The Future of the Drafting Pencil

[Raissermesser]

For most of my life now, I've used drafting pencils, from the larger lead that you have to sharpen all the way down to the 0.3 mm, with 0.5 mm my most common. Lately, though, as blueprints become a thing of the past, I've noticed I'm using 0.7 mm more. Here you can get them in rough equivalent of a #2 pencil, and they seem popular with the the younger set. The highway plans I have to go over are electronic now, and soon we'll be completely electronic with our company maps. So, as I looked for a clean-out rod for a 0.5mm mechanical pencil, I wonder just how long will they be used.

Any thoughts? Mine are that the ones for the smaller leads and the lead holder type will vanish. Maybe things will settle on 0.7 mm. But they may already be going the way of dip pens. You can still get dip pens, of course, but they aren't used like they once were.

 

[nemo]

Sadly, it's not just the pencils, pens, and other drafting tools that have quickly become extinct by Autodesk and other engineering software. When I was doing technical drawing decades ago at my drafting table all my coworkers had excellent lettering skills, especially the architects. I'm amazed at the poor legibility I see in the freehand lettering now, so lacking in discipline and style.

Oh well, that's progress I suppose ...

 

[Raspberryfisher]

I also use pens and pencils less in my work life, as we the shift to smarter CAD to CAM tools that are integrated with thermal, fem and signal integrity analysis and simulations et cetera. Though, many younger engineers find it easier (which it is), I usually have to beat them up of working only on nominal. I'd est, they need to think about engineering and not just drafting.

But, I never did like the smaller leads and still use 2mm for quick sketches.

0.7mm is too hard to find, and 0.5 breaks too easy under my hands.

As in a previous post, I was taught hand markups down in red (delete) and green (add). But this is a thing of the past, but I still write in Grèen.

 

[tankerjohn]

I can't speak to professional use of pencils, although it certainly doesn't surprise me that computers have replaced hand drawing in most industries. However, for private and hobby use, I believe that pencils are still quite popular. Analog tools in general seem to be having a moment. I know several people that use mechanical pencils instead of pens for notetaking and the like or filling in planners. Browsing around the stationary blogs and social media, it seems that pencil enthusiasts are at least are prominent as fountain pen lovers, and they all seem to have different lead preferences like fountain pen people have different nib preferences. I expect that smaller lead sizes will be less common in B&M stores, but will still be readily available from internet retailers as long as the hobby is strong enough to support them.

 

[TropicalHotDogNight]

When I was in 4th grade, mechanical pencils were becoming quite popular at my school. Kids started bringing $15-$20 pencils to school and bragging about them. Inevitably other kids started stealing them, and my teacher got tired of dealing with it. She banned us from using mechanical pencils in her classroom, and made us all use #2 pencils, instead. Of course, that in turn led to kids constantly getting up to use the obnoxiously loud pencil sharpener that was bolted to the wall at the back of the classroom. The teacher got mad about this, and made another rule for us. There was to be no sharpening of pencils after 9am! You had to carry enough pencils with you to get through the day, and sharpen them during recess if needed. I have no idea why this teacher was so moody about it, but I sure was glad to go back to mechanical pencils the following school year.

To this day, mechanical pencils are my writing instrument of choice, 90% of the time. I've started using pens more frequently lately, but in general, mechanical pencils are the best. Unlike pens, they are erasable. Unlike wooden pencils, they write with a uniform line thickness and don't need to be sharpened. I find that 0.7mm is the best lead size, as it looks almost the same as 0.5mm, but does not break as easily. Unfortunately, 0.7mm pencils are often hard to find, and when I do find them, the variety is not great. As such, I mostly use 0.5mm pencils. For the past year I've been using a Pentel Twist Erase pencil with a twistable eraser on the end. Replacement erasers are stupidly pricey, but it's nice to have the convenience of not needing to use a full sized eraser very often. Another thing that I like about these pencils is the fact that the grips don't get sticky and degrade over time. Or at least I haven't had an issue yet. I generally have to throw away pencils every so often because the grips start to disintegrate.

