The Future of the Drafting Pencil

[davent]

I bought a Faber Castell TK-Lead Sharpener as the pointer in the end of the Steadtler pencil and the one with their lead package are pretty poor. The Faber Castell works as it should, very well.
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000KJVCVC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
dave

 

[Butch46]

Davent,

Yep, same sharpener and box as the one I have.

Now all I need to do is get on FleaBag (aka eBay) and find me a nice Staedtler, Alvin, Koh-I-Noor, or whatever pencil to use with it.

My Dad retired as an engineer back about the late 1970's. When I was a kid in the 1950's, I loved to watch him at work in his drafting room in our basement. I wouldn't shut up my constant questions and blather, and he would finally throw me out.

One day, when he was away, I demonstrated to some other kids some of that (read---->expensive) drafting paper that turned into a rag when you got it wet. Unfortunately I left the evidence lying about in the basement, Dad found it, and I got my butt warmed. He also put locking knob on the door to his drafting room to keep young rapscallions like me out when he was away, and to lock it from the inside when he was working.

<sigh> Them were the daze!

 

[Raissermesser]

Like this yellow sharpener?

View attachment 997419

Yes. Haven't seen one in ages.

 

[r0ckrat]

Now I'm going to have to go digging into my stored boxes of leads, holders, mech pencils, rapidograph pens, and sharpeners... Sigh... I don't even remember what all I have stored away, but my favorites were a set of .3,.5,.7,.9mm Koh-I-Noor pencils with the knurled grips. The plastic barrel on the .3 broke at the top of the threads within the grip, so it's been held together with aluminum tape for about 20 years... And somewhere along the way, I lost the .5.

 

[stuartshaver]

These days I tend to use a Uni Kuru-toga 0.5mm pencil, but for many years my favorite was the Pentel P205. I got my first one in the early '70s. It was a very good general-purpose pencil, and the tube at the point that protects the lead is long enough for use with scales and templates, etc.

I no longer need to do anything resembling drafting, so I don't need the long point. Those are also really hard on clothing, so the Kuru-toga is the best bet for me now. I have one of the slimmer models as well as the standard one. (I think I have a half-dozen or so of the different models and lead sizes.)

I do happen to have a Koh-i-noor technical pen on my desk today. It has the 0.50 tip and it's filled with Blick's Black Cat ink. Sometimes I like to fill one up and write with it.

 

[Alacrity59]

I don't use pencil too much these days. My favourite mechanical pencils were the 0.5mm Pilot Vanishing points. Saved the clothing I've still got two. I'm from an era when we used huge ledger sheets for a lot of the work we were doing in accounting. Then finally there was Visi Calc, Lotus 123, Quattro, and that upstart Excel. Man things are so much easier now.

 

[Slivovitz]

For mechanical pencils, I rather like the old 1.2 mm size leads for writing, and have some old Scriptos, Wearever Scripto knockoffs, Autopoints, and even Esterbrooks to go with them. But the pencil that rides in a shirt pocket along with the fountain pen of the day is a Pentel Kerry 0.7 mm, 2B lead refills.

But I've been doing a lot of drawing, lately not drafting, and have acquired a big selection of wood pencils too. And that includes some vintage Eagle and Berol 314 "draughting" (pronounced drafting) pencils. More for drawing than draughting, they have a soft, smooth, broad lead, and are quite versatile.

 

[natenaaron]

I don't know about other supplies, but there is a plethora of 2mm lead holders, and clutch pencils out there. You have to order them though. My go to is this one. I just like the weight.

https://www.amazon.com/Koh-i-noor-Sharpener-technical-mechanical-drafting/dp/B01MR0RPX3/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=koh+i+noor&qid=1580153662&sr=8-7