Today’s neat find are these “Sprout” wood-cased pencils, which offer an eco-friendly alternative to wasteful plastic pens and mechanical pencils. They’re made from certified and sustainably harvested wood to ensure they’re carbon neutral, and each one is tipped with a decomposable cellulose capsule containing non-GMO seeds for various herbs, flowers, vegetables, or trees.

When you’re done with a given pencil, you can plant it upside-down in a pot filled with soil. After a few weeks of regular watering, you should see sprouts starting to grow!

This is a fantastic way to get kids thinking about the products they use in a more cyclical, minimum-waste fashion. ♻️

You can buy Sprout pencils in various amounts and seed types:

• Various packs of 5 ($10–$12 each) with different seed choices
• Various packs of 8 ($15–$16 each), also with different seed choices
• Pack of 12 ($22) that includes seeds for thyme, sage, daisy, basil, melon and forget-me-not
• Pack of 32 ($50) that includes seeds for sage, thyme, carnation, chia, coriander, daisy, forget-me-not, and basil
• Pack of 100 ($135) that contains 25 sage seeds, 25 thyme seeds, 25 forget-me-not seeds, and 25 basil seeds.

They also offer colored pencils that kids will love all the more.

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If mechanical pencils are your preferred type of writing utensil but you’ve had it up to HERE 🫡 with those tiny lead sticks breaking…well, you might be applying too much pressure when you write — but if you’re not going to fix that, then you should look into getting one with a thicker grade of lead.

The 5311 by Koh-I-Noor is more accurately described as a “lead holder” than a true mechanical pencil, given the thicc-with-two-C’s 5.6mm x 80mm graphite leads it uses. This thing is solid as a rock, and it writes and sketches that way too. Go ahead and apply as firm a press as you like, because you’re not likely to break this lead even if you drop the entire utensil on hard ground.

There’s a sharpener built into the cap, revealed when you unscrew it. However, it’s admittedly a bit tedious to use, so I recommend getting a standalone sharpener that will do the job more robustly.

The Koh-I-Noor 5311 Lead Holder is $16 on Amazon.

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Crossword puzzles (even mini ones) are a nice little way to pass the time that doesn’t involve staring at a screen. Unless you fill each one perfectly though, I don’t recommend using a pen because you’ll be scribbling out mistakes and writing above them a lot.

What you need is a good pencil, and CW Pencil Enterprise offers a whole set of them hand-picked for this purpose. It comes with 6 pencils specially tested for magazine paper and newsprint, each with its own strengths and writing feel (you can check the descriptions for each on the store page):

1. Camel HB Pencil
2. Caran d’Ache Yellow School Pencil
3. Mitsubishi Office Use 9850 HB Pencil
4. General’s Test Scoring 580 Pencil
5. Palomino Blackwing Pearl
6. Tombow 2558 B Pencil

In a blog post about the set, you can see how much thought they put into this particular selection of pencils:

For newspaper and glossy magazine print, you need a pencil that’s dark, but not too crumbly or smudgy. A firm pencil pretty much destroys newspaper – they indent the sheet so the marks are too hard to erase and are generally too light to show up very well. Not ideal. If a pencil is too soft, it will make a mess – especially on magazine paper. If you’re using pencils for crosswords, you also need a really good eraser (because otherwise, you could just use a pen, right?) – it’s got to be nice quality and sort of soft because hard rubber ones will easily tear newspaper.

The set is $11.75 at cwpencils.com and comes in a nice little envelope you can keep the pencils stored in.

They also offer a number of other pencil sets for a variety of purposes, including sketching, note-taking, writing on sheet music, and scoring baseball.

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Faber-Castell’s Jumbo Grip Graphite Pencils is billed as Germany’s best-selling pencil for learning to write. It’s intended for elementary-aged kids who are still developing those kinds of motor skills, but I’d say they’re just as nice for adults who prefer a comfier writing grip.

