Ours is a disposable society. Pens and pencils are a good example of a disposable commodity. I like to write in black ink. Of the disposable pens, the Jimni Gel rollerball medium nib is a very smooth writer. Unfortunately, the ink is consumed quickly because the pen has a generous flow that produces a striking jet-black impression on the paper. Of the dozens of these pens that I have used, every one became a discarded hull of plastic, rubber and steel; a shocking waste of material. Pencils are even worse because the graphite wad is encased in wood, which means that lots of trees are consumed and material wasted to create pencils, of which only a small fraction of the graphite and all of the wood is used.

Modern mechanical pencils are our best writing solution as they use the manufactured wads that enable the wad-holder to be continuously re-used. Of the wide variety of mechanical pencils available, I like the Twist Erase model that is supplied in three sizes: 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm. Each size of wad-holder is furnished with a large eraser that can be extended from its housing by a twist of the fingers. The rubber coated barrel is large and comfortable to grip, capable of storing more than a dozen 60mm Super Hi Polymer wads, which makes for long runs of writing between refills. Hard wads of 2H are good in the 0.5mm propelling pencil for sketching outline drawings. HB wads in the 0.7mm pencil are good for general purpose writing. Soft 2B wads are best in the 0.9mm holder for general sketching and freehand drawing work.

Henry Petroski wrote a readable and interesting book on the evolution of The Pencil, examining in detail the engineering needed to produce this unappreciated artifact. In comparison with expensive writing instruments, the cheap mass-produced pen and pencil are best because it matters little if they are lost or broken. Only an inkwell to supply a steel nib in a nib-holder would be better, though several decades have passed since I last used such a combination and got inky fingers.

Of course, for handwritten letters and for legal documents, the ink pen is still necessary.