I'm old enough that I primarily used pencils when I went through my education. I almost never used a pen until I got to college because you can't erase a pen mark¹, and I made lots of mistakes. But most of the classrooms I was in didn't have pencil sharpeners, so I started using pens for things that weren't math, and eventually started carrying around a 'pocket pen', literally just a pen in my front pants pocket (usually a clicky pen that would get clicked when I sat down, poking holes in my pocket and making lines all over my leg).

And that's pretty much how it went. I entered the workforce, and my employers always provided pens, never pencils, and I just accepted that Adult© Professionals®in the Real World™ always used pens.

Time passed and I figured a few things out. I realized that clicky pens are actually called 'retractable pens' (which is a much more boring name) and that I should probably not put those into my pants pockets. Pens with caps work much better (even though they get tangled in my keys, I'm still working on that). If I wear black pants, it doesn't really matter if my pen leaks since the ink stain is effectively invisible. And I realized that I actually do have a preference for line thickness and smoothness that I never really thought about before.

In 2021 I started doing some paper journaling because I could feel my penmanship skills declining from lack of use. I started with a spiral notebook and the standard Pilot G2. And, after filling up my first couple of notebooks, I decided to see what else was out there, so I dipped my does into the peripery of the fancy pen community.

Pen people are devoted and pen makers are there to service them. I bought two fountain pens and some nice paper, but did not become a pen head². The writing experience was nice, but it didn't change my life. Which is probably for the best. I have enough expensive hobbies as it is.

And that's kind of where I left everything. I found a couple pens that I liked and bought a few boxes' worth, and then just kind of got on with my life.

About two years ago I went to a thrift store that had a bunch of Jumble³ puzzle books for sale. I bought them all, put them on a shelf, and forgot about them for twenty three months.

A few weeks ago as I was unwinding from the day's work and I was trying to come up with things to do. All the regular options just weren't satisfying that night, so I decided to grab a Jumble book, sharpen up a Dixon Ticonderoga and get solving, because you just don't do word puzzles with a pen (if you do, you're either a maniac or you're a better solver than I am).

I probably would have sat there, unjumbling words and not writing this page until I ran out of books (I only picked up four books at the time, but there are dozens more available), but I came across a YouTube video about how pencils are made, specifically Blackwing Pencils. I'd never heard of Blackwing Pencils, and there's a mildly interesting story behind them that I won't go into here, but they apparently used to be highly sought-after pencils for a variety of reasons.

And that got me to think back to my dalliance in the world of pens. I hadn't realized that pen technology had advanced that much past the 10¢ Bic pens that I had been using for decades, had pencils seen a similar trajectory? I had a few unexpected days off work coming up, so I decided to investigate.

What I found was that the pencil space it weird. Even weirder than pens.

I scoured every office supply store and every other store I could think of that even had a chance of stocking pencils and made some discoveries, mainly that most stores carry Dixon Ticonderoga pencils and then a house-brand pencil and that's it. I also learned that office supply stores carry art supplies for some reason.

But searching for pencils was fun, and I did find a few specimens that I wanted to try (who knew I could find pencils at a home improvement store that isn't a flat carpenter's pencil?), and I also want to dig into setting up a station to use pencils to… do pencil stuff. Writing, doodling, that kind of thing.

So that's what this is. It's not going to be an ongoing series, there just aren't that many pencil brands/models out there that I can reasonably get my hands on. I also don't have any desire to be a professional pencil reviewer⁴, I know that the amount of material I can cover is pretty limited. I think it's partly because other than school kids and the occasional artist, most people don't use pencils much. They're hard to carry and you never have to sharpen a pen.

So, don't expect this to be anything other than a fun distraction. I sure won't. I'll probably have a lot of activity while I go through the small backlog of pencils I've accumulated, but then probably nothing much for a while unless I find something cool or unique.

Pencils are unglamorous. They're associated with schooling, which lots of people spend their entire lives trying to forget.

But pencils and paper and even pens don't continually shove ads in your face. They don't yell at you to spend more money. You don't have to subscribe to a paper notebook. They do exactly what you want and nothing else. It might sound hyperbolic, but it's nice to just get away from all that stuff just for a little bit and focus on something you actually have full control over.

This article was posted on 26 Aug 2026 and I haven't looked at it since.

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