Page Text: DMP - Dave's Mechanical Pencils
My mechanical pencil collection and various related things, thoughts and musings about them, reviews of mechanical pencils and other items, and more. I'm not prejudiced - all forms of pencils and graphite are welcome here, even some ink sneaks in too. You can use the sidebar links to find mechanical pencil reviews and other stuff.
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Showing posts with label Leads. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 01, 2022
Lead In The Real World
I’m sure pretty sure all of us mechanical pencil people have our own favourite lead sizes, grades and brands, but I’ve always been interested in what lead sizes are actually used by the population at large, out there in the real world. Twelve years ago I started making some efforts to actually answer the question, by asking industry sources – retailers, distributors and manufacturers. Some didn’t want to say anything, but a few were happy to give some quite specific answers. On the one hand the information wasn’t particularly confidential, but they also generally didn’t want it shouted from the rooftops. However, over ten years have gone by, and I don’t think they will mind this post. So, here then, a little snippet of real world lead facts.
Leads - 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7 & 0.9mm
Firstly then, the New Zealand importers of two major worldwide international brands of mechanical pencils replied to my questions.
I asked each of them what percentage of sales was each lead size of their biggest selling technical drafting model of pencil, and of their general writing pencil. The results were surprisingly similar between the brands, and so I average them as below. These are the figures for the NZ market.
Technical Pencil
Sales of lead refills, HB grade only
0.3mm = 2% of sales
0.7mm = 40%
0.9mm = 3%
Secondly, a member of JWIMA, the Japanese Writing Instruments Manufacturers Association, supplied the association statistics for the then three-monthly annual quarter. So, that’s essentially the production of the entire Japanese lead manufacturing industry.
Leads, all grades, standardised as 60mm lengths.
0.3mm = 4.3% of production
0.7mm = 24.8%
0.9mm = 2.7%
And yes, production was in the many hundreds and hundreds of millions of sticks of lead.
Just as a point of interest, of the 0.4mm lead, only 4% was noted as “for export”. As you might suspect, in the 0.7mm and 0.9mm lead sizes the great majority was noted as “for export”.
I have accumulated a few kilometers of lead over the years and decided that my leads should have their day in the sun too. So here's a few - some old, some new.
From the back row to the front, left to right.
Pentel blue leads. The first is just 'color leads', the second has a blue band and says blue but the third is black band and says blue. Modern Ain and Ain Stein.
Some old Pilot. Does the second from left container look familiar? The Neo-Xu and Eno are the same containers just relabeled. Colour coded tops by diameter.
I like the yellow container with its little window. Ecomate and BeGreen, more relabeling.
Good old Staedtler. The bulk injector dispenser holds 40 leads. Then Mars Micrograph 'Super Hi Polymer'... sounding a bit Pentel-ish there. Then just 'Super' and finally 'Carbon'.
Up above I asked if that Pilot container looked familiar. At first glance the Pilot container looks identical, but upon close inspection it is merely exceptionally similar, clearly someone is copying someone.
Derwent Precision Mechanical Pencil Review
Derwent Precision Mechanical Pencil Review
Sometime in the 1500’s the world’s first, and still only, large-scale deposit of high purity solid graphite was discovered in Cumbria, England. So, having discovered pencil lead, all that needed to be invented was the pencil. Many will debate the origins of the pencil, but for my money, if it puts graphite onto paper then its lineage goes back to Cumbria. Today’s direct descendant of the Cumbrian pencil industry is Derwent, who still manufacture in Cumbria. These days Derwent is part of the US multi-national Acco Brands, whose stable of brands also includes Artline, Esselte and Marbig amongst others.
As a collector of mechanical pencils I have previously felt compelled to buy two contemporary pencils simply because of their nod to an important part of pencil history. First was the Cleo Skribent Der Gessner , and second was the Platinum Hayakawa , but now there is a third, the Derwent Precision.
