flat pencils

[lowell holmes]

I am curious. I occasionally acquire a flat wood working pencil. I treasure them, but never buy them.

Do you, like me, just wait for free ones?

If so, why are we so cheap. I bet Amazon has a selection to choose from.
I have kind of settled on "Blackwing 602" pencils.

[Frederick Skelly]

I've seen them but never used one Lowell. With that big fat lead, I always figured they were for carpentry rather than cabinet making. What do you use them for?
Fred

[glenn bradley]

I had a habit of grabbing a few whenever I saw them cheap. I have a grip of Lowe's, Home Depot, a random bunch of freebies from the woodworking shows and retailers. I use mostly for witness marks when jointing and planing and so have a sharpener near the jointer/planer area. I keep one near the table saw and one at the bench as well.

[Jim Koepke]

I have a few of the free ones but have also paid for them when they are on sale. Bought a bunch when HD had them 4 or 5 for $1.

They make a nice wide line when wanted, but can also be chisel pointed to make a thin line to follow in the track of a wheel or pin gauge.

For my regular size pencils a load of the only #1 pencils found on the web were purchased. They are supplemented with a slip on eraser.

jtk

[Glen Johnson]

Chris Swarz has an interesting idea for flat pencils. He planes the wood off one side down to the graphite. This then allows that side of the pencil to register perfectly flat with an edge.

[steven c newman]

Used then all the time as a concrete carpenter....even had a holder for it on my hardhat....rarely had to buy any. That "sharpener"? junk. Utility knife worked better.

[James Pallas]

Used then all the time as a concrete carpenter....even had a holder for it on my hardhat....rarely had to buy any. That "sharpener"? junk. Utility knife worked better.
Exactly correct Steven. Utility knife to a razor edge and they glide nicely down a squares edge. They will stay in a marking gauge line just dandy.
Jim

[lowell holmes]

I keep mine out on the bench or in my apron. I sharpen it with a utility knife, making the lead sharp on sand paper.

I will occasionally buy one, but I love the free ones.:)

[Mel Fulks]

Chris Swarz has an interesting idea for flat pencils. He planes the wood off one side down to the graphite. This then allows that side of the pencil to register perfectly flat with an edge.
They are good for marking elliptical and circular casings to spring line

[Andrew Hughes]

I use flat pencils I like to sharpen them differently and they don't roll around when I have a lot of fans going.

[Bill McNiel]

All the time for carpentry tasks and rough layout of material for milling. Utility knife for sharpening.

[David Eisenhauer]

Pocket knife.

[Dave Zellers]

Definitely not for cabinetry but also extremely usefull for rough cutting and marking. I have a lifetime supply. Years ago I placed a large order for a deck with my lumber yard and it got lost in the shuffle. When I placed my "WTF" call to them, it arrived the next day with a box (50?) of flat pencils. Would love to live long enough to work my way through them.

Flat pencils for rough cutting, #2 pencils for general work, .5mm mechanical pencils for finer work, knives for really fine work.

[John K Jordan]

I am curious. I occasionally acquire a flat wood working pencil. I treasure them, but never buy them.
Do you, like me, just wait for free ones?


I buy them. I look for the brightly colored pencils so I can spot them easier if I lay one down. I keep them stuck to magnets where I use them the most - wrap a bit of soft iron wire around the top.

They don't cost much at all compared to the bandsaw, lathes, the power for the HVAC, or compared to the cost to build the shop or peacock house. A few dollars gets me enough for a few years of use.

JKJ

[michael langman]

I used one for marking low spots in my stock when planning my workbench top. Sharpen it with my little buck knife.

[lowell holmes]

I used one for marking low spots in my stock when planning my workbench top. Sharpen it with my little buck knife.

I have a little two blade black handle Buck knife.:)

It is 3" long closed with black handle. I'm glad I have it because I'm too tight to pay the price for a new one.

