Thanks for sharing your pencil recommendations and general love for good marking tools! I think it is really cool you are sharing what you like and what has been working for you and the whys so that others might learn and find something they love out of them too.
Been using mechanical pencils since drafting class back in high school in the late 1960's. We were taught to keep those 2mm pencil at an angle and rotate the point as we drew our line to keep a point on the lead. Very important when drawing on velum for making blueprints (copies). Then came the Pentel's with different size and harness of leads. Even today I use, out of the shop, a Pentel 0.5mm accountant's sliding sleeve pencil to sketch out designs in my graph ruled notebook book. For most of my markups in the shop I use 0.9mm 2B lead, which also comes in red and blue. I also have a Pica work-a-like with with colors so I can mark dark woods. In answer to your original question, yes. The traditional "Carpenter pencil" is fine for rough framing work, but when it's time to do fine precision woodworking, I'll use mechanical's all the time. However, they do have a tendency to run away and hide in the shop a lot.
I recently received the Pentel set as a gift and immediately switched to using them exclusively in my shop. Last week one of the pencils stopped gripping the lead, I reached out to Pentel through their online customer submission form, and today I called their customer service line and I was transferred to Warranty service where I left a voicemail. I haven't heard back from them yet, so at this point I'm less than impressed with their customer service. I'm waiting patiently and hoping for a positive outcome from Pentel. Meanwhile I'll be looking into the other products you reviewed, so thanks for your timely video, Sedge. Great content as always. BTW if anyone has a solution for the slippery lead problem I'd really appreciate it, thanks.
We bought the same set of Pentel from Amazon a few weeks ago. My wife took the .3 and the .5. I have the .7 and the .9. These are great. Still a fan of my Pica's for my pouch (Sedgeley from Leather by Dragonfly) and my apron (also Leather by Dragonfly). Great video!! Looking forward to trying the Blackwing.
Great video Sedge! I'm surprised you didn't mention the Pica .5mm lead pencil. I have the .5 Pica, the carpenters pencil Pica and the traditional .9mm Pica. They all have their purposes as you pointed out, but I use the .5mm Pica by far the most. Thanks for taking the time to make the video!
You converted me to Pica Pencils & Markers > Love them... And, the 9mm Bics as I have a heavy hand!! I'll take a look at these new items as time permits. Once again > Thanks Sedge for good info!!
If you ever need another expensive pencil, I love the rOTring pencils, it looks like the NicPro are essentially clones of rOTring. The original factories in Hamburg have shut down which is a bummer, but the quality is still great I think. The 600 is the style with non-retractable lead sleeve, and the 800 has a retractable lead sleeve to prevent damage if it's in a pocket. The 600 also has a rotating lead hardness window, in case you want multiple pencils with different leads. Their leads are also fantastic, they seem to be a little stronger than Pentel but they also seem to write more smoothly.
Hi Sedge, your videos are always so useful. Pentel has a type of pencil called Orenz. It is a game changer for thin leads. A thin shaft encloses the .3mm and .2mm leads and it retracts as you use the pencil. I really like it. Might be worth a look.
My dad who was a woodworker for 60 years used to use IBM Electrographic pencils. As a kid I used to love those things. Very dark and very smooth. I am sure they are long gone.
I have been using the Pica and Hultafors pencils for years. I tend to like the Hultafors better than the Pica because it will not roll off the bench when you lay it down. They also have a much nicer lead dispenser than the Pica. Steve
I use a pica 3030 in my side pouch and enjoy almost any pica products. They make a double sided pencil that works great with the white lead side. The best pencil I've ever used but they don't exist anymore is the no blot indelible ink (Eberhard or Stanford later model). They haven't been made for 20 to 40 years but you can find a few from time to time at 17 a peice nose. If you love pencils track one down and give it a shot there's nothing like it. I had to break down and pay 135 for 12 pencils.... I hope I mever loose any
I use the Pentel 1000 graphgears also. I have the 5pc set that includes a 4mm. I also use the Caran D'ache Fix pencil in both 2mm and 3mm. Have all the different versions of the Blackwings. Great pencils but I prefer mechanicals.
Got another brand for you to try: Mitsu-bishi, Japanese, various hardness, the Uni has no eraser, others do. Tubalcain on RU-vid recommended them so I gave them a try. The HB for drafting the 2B for sketching. I also have some metal holders for the old drafting leads (about 2mm). And I use the Pentels with my Woodpecker knockoffs. I found a great book on the history of pencils at my library, a gearhead like me (or you I suspect) will love it. The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance Paperback, by Henry Petrosk. I'll be trying the Blackwing.
