Luckily, I was given my mechanical pencil as a gift, or I might not have discovered it. That was about 7 years ago. Since then I’ve bought several Staedtler mechanical pencils as gifts for loved ones. It not only feels great and writes wonderfully, it looks awesome. I never want to use a regular pencil again.
I love it because instead of replacing the entire pencil and needlessly wasting a bunch of perfectly happy trees, I only occasionally need to replace the lead. It also feels great and writes wonderfully.
I also get to choose the lead density, which makes writing and drawing with this pencil like creating a piece of art every time I use it. I especially love 2B and 4B, but I have also tried F which was good, although H, 2H were too fine and light for me. The very soft and dark 7B lead was a bit heavy for my purposes and required sharpening too frequently.
The only downside to these amazing pencils is that it’s a little less handy to have to use a separate eraser. I see why it is designed this way though… so the pencil is completely functional basically forever, rather than being deficient or considered garbage once the eraser end has worn away. There is also a tiny, built in sharpener where the eraser would be on a wooden pencil.
After a search for the best mechanical pencil ever made, I discovered this review. I haven’t tried these other pencils, but their top pick sounds amazing as it rotates to keep the lead always sharpened.
Of course, if you only ever write digitally, you would never need a pen or pencil. Or if you only write on paper very infrequently, it would be even more minimalist to borrow a writing implement when necessary. On the other hand, if it adds complication to your life to need to ask others for a pencil, it may be more minimalist to simply have one of your own. You decide what is more handy and simple to fit your situation.
I absolutely love to draw and write, so for me, a well made mechanical pencil is a wonderful, useful, minimalist item.