Uni MH500 2mm Lead Holder - One Cautionary Note, One Defeated Expectation - Mechanical Pencil Review<br /> by Unnecessary Detail

HB Lead Grades Explained + How to Select Right Pencil for Writing & Art<br /> by [[Unnecessary Detail]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-09-20T23:58:33

HB is typically the mid-point for most manufacturers <br /> H (hardness) tends to go lighter and scratchier (less graphite, more clay)<br /> B (darkness) tends to go darker and smoother (more graphite, less clay)<br /> F is typically a grade (fine/firm) between H and HB

For general writing look in the range of H / F / HB / B / 2B

Charcoal pencils tend to be much darker that clay/graphite pencils.

In the United States, pencils are often graded from #1 to #5 with the #2 being equivalent to HB.

Why You Must Try 2mm Lead Holders vs. Wooden Pencils, Fountain Pens & Mechanical Pencils<br /> by [[Unnecessary Detail]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-09-20T23:24:15

reply to Kirk Jackson aka u/NashvilleTypewriter at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1wjidrf/what_words_could_we_use_to_better_describe_the/pal3wez/

This is great. I find it to be the case as well.

Watching other spaces like note taking applications (and methods), stationery, planners, notebooks, pencils, pens, fountain pens, etc. it repeats itself over and over. Some will really love a particular object which seems to work for them while others don't. Fora are filled with people asking, what do you like? how do you use it? when instead they ought to be attempting to figure out what they like and how they would use it.

Some turn their love of a particular thing into a religion (Apple vs. IBM comes to mind) which also tends to make others doubt their own choices and what might work best for them. Instead of experimenting around a bit to see what works for them, they take the supposed "magic" propounded by others and wrongly try to make it work for themselves. This is one of the primary reasons I tell potential new typewriter stewards to visit shops or type-ins so that they can put their hands on a variety of machines to see which "speaks" or works best for them and their needs. There are so many people limping along out there on dreadfully maintained machines because they haven't tried others (or even cleaned, oiled, and well-adjusted ones) and don't know what they're missing.

I was reading/listening to a series by APM recently called Sold a Story about how some academics and scientists created a "new method" for teaching reading and sold it as a products to school systems all over the country. While it managed to work for a terrifically small population, it was broadly wrong for the majority of people. Decades of harm was done to children and the educational space because everyone went with what these experts said (and which may have seemed logical) rather than doing some work, trusting testing and results, or continuing to experiment with a variety of strategies. Similarly, while computers and writing software may work for many, some of the older tried-and-true methods out there using tools like pencils, pens, loose paper, index cards, notebooks, notepads, and typewriters can provide dramatically different affordances in ways of working with them which are actually better for some of the things one might wish to accomplish with them. Some tools have the ability to speak to you in ways that others do not.

(P.S. Thanks for your observation as this may become the kernel of the introduction to the book I'm slowly working on.)

Most Pencils Are Terrible. Here Are 6 You Should Actually Buy<br /> by [[John Pattison]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-09-14T23:51:04

• Mitsubishi Hi-Uni HB
• Palomino Blackwing 602
• Palomino Blackwing Matte
• Viking Element 1
• Mitsubishi 9850 HB
• General's Cedar Pointe #2
• Tombow Mono 100 HB

More often than not I just go simple pencil all the way through.

Sometimes I use a Pilot Coleto Hi-tec C multipen with four different colors to make things more interesting and differentiate between types of data, particularly within the boxes so I know what happens from one box to the next, particularly when going back to prior boxes to add in historical information. (I also tend to go with their 0.3mm fine tip ink refills for being able to pack more writing into small boxes!) Sometimes I'll do the starting pitcher and their work in black, and relievers in blue, purple, and orange rotating through to differentiate each pitcher's work to make it easier to keep up with their individual data, especially when I do full pitch counts.

Sometimes I'll take along a Mitsubishi 772 "editor's pencil" that has both red and blue lead to add in some color. Often it's a simple line for pitcher changes or for substitutions across an individual line to distinguish when a sub came into the game.

Sometimes I'll use a typewriter with a bichrome ribbon and switch between black and red ink to help break up some data, or to highlight things like RBIs to make summing things easier in the end. Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaseballScorecards/comments/1s33f1d/20260324_tampa_bay_rays_vs_atlanta_braves_spring/ which has red lines between pitchers and red "I"s to break up substitutions.

Looking at example cards that get posted here will give you some ideas and pointers. Usually one can puzzle out what the scorer was doing using different colors or highlighters.

