Anyone who’s taken a class with me in the last five years knows how I feel about .5mm mechanical pencils. When students’ dovetails are too loose or too tight, my first question is, “What pencil did you use to darken your knifeline?” If a dado is too loose (or too tight), my first question is, “What pencil did you use to mark the cutline?”
I find a .5mm mechanical pencil has the ideal lead diameter. The line it marks on a flat surface is exactly thin enough that you don’t have to decide where across its width to cut; you just cut the line. And if you drop a .5mm lead line into a knifed line, the lead catches on both sides of the line, leaving an unmarked trench between (which is where I instruct students to saw when cutting their pins).
I don’t really have a favorite .5mm pencil in terms of the results, but because I tend to lose them a lot (especially while teaching, because I loan them out constantly), I buy inexpensive ones – whatever is available for less than $20 in a multi-pack at any office supply store, large grocery or drugstore.
And if you ever take a class with me, you’ll see a .5mm on the tool list. I mean it (few students seem to believe me!).
— Fitz
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I also go cheap on these, so I don’t have to search endlessly for the missing pencil. And brightly colored, so I can find them. I do feel bad about replacing the whole thing when it’s empty, rather than just reloading lead. But the mechanisms do get sloppy after a while.
As a former pronounced skeptic of the .5mm pencil, I am now a believer. Thanks!
If you want to upgrade your mechanical pencil game take a look at Uni’s Kuru Toga pencils. They have a little mechanism that rotates the lead as you write so the lead doesn’t develop a flat side that results in a line with an uneven width. They’re not that expensive either–$10 or so.
Have you found that the rotation mechanism works on wood as well as paper?
I like the tul pencils. the leads seem to not break off as easily.
Just took the Dutch Tool Chest class with you at Berea – I believe you!
As did I. Hi, Bill! I was one of the naughty ones who didn’t have a 0.5 mm mechanical (modern tool!) “pencil”. 😉
I still like a ‘B’ lead rather than the ‘HB’, but it is hard to find in .5mm.
Go with Rotring.
I also love mechanical pencils. No more messy pencil sharpening. I have a definite favorite variety: Pentel Side-Click Twist Erase that come in several models and sizes. Side-Click advances the lead with your forefinger — without shifting your hand. Maybe not too important. Twist Erase is the winning feature. The twister advances the eraser without advancing the lead. And its a nice size, good quality eraser.
For accurate layout work I use .05mm. For more casual marking (fine for most chair-making tasks) I like the .09mm leads which resist breaking. There is also .03mm, a very delicate lead, and .07 mm which I tend to avoid.
These may not be at your office/copy shop. They are available in boxes of a dozen, priced right, on ebay.
Ha ha. Well said!
And a slightly more robust option is the Pentel Graphgear 1000 Mechanical Pencil Chris posted about a couple years back. They work very well, have several lead sizes and refills, and the tip retracts when the clip is pressed.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2019/07/05/the-pentel-graphgear-1000-mechanical-pencil/
The Ohto minimo pencil is handy for getting into tight spaces.
I’ve been using 0.5mm’s since engineering classes in university (where every solution must start with a diagram!), since I found them a lot neater and more precise than 0.7’s. I used to use some plastic Paper-Mate versions with the side-click and twist erasers and they were great, but not very durable in the shop. I picked up a pair of Staedtler Mars Draft “Technical” Pencils not too long ago, one 0.7 mm and one 0.5 mm. The eraser isn’t the greatest (much prefer the twist eraser) but the pencils themselves are pretty durable. Little pricey but not too bad. I use the 0.7 for sketching designs.
Agree on 0.5mm (0.3 breaks when you think about using it!) and shop around for the lead hardness and if you like different ones, look for a pencil that has a rotating sleeve that shows the hardness. Personally, I like the ones in which the sleeve retracts also.
It had never dawned on me to use the smaller lead size, I’m always trying to keep my pencils sharp to follow the scribe line. DUHHHH
Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame, has a stash of 0.7 papermates… dunno how he likes them so much other than they are cheap as dirt and the design to advance the lead isn’t all that smart but if it makes him happy. I am more of knife first then darken with pencil… ya know at Level (age) 54 this adulting really ain’t all what it is cracked up to be with needing cheater eye wear…
The Office Depot near my house is closing and the other night I found they had marked down all their pens and pencils by 50%. I was able to pick-up the Pentel GraphGear 1000 mechanical pencils in 0.5mm, 0.7mm, and 0.9mm. These are really nice, much nicer feeling in the hand then the GraphGear 500 – which are quite nice anyways.
As of Wednesday night this Office Depot had 3-6 of each left on the hooks; the store is in Milford, OH, if your in the area and interested.
Thank you both for doing these. Even when they involve ideas that I might not use, it’s always an occasion to learn something new- and frequently interesting.
My own practice with these evolved to include the following (probably overkill) steps.
The pencils always get dropped. Which means that the barrels get bent. Which means language will be judiciously applied, and still fail to address the problem. So, I started grinding the barrels down. Yes, they’re thin, and bendy, but what the manufacturers don’t tell you is that a multi-pack of pencils comes with a hidden grinding jig.
After the first pencil fails the gravity test, I disassemble it. I remove the metal threaded part from the clear plastic sleeve. I thread this part into the next pencil tip, and then insert the other end into a cordless drill. From there, I spin the thing, and lightly apply to a belt grinder, or disc grinder, or dremel tool, or whatever your gee-whiz modification tool of choice happens to be. Apply the tip to the implement at an angle, it’s fine. A little chamfering never hurt anyone. I typically stop with 1-2mm of barrel left, but you can go all the way down if you want to.
The drill will help grind evenly around the barrel, and the barrel will get shorter. You will need something sharp-ish to de-burr the inside of the barrel, but after that, the pencil will will last a whole lot longer.
I have a $3 pentel p225 that’s going on almost 9 years now, after receiving this treatment. And, I have my homemade jig in my tool box, to do this as many times as is needed.
Added footnote, in case that last sentence made it sound like re-grinding is a maintenance task: It’s not. I just want to keep any casually cretinous poachers from pilfering my pencils. So I keep the pencil-point drill adapter handy, to assist the worthy with their marking and measuring modifications.
Especially now that I’ve found out that my trusty p225 is discontinued. The p205 has been around forever… my grandfather had one from days of yore, and they’re still widely available. But for whatever reason, the 225, which originally retailed for $4, now goes for $20+ on ebay. Scarcity drives demand, I guess.