Pencil, mechanical pencil, rollerball, ballpoint, or fountain pen?
Blue, black, or red ink? Don’t say purple, damn it.
Fine, medium or heavy line?
#2 pencil, or something else?
Less than $5, less than $50, or more than $50?
I’ll start - #2 mechanical pencil, less than $50 and a ballpoint, (barely) more than $50. Blue ink, generally.
Wut?
Usually a bic from a pack of lots at something pounds something pence.
Pencil: 2.5 normal yellow wooden pencil.
Pen: Black ink, medium point; rollerball, though I’m not unwilling to use a ballpoint; expensive enough disposable to have an ergonomic grip.
Pentel 0.3 mm mechanical pencil I bought in 1981; Pentel stopped making 0.3 mm pencils sometime in the early 90s, so I guard mine with my life. Harder than hell to get lead for, but a single lead can last for weeks – last time I bought leads was about 5 years ago. I bought an entire box, so I should be set for life.
For pens, I use a super-fine point black Uniball rollerball, $9.50 for a box of 12.
black 0.2mm rollerball (a few bucks for a box of 12), 0.5mm HB mechanical pencil (uhh, don’t remember, I’ve had it for 27 years), #2 wooden pencil (free; I got thousands of half-used pencils from work about 30 years ago, they were throwing them away and I still have hundreds of them left)
Pen: The Paper-mate Write Bros. ballpoint stick pens that come 10 to a package. Red for grading, other colors (most commonly blue) for other things.
Pencil: Lately I’ve been using Bic Matic Grip pencils, 0.5 mm. For crossword puzzles, it’s gotta be 2B leads: they write dark and smooth on newsprint and erase easily.
Black ink, fine line, ballpoint. I’m partial to the Pilot EasyTouch at the moment.
Depends on context. If working in the shop, #2 pencil. If drafting, an assortment ranging from 2H up to 6H. If drawing, 2B and 4B.
I used to use a thin nib calligraphy pen, black ink, but I haven’t seen it in years.
Fountain pen. Levenger (Schaeffer) ‘Mediterranian’ (transparent blue) with a fine nib. About $100. I like to mix a little black ink in with blue ink so that I get a very dark blue.
Pencil - Staedtler-Mars mechanical pencil
Pen - Lamy 1.1 mm calligraphic nib fountain pen (under $50.) Brown ink. Makes the physical act of writing a pleasure.
For especially artistic writing, a peacock wing-feather, and home-made ink based on red wine.
I’ve also mucked around with lots of weird stuff, such as linguine, a syringe, twigs, etc. Anything that will hold ink for 2 seconds can be used, and sometimes the struggle with the medium is part of the calligraphy. And anything that leaves a mark on a page can be used for ink.
Ballpint pen or mechanical pencil, fine point, blue or black ink. Cheap pens, a little more on pencils, still under $5 though.
My actual preference cycles between pen and pencil every couple years or so. I find calligraphy pens annoying for normal writing habits, so that’s a special occasion thing for me. I prefer mechanical pencils because the point never gets dull and I don’t have to sharpen it–0.5mm is the preferred size but apparently I’m in the minority because everytime I need a new one (or even just new leads) I mostly find 0.7mm.
Pencil for calcs - Pentel mechanical pencil with 0.9mm lead (I snap the skinny leads)
Pen for everything else - Pilot Precise V5 Rolling Ball, Extra Fine, in red ink
No idea what they cost, I get 'em at work.
Anything cheap. I have the habit of chewing on pens. I don’t think I’ve ever had a pen that ran out of ink before I “consumed” it.
Pencil - #2. Regular old pencil with an eraser on the end. Ticonderoga maybe?
Pen - ballpoint, blue, medium line. Can usually get a dozen for under $5. Prefer papermate.
Lamy 2000 Extra Fine nib fountain pen, inked up with some variety of Noodler’s ink (currently Old Manhattan Black “bulletproof” fraud-proof ink) a nice flexy semi-hooded gold nib plated with platinum, fiberglass-reinforced nylon “Makrolon” body, piston fill mechanism, and the most unassuming looks of any fountain pen, it looks like an oversized Flair felt-tip marker when capped, it’s the epitome of “anti-bling”, and it writes like a dream
it’s off at Filofax getting fixed right now, so i’m currently using a Lamy Al-Star Extra Fine loaded with Noodler’s Baystate Blue ink
I hear that. I use either a Bic or Pentel 0.7mm mechanical when I use a pencil.
My pen is usually a Pilot G2 (G4?) gel-ink, 0.5mm (or is it 0.3mm?)
When I was a newspaper reporter I quickly learned that a pencil is the only thing that will write under almost any circumstances. I’ll never forget covering a homicide scene with a ball point pen that kept freezing up every time it touched the paper. After that I kept no fewer than six #2 pencils and a pencil sharpener in my field bag. I still use a mechanical pencil more often than any kind of ink pen.
Since I lost my Levenger Gotham Rollerball, I’ve been using gel retractable pens by Tul, blue ink. I suppose the fact that everyone keeps stealing mine is a testament to how good they are.
Pilot Precise V5 Rolling Ball – Extra Fine preferred, but in a pinch, Fine will do.
Pencil:
Staedtler Mars drafting pencil. I have all of them but my natural writing is incredibly small, so I prefer the 0.3. When I find them in stores, they’re between $5-10.
Pencil:
Hate ballpoints. I’m on a quest for the perfect fountain pen (my preference) that has a super-fine line without feeling scratchy.