 

[Scarry Knight]

I’ve still got and use my drafting pencil from class in ‘72. I think it was Duluth trading that sold/sells a drafting style carpenters pencil. I keep one of those handy too. I just told my wife last week I wanted to get some rapidograph pens.

 

[Raissermesser]

I once used the old, cheap, Pentels. Was hard on drafting pens from use. Them I used the cheap Zebras. In between were the cheap Scriptos (I think) which were unusual in that they had a cushioning system. Used an awful lot of them from high school drafting on. The larger diameter lead holders we used at work, particularly with colored leads for marking revisions to maps and plans.

Used to use the technical pens, too, for inking Mylars. That required raised straight edges. We had a gadget that turned regular templates into inking templates by indenting the plastic, making stand-offs.

BTW, for anyone interested in technical pens, invest in an ultrasonic cleaner and cleaning solution. Look for the small, plastic, non-floating cups with strainer to go in them to put your pens in. A humidifier designed to hold pens is also handy if you have to ink with several sizes; it keeps them from drying out.

 

[Raissermesser]

I also use pens and pencils less in my work life, as we the shift to smarter CAD to CAM tools that are integrated with thermal, fem and signal integrity analysis and simulations et cetera. Though, many younger engineers find it easier (which it is), I usually have to beat them up of working only on nominal. I'd est, they need to think about engineering and not just drafting.

But, I never did like the smaller leads and still use 2mm for quick sketches.

0.7mm is too hard to find, and 0.5 breaks too easy under my hands.

As in a previous post, I was taught hand markups down in red (delete) and green (add). But this is a thing of the past, but I still write in Grèen.

Here, it used to be red for map additions. On highway plans, red was for existing and green for proposed. I'll still mark up working plans that way, but have to get the green pencils, or use green ink pens.

 

[Raissermesser]

When I was in 4th grade, mechanical pencils were becoming quite popular at my school. Kids started bringing $15-$20 pencils to school and bragging about them. Inevitably other kids started stealing them, and my teacher got tired of dealing with it. She banned us from using mechanical pencils in her classroom, and made us all use #2 pencils, instead. Of course, that in turn led to kids constantly getting up to use the obnoxiously loud pencil sharpener that was bolted to the wall at the back of the classroom. The teacher got mad about this, and made another rule for us. There was to be no sharpening of pencils after 9am! You had to carry enough pencils with you to get through the day, and sharpen them during recess if needed. I have no idea why this teacher was so moody about it, but I sure was glad to go back to mechanical pencils the following school year.

To this day, mechanical pencils are my writing instrument of choice, 90% of the time. I've started using pens more frequently lately, but in general, mechanical pencils are the best. Unlike pens, they are erasable. Unlike wooden pencils, they write with a uniform line thickness and don't need to be sharpened. I find that 0.7mm is the best lead size, as it looks almost the same as 0.5mm, but does not break as easily. Unfortunately, 0.7mm pencils are often hard to find, and when I do find them, the variety is not great. As such, I mostly use 0.5mm pencils. For the past year I've been using a Pentel Twist Erase pencil with a twistable eraser on the end. Replacement erasers are stupidly pricey, but it's nice to have the convenience of not needing to use a full sized eraser very often. Another thing that I like about these pencils is the fact that the grips don't get sticky and degrade over time. Or at least I haven't had an issue yet. I generally have to throw away pencils every so often because the grips start to disintegrate.

We used wooden pencils, sharpening them before class. We also carried pocket sharpeners.

One advantage with wood pencils is you can sharpen the lead to a chisel point. Used to do that for sketching.

 

[rockviper]

I have a few Zebras but my go-to is my Kuru-Toga roulette.

 

[rreynoso]

I mainly use mechanical CAD software and plotters but still carry and use my 2 mm Staedler Mars Technico to draw mechanisms concepts and sketching. I have it since 1987 and still works great.



Cheers

 

[davent]

I mainly use mechanical CAD software and plotters but still carry and use my 2 mm Staedler Mars Technico to draw mechanisms concepts and sketching. I have it since 1987 and still works great.

View attachment 997206

Cheers

Recently bought one of those and 4B leads to do crosswords on cheap paper. For everything else almost always a Pentel 0.5mm, do have a few 0.7mm pencils as well and never had any trouble finding leads in brick & mortars.

