Appreciation post: a 1940s drafting manual I found at a yard sale had a tip about pencil hardness I never knew

I picked up this old 'Mechanical Drawing' book for a dollar last weekend, and it said draftsmen back then used a 9H pencil for the absolute finest layout lines on vellum. I always thought 4H was as hard as anyone would ever need for clean work. Has anyone else run across old-school techniques like that which actually still work well?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_foster532mo ago

Wow, did it say what paper weight that worked on without tearing?

jones.grace9h ago

Funny you mention that, my granddad was a draftsman back in the 50s and he had this old tin box full of leads that went up to 12H or something ridiculous like that. He told me once they used to sharpen those hard leads on a little piece of sandpaper glued to a block of wood, like a tiny sanding stick, to get them needle sharp. The trick was to barely touch the vellum with it or you'd gouge a line into the paper that couldn't be erased without leaving a scar. I tried it once on some modern tracing paper and it just tore right through, so you definitely need the heavy paper. Makes you appreciate how careful those old timers had to be with every single line.

garcia.charles2mo ago

No kidding, I found a 60s lettering guide that said the same thing about using crazy hard leads! @parker_foster53, it was on super thick stuff, almost like card stock. Those old methods are surprisingly solid.