The perfect mechanical pencil

And how we use our pencils

Mar 03, 2025

Hi,

We hope you are safe and well. Rob here with this edition of the Stationery Freaks newsletter. After a long winter break we’re back with another episode of the show, in which we discuss pencils.

In this newsletter we will share insights from the cast, some images of the pencils we mention and also a couple of interesting finds from the internet.

You can listen to the episode here.

The Perfect Pencil

It was great to be back recording another episode.

We’d planned to talk about mechanical pencils anyway, so when we got a DM on Insta from a company called Penac, offering us some free samples, we jumped at it.

To be clear, no money changed hands, no sponsorship, no affiliation - just a free gift for us to use. And so I used them, and they are great, and I’ll share some insights later.

We start the show with our usual stationery stories in which Helen buys a stationery bundle from Vinted - and gets a lovely surprise in the form of a Pilot pen that she can rub out. (The Frixion pen here.)

We’ve done an episode on Vinted stationery hauls before.

I talk about the staggering price of Moleskine Diaries and how I cannot justify spending that. Instead I opt for a cheap Amazon diary from PopRun that is awesome. I bought the “no spiral” one.

I lament about how I couldn’t move my writing bureau because I have so many un-used notebooks in it.

Pencils

We then talk about pencils and why Helen loves the Blackwing pencils but gets tired of sharpening them when writing. We remember the time Helen sliced her finger open on a pencil sharpener - and how that became one of our most downloaded episodes. (listen to that one here).

Helen uses pencils mostly for “unblocking” type work, like when she is stuck on a book and just needs a messy, scrappy way to get through the problem. Ideally, she would have a whiteboard by her side to do this work - but instead uses pencils and paper. There’s something none permanent about using pencils that lends itself to this type of work.

I then talk about the Norris School Pencils that I used to use before I jumped into Mechanical Pencils. We covered this in our Desert Island Stationery episode.

I started my journey into mechanical pencils with some cheap BIC pencils that I got in my Vinted stationery haul too. I then stumbled upon 30x40 architects and the wonderful videos he puts out - in which mechanical pencils feature heavily - so I took the plunge and bought a cheap mechanical pencil - the Rotring Tikki 0.7.

We chat about how this pencil spawned a tonne of stationery aficionados to leave wonderful comments and recommendations, after it featured in a video I did for my other work.

Given 99% of my writing is using a pencil - I welcomed the advice.

So, I upgraded to a Rotring 600 just before Christmas - and the jury is still out on it. Lovely design, beautiful pencil, but I’m still getting to grips with it.

Then came along the Penac free samples - and my word - they are extremely good.

We got sent two, a Protti 0.5 and a Protti 0.7.

In the episode we chat about the different sizes and why I like to 0.5, why Helen’s 0.4 is too fine and why my 0.7 pencils are too thick. We’re picky stationery freaks.

The Penac Protti is a real joy to use, so much so that I literally couldn’t stop writing with it all weekend. Here are some photos of my learning notes written with the 0.5.

There are a couple of downsides, which I cover in the cast. Overall though - thank you so much to Penac for sending these through - as they are wonderful.

The weight, the grip, the feel, the glide across the paper - spot on. Proper enjoyable to write with. I haven’t tried sketching with them yet - but aim to do that this week.

Once I send one of the Penac pencils to Helen, we’ll do another episode on how she’s getting on, and how many more mechanical pencils we’ve bought between now and then.

We then cover how Helen uses pencils - and why I have a certain reason for using pens, not pencils, at work.

It’s wonderful to be back recording. We’ve scheduled time for the next episode, and we’re so very grateful and thankful that you take the time to listen, and to read, the work we do.

You can listen to the episode here.

Finds

What a gigantically wonderful project; a series of notebooks that get sent around the globe to various designers, who each add their own drawing and sketches.

two_pages_project