Alotta Monkey Business

Wood or Mechanical (WC 305 Rated E)

In accounting, a mechanical pencil was required to keep the entries in the books fine and readable. A wooden pencil worked as long as it was sharp, but it would soon become dull, the lines would widen, and things got more difficult to fit into small spaces and more difficult to read. That meant you were constantly stopping to sharpen the wooden pencil.

On the other hand, a mechanical pencil is always the same diameter and the lines remain consistent. Sure, you do have to click it every now and again to feed the graphite out, and in time, you must refill it. But it’s still far better than a wooden pencil for this type of work.

At times, I like to go “old-school” with my writing, especially with poetry; I’m talking about freehand writing on paper with a pencil. I have used pens at times, but my preference is a pencil. Both wooden and mechanical work well, but again, there’s that dulling lead (why do they still refer to it as lead, it’s not), making my writing more difficult to read. If you’ve ever seen my handwriting, you’d know, it’s already difficult to read. So again, a mechanical pencil is my choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against wooden pencils, they just don’t serve my purpose. They work great for my wife, who draws and sketches; she prefers wooden over mechanical. And, if one is ever writing late into the night and attacked by a vampire the wooden pencil could save your life. No matter how fancy your mechanical pencil, a plastic tube stabbed into a vampire’s heart is only going to irk it. That’s why I always have at least a couple of sharpened wooden pencils on hand…

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"Reading soothes the soul, writing sets it free." T.J.