I Have The Best Mechanical Pencil – The Sanford Logo II – In My Hands!
The best mechanical pencil in the world isn’t manufactured any more, but I just found a box of them on eBay! Yay!
The Sanford Logo II mechanical pencil was made in the 1990’s by Sanford and Paper Mate. No other pencil had all of the important features in one writing implement:
- Retractable tip so it doesn’t stick you in the leg
- Spring loaded tip makes writing smoother
- Solid feel
- Large eraser
It’s crazy that the bar never raised in mechanical pencil design! This literally was the pinnacle of mechanicals and the box says it was made in 1994, more than 30 years ago. I would understand about people saying “They don’t make ’em like they used to” about buggy whips, or record player. But people (as far as I know) still use pencils!!!
Here’s some archival photos of the box:
The closest match to the Logo II is the Skilcraft Dual Action. I bought a few on recommendation from commenters on my blog. It’s almost as good as the Logo II but for a few issues:
The Skilcraft is a little lighter so it doesn’t feel quite as solid in the hand. It doesn’t have the spring-loaded lead, making the writing experience a little less enjoyable. And my “fix” for the loose eraser doesn’t work on the Skilcraft, making the eraser more of a bother. One thing the Skilcraft has is a slightly more robust pocket clip.
I’ve lost the clip fiddle-thing from the end of the pencil holder on few of my Logo II’s, which leaves a fairly raw piece of metal sticking in my pocket. See the photo:
The box of 9 pencils set me back about $90 which honestly is very reasonable since I’ve bought them for $4.50 back in the aughties!