A not so new use of a carpenter's pencil
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3 May 2019 at 2:30 pm #557901
In one of his videos David Charlesworth argues that finer and more accurate pencil lines can be achieved by flattening a 2 mm lead into a wedge, instead of using a pencil/lead sharpener.
Filing down a the tip of a carpenter’s pencil to a wedge resulted in getting an “edge” that came a lot closer to the blade of the square and left very narrow lines – not much different from knife lines. I was particularly happy with using it for making knife lines more visible before sawing.
Little is probably new within woodworking; and this of course was no exception. David Wearing describes this use of a carpenter’s pencil in his book The Essential Woodworker (Lost Art Press, ISBN-978-0-578-06044-6)
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You must be logged in to view attached files.Nice. And sharpening a carpenters pencil, which is 1/2 inch wide, to a knife edge shape rather than using a regular pencil sharpened to a point also gives you a stronger, longer lasting marking edge. A sharp pencil point goes dull in just a moment or two and can break if too sharp. Other uses of carpenters pencils are more useful for construction than woodworking, but are still interesting. For example, sharpen one with a very dull edge and you can easily mark rough materials like bricks. I have also seen then sharpened with an off center point to be used for scribing, e.g., for installing cabinets to walls that are a bit curved. And they are also rough and ready measurement tools since they are made 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch. I like the 1/4 inch spacing for decking.
Related: If you sharpen the lead in a compass to a chisel edge rather than a point, you can get greater accuracy. A conical point wears to make a thicker line that changes the diameter of the circle slightly as you draw. If you use a chisel edge and place the flat side to the outside of the circle, then the line gets fatter as the lead wears, but the outside diameter never changes. If you are drawing many circles for chip carving with a soft 2B lead, this can be a helpful trick. You just always work to the outside edge of the line.
4 May 2019 at 4:25 pm #558012But of course: that’s why the leads of my school days – and later – drawing compasses all were sharpened to a mono bevel.
Thanks Ed!
PS.
The author’s name is Robert, not David, Wearing.[postquote quote=558069]I just use a mechanical pencil with a fine lead.[/postquote]
So do I. But the problems I’ve run into are ensuring the sides of the pencil itself don’t ride along the side of my straight-edge. Otherwise, it can throw off the mark. And pulling the lead out farther just makes the lead more likely to break. -
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