Cheshirechappie
Established Member
We've had one or two rather 'heavy' topics of late, so I thought I'd bring things back to basics by asking the forum's opinions on pencils and other mark-making devices for use in the workshop.
Just to kick things off, I have two types of pencil that I turn to regularly.
For rough marking on sawn timber, the chunky carpenter's pencil, medium grade. Not very accurate (sort of plus or minus a sixteenth) but makes a good visible line on even quite rough timber.
For finer work - joint marking and the like - an ordinary HB pencil is my favourite. I find this gives a fine line dark enough to see on the lighter woods I usually work, without losing it's sharpness too quickly. Pencil sharpening is by whatever edge tool happens to come to hand - chisel, knife, whatever. I quite like the old draughtsman's chisel edge on the pencils; it seems to give a finer line.
Years ago, I bought a box of white pencils for marking darker timbers, on which a normal black line barely shows. They work rather well, but as I rarely use darker timbers these days, they tend to slumber in their box most of the time.
Mechanical pencils, I find, are great for drawing boards, but less so in the workshop - the leads just don't hold up to bench use.
Well - hope it's not a pointless discussion. That could lead to a sharpening debate, forcing the Mods to draw a line.....
Just to kick things off, I have two types of pencil that I turn to regularly.
For rough marking on sawn timber, the chunky carpenter's pencil, medium grade. Not very accurate (sort of plus or minus a sixteenth) but makes a good visible line on even quite rough timber.
For finer work - joint marking and the like - an ordinary HB pencil is my favourite. I find this gives a fine line dark enough to see on the lighter woods I usually work, without losing it's sharpness too quickly. Pencil sharpening is by whatever edge tool happens to come to hand - chisel, knife, whatever. I quite like the old draughtsman's chisel edge on the pencils; it seems to give a finer line.
Years ago, I bought a box of white pencils for marking darker timbers, on which a normal black line barely shows. They work rather well, but as I rarely use darker timbers these days, they tend to slumber in their box most of the time.
Mechanical pencils, I find, are great for drawing boards, but less so in the workshop - the leads just don't hold up to bench use.
Well - hope it's not a pointless discussion. That could lead to a sharpening debate, forcing the Mods to draw a line.....
