Pen and ink posts are my favorite.
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They come in a standard length to fit in the holder and then you usually have a special sharpener. Most holders also have a sharpener in the button you use to release more lead, but if you use that you tend to get graphite powder on your fingers and everywhere else.
More info here: https://www.jetpens.com/blog/guide-to-lead-holders/pt/740
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Leadholders have two sharpening options:
- Rotary sharpener: has a hole for the leadholder in its top cover. Rotating the cover guides the lead around a conical abrasive inside to make the point.
- Sandpaper pad: a small wooden paddle with a few fine sandpaper sheets attached like a notepad. Not as precise, but you can make a chisel point, etc. if needed.
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I have both the rOtring 600 and the Uni Kurutoga silver Roulette model. The rOtring body is 100% metal. The body of the silver Kurutoga Roulette seems to be all plastic.
I’ll take a Blackwing 602 or a Mono 100 over a mechanical any day.
Any make of 0.5mm propelling pencil will do me, but it better be a selection of Edding fineliners for ink work. They might not be the best but I like them.
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Love this pencil. I have one in matte black I’ve been using for over 15 years. On the rare occasion that I lose it, I get almost as panicky as if I had lost my wallet or cell phone. Heavy, brass, indestructible, German style. Used to have the fountain pen complement, but I wore it out.
Rotring makes a less expensive plastic version. I have several. They’re not as nice 
I love the idea of the Kuru Toga more than the usage. Any mechanism that has to move the business end up/down to do something like rotate the lead introduces a little wobble. I personally feel like a mechanical pencil should feel like a scribe, a solid implement from end to end. Doesn’t stop me from owning a few Kuru Togas though…
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Still pretty much the standard at many stationary shops here in Japan. Except for high end stuff that is.
Is there a actual difference? Generally Japanese product isn’t known to be shoddy and they do take writing instruments rather seriously here after all.
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Once you go black…
you chumps keep buying fancy pens, i’ll keep using the giant box branded bics i swiped from the riviera during defcon
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yet one more thing that the boingboing store has in common with Sly Stallone.
I’ve got a Rotring Trio pencil that must be thirty years old now, it has three small clutch mechanisms inside that can be selected by the way it’s held, and I used to have a .3mm 4H, .5mm blue and .7mm HB leads in it, the .5mm blue I used for construction lines when producing artwork for litho printing, the blue wouldn’t reproduce on lith film.
Lovely instrument, Brass body and all metal construction, impossible to find now, the current Trio has a pencil and two ballpoint functions.
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I’m sure the quality is the same. It’s just a little sad when a brand that is strongly associated with a country switches to another. Like Royal Copenhagen moving all production from Denmark to Eastern Europe, or Zeiss binoculars moving from Germany to Hungary.
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The Koh-I-Noor Rapidomatic 5640 that I got in college (early to mid 1990’s) gets daily use. Some of the black coating is earing off, revealing the brass underneath. The pencil is significantly heavy and I like it but on occasion I’ve handed it over to people requesting the use of a pencil and the reaction is always “What the heck? What is this??” This Rotring 600 appears to be identical.
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