Pencils

[DennisCA]

I went out and looked at pencil prices after having confirmed that I am terrible at keeping track of pens, I can put a pencil down next to me and not find it again, I'll spend minutes looking and it was right there, just rolled under something like a file, plane or piece of wood.

So I think it's best if I have lots pencils to strew around the workshop, so I went price shopping and the best price per pen was found with a 96-pack of HB Dixon ticonderogas, yeah it was cheaper to buy bulk & ship from the US. But this gives me a butload of pens to last me many, many years and it was the cheapest price per pen.

Also it's just a pencil, doesn't need to be the pen of pens, the kind of pen you'd take home to show your mother. No, if I had a fancy pen I'd just be that guy with a fancy pen somewhere under the table saw or workbench, where it'd remain the next 20 years.

 

[Andrewf]

I always use 2B pencils, not because they are best, but because in my normal job we use hundreds of them a year. The occasional box finds it way home. Infact i have used them for so long i just can't get on with harder pencils, they just feel wrong.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

I have a bit of a mechnical pencil habit. The Incra micro rules take 0.5mm so I have about a dozen various 0.5mm ones dotted around the workshop.

For the day job I have a nice Ohto multipen that includes a 0.5mm pencil, red, black and blue pens:

...a few nice 0.3mm pencils...

...and a careful-handling-required 0.2mm pencil I imported from Japan (now available via Cult Pens):

 

[Jacob]

I had the mechanical pencil habit for years. They are brilliant - different colours, zingy names, different leads, sharpeners and rubbers in the ends - you are so in control! I had a drawer full of them eventually - and boxes of different leads etc . Most of them had lost the rubber, or the cap, or I hadn't got the right lead and so on.
Then I realised that they were just STUPID GADGETS!!! They don't even work very well - the leads break etc.

I now don't use them at all*. I buy old fashioned pencils in bulk (dozens) 2H HB and 2B but different brands so each grade is a different colour and easy to spot in a drawer. Sharpening isn't an issue - freehand with a sharp knife (or a chisel, plane, whatever happens to be on the bench) though of course this can been gadgetized too!

*except for just one thing - drawing arcs with a lath; pin at one end, countersunk holes for pencil at desired distances. A clutch pencil is easier to fit in a matching hole accurately.

 

[DennisCA]

I tried one and the leads broke all the time, it was frustrating. I only use pencils now. I should have a proper knife too.

 

[custard]

For laying out a rod the best system I've found is a sheet of heavyweight draughtsman's tracing paper taped to a sheet of melamine coated MDF. The rod's laid out with a 0.3mm mechanical pencil (although I like the look of Sporky's 0.2mm pencil). After the project's done the rod can be stored either rolled up in a tube or flat in an art bag.

 

[iNewbie]

I had the mechanical pencil habit for years. They are brilliant - different colours, zingy names, different leads, sharpeners and rubbers in the ends - you are so in control! I had a drawer full of them eventually - and boxes of different leads etc . Most of them had lost the rubber, or the cap, or I hadn't got the right lead and so on.
Then I realised that they were just STUPID GADGETS!!! They don't even work very well - the leads break etc.

Not that you'll give a toss, Jacob. If you'd checked out that pic above your post that 02 pencil has a support:

Supporting Mechanical Pencil

I now don't use them at all*. I buy old fashioned pencils in bulk (dozens) 2H HB and 2B but different brands so each grade is a different colour and easy to spot in a drawer. Sharpening isn't an issue - freehand with a sharp knife (or a chisel, plane, whatever happens to be on the bench) though of course this can been gadgetized too!

How about a Self Sharpening Mechanical Pencil


Thanks to Sporky for at least making me have a look into these others - I have an Incra.

 

[Jacob]

I had the mechanical pencil habit for years. They are brilliant - different colours, zingy names, different leads, sharpeners and rubbers in the ends - you are so in control! I had a drawer full of them eventually - and boxes of different leads etc . Most of them had lost the rubber, or the cap, or I hadn't got the right lead and so on.
Then I realised that they were just STUPID GADGETS!!! They don't even work very well - the leads break etc.

Not that you'll give a toss, Jacob. If you'd checked out that pic above your post that 02 pencil has a support:

Supporting Mechanical Pencil

Marvellous! I'll order a crateful immediately :lol:

....
How about a Self Sharpening Mechanical Pencil.....

Better and better!
It's good to know that at last "Uni's fabulous Kuru Toga solves a problem that afflicts all those that take their mechanical pencils very seriously". :lol:
I was one myself (almost) until I joined Pencils Anonymous

 

[woodpig]

Five times the price of any other brand but it must be more accurate, must'nt it? :lol:

 

[MartinCox]

Reference laying out rods, I use wallpaper lining paper. It's cheap, good quality and, being in rolls, is handy to store

 

[Jacob]

I use white MFC shelving. My rods get heavy use during the marking up process - paper would be no good at all.

 

[Ollie78]

Good old Rexel black edge. I prefer the red ones sharpen with a chisel or belt sander or whatever is handy.

Rotring Tikky mechanical for Incra rulers.

However I do want one of these. http://www.rotring.com/uk/mechanical-pe ... 23096.html but I can`t justify 30 quid for a pencil.

Ollie

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

I like the look of Sporky's 0.2mm pencil

It's pretty good, though a 0.3 is more practical as the leads are much cheaper. I've not broken a lead with the 0.2 yet, but then I've not tried to reload it...

 

[whiskywill]

I have a really old Staedtler Mars..

And it has a built in sharpener in the top end.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Here in the States (don't know if you can get them in the UK), the brand "General" still makes very well made traditional pencils. "Tools for Working Wood" (web dealer located in NYC) seems to have a special deal with the maker. Price is very reasonable for the quality. I believe the pencils are also available on Amazon, so you may want to search the AmazonUK site.

I had several Staedtlers, but my architect daughter "borrowed" them. Up until a year or two ago, the "Mars" was readily available, though I haven't seen it at the local office supply store lately (maybe they were old stock?).

 

[KevM]

This tells you pretty much all you'll ever need to know on pencils and their pointing.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

This tells you pretty much all you'll ever need to know on pencils and their pointing.

*chuckle*

It didn't take long for the Gurus to make hard work of a simple job, did it? :lol:

Still, never mind; Paul Sellers will be along shortly to show us all how to sharpen a pencil using only our teeth. Indeed, he'll probably show us how we can manage without pencils at all, but make marks with a lump of clay from the garden and a fingernail.

 

[novocaine]

yer thanks for that, I knew about the book, I hadn't seen the video. I cringed the moment I opened it, prayed it wasn't going to be by David Rees, then gave an exaperated breath when it was. why? because I share the name and have friends who aren't funny.

because I know about the book I can't decide if he is being deadly serious or taking the pish.

oh the book. http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Sharpen-Pen ... en+pencils

oh and he's done more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCL68XuXWs8

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Unbelievable! :lol: Nothing like making hard work of something. We used to sent into TD exams with a freshly honed 1" chisel to sharpen the pencils. Probably some law against it now.

 

[Adam9453]

I've just bought 500 HB pencils off amazon for the princely sum of £12.49 including delivery!!!
that works out to £0.02498 per pencil which I think is amazingly cheap
I just hope when they arrive, that I receive what i'm expecting and not an awful picture of 500 pencils instead