The Precision is Derwent’s first foray into the mechanical pencil market. Given their strength is pencils for artists, it is not surprising they are pitching their first mechanical pencil at the art market. Being manufacturers of wooden pencils it is also not surprising that they have contracted out the manufacture of their mechanical pencil. What is perhaps a little surprising though is their choice to go with a thin lead mechanical pencil rather than a leadholder. I assume they thought a 2mm leadholder was too similar to their woodcase pencils and if they were going to go mechanical, they might as well go all in.
First off then the Derwent Precision is a long slim mechanical pencil, somewhat reminiscent of a Derwent woodcase pencil. It is lightweight in the hand and neutrally balanced. The metal body barrel is hexadecagonal… I hope I counted right… and without any specific grip zone or grip enhancements, all again reminiscent of a woodcase pencil. The grip is fine for those who like to vary their grip placement up or down the body, but for extended use I feel that some form of grip enhancement would have been a good idea, even if just a few concentric rings.
The ‘not quite round’ body and pocketclip combine to put some limits on desk rolling. The pocket clip is a good combination of enough strength and spring to be really useful, but not so much as to rip your papers.
The lead sleeve is a 3mm thin metal pipe and it is a sliding sleeve for pocket safety. Combined with the conical tip section there is good vision of the lead for doing fine detailed work. It is also a good rigid system, although it does have lead cushioning.
How to refill the lead magazine
There is a small emergency use eraser under the push top button. As usual you remove the eraser to refill the lead magazine. The lead advance mechanism feels and sounds good and solid. Ten clicks of the top button will advance about 7mm of lead.
The retail hang-sell carded pencil also comes with a refill pack of leads. On the lead refills are three of the most fearful words in the world of mechanical pencil leads, “Made in China”. It has been a long time since I have bothered to buy, use or try Chinese lead, because past experience has lead me to the conclusion that Chinese lead is abysmal. However, Derwent are themselves lead manufacturers and surely they would not risk their long standing reputation on cheap D-grade lead? Now I caution that I have not done any real comparative testing, and that my pencil is 0.7mm, but I must admit that from my general use I have been pleasantly surprised. This Derwent Precison lead is perfectly respectable, and the inviolability of the formula “Chinese + lead = bad + very” is now under threat.
Overall then I think this is a respectable, if unremarkable, general workhorse of a mechanical pencil. The Derwent name and history is what sets it apart, and I think that alone means you should consider adding it to your collection.
• Best Points – It’s Derwent. Opening my eyes to Chinese lead.
• Not So Good Points – The grip
• Price Range – Low
• Does this pencil make it into the Top 5? – No
Dimensions – Length 153mm, ‘diameter’ 8mm. Balance point about 75mm up from the tip.
These days leads come in plastic. I'm far too young to have been around then, but back in the good old days, when life was slower and simpler, before everything came in plastic, lead refills came in...well...lots of different things.
Like glass tubes with stoppers.
Conway Stewart and Eversharp glass tubes - note the square leads.
Also there were all sorts of metal and wood tubes and containers.
Various metal tubes and containers
Special leads in heavy duty metal containers
Of course the claim of extra thin would be laughed at today. More like "thick for strength".
Moving on we have a variety of wooden tubes and containers
I really like these slotted wooden type holders.
Scripto's in wooden holders
0.036" = 0.9mm = 'Extra Thin Lead'
Wooden tubes for politicians?
Of course there were also just plain old cardboard boxes
and of course cardboard tubes
Gonna get that Road Runner
White Lead and Embroidery
When I first started this blog I thought it would be of interest to a few people from the mechanical pencil using groups like engineers, architects, designers, artists, writers, etc. This has largely turned out to be true, but there is one group of readers that I did not anticipate, and it’s rather silly of me to have not anticipated some interest from them, especially because my mother is one of them. The group I am referring to is the one I have come to call “The Crafty Ladies” with a subset of “The Ladies Who Sew”. Mechanical pencils and multi-pens find favour with many who scrapbook, make cards, sew and embroider, etc. The search for the ultimate multi-pen is not taken lightly, and the quest for the perfect white lead is a True Quest.
