The ball point pen.

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
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When I was a kid, everyone carried a pencil. Regular old wood pencil, dropped in a pocket or purse. There wasn't any good ball point pens back then, and what there was, skipped, wrote terrible, and sometimes left a big blue stain on your shirt. Then came Bic.

Nowadays, nobody carries a pencil anymore, and ball point pens have come so far that you find them just laying around in alleys. I've found Bic pens, Papermate stick pens, a couple of Pilot G2 gel pens. The Papermate was laying half buried in a muddy path, and on pulling it out, wiping it off with a bit of crumpled up paper towel, it wrote just fine. The other day walking out of the grocery store, laying there on the asphalt was a black Pilot G2, about half the ink still on board, and its now in the glove box of my car. It writes just fine. Weird. It appears that ball point pen technology has reached a point that they all work sooo damm well, that its made pencils obsolete. Now, restaurants, dry cleaners, big box stores, all have cheap stick pens for the customer to sign the credit card bill with. Can't recall the last time I saw a pencil being used anywhere.
 
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I hung onto pencils for a long time since they were better in the rain but then pens caught up again. I'll still use one if I"m taking notes that I might want to edit later.
 
I last used pencils regularly in the 80's and 90's when my life was full of math, physics, and engineering classes. The ability to erase was good. Erasable pens existed, but moving your hand over the ink made it smear.
Professional life is a lot of computers and people sure don't appreciate it when you sign off on stuff with pencil.
But I'd rather sketch out an idea with pencil. Makes me wonder if I have any of my old drafting stuff around.
 
Haven't bothered with a pencil since school. I can definitely think of uses some might have for a pen outside of school, professionally, but I don't have any. I do like a very fine tip for some writing, but a 0.4mm Pilot Hi-tec C works great for that.
 
We use pencils every day in the construction industry. I also use pencils when sketching out a sheath design. :)
 
I haven't used a wood pencil in a while, but I often use one of these (real pencils, but without the sharpening):
STAEDTLER Mars Technico Lead Holder (2 mm lead)
Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth clutch pencil (0.5 mm lead)
Parker Jotter clutch pencil (0.5 mm lead)
And a...
STAEDTLER Noris digital, which is a real wood pencil, but with an EMR tip for writing on touch screens. 😉
As far as pens, I have a couple of Parker Jotter ball points that I've used for decades. I like the Parker refills a lot better than the cheap disposables. I also have a couple of Parker Jotter fountain pens that I use regularly. All just cheap stuff, but I like them!
 
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jackknife said:
When I was a kid, everyone carried a pencil.
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When I was a kid, everyone carried a fountain pen. Through grade 6, pens were mandatory for all school work except drawing and math, for which we carried pencils. I liked experimenting with different inks, but my fountain pen was pre-war (WW2) and more ink got on my hands and clothes than on the paper. That's why I like gel pens today: flowing ink, less flexibility, but less skill required.
 
Now they make those weird silver colored "forever pens" which are inkless and write like a pencil. Anybody tried those?
 
I can't stand ball point pens, just more disposable crap. The ONLY thing they are good for is filling out multicopy forms where you have to press hard. I think those forms were invented because of the ball point.

For ink, refillable fountain pens are the ticket.

Pencils are the bomb, sharpen with your knife.
 
I still use pencils, and still whittle them to a point when necessary.

My main use is marking cut lines on boards, or marking spots to make holes for wall hangings.
 
nhobo said:
I can't stand ball point pens, just more disposable crap. The ONLY thing they are good for is filling out multicopy forms where you have to press hard. I think those forms were invented because of the ball point.

For ink, refillable fountain pens are the ticket.

Pencils are the bomb, sharpen with your knife.
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Gonna suck pretty bad when the ink runs out and I have to throw these away. :rolleyes:

 
I still rely pretty heavily on a Pentel mechanical pencil for taking notes in the field, as they can write small and also be erased.

Also, a carpenters pencil is high up on my list when working with wood.

For pens, I like Pilot G2 and a Sharpie S-Gel, as they are pretty nice to write with, but cheap enough to not hurt when I lose it, as I often do.

The Fisher Brass Space Pen is a fairly common pocket companion too.
 
mqqn said:
I still use pencils, and still whittle them to a point when necessary.

My main use is marking cut lines on boards, or marking spots to make holes for wall hangings.
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Ditto. Carpenter's pencil. Exactly my usage. I use a ballpoint or gel pen for everything else.

When I was in grade school I was required to use a fountain pen. When I reached Junior High, I was allowed to use a ballpoint. Haven't had any wishes to return to fountain pens.
 
I carry a Fisher bullet everyday, but in the workshop it's pretty much all pencils unless I'm using a sharpie on something metal.
Mostly flat carpenters pencils.
 
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MolokaiRider said:
For pens, I like Pilot G2 and a Sharpie S-Gel, as they are pretty nice to write with, but cheap enough to not hurt when I lose it, as I often do.
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Over the years I've found myself drifting into the Pilot G2's. I do like the way the ink flows, sort of like and old fountain pen, very smooth to write with. And for old arthritic fingers, the Pilot is okay to use a light touch with while writing.
 
Back to pens and pencils of the 1950s in Chicago's public schools. Ballpoint pens were really crap back then and most of us understood that as the reason for our mandatory fountain pen use. (Understanding does not mean we agreed with it.) One day while walking down the alley minding other people's business, I noticed that a neighbor had thrown out a box of the cheapest ballpoint click pens. There were 119 pens in the box and 68 of them wrote. I carried several and when one started skipping or leaking, I would toss it and start another. Those 68 ballpoint click pens got me through 7th grade and part of 8th.

I own a Parker Jotter ballpoint, a beautiful inexpensive pen that writes where gel pens don't. Sometimes I carry it but usually not, relying on Victorinox MidNite Manager for backup.
 
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jackknife said:
Over the years I've found myself drifting into the Pilot G2's. I do like the way the ink flows, sort of like and old fountain pen, very smooth to write with. And for old arthritic fingers, the Pilot is okay to use a light touch with while writing.
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I'm glad to see you still posting my friend! I don't expect you to remember but I spoke to you while I was in the military about meeting you around Texas. I'm back to read your stories some more now that I'm out! I'm near Maine now, should you ever find yourself in need of company this way shoot me a message!
 
I still have a 3" nub of a carpenter's pencil that has the "butt" end wrapped in electrical tape, and the body wrapped in jute twine. I wonder who I got that idea from.....

I carry a Fisher Space Pen every day, but for nostalgia, have a couple of fountain pens that remind me of my Mom when she was alive. She always wrote letters to people with that pen, a memory I will always treasure fondly.
 
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