PENCILS

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HASTE

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Gentlemen,
Show us your favorite pencil/graphite based marking object !
 
I prefer the classic yellow school type. A thick lead, wood, and cheap. Don't' mind if I lend it out, loose it, the dog chewed it, or I "accidentally" stick it in-between the jaws / dies of a press brake.

I have a few 'nice' ones, and prefer the clutch type to the minimal lead dia ones. I find they break, and they run out of lead at the most in-opportune times.. I have a fancy 'Fliskit' mechanical pencil I've been using lately..
 
This is about the only pencil I use since it comes in this multi-pen carrying case I keep in my computer bag. Staedler triplus micro 0.5mm; simple, but effective with plenty of eraser that you twist to expose.
IMG_20180907_111416508.jpg
 
3, 5 and 7 mm mechanical pencils, extra erasers. different color and
hardness leads for each size lead

Each tube has 3 erasers that fit in the top of the mechanical pencils





IMG-20180907-01473.jpg
 
Gentlemen,
Show us your favorite pencil/graphite based marking object !

Yeah, this isn't weird at all....
pencilpic.png

The issue of non-inclusive language notwithstanding, limiting the pencil-pic request to "gentlemen" is likely to invite penis jokes (if not actual pictures -- please, no pictures).

I opened the box that travels with my sketch book. I've got two messy taborets jammed full of sketch pencils, colored pencils, mechanical pencils, graphite crayons, lead holders, ruling pens, technical pens... none of which I would call "favorite".

EDIT: Looking at the picture. I've changed my mind about naming favorites. The Nijigrip is my favorite mechanical pencil for writing or doing mechanical drawings. It has a thick barrel and the dual-action lead advance means fewer broken tips. The Derwent Graphic pencils and Cretacolor graphite crayons are my favorite for sketching on vellum. The Staedtler Lumograph 2B is favorite for smooth media without much tooth, like bristol board.

EDIT (2): Screwing around trying to figure out the BB code for strikethrough
 
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I'm with RF Man: the classic Pentel P205, 0.5 mm. It takes the same leads and erasers as the other Pentels that Bobby Hamill has pictured. I prefer leads one type harder than the ones that come inside the pencils (I forget what the code is for it) but the original ones are good enough so I use them until I'm nearly out and then buy my preferred replacements. (There are also models P203, P207, and P209 for those who like other lead sizes.)

Next best is yellow, hexagonal wood pencils, No 2.5. (With my pocket knife I like to get those needle sharp.)
 
I'm with RF Man: the classic Pentel P205, 0.5 mm. It takes the same leads and erasers as the other Pentels that Bobby Hamill has pictured. I prefer leads one type harder than the ones that come inside the pencils (I forget what the code is for it) but the original ones are good enough so I use them until I'm nearly out and then buy my preferred replacements. (There are also models P203, P207, and P209 for those who like other lead sizes.)

Next best is yellow, hexagonal wood pencils, No 2.5. (With my pocket knife I like to get those needle sharp.)
I THINK those harder leads are HB. That's what I use too. I also had an HP-41CV calculator, and the Pentel pencil would fit in that case beside the calculator, and the rectangular Pentel eraser would fit on top (because I didn't have a card reader on it). Ah, the good old days!
 
I THINK those harder leads are HB. ...

lead_grade_swatches-11.jpg


I am pretty sure the Pentel pencils came with a tube of HB leads. Its kind of the sweet spot for technical drawing students. Makes a nice mark on typing bond (printer paper), dark enough to be seen against green or buff National engineering calculations paper, but too hard to smear from casual contact.

This was the preferred model for engineering students in the distant and dimly remembered days of my youth. The checkered aluminum ferrule can be rotated to reveal the lead hardness. I don't think I ever did that -- but then I was not an engineering student. This one had been set to something other than "F" for decades (long enough for the letters to have been worn to illegibility). I turned it just now to see if I could.

pencilpic2.png

People still use pencils?

Evidently.
 
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Here are some more items. The pencil-like eraser at the back is very convenient to carry, but the rectangular one in the center works extremely well. 0.5mm HB leads in the front. All three are Pentel brand. And yes, some of us still use pencils from time to time :D Heck, I still have triangles, protractor, drafting compass, etc... Sometimes it's easier and/or faster to use that stuff than to haul out the PC and some CAD software!
 
Good ole number 2. Usually yellow. Buy them in 10 or 12 packs. Not sure where they all go. One day I'll open a door and 3,000,000 pencils will fall out and kill me.
 
Don't have batteries for the camera right now...
But I have several (10-12) Pentel Forte .5mm (No longer made or sold) mechanical pencils that I use. Thick Black Plastic Barrel, SS Point & Tip.
I also have a couple Zebra .5mm, but they have a little tiny eraser.
SS Barrel w/ Plastic grip and point and SS tip.
 
I also have a couple Zebra .5mm, but they have a little tiny eraser.
SS Barrel w/ Plastic grip and point and SS tip.

Here you go Woody. I've got a couple of these too. Office supplies that came home from some cubicle job, I expect.

zebra.png

I really have to clean out the taboret. I must have hundreds of pens and pencils in there.

Heck, I still have triangles, protractor, drafting compass, etc... Sometimes it's easier and/or faster to use that stuff than to haul out the PC and some CAD software!

But do you have a french curve? More than one?

I've got a crap-load of drafting tools. I am sitting now next to a box of parts for a drafting machine, removed from my work table when I started using a Wacom tablet. I do still have a pair of t-squares on the table. As you say, it is sometimes quicker and easier to do simple layouts manually -- at least for those of us who learned how to draw.

20180907_172313.png

I have adjustable ruling pens that are certainly older than I am (can't find my point/pica scale ruler, or the point for the compass, though). The ellipse guide is weird, not sure why I have that. The Rapidograph lettering guide is a genuine antique, inherited from my grandfather. I've got bottle of Speedball Superblack that doesn't look to dried up. I might do some pen and ink this weekend, just to see if I remember how.
 
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But do you have a french curve? More than one?
Why, yes, yes I do :D Somewhere around here I have a circle template, a template for drawing schematics, and a homemade triangle with 10 divots per side for drawing ternary phase diagrams... Two tee squares... My compass is a Staedtler, and is a dream to use. I used to do impedance matching on paper Smith charts too (now I'm really going back...)
 
... I used to do impedance matching on paper Smith charts too (now I'm really going back...)

Okay. I yield. I had to look up Smith Chart. I've done phasor computation, but I've never done it graphically.
 
I remember when in drafting class we had a project where we had to draw a bolt
and nut with matching threads !! And the nut was drawn not on the bolt.
The more erasures on your paper the lower grade you received
 
Don't have a pencil I use for drafting. I've got a couple of lead holders. I've got a Dietzgen (I can't find) and this blue Staedtler with a few other tools...

dtools1.jpg
 
Somewhere I think I still have some of the drafting stuff that i couldn't bear to get rid of, even though try as I might I could never use them well enough to pass the 1.5 credit mandatory mechanocal drawing class freshman year and hated the futile struggling to do so. Then I was using a couple of '50s vintage (or older?) monstrosities with three jaw grippers that hold 1/16" leads that need constant sharpening.

I keep a P205 in my shirt pocket most of the time for writing and occasipnal sketching or doodling, but drafting is no part of my life, thank all that's holy.
 
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