Definitely didn't waste half an hour making this

I'd rather fucking kill myself.

Definitely 2. Sharpening is such a nice break from writing.

#3 for writing.

This is the real personality tests, fuck Myers-Briggs and astrology. I need to know your choices for stationary.

3 Kuru Toga. Every time
- Best pencil i have used

I do all my art with 5.

I'm a pen/pencil freak who's spent an amazing amount of money on them, and I'd choose 2.

Staedtler 35-05B but I guess 3 looks closest so I'll take that

Can I just use a pen?
- The pen is, mightier than the sword.

If I'm only allowed one type of pencil it's good old #2 (I'm more of a pen snob)

6 every time.
Also fuck 7, those butcher broke so easily.
I had one similar to (not literally exactly) 6 back in high school, and some really dumb jock took it from me and I've wanted it back ever since.
The Bic one is okay, but pushing directly on the eraser to push the lead out isn't ideal. I always thought that was a design flaw. Having the button on the side of the pencil but away from the index finger is ideal honestly.
And even though we're not deciding based on lead size for this, I prefer the finer.5 to the more common .7.
Plus the top has a pretty large eraser that you can twist to expose more, so it had a mechanical refillable eraser too, which was pretty cool.
And I got mine in my favorite color, and that fucked just took it.
I was a super sheltered kid, coming fresh off being completely homeschooled (except for a Christian kindergarten), and that year of school was my first social contact with other people outside grocery stores and church. So I didn't do much about it, as I didn't have a clue about how anything in real life worked. I wouldn't figure a lot of it out for still another 16 years, but that's a different story.
Also at this point I haven't actually written anything at all with a pencil, pen, or marker for.... 15ish years now? Outside of signing my name anyway.

Also, some of these options are not pencils. For a pen I'd go for 5/6.
- 5 literally says pencil on it.
- They all look like pencils to me.

The Pentel Graphgear 1000 is great. I love how it retracts.

I have 2 .3 mm Graph Gear pencils that I swear by.

Why are we ignoring the diameter?
- The lead diameter.
  
  Ahh. Ok. I like fatty grips. So I was on a different wavelength.

6, cause it’s a gel pen. For a pencil, not really bothered by these options…probably 2.
- 6 is a mechanical pencil.

METAL KURU TOGA MY GOAT 👑 👑 👑 🐐 🐐 🐐 🔥🔥🔥
- The others don't know just how good kuru togas are
- Yes! Finally bought one about a month ago, and I'll never go back!

I would suggest that the Dixon Ticonderoga is the most reliable, most cost-efficient, and easiest-to-use writing utinsil in the history of humanity.*
Each other option has more points of potential failure and additional complexities over the Ticonderoga. While more complicated tools may net you some improvement in writing style or sharpness, they are massive trade-offs in more basic areas.
This would be much the same question if it were "what car would you drive for the rest of your life" between fancy ones like Ferraris and Lambos to cheaper, more reliable ones like Corollas and Civics. Everyone likes the look of the Ferrari -- but the only car for the rest of your life? It's got to be reliable, or you're going nowhere. You want to be able to keep driving.
The Ticonderoga guarantees you can keep writing.
*intentionally overselling it for humor. But it is a nice, simple, good-quality pencil.

You missed an option.

I like the Zebra.Got them at Dollar Tree or one of the Dollar stores.

Number 2 is the only one that can write effectively on wood. I may not build a lot, but when I have tried to use a mechanical pencil for marking wood, it was a total fail.

6 because I need all that extra eraser

#2
We’ve taken way too many things that don’t need to be plastic and made them plastic
- Yeah but with mechanical pencils you can buy one and have it for years, only just buying the occasional pack of leads... Saves the trees ¯(ツ)_/¯
- made them plastic
  #1 is all metal. Retractable tip. Bought one after Adam Savage reviewed them.
  #2 is definitely the best long-term option, but it's really nice not to have to constantly sharpen while you're doing some intricate work.
- +1
  never fails

none of the above of i may. i choose this:
- Hott

Pentel.
Always.
I prefer the p20x series personally but just about every mech pencil I've ever used from them has been excellent
- I had a pentel pen and it was just amazing. Very good for finger spinning
- I have two twist-erase 3's and I've never looked back. I love them so much.

