I have a little two blade black handle Buck knife.Originally Posted by michael langman
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.
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Member
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.
Last edited by lowell holmes; 04-24-2017 at 12:17 PM.
Contributor
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.
Member
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.
Contributor
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
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
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...
Member
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!
Life's too short to use old sandpaper.
Contributor
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
Last edited by Stew Denton; 04-29-2017 at 1:09 PM.
Contributor
$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...
Last edited by steven c newman; 04-29-2017 at 12:46 PM.
Member
Could you elaborate on that a little?
Member
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.
Contributor
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
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Member
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...)
Member
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.
Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
Contributor
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
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