There was just a post on the Festool Owners Group on fb about pencils. lol. I didn’t think it was possible to discuss pencils for 20 minutes…. AND keep me drawn in. I love it! LOL. When I moved into where my shop is currently (five years ago) I bought an inexpensive package of mechanical pencils. It was like 30 or something. I thought I would never run out of pencils again. Here I am 5 years later and I’ve had to buy more. I also bought ONE pencil that had white lead for walnut. But I’ve lost it. I too have issues with .5 because I’m always breaking it. I also have a measuring tool that I need a really tiny lead for. And… a thicker one for rough wood. Pencils are important!
This was a great video! I could almost smell the cedar of the pencils as you sharpened them! I was curious who makes that dovetail gauge. It looks like a nice one!
I have the black wing subscription because it became hard for me to find them. They drop a special edition every quarter and I’ve amassed quite the collection
I'm surprised you hadn't gone for the Graph Gear 1000s. Outside of the Picas, these are the kings of the workshop. I'm not big on any mechanical pencil that's plasticky. The Graphgear 1000 0.9 has been my traditional go-to pencil fine, but the new Pica Fine Dry is likely my favorite now. 0.9 is the best traditional lead for woodworking, although sometimes 0.7 is OK and 0.5 or 0.3 are needed for edge cases. Anything thinner than 0.9 breaks too much when being used for woodworking. The other favorite pencil has been the Pica Dry Longlife Automatic I'll always have a lead holder nearby, anytime I need to mark surface/cover surface before using the planer. I've got a few 2.0 pencils around with light colored leads. Erasers: get Japanese Foam Erasers. Sakura Craypas is a standard choice. So much better. Another oddball Japanese Pencil: OHTO Minimo Mechanical Pencil. I believe these are intended to be attached to bookmarks and held in notebooks. They're short and extremely thin, which allows them to be used in some marking tools that regular mechanical pencils will never fit in.
When I was working in an RC design department (late 70s) I used 0.3mm and 0.5mm. But my workshop mix includes carpinters pencils and deep hole markers, in fact anythuing that seems appropriate. The wall of plastic cases behind you indicates your main addiction. How many tens of thousands is in that wall?
You won't regret it! The Japanese stationary market is on another level! There are some incredibly beautiful and elegantly engineered pens and pencils whilst there are also an incredible number of way over engineered pencils with so many addes features, like a level, self feeding lead and erasers built in compasses. I have the next step up nicpro set and it that has graphite and reasin lead options with the basic grey, while the colored lead is a graphite polymer mix. Despite the colors not being able to be erased cleanly with any eraserin my arsenal, I do like the pencils. I have RA and the weight of the metal gears, components and barrel ensure that I can always feel the pencil in my hand even on the worst days. As an artist and calligrapher that refuses to abandon my craft no matter how much it may hurt my hands the reliability of the heft is something I really appreciate, frankly I depend on I for delicate intracut work. I tried the four candy brand because it's beautiful and I have a penchant for pastels, unfortunately they constantly jam after the original factory load (so on the reload), so much so that the company included a jam corrector/repair device. It wasn't mentioned as an included item in the item description, though I'm not surprised.
I like my good pencils too. I went in the direction of Japanese made pencils. I do have the Pentel 9mm mechinical pencil. I need more colored lead though. Cool stuff!
I just started trying out Picas on the job. The main problem I’m having is getting a piece of lead broken off in the scabbard tip. Then when I pop the pencil back into the scabbard, the new lead sticking out of pen gets torqued over by the broken piece sitting in there. I guess I have to rewrite my brain to clear the scabbard before returning the pencil and/ or fully retracting the lead before putting it away. But, shouldn’t it be idiot-proof?
With the pentel need to click the holder closed when done. I didn’t retract and it fell. Now lead won’t go through the sleeve. I switched to Uni KURU TOGA every time the lead touches the material it rotates so a flat edge doesn’t form
I am also a big pen and pencil fan. The graphite Pentel kit is absolutely awesome. I love it! I just had a look at the NicPro pencils and I now hate you so much that I order 2 kits. the one you have on your video and the 2.8 3 pacxk carpenter package. Joke about hate 😇
have you seen the Ticondaroga three sided pencil. Love that as much as the Staedler drafting pencils. I am as much of a pencil fan. What would you expect from a kid from Maine.
Square carpenters pencils can be sharpened with an edge like a knife… and it holds its edge loooong! And no, do not sharpen with sharpeners that makes the rectangular tip round😖 U can get lines comparable to well below a 0,3/0,5..and it won’t brake.. Agreed that a small round is useful sometimes, but very seldom. Sharpen the 2,0 to pinpoint instead.
The uni kuru toga .5, .3 over ALL these every day, all day. I Have most of them and there's NO comparison to the quality and engineering of Japanese mechanical pencils. This one auto feeds the lead as you write so you don't have to stop writing to click more lead down, among several other awesome features.
Are you seriously telling me that Pica pencils aren’t the best? I finally became a proper woodworker with my Pica, and you just pulled the rug from under me. 🤪😂
