Whilst my career has involved a huge number of proper clutch pencils (not these nancy modern skinny leaded things, I mean proper clutch pencils with 2mm leads, that you have to sharpen, usually in 4h or 5h for technical drawing) I absolutely adore proper wooden pencils, the smell of them when freshly sharpened is lovely. Trouble is, nowadays I keep getting recycled ones made from old CD cases, or recycled rats or something, and they just don't smell right. Don't write very well, either. I get quite unpopular in the office sharpening pencils, as I have one of those really tasteful pencil sharpeners which consists of a plastic cat, and you shove the pencil up his bum, and he meows piteously when you turn it. I don't blame him....
I was bemused by Charlotte's tales of sharpening 6B pencils, surely they must almost drip out of the end of the pencil?