phantomcow2

For those of you who use mechanical pencils, which size of lead do you use?

Allen

.5
I like thin lines.

Crast

.5

I'm a lefty and .7 smudges more.

free_pizza

.5

Alfster 

Both depending on what I'm doing. If it's a document that needs to be reduced and printed, I'll use a .7

SingingSabre 

I used .5 when I used mechanical pencils.

Now that I'm done with school, I exclusively use pens. I can't stand the texture of writing with graphite...mechanical pencils are more tolerable than standard pencils, but still.

EDIT: Thinking about writing with graphite just gave me the chills!

Allen

Yep, .5 gives me nice consistent lines, if I want to go wider or wish to smear my lines I'll swap to a wood pencil or solid graphite pencil.

iamlucky13

0.5mm. I prefer the precision and I tend to write fairly small.

Velo Vol 

Other.

Michigander

All have their uses, from .3 mm to 2 mm lead holders. Which is preferable depends on the application.

invasionusa

I use both, I like .5 but my favorite pencil is .7 so I end up using .7 more often

Wordbiker

.7 as they're cheap.

nekohime

0.9 because I like big, thick lines but hate sharpening wood pencils. Plus when I'm bored in class/meeting/whatever, I find it enjoyable to just go clicklyclickyclickyclicky until the graphite stick is all long, then I push it back in and repeat the process. 0.5 and 0.7 break too easily for me to do this without wasting graphite. Also, I like the mechanical pencils with the retractable eraser because I play with those too... Yeah I'm a total weirdo.

Wordbiker

Of course the best pencils are free and can be shaved to any point desired.

fuzzbox

square pencils!

mlts22 

0.5mm for me. I'm also left handed. 0.7mm is too fat for decently fine lines.

randya

0.5 hb

-=(8)=-

Me too......
I like shaping my point with a razor blade and keeping a ruff piece of paper
like 70lb velum beside the art, then rub the pencil tip on the paper sideways periodically
to keep it sharp. I also think the softness of the lead is more important than thickness.

bluenote157

.9.. thicker.. lasts longer..and doesn't break...unless you clickity click until it is super long and you try and push it back in...

pgoat

I still like pencils, mechanicals pref. but a good drafting pencil, Berol Black Warior and so forth is fine providing a good sharpener is at hand. I like 7s, but 5 and 3s are great for fine detail of course.

I feel the same as Sabre about pens now - once you go fountain, it's so boring using anything else.

nekohime

Nu uh, I do the clickyclickyclicky and push back thing and it doesn't break!

ehidle

I prefer 0.5mm... I still have the mechanical pencil that got me through 9 years of college and use it at the office almost every day.

JonnyHK 

I used a lot of the 2mm stuff back in college while studying architecture. If you had the proper sharpener you could do just about anything. I had red and blue lead for construction lines and every weight of black.

Otherwise it was the .5 as it was more common.

avmanansala

Heh heh heh...JonnyHK beat me to it... 2mm and F is my preferred lead...I also have 6B, 4B, 2B, B, HB, 2H, 4H and 6H.

x136 

I filled out my taxes in pencil today. It was probably the first time I'd used a pencil for writing in five or more years. It was odd.