Mechanical Pencils

[@FromSagansStardust]

I took mechanical drawing in HS in the early 70s. We called them 'lead holders', and we sharpened them on little pads of sandpaper that were on a small wood handle. You had to walk up to the instructor's table, so he could see if you were tearing off a sheet before every square inch was full of lead. I wanted to take metal shop, but girls weren't allowed. If they only knew, I later did aircraft sheet metal, machining and welding!

[@ashleyzinyk399]

I love the little detail about the cigarette filter. It's such a weird quirk of history.

[@3DJapan]

Mine came with a couple of filters and after I used those I realized it was the same as my cigarette filters so I started using those. They did have to be trimmed to fit so they didn't stick out.

[@MartysRandomStuff]

Last year I found my dad's old torpedo pencil that uses 1.2mm leads. Can't get that size anymore, had to make a tool to lathe 1.3mm leads down to 1.2mm. The pencils were sold in the mid 50s in the New London CT area when my dad was in the navy on the USS Blenny. That sharpener brought back memories of when I was a kid, my mom went to school for commercial art, she used those types of pencils often, her sharpener was metal and had a cone of sand paper inside.

[@Evergreen64]

I have all my old drafting supplies from high school as well. Our high school called it "technical drawing". It was taught by a retired aerospace engineer from Lockheed who had worked on the U2 project.

[@alynscott2109]

I passed my O level at technical drawing. I seriously considered a job as a draughtsman but moved into electronic engineering, then computers

[@steviebboy69]

I remember at Tech School it was called Graphic Communication, or we would just cal it Graphics. This was in the 80's.

[@Kapt-Kimbo]

As a Mech Eng student 50+ years ago we used the blue Staedtler pencils that looked the same as those at the beginning of the clip, however they had a hole in the end of the chrome end button which had a small built in sharpener that you would pull off to sharpen the lead. Not very effective and soon filled up with powdered graphite, but would get you out of trouble. I'm presuming that yours don't? Here Down Under we called them 'propelling pencils' and I still have mine and all the drawing instruments, although little used these days. Tech Drawing was always my favourite subject.

[@rickcowap5061]

Rotring 600 - for 0.5 / 0.7. The job is half done as soon as you pick it up.

[@psychedelicpython]

I’m 61 years old and I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of mechanical pencils. Now that I know I would love to get one with thicker led for my husband and I. I really like this video!

[@FogyArts]

The view to like ratio is incredible! People (including myself) really like the pens and pencils videos.

[@itwasrightthere]

I’ve always heard the term lead holder for what you call drafting pencils. May sharpener can with a couple spare “filters” but they seem to be a slightly smaller diameter. Also- the holes on each side of the lead cleaner are used so that you can extend the length of the lead to two different lengths, which in turn, gives you a different sharpening angle.

[@utubeuser1024]

Here in Australia we called them "pacers". I could never get used to them during my school days - the slightest bit of pressure on the lead and it would break. A couple of decades later, a dear friend got me to try out her Pentel Twist-Erase 0.9 and I've yet to break the lead after 5 years of regular use.

[@mattl2281]

My mom worked for Bell of Pennsylvania in the 1960s (and through the 1990s) and they used mechanical pencils for writing orders for phone service. She brought a couple home for me--Faber Castell 9800, and a desktop sharpener from Dietzgen, weighted to allow you to use it without it shifting (a quick search shows it to be a "Sharpoint"). To clean the lead there was a styrofoam circle you pushed over it and would stick the newly sharpened pencil in that a couple of times. I still have a pencil and sharpener, and I think a tube of HB leads. If I remember right they used the soft HB leads, or maybe I got them somewhere myself--in a green hexagonal tube with a brass top. I also had one of the sandpaper-on-a-stick sharpeners, but that wasn't from Bell.

[@davidioanhedges]

I love mechanical pencils - The Steadler Mars you show has a sharperner in the base .... I have several, one is older than I am

[@mojavegold-]

Fun video! I've never been too enthralled with regular mechanical pencils - but I still regularly use my Venus 041 leadholder, and a Staedtler 502 sharpener. I had never thought of using a cigarette filter for the little center buffer. I have a rolled-up piece of Dacron mat in there. I still keep an old oak drafting table in my office for project layout - even though my drawings are all done on Inventor. I picked up the table for $50 when an employer of mine was getting rid of them around 25 years ago. It reminds me of the table I used in Junior High School in the 1960's.

[@MrJruta]

Love my vintage Staedtler lead holder!

[@alextirrellRI]

As a working musician, I love using mechanical pencils so I don't have to deal with sharpening (despite hearing the wonders of the Blackwing pencils). A couple years ago a sub keyboard player left a PaperMate Handwriting 1.3mm pencil in the pit -- I started using it and I absolutely loved it and and bought some more -- the lead is thick enough not to break easily and it writes and erases well, with a very generous eraser as well. Interestingly they sell the same exact pencils for adults and then in different packaging for kids, and the pricing seems to vary wildly, at least on Amazon.

