rOtring 600 pen & Rapid Pro pencil

For most of my life I was a mechanical pencil person. The friction of lead on paper feels right to me in a way I cannot fully explain. Organic, maybe. Like the note costs something small to make, and that matters. Pens and ink always felt too permanent, too committal. Every line a decision you cannot take back. I am aware that is probably more revealing about my general approach to life than it is about pens.

That said I would occasionally betray my principles for a good narrow felt tip. The friction, again. It is always about the friction.

Anyway. After what I can only describe as an unreasonable number of years and an amount of money I am choosing not to calculate, I have landed on my writing instruments of choice. And the answer involves a German company founded in 1928 called rOtring, which I realise does not sound like a dramatic reveal. Stick with me.

rOtring is based in Hamburg. The name means "red ring" in German, which refers to the small red band on every pen and pencil they make. I had to look that up. Their instruments have metal hexagonal barrels and knurled grips and they are entirely serious objects. Holding one feels different from holding most pens. The weight is right. The balance is right.

The first is the 600 ballpoint pen, except not quite. I do not like ballpoints, so I swapped the insert for a gel refill. Two of them, different colours, both with the gel cartridge. To most people this is probably a negligible distinction. To me it was the difference between a pen I tolerated and a pen I look forward to using, and I am not sure I can explain that more clearly than that.

The other thing is the Rapid Pro mechanical pencil with 2.0 lead. The 2.0 is worth pausing on because it is genuinely unusual. Most mechanical pencils use 0.5 or 0.7 lead. Fine, consistent, never needs sharpening. The 2.0 is chunky. It wears down. You have to sharpen it, which is inefficient in a way that is genuinely hard to justify. There is a sharpener built into the cap, which helps, but there is no eraser under the cap, which is the kind of design choice that makes complete sense for a technical drafting instrument and essentially no sense for casual note-taking.

I use it anyway. Every day.

I have tried to work out why and I keep arriving at the same uncertain conclusion, which is that maybe I just like the slowness of it. Maybe that is meaningful. Maybe I am constructing a flattering narrative around the fact that I just really like this pencil and do not want to admit that a pencil is making me happy.

Will the rOtring work for you? I genuinely do not know. This one delivers more satisfaction than a pen probably should. A pen and a pencil I reach for every morning without thinking about it.