Reply To: Mechanical pencils in the woodshop?
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Another option for pointing the 2mm leads is a piece of abrasive paper either glued to a bit of scrap or just held flat. A few twirling swipes will do it.
There are inexpensive plastic pointers that you hold in your hand (see link), and they work, too, after a little practice, although it is easy to break the lead with them. I learned of them from an architect. A cheap $1 sharpener and this little ten-dollar pointer will sharpen the 2mm leads and are small enough to toss into the pocket of your backpack or the tray in your toolbox. The $1 pointer (see link) plus abrasive paper will work quite well. I’ve not touched the rotary pointer (see link) in a long time. You can also just use a chisel, and I’ve done that, too.
I prefer wooden pencils in the shop, but sometimes use a lead holder plus 2mm lead. The 0.5mm and 0.7mm mechanical pencil leads break too easily.