What are you using them for? In my woodworking shop I use Ticonderoga #2. Back when I did tons of drafting I used a variety of Tombow pencils. Change hardness depending on the line weight.
The higher the number the harder the lead. The standard pencil is a #2. You could try using a harder lead. Try a #3. Or try pressing more softly. My go-to pencil is the Paper Mate® Clearpoint mechanical pencil. The shape, the grip, the lead advance right by your index finger, excellent eraser – it fits me to a T. You can get all different hardness in mechanical pencil lead, too.
It might be you. I’m a lefty whose elementary teachers tried to force to write right handed and my writing is bad in many ways. I have pencil breaking problems with too much pressure, bad angles, etc.
One trick with mechanical pencils - use ones with a metal tip for the lead and try not to leave very much of the lead exposed and unsupported. This helps with breakage. I’ve had better luck with good mechanical pencils than good traditional pencils, and I hate the writing feel of the harder leads. YMMV
Here’s a book about how to sharpen pencils. (Seriously, there’s a book on the subject.) The author is a professional pencil sharpener who will send you a professionally sharpened pencil for $35. (Seriously, that’s what he does for a living.)
And, hey, he’s in the Hudson Valley, so not far from you.
If you’re really serious, what you want is not a pencil. You want a lead holder.
There are disadvantages. It’s messy because you need a lead sharpener which makes lead dust. You need separate good quality erasers (but you should be using those already). They’re far more expensive in terms of initial outlay.
The advantage is that you have a big honking piece of lead that you can get in just about any hardness you desire to sharpen to your hearts content and there is no better lead writing equipment available - this is what pros used back in the day to draft with and what us olde-timey engineering students were required to use.
It is a little more involved than the bigger the number, the harder the lead. Pencil leads are given letters and numbers that indicate hardness, blackness and ability to take a fine point. A 4B pencil is softer and darker than a 2B. A 4H is harder and fainter than a 2H. An HB is about in the middle.
I like a soft dark lead so I use a metal leadholder with HB leads and a special sharpener that just sharpens the tip. It is a thick lead that doesn’t break easily. I use the second pencil on the page, a Koh-i-noor technigraph. http://leadholder.com/lh-draft-kohinoor_us-5611.html
It would be cheaper for you to go to an art store and try a few different leads in the traditional wooden configuration. They usually don’t have an eraser on the end, though. You might look for an F, which indicates it sharpens to a good point.
I did. Math teachers tend to shit a brick when you do this. But hey, it’s fun to make your teachers shit bricks. A few just flat out wouldn’t allow it, but most of them resigned themselves to having a stubborn-ass student who insisted on doing it all in ink!
You might want to check out the Kuru Toga mechanical pencil. It turns the lead inside each time you lift your pencil tip off the paper and then place it back down, so you always have a sharper lead. There are various models of different prices.
I’d expect a site called pencils.com to be pretty authoritative, but I must say I have never, ever heard of a pencil grade like HHBBB, and their gradation chart just runs from 9H to 9B with F and HB in the middle. How is it even possible for a pencil to leave marks as black as a 3B pencil while being as hard as a 2H?
While an F pencil will take a fine point, I just thought that was a consequence of being slightly harder than an HB - a compromise between HB and H. My father, back in the map-and-radar-beacon air navigation days, used to use a 4H, which sharpened down to a pretty darned impressive point and wore well, but of course made small pale grey marks, which is fine if that’s what you want.
Pilot’s Frixion erasable pens don’t really remove the ink. It turns invisible when heated. It turns back when cooled in a freezer. Uni’s pens really remove the ink. The eraser on Frixion pens is just a piece of silicone that doesn’t wear down. The eraser on Uni’s pens is a real eraser. I love the Frixion.
The way I see it, your options are:
[ol]
[li]Use a stronger pencil, e.g. HB[/li][li]Use a darker lead and learn to press more softly.[/li][li]Use a thicker mechanical pencil.[/li][li]If you use a mechanical pencil with a retractable metal sleeve (like the Kuru Toga’s, but that isn’t retractable), you can use the sleeve to protect the lead.[/li][li]Get a good sharpener (one with the rotating handle and a helical blade)[/li][/ol]
Short answer: get a 2.5 pencil, not a #2. They hold the point much longer.
Drugstores, etc., only sell #2s, so you’ll have to go to an office supply store and buy a box of them, but it’s a worthwhile investment. I’ve used nothing but since first encountering them 30 years ago.
A few just flat out wouldn’t allow it, but most of them resigned themselves to having a stubborn-ass student who insisted on doing it all in ink!
