Best Pencils

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Top 10 Best Pencils

As a pencil scavenger and an experienced veteran in losing pencils, I have had many pencils throughout my school career and some have been better than others. Pencils are an art and said art is really easy to screw up.

#10 Mechanical Pencils

These are the worst of the worst. The exterior is flimsy plastic. The lead is so ugly that even writing feels weird and mechanical. Instead of having a nice, sharpened lead that feels human-like, you have a disgusting log of metal meant for writing? Why give me a deformed, unkempt lump of metal stuff if you purpose it for writing? Writing is a delicate process and requires extreme precision. This is just sad.

#9 Paper Mate Mechanical Pencils

If you have driven yourself into the point of insanity, get these mechanical pencils. The Paper Mate pencils are just higher quality. The erasers are bigger, the lead is stronger and they have a nice grip. They still are bottom of the barrel trash, but better than general plastic mechanical pencils.

#8 Japanese Mechanical Pencils

I once got a cool Japanese mechanical pencil from my piano teacher and I thought it felt good compared to other mechanical pencils. It’s pretty much a higher quality mechanical pencil, but it had some built in features that I don’t understand how to use, but are cool. I still dislike mechanical pencils, though.

#7 Up & Up

While being the classic model we all know and love, these are absolute garbage. I bet your mom or something saw these 2 cent value Up & Up pencils and the clearly superior Ticonderoga pencils and chose the 2 cents because 2 cents cheaper. The eraser is bad, the lead is weak and has a built-in pencil sharpener repellent. The longest I’ve ever been with this orange spectacle was a week and a half before it snapped in half from the sheer pressure of its mother telling them that she hates him and that he is a disappointment when being put together by the Chinese sweatshop worker. Still better than mechanical.

#6 Erasable Pen

These aren’t actually pencils, I chose to include them because they erase. However, I feel that all erasable pens are a tad bit low quality. They aren’t really made for precision, more just for writing. Also, the erasing effect isn’t even that good. Either pick a pen or a pencil. However, if you’re outlining something in pen and you’re a little jittery or anxious about your results, an erasable pen might help you.

#5 Raw Lead

#4 Book Fair Pencils

These off brand pieces of work were clearly being dropshipped to some random convenience store based on an offshore oil rig, but they’re pretty good. I know we all have a random bin of pencils and crayons or something with one of these guys sitting in them. Take an Up & Up pencil, stick a pencil wallpaper saying to stay in school and you got one of those book fair pencils. These pencils were often found in elementary school for when you spend 50 dollars on some heart charity and get a pencil and a jump rope 2 months later. I would put them on the same level as Japanese mechanical pencils, but the sheer drip that the book fair pencils carry is more than enough for 4th place.

#3 Ticonderoga Pencils

These Ticonderoga pencils are elite stuff. They aren’t too expensive and provide great results. The eraser properly erases and the lead is strong enough for paper and pencil sharpeners. Also, they are equipped for drawing! The lead is strong enough to endure for hours while the shading you can do with it is as luxurious as professional art tools. If there is ever a human starter pack, this pencil should be in it.

#2 Bite Mark

These are just the classic Ticonderoga with flavor spots. Very little improvement, but benefits everything in the long run.

Honorable Mentions

A lot of writing utensils were cut from this list, but are still worthy of having a fraction of the spotlight. First off, I once found this plastic skull pencil on the sidewalk and kept it. The lead was pre-sharpened and you could pop it off too to replace it with a new one inside the pencil. Good pencil, but I didn’t know the name and I can’t sharpen it. There’s also this ballpoint BiC pen that has carried me throughout my life and would be #0 if not for the fact that it’s a pen. I’m getting really off topic now, but spinning pens are so entertaining, but not pencils and not writing utensils. Okay, time for the final pencil.

#1 Black Ticonderoga Pencils

These are the best of the best, luxurious, comfortable, good looking, sleek and the BEST OF THE BEST PENCILS. Extraordinarily rare, the black Ticonderoga pencils are everything great about the Ticonderoga pushed to the max for maximum amazingness. The lead is better, the eraser is higher quality, the black exterior feels so comfortable on my cold, lifeless hands and tastes excellent. These pencils will bring you to your entire life, so very impressive for a pencil.