When I was in grad school, I came to rely on mechanical pencils, almost exclusively, for notetaking. My time was the era before PowerPoint, before professors could professionally typeset their notes on a laptop. In short, it was a time when notetaking was king. The shift marked a profound change for me. I was a fountain pen guy through and through while working as a consultant. I loved the flair of being able to match the partners in the firm on at least one dimension. Sure, my suits were not as tailored (nor expensive), my shirts did not have my initials monogrammed on the cuffs, my ties were often bought from the streets of NYC's downtown rather than from some upscale store. But despite all this, my pens were in the big leagues--Montblanc 146, Pelikan M800, Parker Sonnet and Duofold.
Until grad school, that is, when I put my pens aside for a spell of about 4 years. The reason was simple enough. Taking notes produced mistakes, sometimes quite serious ones. I viewed my books of notes as fairly essential pieces of equipment to carry with me into life as an academic economist, and I wanted to be damned sure that they were not filled with cross-outs, scribblings, and so on. In principle, I could have viewed my in class notes as a kind of first draft, to be recopied and corrected subsequently. But I was far too lazy and too bored by the prospect to consider such a task. I was happy enough to make corrections, but a complete rewriting was beyond my tolerance. So I made the switch.
When using mechanical pencils all the time, you quickly discover their strengths and their limitations. For note taking, they are a major upgrade over the old fashioned wood cased pencils. Not having to sharpen and having a point of a consistent, and thin, width are admirable features. Sure, lead breakage could be an issue, but I learned to preload my pencils, to carry spares, and to not write so hard that breakage was an issue.
So what's not to like? As it turns out, those much vaunted thin, consistent points are more myth than reality. Unless you continually rotate the pencil during use, it develops a flat spot. Thus, what should be a crisp 0.5mm line becomes a drab, somewhat lighter 0.6 or 0.7mm line. Until you remember to rotate at which point it returns, for a time, to its former glory. The other weakness, the tendency to smudge and fade, simply goes with the territory. I still have these old notebooks only now, almost 20 years later, they are considerably more difficult to read.
It is the first weakness, however, that brings me to the greatest mechanical pencil ever made: The Uni-ball Kuru-toga. To put this claim in context, it is important to know that I love writing and drawing instruments, so I've tried many, many mechanical pencils. Of those I tried, the Lamy 2000 and Rotring 600/800 are some of the nicest, at least ergonomically. But given the choice, I'll take the Kuru-toga every time. It's secret is actually a very small thing: Every time you lift the pencil, the lead rotates a tiny bit. Indeed, the rotation is so small as to be virtually imperceptible and, given this, you might doubt that this would have much effect. But you'd be wrong. Unlike every other mechanical pencil in existence, the Kuru-toga ensures that you'll have a sharp 0.5mm point all the time (or 0.3, 0.7,,or 0.9 as strikes your fancy). No rotating, twisting, or even awareness is required. Moreover, this is no small benefit. Comparing the writing quality of my beloved Lamy 2000 side by side with the Kuru-toga, it is simply no contest--the latter looks much cleaner and nicer.
Now, there is one caveat: Those of you capable of endless, flowing cursive, or perfect Palmer method loops with each letter beautifully connection to the last are out of luck. The K-T only twists when you lift the pencil, and the lifts under this writing style are simply too infrequent to have much of an effect. This is not to say that only ball and stick people can get the pencil to work. I write in a kind of cursive italic writing, so some letters are connected while others, like the letter "r", are not. Even so, the system works perfectly.
Better still, a Kuru-toga is cheaper, much cheaper, than a Dr. Grip or a number of other blister pack pencils meant for the more discriminating masses. It typically runs $5 at Staples though I've gotten copies for only around $3 from time to time. Online prices are similar. In the US, it comes in a very business like chrome and translucent plastic. In Japan, however, you can obtain themed versions of the K-T, including such favorites as Hello Kitty and various superheroes. These cost a bit more, about $1 or so, than their more boring cousins.
So give it a go. At $5, there is little too lose and much to gain.
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