Two. My experience with mechanical pencils is that they're often unreliable and a waste of time. I hate having to reload my pencil, I hate when it breaks if you accidentally make the tip longer than it should be, I hate when you accidentally put one more in the pencil and it gets clogged, I hate having to carry refills all the time, I hate buying an expensive pencil and worrying about losing it (as opposed to just buying a dozen regular pencils for backup)...

Just hand over the regular pencil and a decent sharpener.

Gimme one of these bad boys and utility razor.

Why do I feel like I'm participating in market research

5. ole reliable

#8 all the way.

If I had to do sketch design drafting in college with a pen or wooden pencil and not a 0.5 mechanical, I would have probably become a school shooter.

3. By a country mile

Am I a psychopath for preferring to use a pen, even if it means I have to cross things out every now and then?

My choice would've been 3 or 1 just by how they feel in my hand, but I got a new .3 Kuru Toga and god it's too smooth for me not to choose 4

Screw #8. Everyone here including OP missed out on the actual best Zebra mechanical pencil. The Zebra DelGuard.

It has this crazy mechanism that resists lead breakage by dropping a shield down if you press too hard.

https://www.zebrapen.com/products/delguard-mechanical-pencil?variant=40738814951630

They even made limited edition Hello Kitty ones years ago I imported. Best 0.3mm mechanical pencil I've ever used.

3. A good engineering pencil can be used for anything.

Nope. You’re getting some decent conversation out of this so those 30 minutes were definitely put to good use. And that’s a nice photo.

2. Ticonderoga is the Cadillac of pencils.

Someone do this, but with vibrators.

The GOAT

#3 is the best mechanical I’ve ever owned, hands down. 3 all day long.

This.

I already own that exact same Kuru Toga, so this one's a no-brainer.

Anyone who deliberately picks the Sharpwriter or the Bic needs keeping an eye on; we need to keep those kinds of people on a list.

2, always

5 may not be pretty, but it's had my back in some hard times.

If you choose #2 you'll eventually not be able to write anything ever again because you can't just add more lead.

I prefer 2mm mechanical pencils instead of the 0.5mm ones.

How about none of the above? But I kind of like those triangular pencils.

5 all the way

6 was what I ended up with after considering all options before I went fully digital.

Better grip and easy to refill

Zebra M-402, which I've used exclusively for at least 20 years. (The same one.)

Followed closely by the Ticonderoga.

Erasable pen. Just because I'm contrary.

Come on, where is the Pentel P200 series?

Edit: I'll take the koh-i-noor 2mm of available

This one