Never lose a pencil again

[mikej460]

I've become warmer to those retractable pencils now I've figured out I like to keep my lines on the work rather than removing the pencil/knife mark.
Certainly a personal thing.
The price is pretty much the same if you can find'em in the pound shop.
may even be cheaper!

Jack Forsberg has a very interesting video regarding the use of normal pencils
for that job, but I cannot find it on that toxic to learning, non referable instagram site.
Simple idea of having a single bevel instead of a coned end,
so the outside of the line always remains the same, regardless of wear.
Surprised that this isn't more prolific, as it makes sense.

Found it, hopefully it'll work

interesting overview and interesting accent - is he related to Loyd Grossman then?

 

[rafezetter]

That's right. The history was interesting - from wonderful pure mined lead to that becoming shorter in supply and two individuals at the same time realizing they could add clay to the lead, fire it and then I don't know if they did or someone else did later, soak the fired leads in wax to achieve smoothness while writing.

the blackwing pencils are enormously expensive, but there is a feel to them that no drafting lead has. If you're making the pencil, some part of the lead channel is glue, so the leads don't have to be perfect - and they weren't in original pencils.

I did find out why pencils aren't octagonal when I started making them - the way we grip them, if they are hexagonal, the flats end up on fingertips. If they are octagonal, our fingers end up sort of on flats but also on ridges. The draw to making them by hand octagonally is that it's easy - flatness of stock matches the pencil thickess, saw and then plane to a square and then remove top corners of the square until there are 8 visually equal sides.

but the pencils feel terrible.

I read later (always like to experiement first and then read - you get much more out of the reading if you'd stupid like I am, when you are preloaded with a little bit of experience and see something that would either be helpful or confirming. At any rate, I read later that pencils work octagonal at first. and before that, instead of being halves, they were more like a long box with a cap.

there are other things to overcome warping that I later solved by stabilizing wood after the fact with paraffin in mineral spirits - *after* the halves are glued.

paraffin dissolves in the mineral spirits (not sure what you guys call that - just petroleum distillates a little heavier than white spirit) and then can be soaked in the wood, and then as the mineral spirits dry, the wax is left, impeding moisture movement in the wood.

the amount that incense cedar warps even when it's sawn straight is pretty spectacular!

But short story long, I would like to make the leads to make a writing feel that is hard to match in smoothness and ease -drafting leads don't do it. They're a little dry and hard, probably for a functional reason.

micronized graphite is very easy to find, so the need in the old days to tumble it for a long period of time into a fine powder is no longer there. four or five dollars of micronized graphite will probably make 50 or 100 leads that are then basically fired like a ceramic pot.

My bold - an interesting concept D_W, doing first then reading means you're much less likely to fall into the trap of preceonceptions from another persons POV about a thing. Some might argue "why re-invent th wheel", but then if you're trying to make for yourself a commercially made object and you do it they way they tell you without finding out what "feels good for you", you might as well just go and buy it.

 

[D_W]

My bold - an interesting concept D_W, doing first then reading means you're much less likely to fall into the trap of preceonceptions from another persons POV about a thing. Some might argue "why re-invent th wheel", but then if you're trying to make for yourself a commercially made object and you do it they way they tell you without finding out what "feels good for you", you might as well just go and buy it.

It's a rough road before you have skills. I have some skills - like intermediate level. Once you get to that level, you often find out that reasoning and testing your way through things matches what was historically done, but we have an advantage - we know the final product.

It allows you to go through steps before just accepting this or that can't be done.

the reading after is interesting because it will illustrate some things - like how fast the developers of pencil making, including thoreau, went to gang making pencils. Or a discussion of just how valuable pencils were because they allowed someone to write with one hand on the trail or out on job whereas, if you're riding a horse and documenting what you see, how do you bust out an inkwell and write? I don't recall reading about price, but they must've been pretty expensive early on as there were tons of frauds making pencils with false tip of good graphite and the rest of the pencil was junk.

 

[Jacob]

Clearly you didn't watch Jack's video Jacob.

No sorry! Did he say anything interesting?

PS watched it now. No he didn't.
Pencil leads and mechanical pencils are just not up to the job on the workbench. The best compass is just the old school type holding a pencil, or variations thereof. Or a pointed scribe

 

[Ttrees]

So how do you equalise wear whilst using the school compass?
Have you got a string wrapped around the pencil and hold it with your teeth
so you can rotate the pencil whilst you are swinging the compass around?

 

[Jacob]

So how do you equalise wear whilst using the school compass?
Have you got a string wrapped around the pencil and hold it with your teeth
so you can rotate the pencil whilst you are swinging the compass around?

You sharpen it as necessary. It doesn't do to over think these things!

 

[Ttrees]

That's why I use a pencil parer for my panel gauge, but it is a rough tool by comparison having a variable thickness line, no bother if you have calipers and a flat bench to
show up the difference.

 

[Jacob]

That's why I use a pencil parer for my panel gauge, but it is a rough tool by comparison having a variable thickness line, no bother if you have calipers and a flat bench to
show up the difference.

I don't have a panel gauge - anything bigger than my ordinary gauges I'd mark out with a scriber point (actually an old pub dart) with a tape measure and/or 12" square, then join the marks with a straightedge, pencil, knife or scribed.

 

[Ttrees]

Great tool and goes hand in hand with a flat bench, so you can quickly plane down to the line without thinking about it.

 

[Amateur]

I only have one pencil.
It cost 30p.
I have never ever lost it misplaced it or had it stolen.
Having a GPS tracking system embedded within the pensil only cost four hundred quid.
Worth every penny.

 

[StilwellDesigns]

I only buy florescent pencils, makes em easier to spot.
Also, I buy lots of em!

 

[stuart little]

I only buy florescent pencils, makes em easier to spot.
Also, I buy lots of em!

I wrap reflective tape on mine, also other hobby tools, BUT - I'm forever putting either cleaning cloths or other tools on top hiding them! I now tie cord to my cleaning cloth & hang from my desk within easy reach.

 

[joshvegas]

This thread reminds me of when I was a woodwork teacher in Brixton in the 70s and 80s, when lots of the children had big Afro's. I remember one lad used to push the pencil he was using into his hair. We always knew if we couldn't find a pencil that Norman would have pushed it too far into his hair. (We always counted all the tools and equipment at the end of lessons)
Happy days
Martin

I don't have any hair but I have been known to poke a lost pencil out of my beard when I've given up looking for it and put a new one in.

 

[joseph67]

My Table saw has a pencil storage device. Well, it has two actually. (mitre gauge grooves )

I thought they were dust ducting channels.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Or for a smaller pocket.

 

[Robbo3]

I screw a countersunk magnet to the end of mine so that it sticks to whatever machine I'm using at the time but mainly for the lathe so that the pencil doesn't get lost in the shavings.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Never lose a pencil again? Easy - buy them 200 at a time.

 

[Agent_zed]

That was a long video to say I made a little draw to put pencils in!

I just have a block of wood with a bunch of holes and loads of pencils. when i find one floating around I'll put it back in the block so there is always 1 likely to be there.

how many people have the little Ikea pencils in their collection

 

[SammyQ]

how many people have the little Ikea pencils in their collection

Nahh. The Screwfix ones appreciate more in value...

 

[Jacob]

deleted. Thought it might be a sharpening (pencil) thread. Too boring for words!