[@3DJapan]

I went to art school at Community College of Philadelphia and University of the Arts. I've moved on to digital work now but I used a lead holder like the ones at 1:15 for all of my pencil drawing back then. I'm sure I will have it in my old Art Bin. And yes I used my cigarette filters in the sharpener. Haha

[@JonPMeyer]

You never know what you're going to learn about when you click on a Fran Blanche video! Love it!

[@Velodynamic]

You can't go wrong with the Staetdler Mars. I've had a 0,7mm for some 35 odd years, still works as new. That's quality if you ask me. I still remember buying it in cash as a 13 year old in a store filled with all kinds of pens, pencils, papers and stuff. Now it's all online. 😉

[@tvelektron]

I think it works with all 2mm leads, for example fron Your Staedtler. So no problem to find a little bit harder ones...

[@numberMan2000]

I just found the UNI Kuru Toga pencil and I'm totally digging it. It has a mechanism inside that spins the lead slightly after every lift and put-down to keep the tip wearing the same. It's made for some great drawing and writing.

[@T3hBeowulf]

Oh wow... I remember using the PaperMate SharpWriter pencils in school. My favorite thing to do was extract the wire coil that advanced the core and when the core was spent and using it (as well as wire from spiral-bound notebooks) to make little battery electric things like flashlights and fans. My 3rd and 4th grade teachers "loved" me.

[@sdhlkfhalkjgd]

The Pentel P205 was the first mechanical pencil I can ever remember ever feeling the need to hang on to. I wrote some many miles of notes in the Navy I had callouses and a divot to match the contour of the barrel. Later on, I got ahold of the Rapidomatic and it's my all-time favorite. The .7mm was a good daily driver and I liked the knurled grip. I never had to do any 'real' hand drafting so I never worried about line weights and lead harnesses. The .7 in 2hb was just more durable for all around use. I never understood the appeal of the lead holder styles for drafting. I always saw them as having more application to sketching and artistic stuff. I suppose that style was the predecessor to the auto-advance, push button collet style and were better that a wooden one. To each their own.

[@deepblueskyshine]

Being a child of eastern Europe more or less in the same period as Fran I was using Czech made Coch-I-Noor mechanical pencils that have at least two sizes of leads thicknesses and the same principle as this chinese pencils sharpener as a part of their top push knob that unscrew to reveal and use it. Problem with lead's dust have to be solved by users individually, but thus there wasn't any chance to find yourself without a sharpener. They were made to look like regular pencils with softened edges hexagonal outer body painted in pastel colors with logo in golden, typically out of brass, visible part of the internal mechanism more often nickel plated, but some in natural brass color, typically polished.

[@larryharless7804]

Flashback I drafted with those for many years until we switched over to ink on mylar.

[@Markworth]

When I was a wee student child, the king of pencils was the standard Bic mechanical pencil. They were cheap, readily available, and easily modified/hacked. 0.7mm was the most common, and probably the best, but you could encounter 0.5mm on occasion. If you raided someone's pencil drawer at a garage sale, you might stumble into some 0.9mm lead and an accompanying pencil probably made by Pentel. Never in my life saw 0.3mm. The Sharpwriter wasn't very popular because it didn't have fashionable clickiness or ability to dump half a pack of lead into it. I don't remember ever encountering or using a lead holder like these, but I probably would have disregarded it as uncool and impossible to refill. If that opinion seems offensive, remember that it would be coming from a preteen in the 1990s and not a college drafting student in the 1970s.

[@Donna230]

I sometimes use mechanical pencils to do illustrations. I like that you can refill them and not have to buy a whole pencil every time. Saving the environment before it was popular! :)

[@aserta]

I've lived with the Tikky II (have tons of them) and the Mitsubishi self sharpening mechanical pen. Those were my mainstais in design. Nowadays, i just use a common garden variety pencil. H or softer. I'm particular to the Stabilo Exam Grade stuff, the erasers are particularly good. Kind of a cross between a regular gum and the flexible stuff we used to have in 80's (dunno if that's common anymore, haven't seen those containers in years, about the size of an old match box with two plastic shells with a small hole in the center where you could stick your crayon (akin to the paper filter in the sharpener in the video).

[@tomtrask_YT]

I had drafting in JH, before I would have been inclined to smoke but I do remember that hole with the lead cleaner being about the right size for a cigarette filter. I suspect as much as anything that using a filter there is an improvisation because they never stocked the lead cleaners in the supply cabinet and everybody did smoke. BTW, in my first job out of college, where we still had drafters, I think they called them lead holders (to distinguish them from, say, Pentel mechanical pencils with the chuck and the click to advance mechanism)

[@wimwiddershins]

More pen and pencil vids please. Just got a few of those fountain pens from a previous video and loving them.