[michael langman]

My buck knife has 3 blades Lowell. And a black Micarta handle. I always liked the utility of the 3 blades. A little large for the pocket at 3 1/2" closed, but I have an attachment to my various Knives. Mostly USA made from the 1970's.

[Bill Houghton]

The sharpeners that bemuse me are the ones that sharpen a flat pencil down to a fine point, as if it were a regular pencil, thus defeating the purpose of the rectangular lead. I'm with other folks in using a utility knife: simple, always available, won't break down.

[Jim Koepke]

Since my flat pencils reside in the shop, they are usually sharpened with a chisel. The pencil is set down on a piece of scrap and the chisel easily pares away the wood & lead to a good edge. A finer edge is achieved with sandpaper.

jtk

[Chris Fournier]

I showed up to a Custom Homebuilder's site for my first day of work with his company. I pulled a flat pencil out of my pouch and he looked and me and said wait a minute, went to his truck and got me a round pencil and took my flat one and chucked it in the foundation trench. He told me that they worked to 1/16ths and a proper pencil would do. He told no lies. Craftsmen they were. Never taken or bought a flat one since. Not saying that I can work to a 1/16th anymore...

[Bob Glenn]

I know a guy who told me he was going to make a fortune with his flat pencil sharpener idea. He's still working his day job!

[Stew Denton]

One more utility knife guy, does a good job. I use them for rough work, carpentry, etc. Also, one more on the freebie side. Hate to think that if my current ones get too short I may have to actually buy one, as the local lumber yard no longer gives them away.

Stew

[steven c newman]

$0.39 each at Wall E World, yellow, with a black Stanley logo.....

When I worked construction, suppliers would drop off handfuls of pencils and stickers. Stickers for the hard hat I wore. Even got a clip to place in the hardhat to hold a pencil or two...flat and round ones.

At least, them flat pencils will never roll off the top of the bench, to be lost forever...

[bridger berdel]

They are good for marking elliptical and circular casings to spring line

Could you elaborate on that a little?

[bridger berdel]

The wide flat face makes them easy to control for scribing to a slightly uneven surface. Lay the pencil flat against the wall or whatever and slide it along. The lead is a rectangle inside the pencil, so if you sharpen it to one corner of the lead it gives you 4 different offsets to chose from.

The lead in flat pencils is made of the same stuff as the lead of round pencils- it can be sharpened to exactly as fine a point. The idea that round pencils are more accurate is false.

[Jim Koepke]

My wife just came back from California after getting things settled after her mother died.

One of the 'treasures' she brought back was the stub of a carpenter's pencil that was her grandfathers.

jtk

[Jay Larson]

I showed up to a Custom Homebuilder's site for my first day of work with his company. I pulled a flat pencil out of my pouch and he looked and me and said wait a minute, went to his truck and got me a round pencil and took my flat one and chucked it in the foundation trench. He told me that they worked to 1/16ths and a proper pencil would do. He told no lies. Craftsmen they were. Never taken or bought a flat one since. Not saying that I can work to a 1/16th anymore...

We worked to that precision, and I used the flat pencils all the time. Just depends on how you had it sharpened. And if you were cutting plywood or blandex/OSB, every other line you marked, you had to sharpen a regular pencil.
A line is a line, the measuring is the critical part. (And the cutting of course...)

[Chris Parks]

Sharpen a flat pencil on the side of a grinding wheel and if it is hard enough it draws a very fine line, as fine as any other pencil and will actually knife a mark into the wood if that is needed. When used that way it is as accurate as a marking knife and better than any round pencil.

[James Pallas]

When working at framing the flat pencil is sharpened with a utility knife. When calling out measurements it was "take the line", "leave the line" or "split the line". I don't know exactly how close that would be, a 32nd maybe. This was how I learned. Hand saw or skilsaw, no mitre saws then. Just how I learned.
Jim
PS I can still do it most of the time just a lot slower