I am a simple man. I see Ticonderoga, I choose Ticonderoga. I like ships and I cannot lie

Wtf is this shit? No Rotring. No Alvin. No Koh-i-Noor. I guess I have to take the GraphGear, but it's under duress.
- The rotring is nice but I feel like the quality has gone downhill. That being said, it looks very nice.

Anyone who uses #7 by choice is a freak

Lightweight and reliable.
- Also super cheap. I think last time i bought 50 for 6 usd and Im still using that box
  
  Lol i bought that same box and yes, like 43 of them still unused.

1, I have one of them branded from my prior work, it's an excellent pencil.

Oh no... I'm that weirdo that likes the Papermate mechanicals.
They are just so simple and reliable. You could crush one and still get it to write again if you needed too and it had the eraser (that sucked) built right in that you never used but felt good looking at it and squeezing against your thumbnail when you were bored. Just had to put better quality lead in it.
But man Zebra makes the pens and pencil I would actually intend to use if I was planning it.

2

8 that style was lucky for me in my college years.

As long as it Just Writes(TM) I don't care. I want to pick it up, and I want to write. I don't want to try writing only to find it's dried up and I have to scribble on some other bit of paper before it comes back to life. Now OK if I've left the lid off then that's my bad, but if I haven't then it should just flipping work.

No pencils. Let the record stand, cross off mistakes with a single strikethrough like a gentleman.

2

Just gimme the damn wood pencil, #2

If it's literally only one pencil for the rest of my life, probably the GraphGear 1000 since it would probably last the longest. If I can continue using multiple copies of the same kind of pencil, then it would be number 2 since that would be the most versatile and available one to use.

reject mechanical, embrace wood.

2
- Same. I press too hard to use mechanical pencils
  
  I just like being able to use a duller point sometimes when I'm drawing.

Graphgear 1000, without a doubt. Such a great pencil, and I love that it is weighted. It feels so much more natural writing/drawing, at least to me, with the Graphgear.
- The issue I have with it is it's not built well. I've seen it break before from just normal use.

A pen.

I'm a Pentel man but the one pictured doesn't look very comfy. I'd want something closer to #6.
- Pentel used to be my pencil of choice, too. You'd probably want something more like the e-Sharp. The one pictured is really more of a precision work one. Drafting, art. Less for long-form writing.
  
  Yeah that looks about right.

5

Why do I feel like I'm participating in market research
- Got em guys. I took down Mr. Bic
- If that were the case, I would imagine that they would have picked a website with a much larger user base.
  
  Why

i love my kuru toga, but i don't really write much anymore. i do still like doing sketches in my sketchbook, and i'm biased towards mechanical pencils, so it's a #1 for me.

They're all wrong. I don't see a Blackwing up there.

2

Who writes with a pencil? Drawing.... Okay... But writing is what fountain pens are for.
- Better not make an error with a pen when you're doing/writing down math.
  
  Okay you got a point. Luckily I don't have to do lots of math on paper in my day to day life.

Rotring rapid pro 0.7mm
- What's your opinion on the rotring tikky? I'm personally a big fan of the 0.5 tikky
  
  Tikky II got me through my entire education.

Two. My experience with mechanical pencils is that they're often unreliable and a waste of time. I hate having to reload my pencil, I hate when it breaks if you accidentally make the tip longer than it should be, I hate when you accidentally put one more in the pencil and it gets clogged, I hate having to carry refills all the time, I hate buying an expensive pencil and worrying about losing it (as opposed to just buying a dozen regular pencils for backup)...
Just hand over the regular pencil and a decent sharpener.
- Bonus points for #2 being #2
- Unreliable? I have two Staedtler Mars Micro pens I bought a good 20 years ago and they both work perfectly.
- If you feel they are unreliable, it may just be that you aren’t using good ones. I use 3 on a regular basis (for Japanese) and never have issues with feeding or lead breaking; I also only have to refill it every few weeks.
  
  Same, an actual good quality, properly made and assembled mechanical pencil will just keep going and going, and if you treat it well, you never need to replace it.
  Kinda like a decent quality safety razor.
  All you gotta do is treat it right and replace the razors/graphite, nets out to saving money after probably a month or two of decent use.
  