[@atkelar]

Engineering equipment *had* to accomodate smoking back then! Every device I restore, I wonder: is that yellow a plastic/paint issue or smoke residue?

[@gene_takavic57]

I hope pencils are still relevant in the future.

[@helimech0]

My three favorite classes in college were technical drawing. Shortly after i graduated ( 1987) CAD came on the scene.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Pencil-vania! Curious enough, the Koh-I-Noor Versatil series were pretty popular here in Poland in the '70s and '80s, made in Czechoslovakia. I remember these from my kid days in the '90s. They had a teeny tiny sharpener at the butt, which doubled as a lead movement button. Or maybe the other way around? Ha. Makes me wanna get one and do a little teardown!

[@maciejzettt]

You have a very nice handwriting!

[@phildem414]

Those areso satisfying. Also, all the consumable is use to actualy write.

[@RonaldJS]

2-B or not 2-B, that is the question.

[@jeffreyhunt1727]

I laughed out loud at the bit about the cigarette filter. Thanks for uploading this video.

[@kempy666999]

My fave mechanical pencil is the uni-ball Kuru Toga. It has a mechanism that rotates the lead as you write - maintains a sharp point. The leads are also infused with nano diamond particles 💎

[@sn1000k]

I've heard about those. Would like to try.

[@liquidsonly]

Yup I have one. Best pencil. Not sure about the diamonds though.

[@Dennis-uc2gm]

Being a shop student in High school I ended up doing a couple years of old school drafting. The time spent doing that served me well later in the electronic industry. I still use a number of those same mechanical pencils drawing up projects in my retirement years. 👍

[@jamesstout3430]

Thanks Kevin!

[@chrispomphrett4283]

I use a few coloured vintage propelling chinagraph pencils. Supplied by government supplies in the UK. But where am I going to find Chinagraph inserts when they're worn down?

[@Igorooooleynikov]

I always used Koh-i-Noor mechanical pencils and they always come with sharpener.

[@lachlan1971]

Uni Kuru Toga Advance is the way to go

[@RobCamp-rmc_0]

I wish drafting was still A Thing, I’d take the time to hone my skills while I’m currently between jobs, as I think I could find it to be very meditative, even more so than handling clinical data and writing it up

[@heronimousbrapson863]

2B or not 2B....That is the question...

[@dunc1958]

I was told the Sharp electronics company started out making that type of mechanical pencil, hence the name Sharp......I could of course be completely wrong. Non the less a very enjoyable video 🙂

[@TheBuffaloEstate]

That colorway is beautiful.

[@seventhtenth]

PETER DRAWS STOLE YOUR STYLE

[@flymypg]

I used to be a Pentel fanboi, especially their HB lead. Probably still am, though I'm not sure since I rarely write anything anymore!

[@ScottfromBaltimore]

I dig the intro music.

[@landspide]

I think these are similar to kitaboshi, maybe same underlying manufacturer but cheaper. Looks like it.

[@landspide]

Confirmed this is the case (they're the OEM), the best part of these pencils is the smell!!! wow!

[@Bubu567]

It's the body that matters with a mechanical pencil. You don't have to use the lead provided.

[@yardleybottles6025]

Memories

[@zaxchannel2834]

I like Autopoint

[@andromedaturnbull3512]

And how do we know that Shakespeare was into using pencils? "2B or not 2B, that is the question..."

[@gabest4]

I just realized, isn't it a huge waste to sharpen the tip? The only part that actually goes onto the paper is the small center.

[@zacharysanders3463]

Thanks!

[@FranLab]

Thank YOU Zachary!

[@krwd]

drafting and smoking not necessarily in that order lol

[@scottthomas3792]

Yes, the pen and pencil videos are great...the leads from mechanical pencils can also be used to make a very simple, but functional carbon microphone... Drafting was part of shop class when I was in high school....I enjoyed it. I wonder if it's still taught in high school, or is it a college thing now?

[@skunked42]

Love it!

[@filepz629]

✏️✒️🖋🖊🖌🖍

[@johnsamsungs7570]

You can and could buy cigarette filters for rolling your own cigarettes.

[@YerUnclePhil]

Great rundown on some mechanical pencils. The Timber seems nice. But the first wood one wouldn't appeal to me as I was never was a fan of pressing on the eraser. Also, I wondered what yer smallest mechanical pencil is. That had been a quest of mine in the past

[@sn1000k]

Those Kohinoor rapidomatics are an amazing drawing experience! Thanks for this Fran. As primarily an artist, I'm definitely here for this content as well.

[@steviebboy69]

Nice Mechanical Pencils Fran, and you certainly have some nice hand writing. Not like me my writing not that I do it much at all looks more like a 7 Year Old's.

[@goofyrulez7914]

Have you ever done a study of the history of pencil sharpeners, and unusual ones?

[@jamesstout3430]

Cool video. * but as usual ALL of yours are