Btw, construction tools have thicker lead holders, like 5.6mm, and red color too.

https://www.homedepot.com/b/Tools-Hand-Tools-Marking-Tools-L...

I own one, but it's an almost completely different tool. The fat lead doesn't stay sharp, and isn't really something you'd use for drafting or drawing figures for inking. They are great for marking lumber though.

Finding tools that clicked was a nice process to discover. I also tried harder leads and like them for the reasons you mention - but for whatever reason, kept coming back to a basic BIC mechanical pencil.

An eraser shield is a good addition to the tools list - that came in handy often.

Love the tracing paper tip - that’d be helpful to remove the digital aspect of taking a picture a digitally sketching on top.

Yeah, you're working a little finer than I am. Drawing furniture full or half scale, I'm not too bothered by a thicker line as the pencil dulls. Drawing a graph, I'd probably want a more consistently fine line too.

I like the basic Pentel P205/207/209 pencils, but the basically disposable plastic Bics would probably be well suited to the short, brutal life they'd lead in the shop.

Loved the article and the joy of the process. The outcome is spectacular and shows the care that went into it.

I'm old enough that I took drafting in 7th grade. One tip I remember is to turn the pencil slightly as you use it. I think this was to help maintain the pencil's shape, but there my be other less obvious reasons.

I took woodshop too. The shop teacher seemed to enjoy scaring us with stories of the students that goofed off in shop to horrific consequences. That's also where I learned to be careful with air compressors around open wounds.

> That's also where I learned to be careful with air compressors around open wounds.

That sounds like you may have learned the same way I learned that 1: when a USGS topo map indicates an unimproved road, it may be out of date, 2: don't take your father's four-wheel-drive truck down a late-winter, corn-snow-covered dirt road when the temperature is starting to drop in the late afternoon 3: Don't go down a dirt road on a hill covered in corn snow without walking the path first to make sure you can get out or get back up. 4: When looking for a winter campsite for your Boy Scout troop, tell your parents where you're going.

Haha! Made me chuckle

There are fun japanese mechanical pencils that have built-in rotation: https://www.unibrands.co/collections/kuru-toga

That is fun! As an aside, it took me four times clicking into that before I realized there was an expandable-but-collapsed product detail section that included the rotation information I was looking for.

Make your web sites obvious, people!

> One super helpful tip I got from an actual trained draftsman is to use harder pencil lead for your layout and construction lines. Like 6H to 9H.

I should try that. I got the exact opposite advice in university, and I have terrible line thicknesses.

> Like 6H to 9H. You'll get a much lighter line to erase later. It'll also hold a finer point for longer.

With 6H you get lighter line, but only in colour. It can be actually harder to erase, because you naturally tend to push the pencil harder to see it, thus denting the paper and leaving the graphite at the bottom of a groove where the eraser cannot lift it. Those harder leads have great amounts of clay that very easily scratch the paper.

I go on the opposite direction, being my favorite lead a 4B: you need very low pressure to leave visible marks, that you can erase very easily with a kneaded eraser.

You are right that a 6H will hold the tip for way longer. Only if I don't need to remove the marks I would use the harder leads.

You definitely have to let the tool do the work with the harder lead for that exact reason. I'm typically going for really faint lines, and I don't erase or ink anyway. I usually get into the groove trap when I'm going over my lines to darken them with a softer pencil, which suggests I should go softer still.

This takes me back, as well as some of the replies to your post. I still have most of my drafting tools from high school, including eraser shields, etc. one thing I didn't see you mention, and would help with dingy vellum, is a pouch with eraser granules you squeeze to put a thin layer of dust on your drawing. This will pick up excess graphite as you slide your t-square or parallel over the drawing.

I used one of these bizarre pouches as a gentle final pass to clean up drawings. The graphite "smear" from the t-square happened with every drawing - thanks for sharing this top. Before starting a new drawing I would wipe down the tools to start fresh!

When I learned, we were told to keep that dust on the drawing the whole time rather than just the end. We always had a small dusting brush nearby to sweep it off as it got dirty.