Only ever use a pen if that's all that's at hand for immediate use.
dave

 

[Raspberryfisher]

Reynoso +1

 

[Scarry Knight]

Here are the mechanical pencils in my cup. The old jr high one is a Uni and Koh I Noor Hardtmuth for the large. An oldvmechanical from a Chicago appliance (and Lionel Trains) store, and two Pentels .5/.7.

 

[Butch46]

My late father was an engineer and I inherited his drafting board and instruments. I passed most of the stuff to a draftsman nephew, but kept his favorite mechanical pencil and the black dome shaped "Tru-Point" pencil pointer. The pointer works by inserting the mechanical pencil vertically into a hole on its periphery and moving it around and around like stirring a bowl of some mixture in the kitchen. I surmise that it was designed for a specific type of mechanical pencil so it will sharpen the lead without grinding on the tip of the pencil.

Anyhoo, I lost Dad's pencil years ago, but still have the pointer. My question is what brand or type of mechanical pencil do I need to get that will work with the "Tru-Point" sharpener. I would like to find such a pencil.

Smiff

 

[davent]

There's a video of someone using it to sharpen a 'stripped' back wooden pencil lead so my guess is a 2mm mechanical pencil, would need to be one without an over sized grip to get it into the sharpener. I've a couple 2mm pencils, the Staedler above and a Norema Drafting Pencil #8000 look like they might work based on the video.

ebay image

dave

 

[Atinofpeas]

Board draughting is dead and has been for the last 20+ years. (niche work/Sketching not withstanding)

Most automatic pencils i have used have been disappointing, including Pentels, Faber,Steadtler and Rotrings (IMHO).
However, an engineer left me an Alvin DM07 which has been absolutely fantastic. The best Mechanical pencil i have ever used tbh.

I like a 0.7 lead. Big enough to be robust but small enough to have clarity.

 

[Raissermesser]

My late father was an engineer and I inherited his drafting board and instruments. I passed most of the stuff to a draftsman nephew, but kept his favorite mechanical pencil and the black dome shaped "Tru-Point" pencil pointer. The pointer works by inserting the mechanical pencil vertically into a hole on its periphery and moving it around and around like stirring a bowl of some mixture in the kitchen. I surmise that it was designed for a specific type of mechanical pencil so it will sharpen the lead without grinding on the tip of the pencil.

Anyhoo, I lost Dad's pencil years ago, but still have the pointer. My question is what brand or type of mechanical pencil do I need to get that will work with the "Tru-Point" sharpener. I would like to find such a pencil.

Smiff

Those are lead pointers, and will work with any 2mm lead. The pencil is what we called technical pencil at work. A survey of my desk turns up the following: A couple of Alvin Tech-Matic De-Lux MF6; a Koh-I-Noor Technigraph 5611 C; and my favorite, a Staedtler Mars Techno 780 which has the writing worn off. The Alvins and the one with the writing worn off contain pointers in the cap, which is handy. The Techno seems to have a plastic barrel. All the others names are metal.

These brands are named simply for example. You may still be able to find all sorts of 2mm lead holders. A check at a usual pen site turns up all sorts, and at all sorts of prices.

 

[Raissermesser]

There's a video of someone using it to sharpen a 'stripped' back wooden pencil lead so my guess is a 2mm mechanical pencil, would need to be one without an over sized grip to get it into the sharpener. I've a couple 2mm pencils, the Staedler above and a Norema Drafting Pencil #8000 look like they might work based on the video.

ebay image

dave

It wasn't a Tru-Point, but we had one, mounted to a desk corner, that disappeared and was likely tossed. I have a small Staedtler 502 that does the same thing.

A very handy one is a Koh-I-Noor pocket pencil sharpener. It's triangular and all-metal. Mine has 500R on it. It also has West Germany.

There used to be cheap lead pointer on a tiny paddle you held between thumb and forefinger. Not talking about the paddles of sandpaper for pointing compass leads. Haven't seen one of those in a long time. Practically indestructible, but easy to loose.

 

[Scarry Knight]

Like this yellow sharpener?