  I've had the same mechanical pencil for ten years. It's comfortable, reliable, easy to reload, but if I had to choose one for the rest of my life, I'd still go with the traditional wood/graphite pencil. It's cheap, it's everywhere, it's durable, and not a great loss if you lose it.
  
  I got one because I was intrigued by its lead rotation, but I found that it really didn't rotate the lead enough while I wrote. I kept having to rotate the barrel manually to keep a thin line like I do for every other mechanical pencil, and then would get annoyed every time the clip came around to brush my hand. I've been wondering if I'm doing something wrong, or if Japanese just uses more shorter strokes. Do you also like it when writing English?
- On the topic of sharpeners, those battery powered pressure sharpeners are satisfying as fuck. They're shit and invariably snap the nib, but they're the sharpening equivalent of shoving a Q-tip in your ear and having a good rake about.
  Or if you're all about the procrastination, spending a few minutes every lesson at the classroom sharpener like this one brings back the nostalgia:
  
  The pull out drawer for shavings is top tier.
- Back at my school in the 90's you just bought a 10 pack of the cheap black Bic mechanical pencils for like $3 (pic #5) and you were set for the year if you didn't lose too many. They never really broke and you didn't have to refill them if you didn't want to. They also never clogged and if you weren't an idiot you didn't try to use too much lead length to where it would break off.
  They were simple and easy and always sharp.
- Since I switched to using 0.9 mm, I almost never break a lead unless I drop it onto a hard floor; it even holds up to some aggressive tapping. Consequently, I hardly ever have to refill. I also never worry about the point snapping or stabbing when tossed loose into a bag, or keeping a sharpener on hand.
  Just my #2 cents.
- It also always ends mid-word/stroke, and you start etching the paper with the metal end. Very annoying.
- Plus a good ol Dixon Ticonderoga can write on stuff other than paper. About the only time I use a pencil is when doing carpentry and mechanical ones just snap.
  
  When I was doing roofing the pica dry mechanical pencils made things so much better. Sure a pencil works good on wood, but what about when I have to mark gray sheet metal? You need something that comes with different colors.
- "Decent sharpener" aka box cutters.

#9 : Steadler 925 35-05b. It's my first nice mechanical pencil and it's just so nice to use.
The graphgear 1000 seems great too, I've never tried one tho.
- The staedtler 925 is great. I think you might prefer the graphgear 500 over the 1000 though, as the rubber nubs on the 1000 are more annoying than plain knurled metal, imo.

5 may not be pretty, but it's had my back in some hard times.
- The issue is the plastic internal mechanisms will wear out eventually. The Pentels have a metal core which has never worn out from my usage. I always end up losing the pencils before they break. The same can’t be said for the BICs.
- I have a ton of these in the garage for woodworking. Screw the carpenters pencils, these are way better.

#2
- My handwriting is awful. #2 for me.

This.
- Damn straight. Best pencil I've ever had. Well, the 0.5mm. I write too small for 0.7.
- I'm surprised nobody else has rotring... my favorite by a considerable amount. Second place goes to the Uni Kuro Toga. Both fantastic pencils, but the weight and feel of the rotring 600 just leaves everything else in the dust
  
  The rotring is super smooth, but its so heavy. I wanted it to be my favorite, but I ended up reaching for the kuro toga far more. Doesnt help that the tip of the rotring bent and dented out on the first drop. I bent it back and it still works, as long as I don't rotate it.
  
  So I thought the uni would be a neat way to use thicker lead but avoid the weird slant in longer sessions. But I don't write in kanji (sp?) and with my mutated cursive alot of my letters string together. So the rotation is not nearly enough, and I end up still getting the weird slant thing on my lead. Only then it's worse because after I build up a flat surface, it rotates a little bit and then the edge is all wrong.
- Yessss. Use a 500 daily
  
  I have the same phone as you. I love that it's red.
  
  I'd like to discuss the flashlight. ?
- Full metall you say? Damnn.
  I didn't know about this brand and now I have been pushed into extensive research of their whole lineup of mechanical pens.
  The 800 looks amazing but I've heard some people complaining about the nib being a bit wobbly, is that true in your experience?
  
  IIRC the 600 is pretty much the same pencil but with a non retractable tip. It might be better for you unless you carry it around.
- the correct answer
- That's like an allergen for ADHD