A lot of how I score depends on my mood, where I'm watching a game, how much time I want to put into it all, and which tools I have at hand. Experiment. Have fun. Do what works best for you. There's no single "right" way, just the same way there are thousands of different formats in scorecard formats.

reply to u/Alej_Betancourt at https://reddit.com/r/BaseballScorecards/comments/1s3mbzt/your_advice_for_a_rookie_highlighters_and/

https://www.dickblick.com/items/caran-d-ache-graphicolor-bicolor-pencil-redgraphite/<br /> Caran d'Ache Graphicolor BiColor Pencil - Red/Graphite

https://tryeverpen.com/

Steinbeck’s 24 Pencil Writing Ritual<br /> by [[Wood & Graphite]] YouTube <br /> accessed on 2025-12-10T08:58:17

John Steinbeck pre-sharpened 24 of his Eberhardt Faber Blackwing 602 pencils in batches to have uninterrupted writing time. When they were all dull, he would batch sharpen them again.

Thomas Steinbeck on The Steinbeck Pencil Length<br /> by [[Blackwing]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2025-12-10T08:53:22

Luhmann actively used red colored pencils in his cross referencing system, a practice that was suggested by many indexing and filing textbooks of his era.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pencils/comments/p8w070/wooden_pencils_with_red_lead/

https://musgravepencil.com/products/hermitage-510-wood-cased-hexagonal-pencil-with-red-core-musgrave-pencil-company

https://www.reddit.com/r/pencils/comments/1nd7rvp/red_pencils_for_sketching_and_drawing/

https://www.reddit.com/r/pencils/comments/1g925ar/colored_pencils_for_writing/

The Pencil Pages<br /> by [[Doug Martin]]<br /> accessed on 2025-11-09T09:27:11

Mongolized<br /> by [[WoodChuck]] for CalCedar accessed on 2025-11-09T09:24:05

Capped Mechanical Pencils: Who Did It Better, Pentel Sharp Kerry or Uni Kuru Toga Dive?<br /> by [[The Gentleman Stationer]]<br /> accessed on 2025-08-13T09:52:42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eversharp

Advanced Typing: Duplicating and Manuscript. Vol. MN-1512d, 1943. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ve5JnTUzvo.

Stencils

Before writing stencils, be sure to clean your type. (Don't use liquid solvent.)

Be sure to place the cushion sheet properly behind the stencil.

Place the paper bail rollers at the extreme left and right of the stencil to prevent them from marking the master.

For errors, rub individual characters separately with a burnisher using a circular motion.

Hectograph masters, Hectograph ribbon (ditto ribbon)

Wax pencils

Typefaces

20% more type on a page with elite than 10 inch pica.

Pica allows approximately 26-40 lines on standard letterhead giving 300-450 words to a page.

Special characters: - o for degrees ' and " for feet and inches or minutes and seconds along with superscript - division: - backspace colon - pound sterling: L backspace f - exclamation point: period backspace ' - equal sign: hyphen backspace variable hyphen - paragraph mark: P backspace I

proofreaders' marks<br /> # followed by a number is used to mean insert that number of spaces

Centering timestamp 19:37

via u/runrainsky at https://old.reddit.com/r/mechanicalpencils/comments/u7pt8z/kuru_toga_elite_vs_roulette/jhvzka9/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186292972823

p41

This quote is fascinating when one realizes that the Thoreau family business was manufacturing pencils at John Thoreau & Co., one of the first major pencil companies in the United States. Thoreau's father was the titular John and Henry David worked in the factory and improved upon the hardness of their graphite. https://hypothes.is/a/sm7LUpazEe2tTq_GhGiVIg

One might also then say that the man who manufactured pencils naturally should become a writer!

This quote also bears some interesting resemblance to quotes about tools which shape us by Winston Churchill and John M. Culkin see: https://hypothes.is/a/6Znx6MiMEeu3ljcVBsKNOw

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/09/12/free-pencil-day/

A list of quotes from famous writers about pencils in The Paris Review.

https://blog.blackwing602.com/introducing-volume-1138-2/

While the Volume 1138 edition celebrates sci-fi and Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, the number itself calls to mind the George Lucas/Walter Murch joint THX 1138.

https://rnv.letterspace.org/pencils/

A great series of posts on pencils here.

https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/writing-tools-i-use-all-the-time-7d8e661f6317

generally meh...

http://www.officemuseum.com/pencil_history.htm

https://www.sliderulemuseum.com/Pencils.htm

https://www.carandache.com/us/en/

https://www.pencilrevolution.com/2020/02/musgrave-tennessee-red/

https://brandnamepencils.com/

https://us.makerscabinet.com/products/ferrule

What a beautiful looking instrument!

https://www.wallpaper.com/design/best-mechanical-pencils