Then I found the Papermate Flair pen. It was the first writing instrument I really liked a lot. It’s felt tip isn’t extremely versatile, but it feels so smooth. I still use them for post-it sketches, and just about any text. The next and most recent discovery was accidental. I grabbed a pencil out of the pile at work to use for sketching up some UI wireframes. It was perfect. It was a Sanford American 2.5F. I searched high and low (and on the internet) for more of them. The only find was one 12 pack left at an Amazon store. I couldn’t bring myself to pay $5 in shipping for some pencils, so I gave up. Dixon seems to be the cock of the walk around here, so I got a pack of Ticonderoga Black’s and found them to be pretty lousy. They had grainy porous wood that flaked off and the thick paint just felt sticky.