Rather than being cylindrical, these pencils’ chunky barrels have more of a rounded triangle shape. On top of that, they have these little raised dots along the lengths of the barrels to keep your fingers from slipping. These pencils won’t roll off your desk, and they go through an “SV bonding” process — meaning the lead core is firmly glued along the entire length of the barrel wood — to make the lead extremely resistant to breakage.

One nice touch is the little reserved space near the top of the barrel where you can write your name in case there’s any mixup later

Grab a pack of 12 Jumbo Grip pencils for $22 on Amazon.

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It has come to my attention that German stationery manufacturer Staedtler offers a pair of writing utensils made out of high-performance concrete: one’s a pen ($30 USD), the other’s a mechanical pencil ($35 USD). Both of them sport an asymmetrical hexagonal body:

Photos: Kelvin Pang

It’s a little wonky looking, but I’d almost argue that these are more decorative utensils than actual writing ones, if that makes sense (although you can, of course, still use them like any other pen or pencil). For instance, they’d look pretty great with this concrete desk set.

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Sometimes it’s the smallest innovations in our lives that make the most difference. For instance, you know how with most mechanical pencils you have to rotate the thing from time to time because the lead wears unevenly? With Uni’s Kuru Toga, that’s a thing of the past.

This pencil has a built-in mechanism that rotates the lead as you write. The rotation is very incremental and happens every time you lift off the page, keeping the lead sharp and your lines clean — always. Never again will you have to interrupt your flow just to keep your writing legible.

There are actually a number of Kuru Toga models to choose from, but my favorite is the “Roulette”, which has a knurled metal grip. The set that includes 20 spare leads (which are specially made for the Kuro Toga line) and 5 extra erasers is $13 on Amazon and comes in two body colors: gun metallic and silver.

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Photo: Brian Greene, OfficeSupplyGeek (be sure to check out his review!)

Who says mechanical pencils can’t be just as stylish as fountain pens? Pentel’s “Sharp Kerry” line of mechanical pencils feature an elegant cap that keeps the writing end from poking or marking on things while it’s in your pocket, then snaps onto the other end when you’re ready to use it.

You can extend the 0.5mm lead whether or not the cap is posted, since the barrel and cap each have a button you can click for that. When the cap is off, you can remove the button cover on the barrel to use the eraser hidden there. The knurled metallic grip on the barrel offers a comfortable grip for when you’re writing, sketching, and what have you.

My only quibble is that, since the cap and barrel are made of different materials, their colors do vary slightly. Nothing that puts me off, but worth considering if you’re bothered by that sort of thing.

The Sharp Kerry line comes in a variety of metallic barrel colors:

• Blue ($17)
• Smoky grey ($14)
• Black ($11)
• Olive green ($14)
• Red ($18)
• Pink ($15)
• Orange (limited edition)

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Zebra’s Delguard Type-Lx mechanical pencil is a solid upgrade over their standard DelGuard. Like its predecessor, the Type-Lx employs an ingenious dual-spring internal mechanism — one in the barrel, one in the tip — that makes it virtually impossible to break the lead, whether you’re pressing down vertically or sideways. It works amazingly well and has no negative impact on the way you write.

The main difference in the Type-Lx is its smooth metal grip that makes the pencil feel more weighty in the hand, making the writing experience all the more comfortable and stable.

There are four colors to choose from, running about $9 each on Amazon:

• Black
• White
• Blue
• Red

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Back in January 2015, mechanical designer Andrew Sanderson was able to get his first Kickstarter project funded: the uber-sleek Modern Fuel Mechanical Pencil, which was machined from one solid piece of metal (aluminum or brass) and thus made to last a lifetime.

Now he’s back with another Kickstarter for a 2.0 update to that mechanical pencil, which offers several enhancements over the original:

• New material options — The pencil now comes in your choice of titanium, copper, bronze, or stainless steel.
• More lead sizes — They’ve designed mechanisms for 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm lead sizes, which are interchangeable within the same pencil body depending on your needs.
• Retractable tip — This will help keep the tip from being damaged if the pencil is dropped.
• O-ring seal — Placed between the cone and the body to keep the cone from becoming loose.
• Stylus functionality — The eraser can now be replaced with one of the three included stylus tips.
• Eraser plug (optional) — For anyone who wants to take off the eraser entirely for an even more seamless look.
• …and more.

