Why are bodies of pencils either round, hexagonal or curvy-triangular?

Question

Why are bodies of pencils either round, hexagonal or curvy-triangular?

In: 2

Answer 1

The standard pencil grip involves the thumb and two fingers. For a comfortable grip, the object should be perpendicular to the user’s digits at each point.

This can be achieved with a circle, triangle, or hexagon (or any further multiple of 3, but getting to 9 and 12 at that scale, it becomes easier to just go with circular).

Using a different shape, e.g. a square, would result in at least one of the user’s digits being directly on a corner, instead of a flat side.