White lead? Yes. Over the course of this blog I have had quite a few contacts from ladies trying to find the ultimate in white lead for material marking. For many, the traditional soap and chalk markers just don’t cut the mustard. Strong enough to not break when marking woven fabrics. Thin enough to be accurate. Preferably temporary in that it can be washed off. Definitely non-running or bleed through. These are just some of the desired attributes of the mechanical pencil white lead. I am afraid I haven’t been able to offer much help. Sakura have some white leads, but they generally seem to be 0.9mm. The white lead for the Striker mechanical carpenters pencil has some possible uses but requires sharpening. Pergamano offer a 0.5mm lead which many seem to use. These and the others though all seem hard to obtain and not entirely satisfactory. Recently I was contacted by Christine who was looking for some multi-pen and lead assistance for her embroidery hobby. I suggested she might like to do a little blog article about her use of pencils, and she agreed. So, without further todo, I will now hand over to her.
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My name is Christine and I use colored pencil leads and multi pencils in my craft work. During my pencil/leads quest, I came across Dave’s blog. My hobby is Japanese Embroidery, which you may have seen on Japanese kimonos. While my pieces are smaller ones intended for framing and hanging on our walls, kimonos are even more intricate, and may take several professional stitchers a year or more to complete. The tools, techniques, fabrics, threads, designs, and colors have remained largely unchanged for 1600 years. There are 2 Centers of study, located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA , and in Japan . These 2 Centers create all of our designs, color schemes, and techniques for completion. To provide some general information, the embroidery is done on silk fabric stretched on a frame, using silk thread:
We use only a few tools, specifically, scissors, needles, a laying tool called a tekobari, and an awl (not pictured):
I some times need to mark on the fabric, for example to note the direction of stitches. Depending on the color of the fabric, we use either a white or non-photo blue 0.5 mm pencil lead - whichever will show up better. The blue lead is one which has been tested by the professionals at the Japanese Embroidery Center, and its color will not run during the finishing process, when we apply a wheat starch to the back of the piece and steam it thoroughly. My teacher gave us several leads, it is a Staedtler Mars product per the printing on the container. Historically, the white lead is a Prismacolor Verithin pencil, which can be sharpened to a fine point. For us, the finer the point, the better, as we may stitch with silk threads as thin as 0.1 mm. Recently, I have discovered a 0.5 mm white lead from Pergamano, which provides the fine point we like. I find the Pergamano color to be shiny, sometimes appearing silver/grey, and the lead is soft. The Pergamano white lead is designed for a card-making process called Pergamano, and I’ve only found it via one supplier . In this photo, I’ve drawn on white and brown paper with 4 leads - 0.5 mm regular lead, Verithin white lead, Pergamano 0.5 mm white lead, and 0.5 mm Non Photo blue lead.
Here, I’ve drawn directly on the silk embroidery fabric as I would do when working, placing direction lines in the small rounded areas in the middle of the picture with blue and white leads:
To reduce the number of pencils I need to carry, one of my favorite toys is a multi pencil, created from a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto 3 Color Multi Pen Body and 3x0.5mm Mechanical Pencil Components (blue, white, and regular):
My other multi pen is for travel use, and is a Uni-ball Style Fit 5 Color Gel Ink Multi Pen Pen Body, containing 2 pen cartridges and 3x0.5mm Mechanical Pencil Components.
Both of these multi pens are super for my needs. I wish I needed more lead colors so I could have more of these multi pen/pencils. They have turned me in to a pencil geek.
Here is a photo of this portion of the embroidery completed:
If you’re interested you’re welcome to view my facebook albums (you don’t need to be on facebook to view them) here and here . More information is at http://www.japaneseembroidery.com/ .
Cheers,
Christine, Washington DC area, USA.
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Great stuff. Thanks Christine. The hours of work in those Facebook embroideries….
Dave.