David sent us a great article about carpenter pencils:
Comrades, it seems to me that the Revolution has been a little silent on an important front, namely carpenters pencils, which even today still quietly carry out their traditional function in the workplace. I thought that these photographs and a few words might inspire some Revolutionary activity around carpenters pencils. As an engineer, I am perhaps the black sheep of my wood-working family –- son of a boat-builder, nephew of a wood-turner, brother of a carpenter, etc. Architects, engineers, inventors and the like have increasingly turned away from graphite, conducting their business on computer screens, but when it comes to actually making their designs a physical reality, the pencil still plays its important role. Whether you can see the marks or not, there’s every chance that your house and furniture, some of your most important possessions, were marked with pencils by the people who made them.
The photograph above is of a couple of my father’s old pencils; they’re at least 30 years old. Sharpening is of the “rough and ready†kind, usually done with a chisel. You can tell that my dad’s an old school type of craftsman: don’t throw your pencil away until its far too short to actually hold; the saw is fine Philadelphian steel engraved that its properties “…can not be Excelled,” and the ruler is in inches. He works in inches, his children work in millimeters but know inches. His grandchildren don’t even know what an inch is. For those of you not familiar with the ways of the wood, the “vee†mark drawn against the pencil line indicates which side of the line you should cut with the saw, to leave the wood the correct length.
Modern carpenters pencils here in New Zealand seem to come in grades hard, medium and soft, and cost about US$1 retail for a name brand like these Rexell’s, and US 80 cents for a “no-name generic†pencil with absolutely no markings whatsoever. But “trade†and “volume†discounts could easily be in the 50 – 90% range. They have a rectangular core, which allows sharp or wide lines to always be drawn by simply turning the pencil through 90 degrees. Of course the rectangular body is to stop your pencil rolling or blowing away when you put it down. So that’s my carpenter pencil primer. Over to you!
[Text and images, D.P. Used with permission.]
Lowes and HomeDepot in the US sells an ingenious sharpener for these pencils.
It has a curved blade and a rotating cam to hold the pencil in the proper position
I love your dad’s old pencils–reminds me of some stuff my dad had. Never give them up.
I’ve used .5/.7mm mechanical pencils, a regular #2 pencil or a fine point (black) ballpoint pen to mark the wood when I am building something.
Carpenters pencils are really cool tools. And i disagree with using sharpener on them. If you use a utility knife then they form a nifty blade-like edge to form the thin/thick variance. They don’t roll away, that seems to by why they’re flat, and you can do the hold-them-and-use-your-knuckle-asa-guide, to draw a rip line down a board. I always keep a couple in my hobby shop.
John
I bought one of those sharpeners and they are a waste of money. I used carpenter pencils to do sketches in the field (they make different lines easily, the fit better in a rucksack, and if they break it is easy to sharpen). The orange cam sharpener tends to break the lead of the pencil. I’ve tried multiple pencils from different brands and they all break right before a usuable tip forms.
I must buy hundredes of rexel green pencils every year and I am amazed how poor the quality is now. They used to last but now you can easily go through half a pencil just trying to sharpen it first time.The leads just crack and break off.
I would be very interested to hear of anyone who knows where to buy quality pencils in uk.
Thanks
John Clarke
I sharpen mine with knives.
Look for Chattahoochee Carpenters pencils in tool shops, flexible no wood, graphite so can be painted over.