So I’m a bit of a pencil fiend and ever since I read an article about the different aging qualities between pencil lead and pen ink I’ve become even more immersed in the passion of pencils. I have several (see dozens) of different brands of wooden pencils and ten or so mechanical pencils. I don’t mind a mechanical pencil, I’ve been EDCing a UNI Kuru Toga for the last few weeks, but I have always preferred a wooden pencil but EDCing a wooden pencil can be problematic. For weeks I have be looking at different custom bullet pencils, the Faber Perfect Pencil, and so on but haven’t pulled the trigger. Then yesterday the planets aligned and a solution was found!!!
My company buys some really cheap pens for doing orientations and they suck. Half of them don’t work out of the box and they are just horrible quality so we use them as one time throw-aways. They are a the Fila Tratto1 and are a twist action one piece unit, turn the cap and the pen slides back into the sleeve.

So yesterday one of the guy happen to step on one that had fallen on the floor, I didn’t think about it and just dropped the pieces on my desk while I finished the orientation. Afterwards I was sitting at my desk and was looking at the cap and noticed it was smaller in dimension that a regular bic pen.

Looking inside the cap I noticed that the pen ink tube was held in place by small fins inside the cap itself. I cut one one to show it better.

Looking at it I was struck with an idea to try it on a pencil. I always have a half dozen pencils on my desk so I grabbed a Mirado Classic and tried the fit…… it was perfect!!! the pencil slides in easily, the sharpened lead fit inside the fins and the depth is just right that the fins do not damage the wood around the lead and the cap holds the pencil snug. I tried a few other pencils to be sure.

By the end of the day I had sacrificed 10 more of the cheap pens, 5 blue and 5 black, to the EDC Gods and now I am dancing a small “happy jig” because I can now start carrying my beloved wooden pencils EDC again!

I have 2 in my pocket right now and a handful more full length in my bag with a sharpener (always carried that anyway) and now I feel a little more at peace with the EDC Gods and my own OCD-like quest for the perfect EDC.