When did Scripto brand mechanical pencils vanish?


BaalChatzaf

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I wish to plumb the depths of your collective memory.

Do you remember or have an idea when Scripto ™ brand mechanical pencils disappeared from the shelves? All I see are Bics and PaperMate.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited by BaalChatzaf
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I like Pentel because you can get them not just in .5 and .7 but .3 and 1.3. Also, I prefer not just HB but B and 2B leads.

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I like Pentel because you can get them not just in .5 and .7 but .3 and 1.3. Also, I prefer not just HB but B and 2B leads.

Pentel, pentel! That was the brand I could not think of. Thank you. But I miss the Scripto with its thick lead.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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You can still buy Scripto mechanical pencils. Search with Google. There are many listed on eBay.

That is true. But they are no longer available in stores. The company stopped making them apparently.

I think technology and costs caught up with the Scripto people. The newer mechanical pencils use some kind of polymer for the "leads" rather than classical graphite. This permits stronger thinner leads and also permits vertical ratchet mechanisms rather than screw-twist mechanics. Thus one clicks his mechanical pencil rather than turn it to get more "lead" showing.

I have also seen ads for Sharpie ™ liquid graphite pencils. Basically it is an erasable ball point pen that produces a pencil-like mark.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited by BaalChatzaf
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Subject: pens and pencils as instruments of godliness

> But I miss the Scripto with its thick lead [baal]

That's why I mentioned the 1.3 that's lead thickness. Most mech pencils come in the standard .5 mm or .7. You go to Walmart and that' all you'll see. Go to pentel.com and order. The reason I got some .3 is that I often like to write several sentences of notes in the tiny little margins of books. The reason for 1.3 is when I underline, I often want a very dark line with little pressure (and soft lead (B or 2B not H or HB) that doesn't tear the pages of old, yellowed books.

> I have also seen ads for Sharpie ™ liquid graphite pencils. Basically it is an erasable ball point pen that produces a pencil-like mark.

It just came out and Office Depot sells them online. But if you read the online reviews of this thing, it leaves blotches and it skips. You have to press down pretty firmly. Apparently they haven't perfected the technology yet. My suggestions about 1.3 (or point 9) and softer leads above should cover what you might want this for.

There are also erasable pens. I've used them and their ok, but I have a religious committment to mechanical pencils. If I were to switch to pens, Galt would strike me dead. And before that happened he'd let me stew in overwhelming guilt for a while.

Edited by Philip Coates
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I also like colored lead refills and heaving at least one m.p. with a red or green lead handy. You can buy colored pencils in a box but they are very faint, hard to write with and even to underline.

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I also like colored lead refills and heaving at least one m.p. with a red or green lead handy. You can buy colored pencils in a box but they are very faint, hard to write with and even to underline.

I use (sometimes) Sharpie ™ colored thin line markers. But one must be careful and write lightly or the ink will soak into the paper and spread. There are also colored ball point pens whose mark does not soak into the paper.

For underlining in books I find 2 lead with 0.5 mm thickness satisfactory for underlines and marginal notes.

By the way, I think it is the issue of marginal notes that will inhibit the spread of Kindle ™ type book displaying devices. I understand one can highlight text but it is not easy to do marginal notes.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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> I think it is the issue of marginal notes that will inhibit the spread of Kindle ™ type book displaying devices. I understand one can highlight text but it is not easy to do marginal notes. [baal]

I agree. I think I posted on another thread on that recently so I hope this is not entirely repetitious: I'm not buying one till they have the note-taking, annotation, being able to cut-paste-collate-print aspect worked out. Probably I'd get the Ipad for that reason alone (don't know about w.p. software though) and because you can slot it into a keyboard.

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Talk about a nerdy topic. :rolleyes:

At least people won't call us pencil necked geeks, but instead mechanical pencil necks??

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