I always have a piece of medium grade wet or dry paper taped on one side of the workbench. This is frequently used for chamfering the edges of cut wood, flattening surfaces or cleaning up surfaces of plastics or wood. When it has been used a few times it gets vacuumed over to remove the dust. I also use it to sharpen pencils when required.
I was always taught that carpenters pencils should be chisel shaped on the end, not round. In fact traditionally carpenter’s pencils were flat in cross section. I know this doesn’t necessarily apply to engineer’s pencils. Having said that I usually use a 0.5mm mechanical propelling pencil as I have always believed this is the best way to ensure a consistency of line thickness. The pencil I use is still the one I bought for college in 1975!
I actually remember many lengthy discussions when I was at college regarding sketching. Most students wanted to use rules for sketching but the push from the lecturers was that we should learn how to sketch using only a pencil and a piece of paper. This was based on the fact that sketching should become part of our language and be used to communicate with others with the minimum of mechanical assistance. We were taught to carry a notebook and pencil around with us and to use it as part of an explanation during conversations.