Skip to main content
Stesso

Mark on Rough Surfaces

0:13
0:38
152.1K views

At 0:13 in

Why are carpenters pencils flat?

Watch on YouTube

What happens here

One of the key advantages of a carpenter's pencil is its suitability for marking on rough and uneven surfaces, which can quickly dull or break standard pencils. Use the carpenter's pencil, leveraging its robust, thick graphite core, to make clear and highly visible marks directly on abrasive surfaces, such as a concrete block. The durable lead of the carpenter's pencil is designed to withstand the wear and tear of such rough materials much better than the thinner lead of a traditional round pencil.

Goal: Effectively mark on abrasive construction materials.

Tools and materials

  • Carpenter's Pencil — The tool used for marking on rough surfaces
  • Concrete Block — A sample rough surface to demonstrate marking capability
  • Speed Square — To provide a straight edge for marking on the concrete block

What they say

Hide

This isn't the only reason this pencil's flat. Watch what happens when I sharpen it. Shape the graphite into a chisel's point and you get two different lines. But, that's not even the biggest difference between these pencils. Look at how much thicker this graphite core is. So, let's test them on something rough. That thick core can handle rough surfaces like concrete, but the graphite isn't even my favorite part. Even the body itself is useful. Need a quick spacer? It's roughly half an inch this way. Or, turn it and it's roughly a quarter inch. But, that flat body can do something else as well. It makes it really easy to scribe. Keep that pencil tight against

Auto-generated from the video audio.