why do builders and carpenters use those extra big square pencils instead of the regular pencils the rest of the population uses?
In: Engineering
They don’t roll off your work space, the thicker lead is stronger and easier to see on dimensional lumber and you look cooler sharpening it with a knife than you would spinning a round pencil in a sharpener
Squares don’t roll and their size makes them less likely to fit into small cracks. Their worksite might have numerous places that a normal pencil would roll away and fall into some crack somewhere. Especially if working on the upper framework of whatever you’re building, you don’t want your pencil to get away from you when you’re up high.
The larger squareish ones:
1. don’t roll!
2. can be easily sharpened with an exacto or other hand-held knife common on the jobsite. You tend to chop a ticonderoga in half when you do that.
3. little easier in gloves.
Also…i suspect they are better marketing materials given how big you can print on the side….and pretty much everyone gets these for free at the lumber yard.
My partner would like to know how clumsy do you think us carpenters are!
The wood they are writing on isn’t as smooth as the paper you write on with a normal pencil. The thicker and stronger lead wears better.
A regular pencil runs out of graphite sooner. It makes a finer line, but that detail is not so important to rough work. A dependable long lasting carpenter’s pencil is the way to go. I sometimes use a metal scribe or even a nail as a Neanderthal.
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