Old Pencils

[Michael Weber]

Taking out old lower cabs, I found a nearly new wooden pencil. Underneath everything so its got to be at least 40 years old knowing what I know about the house history. Didn't think anything about it until I started to use it. The lead is so strong i can press hard enough to indent hard maple. New yellow ones just snap trying that. No identification, it was evidently a give away. Round, off white with a kind of paisley pattern printed on it. Wish I had a carton of them.

[Tom M King]

Berol Mirado? I'm a hoarder of them, and they're what I still use. I think they stopped making them in the early '80s, but that's just a guess. I do have cartons of them. I mainly use no.3's.

[Mark Blatter]

I have a box or two of pencils that if you look at them cross-eyed, they break. As we so much today, things are just not made to last or even work properly. We live in a use and discard world.

I guess that is one reason why I like making furniture so much. I can make things with top materials, hardwoods not particle board, etc.

[Frederick Skelly]

Yeah, that sounds to me like a #3H. You can still buy them at art/drawing supply houses if you like them! I got some online just last week.
Fred

[Tom M King]

mitersawDC 003 (640x480).jpgI tried some of the drawing pencils too. Nothing that's made today is the quality it was a few decades ago. I posted this picture on another thread today. Notice the boxes of pencils sitting on top of the dust box. This turquoise box is an old box of drawing pencils. They work okay, but don't leave as nice a line with so little pressure as the Mirados. Crossword puzzlers hoard the no. 2s like I do the 3s.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congrats on the find!

Some months ago I switched to using 0.9 mm mechanical pencils. I bought a 2 pack made by Pentel. My wife used the one I carry in my t-shirt pocket and she stole my backup.

[Lee Schierer]

Congrats on the find!

Some months ago I switched to using 0.9 mm mechanical pencils. I bought a 2 pack made by Pentel. My wife used the one I carry in my t-shirt pocket and she stole my backup.

I've used .7 mm Pentel mechanical pencils for years with HB High Polymer lead. They make an extremely fine dark mark that is easy to see. A vinyl eraser removes hte mark if it needs to come off.

[Rich Riddle]

Back in the day we used Big Chief pencils. They too had strong lead in them. Don't they use graphite in new pencils?

[Lee Schierer]

Back in the day we used Big Chief pencils. They too had strong lead in them. Don't they use graphite in new pencils?

Even the old pencils used a combination of graphite and clay. I don't think actual lead was ever used.

[Brian Deakin]

Please see below

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil




http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/cumbria/...00/9027330.stm

and

http://museumofeverydaylife.org/exhi...-of-the-pencil

regards Brian

[Bruce Pratt]

See also The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance by Henry Petroski

[Dave Richards]

I found some new old pencils in my father's desk after he died. I think they are much better than pencils made today. On those that have them, the erasers have hardened to an unusable condition but I don't care.

I do crosswords in ink so I don't waste my pencils on them.

[John Stankus]

There were some great old pencils out there. One of my favorite was from the Blackfeet Indian tribe. It was a logo pencil for Stanford but did write nice.

The Lee Valley pencils are really nice and still available. (and they have a nice sample pack available)

John

[Steve Peterson]

I don't know what they make most pencils out of these days. Many appear to be made from paper pulp with a printed plastic shrink wrap sleeve around them. The shafts are so bendy that they need to use some type of rubberized lead to keep it from breaking all the time.

My favorite current design is the #2 Dixon Ticonderoga. A 96 pack is around $15 at Costco. They are significantly better than any of the cheap wooden pencils that my kids seem to collect. The Lee Valley ones are probably really nice, but $1 each is a bit steep when there are kids in the house.

Steve

[Tom M King]

windows4 005 (800x600).jpgI have pencils from LV and Ticonderoga (2's and 3's) too. I've bought boxes of them hoping to find something as suitable as the Berol Mirado's. Sorry, there's still no contest. Berol also made Black Warriors, which were the same lead as Mirado's, but round instead of hex shafts. They also put different colors on the round warrior shafts. I'm thinking these might be what the OP found. I first found out about them in the '70s when I got frustrated with carpenters pencils, and went looking in Office Supply stores-then all Mom & Pop stores. They only sold the Mirados and Warriors, and that's all I've ever wanted since. I like them better than mechanical pencils since you can put a point on them easier than mechanical pencils. I use them for anything from framing a house to marking out dovetails to cut by hand. They hold a sharp point for an amazingly long time.

The siding in this picture was marked with a Preacher and no. 3 MIrado, and cut with a handsaw I sharpened in 1991. It might look really tight, but you could then, and still now, move any piece in and out with a finger tip. It's floating on drilled holes for the stainless nails. Copper flashing behind the cypress.

without taking time to downsize this picture, click on the link, and every joint in these windows was marked with a no. 3 Mirado except for one done on top of tenon shoulders just because it could be done with quicker in that application with a marking gauge. every joint is mortise and tenon and hand fitted: http://historic-house-restoration.co..._0030_2959.JPG Notice boxes of pencils on top of wainscoting in the background. I keep buying anything new that I see keeping hoping. The cardboard box has some unopened boxes of Mirados I got off ebay, yet unopened.