I have a 0.7mm Pentel Sharp I bought for rough sketching under watercolor paint. A trick I learned is to extend the lead a centimeter or so to keep you from pressing hard and making too dark a line.
I love them but I can’t use them. I’ll click click click it then push the lead back in, then repeat the process untilvi accidentally break the lead. Repeat until I’ve broken all the lead and probably also lost the eraser.
True, but for written exams that must be handed in all the answers and scratch work are supposed to be in (permanent) ink, so that they cannot be altered after the fact. I would say use (or not) of a pencil for note-taking purposes is up to individual preference, but the student should have at least one ink pen for exams and quizzes.
Ha ha, you must press hard!
That’s sage advise!
The only things I use pencils for are maing notations on sheet music, and keeping score at golf.
Aren’t those single-use disposable? 
I use pencils to write in my books (I am opposed to capital punishment except for those who write in library books), to take notes as I read, and much more, just because I like the smell and feel and the look and the ability to erase. I’m a lefty, but I prefer the shiny hand to the ink hand. I use Blackwing pencils of different hardnesses. I start a work session by sharpening 3-4 of them, then swapping in a sharp one as necessary. By the time they all need sharpening, I need a break anyway. I use the two-stage Blackwing sharpener discussed above.
I also use pens, usually Stabile Sensor Finepoint in blue. It doesn’t smear, it doesn’t bleed, it’s fine. For fancy occasions, I use my 1953 Olympia SM3 typewriter. I am all in favour of slow communication when possible. I note parenthetically my iMac is up and running as I type and my iPad is close to hand.
I use a ‘propelling’ pencil (i.e. click to bring next lead forward), so never have to sharpen a pencil.
I find pencils jolly useful for post-it notes and for writing corrections on word processed documents when I am not in front of a computer.
I can only guess that what you meant to say was that you don’t have much use for pencils or pens lately - or is there some data somewhere that suggests that manufacturers are ramping down production? There have been loads of articles over the past couple of decades that describe the obvious decline in usage, but like paper itself there isn’t the slightest indication that they are obsolete.
Or were you just being hyperbolic?
Does anyone here live where pencils or pens are “scarce”? I don’t, but I don’t live in the middle of nowhere, either.
I got a Blackwing 4 piece assortment at a pen show earlier this year. They had a few set out and I immediately bought some after a few seconds of doodling, really buttery and smooth. “Half the pressure, twice the speed.” I don’t do much pencil drawing, though, more pen stuff lately.
Those Bic 0.7mms were my favorite when I was an engineering student and writing a lot more.
Well, yeah!
I use a number of brands/grades of pencil leads in 2mm from 2B on up…in lead holders…
Saves me a bit of trouble of having to “press harder” when I’m annotating various things, and also saves me the trouble of breaking the points off of unsuitable graphite compounds. Yes, one needs to sharpen them occasionally, but that’s their nature.
Plus, various 2mm lead holders can be a little more aesthetically or pleasing in other ways (e.g., haptic-wise).
Yeah I know there are wooden pencils with similar properties, but I cannot draw or sketch worth anything. Purely for annotating things with differing amounts of emphasis.
I don’t know about that. I just bought two new Rotring 600 ballpoints, in which one I loaded up a magenta Parker-style cartridge, and the other is in basic black which holds fast to waterproof paper.
I don’t agree that print is dead at all.
Gaming (role-playing games, specifically) are about the only time I use pencils at this point. I still often use printed paper character sheets, and when I act as a Game Master, I print out details of the adventure I’m running – in both cases, I’ll then take notes, and keep track of things that can change during play (hit points, spell usage, etc.) using a pencil, because it’s easy to erase things that change.
I, too, always use a mechanical pencil for that, typically a Bic pencil.
I haven’t purchased wooden pencils in many years, aside from perhaps the occasional souvenir pencil from somewhere. I’m sure we a) bought them when the kids were in school, and b) still have a few around somewhere.
Back in college and for a few years afterward, I loved mechanical pencils. I took virtually all my classroom notes with one. I always wondered if I’d ever manage to use up an entire vial of pencil leads; I always misplaced them before that happened. The pencils were also useful in stabbing the dinosaurs, that’s how long ago this was.
I remain faithful to Dixon Ticonderoga. But i should try those some day.
I’m sure that many fewer pencils are sold today then 50 years ago, but they aren’t hard to find. Last time i was in NYC i spent an hour at a fabulous stationary shop, and picked up some fancy colored pencils (both wooden and mechanical) along with some nice pens. And there’s a stationary shop in my small town which sells pencils and pens. And of course, Staples sells them, as does Amazon…
I hardly ever use pencils nowadays, but then again I hardly ever use pens. And I find that an old pencil is much more likely to be operational than an old ballpoint pen.
Oooooooh! Fancy pen words! 
I’m rather impressed to see so many rush to the defense of the beleaguered pencil! LOL
That’s what the non-frugal would have you believe. We who rinse/re-use ziploc baggies and keep bread wrappers in a kitchen drawer know better.
You nailed it there. A theme of my professional style as a middle school math teacher was communicating the value of savoring the mundane in general and pencil appreciation (particularly wood case pencils) in particular. Very effective at opening young eyes to the magic of slowing down and enjoying life.
Also - you need a pencil to do math. There will be corrections.