I do most of my writing in pen, but depending on personal preferences or field of study, a pencil might make a lot more sense to use. In undergrad, I did all of my engineering homework in pencil. For a little while, instead of using mechanical pencils, I went through a phase where I only used real wooden pencils. I liked the way they felt while you were writing in comparison to mechanical pencils. Mechanical pencils don’t write very dark, and they have somewhat of a “scratchy” feel to them - it’s hard to explain unless you’re sensitive to it yourself.
But real pencils have a lot of downsides as well. They need constant sharpening. The erasers stink - they either don’t do a very good job of erasing or they run out too quickly. And when I stuck them in my school bag, the tips always broke. Honestly, these drawbacks were enough to force me to use mechanical pencils. The other day though, I saw a pencil by Faber Castell that looks like a super duper pencil called the “Perfect Pencil”. It’s a cap that goes on the pencil to keep it from breaking inside of school bags, and the cap has a built in sharpener. Pretty snazzy if you ask me. It’s a bit expensive, but I think it’s a nice step in the right direction for the long neglected, classic pencil.
paperdan