As I write this, the project launched only about an hour ago and it’s already doubled its funding goal, with 60 days to go. Wow.

If you want a Modern Fuel pencil of your own, go back the project at the $60 level or higher. A lot to pay for a pencil, sure, but you’ll never again have to buy another pack of cheap-o plastic ones that only get disposed of like it’s nothing.

May 21, 2019 Update: You can find the latest version of the mechanical pencil along with some pretty sweet pens at modernfuel.com.

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Thanks to the Offscreen Dispatch newsletter, I recently discovered a gorgeous series of brass writing utensils made by the Taiwan-based ystudio (that incidentally would’ve made excellent additions to our Black & Gold EDC guide).

The “brassing” series in particular has caught my eye:

• Ballpoint pen (€70 / ~$80 USD)
• Sketching pencil (€90 / ~$103 USD)
• Fountain pen (€160 / ~$182 USD)
• Portable fountain pen (€140 / ~$160 USD)
• Ruler (€15 / ~$18 USD)
• Postcard (€15 / ~$18 USD)

Each of these products sports a black finish that slowly wears off over time, revealing the underlying raw brass material to beautiful effect. You can also use the included extra-fine 600-grit sandpaper to move the process along. Either way, each item reveals a sort of character unique to you, which I find very appealing.

Just over a year ago, Brad Dowdy of The Pen Addict wrote a review of the ballpoint pen:

It ships with sandpaper? Yes it does. I wasn’t aware of that at first, thinking any wear pattern would form over time. I didn’t even notice the sandpaper when I first open the box either, but once it fell out of the included insert I thought “Aha! This will be fun!”

The brassing series can be purchased either from the Amsterdam-based Kohezi shop or from ystudio directly, although it appears that neither of the fountain pens listed above can be found on ystudio’s own site, oddly enough.

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The “Journal” Field Kit by SDR Traveller has everything you need to plan, sketch, and document experiences, wherever you travels take you. Here’s what’s in it:

• No. 8 Journal — A5-sized notebook containing 50 micro-perforated pages; 5x5mm graph; bound with black cloth.

• Nomads Pen Case — This is probably the best reason to buy the Field Kit. I’ll let their description take it from here:

  “Made from ultra light SDRT Grade Dyneema in Slate Grey. The fabric starts out crisp, and after a few months of use will achieve a matte, crumpled state, while retaining its waterproof properties. It is one of the few technical fabrics that feels better with age. The inner coating will resist pen stains. Non-waterproof YKK zippers are graded for easy access.”

• Mitsubishi Boxy-100 — No-frills black ballpoint pen with retractable nib.
• Pentel GraphGear 1000 — 0.5mm mechanical drafting pencil with a brushed-metal barrel and chiseled grip.

The full set is $78 at SDR Traveller. You can also buy the journal alone for $24, or the pen case alone for $48.

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Growing up in my public school district, kids with Dixon Ticonderoga pencils were always the ones other kids would ask to borrow from. Everyone knew they had the best erasers, and the green ferrule and lettering were always a dead giveaway even from across a classroom.

While I still enjoy writing with a classic schoolbus-yellow Ticonderoga from time to time, my preferred choice these days is the black edition. They’re everything I love about the yellow ones, except sleeker and more grown-up.

If the Palomino Blackwing (which goes for $20+ per dozen) is the Bentley of pencils, the black Ticonderoga is the Buick. A pack of 24 goes for just $5 as an Amazon add-on item.

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The Rotring 800+ is a combination of stylus and retractable 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Give the cap a small twist to extend or retract the mechanical pencil—while retracted the 800+ acts like any other stylus, perfect for use on an iPad.

The hexagonal metal barrel adds a certain heftiness and quality that feels great in the hand, and thanks to its knurled grip, it’s not likely to slip out of your fingers.

The Rotring 800+ 0.7mm is available for $65 on Amazon in black or silver. For a few more bucks, you can get a 0.5mm black or a 0.5mm silver.

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