I do not like to travel. At times it is an unavoidable requirement of my current income model. Put aside all other reasons to dislike travel by airplane in the United States of America, flying with a fountain pen is an only an additional stress. Maybe it has a Schmidt nib that’s supposedly impervious to the pressure change of from one to two tenths of one atmosphere. Maybe you’ve flown with it in the past. Maybe you don’t mind bringing an ink bottle, not using it in transit, and are comfortable with the risk of staining a hotel sink. I don’t care how many people share a foolproof-failsafe plan or pen or anything. Will fly, will use pencil.

A wooden pencil is best for feel. No, not a Berol Black Warrior or a Blackwing, nothing you need to sharpen. Obviously feel is out the window with any pencil that takes sub-millimeter leads; if they make a wood body one that’s worth holding I’ve yet to find it. If you work large, a clutch pencil is best. A lead in the area of three millimeter is ideal. In practice the lead will be large enough to wear slow and put down an appealing line, while still keeping something like a point. Don’t get a drafting pencil of any kind, unless you’ll be drafting.

Traditional “clicky” mechanical pencils are fine. The Kaweco Sport offerings are nice. For some obscure reason I can not place the plastic bodies feel best, excluding, well, actual bodies.

Purchase nothing with an eraser. And don’t carry one either. The same goes for a smudge and a chamois. Line is king, line. Use the pencil as you would a pen. It’s not about learning the pencil, it’s about using one until coming back to pen. Keep the one attempt, one sketch approach. It’s easy to lose that without ink keeping everyone honest. It doesn’t take long to get past the drop in contrast when switching from ink to graphite.

After my most recent trip I’ve come to find the freedom of using the cheapest paper a solid enough reason to stick with pencil instead of jumping right back into ink. Plain A5 copy paper is a quarter the cost of. Rhodia number sixteen. Now, if I’m working a commission I’m not going to go cheap. That’s just not fair to the client. Drawing to turn off the noise is another thing entirely. Practice is practice, work is product. In that vein, I’ve some new kit from the stationary shop I’ll need to review soon.