TheMostDangerousLG wrote:Dr. Dre wrote:Damn, the ticonderoga pencils are beating the crap out of everyone in the poll.
Unfortunately.
Random note for all of my fellow Palomino fans: I had a chance to try out the 602s and the HB on a scantron sheet the other day, and while I don't know if the scantron was the same as the one we'll be having on test day (it seemed similar to my February sheet, but who can remember exactly?), the 602s smeared an unpleasant amount. The HB also smeared a tiny bit when I lay a lot of graphite down, so you really don't need to do the obsessively darkening thing that some of us (*cough* ..such as myself) are often tempted to do. One "light" go is all you need.
Thought that would be worth noting. I'd hate for the 602 diehards to be horrified by smearing on test day.
I just did a smear test and can confirm this. I tested the 602 against a Palomino HB and a Black Ticonderoga (Mexican version). They all smeared. The HB was smeared similarly and slightly darker than the Ticon (I think Ticons are closer to H than HB). The 602 smeared more than the other two, possibly due to its extra wax. "One 'light' go" is cr. The Scantron machines I've used score the darkest mark as long as you didn't bubble more than one completely dark, so if you have an erased A, a filled in B, a smear over to C, and a stray mark on D, you'll be scored for B. Smears by nature are going to be lighter than the mark they came from. I'm not sure how LSAC handles multiple filled bubbles though.
I haven't had a problem with smearing when taking PTs with a 602. I do think they bubble differently though. Because they're not as scratchy, they don't grab the paper as fast when moving in the small circle of a bubble. HBs in comparison are a little more abrasive, so the darkening is more immediate. It's minor, but I thought this would make the HBs faster to fill a bubble, but when I timed them against the 602s filling in rows of bubbles, the 602s were equal. I think this is due to the way I start bubbling lightly and increase the pressure until it's filled (not sure if this is unique to me). The 602s get noticeably darker than the HBs with increased pressure and make up for their slow start.
For game day, I think the HBs hold a point longer than the 602s, but this is only noticeable to me on LG. To keep it consistent, I think I'm going to use HBs for the first 5 Sections and then use the 602s for the writing sample. I just like writing with the 602 better, and they're nice as fuck and make me look like a scholar. I also used a razor to cut a Mars plastic eraser into eraser pieces that fit the 602's ferrule. I decided erasers were stupid and threw them in my desk when I got them, but I forgot how cleanly the Mars gets a mark off and leaves whiteness. There'll be no ghosting if I need to erase. I don't want adcoms to see my fuckups.
I'll probably bring some Golden Bears for giving away, muttering something about america as I hand it out. I've been pretty happy with Palomino's pencils and fast shipping, so maybe they'll get a new customer. I'd never give someone I don't hate a ticonderoga. Dixon fuck-scammed me with calling that outsourced, cost-cutting shit they sold me "The World's Best Pencil" when it's inferior to the originals that earned that title. Now, the world's best #2/HB is undoubtably the Palomino HB, and the world's best pencil for handwriting silky script, looking wise and alpha in front of others, or climbing trees and writing novels in moleskines is the 602. One needs no others.