the takeup. If I need to separate a stretch of paper and store it, I roll it up and keep it in a mailing tube. (I've got lots, as you can imagine) If my work spans several days - typical - I draw a line through 'midnight' and periodically mark the new date on the sheet as I go along. Much of it ends up in the dust bin because it's more or less scratch paper. It all depends on what it is I'm doing.

Sharpening? What I do is sharpen a whole bunch at once and, as I dull them up, put them in a second cup. I seldom sharpen individually because of the overhead and because it interrupts my thought process. I may have 20-40 sharpened pencils at the start of the day, and do all my sharpening at the end of the day. Sometimes in the middle if I'm on a roll.

But you are always on at least one roll:

'I use two rolls' :)

cnc

Ha! (I wondered how long it would be before somebody noticed the pun)

Very good, Sir!

'fanfold in a pinch'

Don't imagine that one got past me either. :)

cnc

I figured you must have a process.

I use 0.5 mm sharppen oops, i mean pencil, they have some advantages over pads, they work with no battery!

I went to public skool. Its mostly crayons for me.

Wish they still made the flavored ones though.

I keep thinking of something else for this thread. Before Xerox, we used carbon papers under our calculation sheet so as to have copies, then they gave us translucent calculation pads and yellow carbons that reflected the front in yellow on the underside of the sheet. Copies were then run in the Ozalid along with the drawings. The Ozalid used a blue light, so the yellow showed maximum density

For ink drawing, I went from the ruling pen to a Pelikan Graphos, that first one had 12 nibs, one for lettering and eleven line thicknesses. I did use the Rapidograph a couple of times before being moved from the board to a desk.

My dad's tools of the trade.

I still remember how he used to whittle away his Staedtler HB's until they were only 3" long. He had a pile of them in a mug next to his drafting board along side his trusty Staedtler Mars lead holders. He used to wrap masking tape around the top of the lead holders so he would have a spot to identify them. The one in the pic is about 25 yrs old and it's the one he used when he was teaching me drafting. He even let me dive into his mug of HB shorties once in a while.

He passed away a few years ago. I miss him every day.

Do remember that missing someone every day is a far better memorial than any grave stone.

I miss my father still and he died in 1978......I will go to my grave still missing him.....

I notice the thread has taken a sombre turn. What do I do so my kids don't miss me?

cnc jim

• Violently shake the neighbour's cat in front of small children.
• Become the dictator of small, independent country. Kill all the civilians.
• Visit their Facebook pages and hang out their dirty laundry for all to see. Lacking dirty laundry, just make it up as you go along - no one will be the wiser.
• Go to their school and have lunch with them. Be sure to eat something an hour or so beforehand known to give you an abundance of gas. SBDs aren't bad, but the audible sort cover more ground with better effect in short order (you have only a half-hour to clear the place out). The object is offend as many of their peers as possible. If available, sit on one of those one-piece molded Fiberglas chairs that tend to amplify the sound. The intrinsic high mechanical Q causes them to resonate at flapper frequencies, like a bell.
• Call their friends' parents every day at random times and make an arse of yourself.
• Talk like a hipster at every opportunity. Demonstrate zero knowledge of anything even reasonably modern. Tell them how much you miss your ColecoVision game machine. Better yet, Pong.
• Drive an old car that's hard to start and which diesels for at least thirty seconds after you cut it off, ending with a loud BANG! Offer to let them borrow it for Homecoming and Prom Night.
• On that note: offer to chaperon on Homecoming and Prom Night in aforementioned car.
• Tell the same bad joke at the dinner table every single day for a year.
• When their friends are over, walk around the house in your skivvies with your shirt open and a can of week-old beer. Offer them some.
• Get a tattoo on your forehead. Something passe, like "Nixon/Agnew '72 (don't change D!cks in the middle of a screw)". If you happen to live in South Dakota, change it to "Nixon/McGovern..." not that anybody remembers.
• Wear Spandex jogging shorts and tops to important school functions. Make sure your apparel is one size too small, for that dread 'Muffin-top' effect.

The floor is open....

Nice! LOL.

Yep: your suggestions should ensure that NO ONE will miss you, including your kids! That is what you asked for, CNC Jim . . .

• Be sure to belittle them at every opportunity: from their crayon drawings ["What the hell is THAT? I can't make out anything in that mess!], to their schoolwork, how they throw a baseball, or run a race, their choice of clothing and colors, their toilet training, how they make a bed, who they are friends with, and on and on. Bonus points for verbally abusing their mother in front of them.
• Don't ever attend their school plays, concerts, soccer games, etc. Make sure they know that those things are just too boring for you.
• Never, EVER, read to them - in fact, better that you don't read at all if they can see you do it - and get all of your "news" from the ideologues who pontificate and turn every topic into a political monologue that blames the other side. Extra credit for holding two or more contradictory positions because some extreme wing of your party does.
• Don't teach them to ride a bike, swing a bat, to kick or throw a ball, or to swim; to use tools, drive a car, or play a musical instrument; to be polite, fair, or honest. Be very careful not to inadvertently teach these things by example!
  

What do I do so my kids don't miss me?

Just stand still! How much do they expect to inherit?

I' am reserving my reply for a while on the other suggestions, but I don't follow yours randall... what do you mean?

CNC

Easier target?

9mm Pentel mechanical pencil for calculations and general doodling. I love my space pen writes every where on anything including my steering wheel when I'm on the road and need to write down a number and the briefcase is in the back seat.........suppose i should keep a note book in the consul but any way love the space pen.

BTW the old joke is......

Russian astronaut sees the American space pen and says "hey is that that fancy pen that you developed for space?"

American says: "why yes of course, its great writes in a vacuum, under water any ware, and it only cost a million dollars to develop.....what do you guys use.

Russian: We use this pencil, works good.

Although I did hear that pencils cause the conductive dust that you don't want in a spacecraft, so they weren't actually used by anyone in space...?

Not a problem. Remember, Russia makes the world's largest microchips.

Would think they would have air filters for that but early russian capsule had so many issues, i bet they didn't worry about a little pencil dust.

Their biggest worry back then was if the tape broke. The entire flight was dictated by a tape-driven sequencer. If something unexpected came up, Goodbye Ruskie. Those cosmonauts were braver souls than Americans gave them credit. It takes balls to be a passenger on a rocket-propelled, flying washing-machine.