I know what you're thinking. Pencils? He has finally ran out of things to write about. Actually I've been meaning to write this little review for some time now. But I wanted to give my new favorite pencils some time first.
Pencils have been a source of frustation for me for longer than I can remember. I wasn't always even concious of it. One day it just hit me that I hated my pencils. My chief complaint was and is that their lead breaks too easily. From time to time I would try a conventional pencil and would have better results until- you guessed it- my lead would get dull. At that point I would either have to stop what I was doing and pull out my sharpener, or more likely yank out my pocket knife and terrify whoever was in the room with me.
Even with the lead breaking, I have decided to stick with mechanicals when possible. So one day I thought, "Someone has had this same problem before. There's got to be something better on Amazon." And there is.
Introducing the Bic VELOCITY! WhooHooo!
$10 for four pencils is a little steep, but I'm about to order more. I tend to lose them after about 6 months. Actually one of the four was a prize to a young student who decided it was worth practicing extra for a pencil. The others I have found in my wife's teaching bag a few times. So it's time to restock.
The biggest difference with these is that they use .9 mm lead instead of .7 mm or the insufferable .5 mm. I seriously don't understand how anyone uses those tiny things. I think they get used in drafting and other applications more suitable for computer printers. .9 mm lead is simply awesome. I have intentionally tried to break the lead by stabbing the paper on my desk or piano and couldn't. It has also stood up to the abuse from young children when you ask them to write an answer in their music book. They almost always proceed to break about half of a stick of .7 mm lead before finishing C, D, E, F, G. It makes me want to....snap. (sorry I couldn't resist.)
So the lead size is the biggest difference, but the girth of these pencils is another selling point. For my hands, the wider circumference makes these really comfortable to use. They also seem to have a strong clip. I don't know how many bic .7mm pencil clips I have broken from nervous flipping and clicking habits, but these have served well.
I feared that I would run out of lead quickly. But in the last 6 months, I have only depleted one pencil completely. It's really amazing how little lead gets used when you're not constantly breaking the tip. Just remember that old crusty Christmas pencil that stayed in your bag when you were a kid at school. You had to keep sharpening it, but man did it last forever.
The kit sold on amazon also comes with extra lead and extra erasors. I haven't worn any of the erasors out yet, but I could see young students in school needing the extra erasors. I'm somewhat neutral about the erasor cap that comes on these. If you have a mean sense of humor like I do, it's mildly entertaining when a student snatches your pencil to quickly erase their wrong answer and then look up with puzzlement when it doesn't work. It simply blows their little minds.
The colors are a little bright for my taste, but I really don't care that much. If people use these more widely, I'm sure new designs will come into the market. Plus they are easier to find in the eternal mess known as my teaching bag.
The cons would have to be the lack of availability in stores as well as the higher price. As I mentioned before, I think it is probably a wash in terms of dollars and cents because you save so much more lead with the Bic Velocity. Also, just by its very nature, there is a broader point than smaller diameter leads. For me this is a non-issue. It's plenty sharp. In fact, it doesn't seem to do that annoying spinning-around-on-only-the-dull-side-of-the-lead-tip routine that smaller diameter pencils are to prone to do.
For general use, and definitely for musicians and music teachers, the Bic Velocity is hands-down my favorite pencil. As long as .9mm is an option, I'm never going back to the frustating .7mm or .5mm lead.
By the way, if you are concerned about shipping costs, let me recommend an Amazon Prime subscription. It's $79 per year, which was hard for me to swallow. I kept wasting money on shipping until I realized I would come out ahead by subscribing. Plus you get free two-day delivery as well as a video streaming service similar to Netflix. Some tv shows and movies are available with Amazon Prime when you can't find them on Netflix Instant Watch.
After finishing this post, I noticed that Amazon now has .9mm pencils in 24 packs. They appear to be in a different platform from those reviewed, but they are much less expensive. They might be worth a gamble considering the nearly 5 star review rating.
